With her state heavy in debt, hard up for liquidity, lacking in investment and lagging in job-creation --- thanks to her social security schemes that too is reaching a saturation point --- Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is taking this year's Bengal Global Business Summit seriously so as to draw investment proposals ahead of the next year's Assembly elections.

The Chief Minister who was on Wednesday scheduled to hold a review meeting with senior bureaucrats including the State Chief Secretary and other senior officials is willing to go the extra mile to attract investment but does not however want to tweak her 'no-acquisition' land policy in order to invite business. The BGBS is scheduled to be held in the first week of February, sources said.

"Investment has dried up … though there are some coming in trickles these are not enough to create job … on the other hand the Government has withheld appointment to more than 5 lakh sanctioned posts --- in order to pay for her populist social security schemes … this has shrunk the employment opportunity further … forcing Bengal to the ranks of a 'migrant labour state'" said a leading economist who was once a close confidant of the Chief Minister.

With a steady decline in investment and flight of capital the State's debt burden has climbed to about Rs 6 lakh crores from Rs 1.92 lakh crore left by the Left Government after 34 years of their rule in 2011.

According to a former Chief Secretary who had worked both with the Left and the TMC Governments, "Jyoti Basu had realized the importance of investment and that not all investors are the agents of imperialist forces in the closing years of his rule while Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee zealously but unsuccessfully tried brig investment before losing power to the Trinamool Congress … but Mamata Banerjee is not ready to understand that industries do not happen in thin air … they need land … and whatever investment that are coming are taking place on the lands acquired by the previous Government."

The chambers of commerce and prospective investors have repeatedly requested the Chief Minister to acquire land for them but she is reluctant to do so for the fear of losing power, the retired officer said.

According to political pundits BGBS-2025 assumes significance for the Chief Minister in view of the 2026 Assembly elections. "Though she coined the words 'Bengal means business' it has hardly come true … BGBD this year will be a golden opportunity for the Chief Minister to send a message both to the industry fraternity as well as the common voters that her government is really interested in offering an industry-friendly environment in the state … if she wants to blunt BJP's arguments on the so-called Gujarat model," said a city-based a Jadavpur professor and political scientist.

BGBS is a brainchild of the Chief Minister and is organized every year with much fanfare partaken by Indian industry captains like the Tatas, Ambanis, Adanis, Mirchandanis, Goenkas etal. Foreign investors to join the gala business event dangling investment proposals that hardly materialize.

"The reason is simple first you have to provide land, then streamline law and order and stop Tolabazi (extortion) and provide politics-free environment … the Chief Minister wants investment but whether it is possible for her to ensure the three conditions is a big question mark because these would hurt the Trinamool Congress' raison d'etre … she created a fake land movement with the help of some media captains but now she has got entangled in her own trap," said Sujan Chakrabarty a senior CPI(M) leader.

"The Chief Minister wants the investors to acquire lands but where the land-holding is highly fragmented no investor will be ready to bear the trouble of interacting with individual landowners and setting up big industries… Besides she also has to revisit her no-SEZ stance because the Information Technology Enabled Services (ITeS) sector depends on SEZ," said the former Chief Secretary wondering whether her officers will be able to drive home their point to her or they will simply tow the line that she tosses at them.