Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: West Bengal’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday asked officials of the micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) department to open ‘Banglar Saree’ outlets in every district of the state, as per a report by the Press Trust of India (PTI).

This move is aimed at promoting different types of sarees weaved in West Bengal such as Muslin, Tant, Baluchari, Jamdani, Dhaniakhali silk, among others. These outlets will also help weavers in the state to sell their products, said Banerjee. 

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“Each district should have one such store to help weavers sell their products,” said Banerjee while speaking at an administrative review meeting. 

She directed the state’s MSME Principal Secretary Rajeev Pandey to constitute a committee to give suggestions for ‘Banglar Saree’ outlets. “Think about it. I will suggest that you form a committee for more ideas regarding this. You must also set up stalls in every fair in the upcoming season,” Banerjee added.

The MSME department of the state also promotes the Biswa Bangla Marketing Corporation (BBMC) to support handloom weavers, craftswomen and traditional artisans through strategic marketing of their products.

Earlier, in September this year, the state’s CM said, 90 lakh MSME units are currently based in West Bengal employing 1.36 crore people. 

Importantly, Bengal has 554 clusters at present, up from just 49 in 2011.Out of the 554 clusters, 292 of these clusters are MSMEs and the rest of the 262 clusters are in the handloom and khadi categories. In East Burdwan region of the state, clusters across segments such as rice mill, zari zardosi, dokra, muslin, rakhi, kantha stitch handloom have come up whereas in Nadia, clusters in brass and bell metal, plastic, jewellery, nalen gur and muslin handloom exist.

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According to the MSME Ministry’s annual report for the financial year 2021-22 West Bengal had 88.67 lakh units, the second highest after 89.99 lakh units in Uttar Pradesh.