Corona outbreak may present business opportunity for Bengal, nation

Kolkata: At a time when China and some other countries have been badly hit by the effect of coronavirus, chairman and managing director of Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (HIDCO) Debashis Sen believes that this can be a good opportunity for India and Bengal to capitalise the situation for development of business economics.

"The World Health Organisation (WHO) is hesitating to declare the coronavirus breakout as a pandemic, but apart from China it has raided countries like Iran, Iraq, South East Asia, Japan and South Korea as well. It is true that human tragedy like this should not be capitalised into business economics but the situation has presented us with opportunities and we should move fast or some other countries will cash in," said Sen, addressing stakeholders at the CII Conference on West Bengal – Poised to Lead: Business & Beyond.

Elaborating on his viewpoint, he pointed out that the virus originated from a place where electronic

goods like computers, mobile

phones etc. are produced in abundance.

According to Sen, the place has been clamped down

due to the outbreak and people are cooped up in their residences.

"So, there are alternative areas where India and Bengal can chip in. We have plug and play infrastructure for electronics at Naihati and Falta Electronic Parks and also at the Silicon Valley hub at New Town. So we need to get into this value chain that is vacated by China to make a difference," Sen added.