West Bengal’s government will investigate alleged irregularities in expenditure on the Bengal Global Business Summit after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari claimed that ₹635 crore had been paid to a single event-management company under the former Trinamool Congress administration.
Adhikari said at a media briefing in Kolkata on Friday that proceedings would be initiated if wrongdoing was detected, adding that the matter could be referred to an agency empowered to examine money-laundering offences. The statement marks one of the first major corruption-focused moves by the new BJP-led government since it took office, and places the state’s flagship investment-promotion exercise under official scrutiny.
“The earlier government had arranged BGBS. One event management company was paid a total of ₹635 crore. We will investigate this and start proceedings if anyone is found to be involved,” Adhikari said. He added that those responsible would not be spared if evidence of financial misconduct emerged.
The allegation centres on spending connected with the Bengal Global Business Summit, which was promoted for a decade as the principal platform for attracting domestic and overseas investment into the state. The programme was launched in 2015 during Mamata Banerjee’s tenure and expanded into a high-profile event involving corporate leaders, overseas delegations, entrepreneurs, diplomats, chambers of commerce, academics and policy institutions.
The government has not yet placed detailed documents in the public domain to establish the precise nature of the payments, the contract terms, the number of summit editions covered, or the services provided by the firm. That makes the announced inquiry crucial to determining whether the expenditure reflected legitimate event-management costs, inflated billing, procedural lapses, or criminal misconduct.
The move follows a separate instruction by Commerce and Industry Minister Tapas Roy to prepare a white paper on the summit. Officials have been asked to examine how many editions were held, what expenditure was incurred, and how much of the promised investment materialised. That exercise is expected to compare public claims made at successive summits with actual investment flows, project implementation and employment generation.
BGBS became closely linked with the previous government’s industrial pitch after years of criticism that the state had struggled to attract large manufacturing investment. Its eighth edition was held in Kolkata on February 5 and 6, 2025, at Biswa Bangla Convention Centre and Biswa Bangla Mela Prangan. The summit covered sectors including manufacturing, MSME, logistics, tourism, information technology, health, education, creative economy, infrastructure, power and sustainability.
At the 2025 edition, investment proposals worth ₹4,40,595 crore were announced and 212 memoranda of understanding and letters of intent were signed across sectors. The 2023 edition had drawn proposals of more than ₹3.76 lakh crore. Previous editions were presented as evidence that the state was gaining traction as an investment destination, though questions persisted over the gap between proposals and projects that actually reached commissioning stage.
The official summit platform had described BGBS as a forum for strategic alliances, business partnerships and engagement with the state’s industrial ecosystem. Participation had broadened over time, with the 2023 edition recording delegates from Europe, the United Kingdom, the CIS region, SAARC, the Middle East, Africa, ASEAN, Latin America and other regions. Seventeen countries joined that edition as partner countries, while ambassadors and high commissioners also attended.
The new government is seeking to recast that model. Roy has indicated that large business summits will continue, but with sharper emphasis on transparency, investor confidence and measurable outcomes. The administration has also signalled interest in reaching out to Tata Group, an important political and industrial reference point in Bengal because of the Singur land-acquisition controversy that led Tata Motors to move its small-car project out of the state in 2008.
Adhikari has argued that the state must rebuild its credibility with industry while avoiding the political and administrative mistakes of the past. His government has said it wants to draw investment in heavy industry, MSME, agriculture, food processing and infrastructure, while improving access to institutional credit and speeding up project clearances.
