Diamond May Soon Start Shining in Bengal, Samik Bhattacharya

Billionaire Gujarat-based diamond merchant Savji Dholakia is likely to include West Bengal in his pan-India expansion plan for a physical retail network after successfully raising over Rs 800 crore in growth-stage capital.

Dholakia Lab Grown Diamond (DLGD), the lab-grown diamond jewellery arm of the Hari Krishna Group, is close to investing in West Bengal, state Bharatiya Janata Party chief Samik Bhattacharya disclosed here on Saturday.

Bhattacharya, who said he had spoken to Dholakia on the issue, told the Eastern News Network (ENN) that details of the proposed investment were currently under wraps as the plan “requires more fine-tuning”.

“However, that Mr Dholakia is coming to Bengal is confirmed,” the BJP Rajya Sabha member said.

On the progress of discussions over investment in the semiconductor sector, Bhattacharya said land had been offered in Durgapur and Panagarh to Mitsubishi, as the state is on the verge of finalising its new Industrial Policy.

Meanwhile, the Emerging Quantum & Semiconductor Technologies (EQST) section was launched at the recently concluded CSIR-CGCRI Conclave 2026 in Kolkata.

“We’ve already finalised the name of the chip that will be produced here; it will be named Bengal Chip,” Bhattacharya quipped.

Speaking to reporters after inaugurating the “Seva First Innovation Challenge” (SFIC) at the IIT Kharagpur Research Park campus in New Town, the state BJP chief reiterated that Bengal had tremendous potential in sectors ranging from jewellery to semiconductors.

According to him, Bengal’s potential for developing a semiconductor ecosystem is considerably greater than that of Assam. “Unfortunately, Assam, where one of the proposed three units has already come up, has comprehensively beaten us in the race. Forty-eight million chips are slated to roll out per day from the Assam semiconductor factory,” he said.

Bhattacharya, much to the surprise of the gathering, also revealed the possibility of a major industrial investment from Russia in West Bengal, describing the proposed project as potentially a game-changer for the state’s investment climate.

Recent bilateral discussions between Russian officials and Bengal’s business chambers, including the Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce & Industry (MCCI), have focused on potential cooperation in IT, mining, energy and infrastructure, besides efforts to expand Kolkata as an IT hub.

“We’ve to, at any cost, sort of reverse-engineer the earlier flight of capital from Bengal,” he said, quoting state Finance Minister Dr Swapan Dasgupta, who had observed: “Biplab bhalo, tar cheyeo bhalo byabsha” — revolution is good, but business is even better.

Strongly arguing for closer academia-industry linkages, Bhattacharya said that unless academic institutions stepped out to build meaningful connections with industry, mere government initiatives would not be enough to improve the state’s industrial climate.

“A proper dovetailing of command economy and market borrowing is essential in the present context to compete in the global market. The government has ensured a level playing field; now it is the turn of private investors and start-ups to step in and give the required push to the economy,” he said.

West Bengal Industry Minister Tapas Roy and Science & Technology Minister Dr Kalyan Chakraborty were among those present at the SFIC programme.