Industrial sickness and its impact on the economy: A case study of haora district, West Bengal

Industrial sickness acts as great hurdle for economic growth. It is considered as a disease that can change a strong unit into a sick or weak unit with low productivity. It is slow poison which can make an economy paralyzed. Haora district is one of the industriallyoprominent districts of West Bengal since colonial period. It is composed of different types of industries like engineering, jute and cotton textile units. With the march of time many of these have lost their glamour and gradually have become economically sick. After suffering from sickness for a long time some of them became closed. Increasing number of sick units in Haora district has affected the economy of this district as well as economy of West Bengal. The contribution of secondary sector in NDDP is declining and the share of registered manufacturing sector is decreasing while the share of unregistered sector is increasing day by day. This is a symptom of weak economy. To reveal actual scenario this study is based on secondary and primary data with purposive sampling technique. To recover from this situation Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) has been established and it takes necessary actions for fruitful results. It is true that without recovery and resurgence of these units and reduction in number of sick units revitalization of the economy is not possible.