Back to the future? Investment has remained a hurdle for West Bengal

Mr Chandrasekaran and Ms Banerjee reportedly discussed private-public partnerships in the context of economic growth in the state

As symbolism goes, the meeting between West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Tata group Chairman N Chandrasekaran could not have been more significant. Seventeen years ago, Ms Banerjee made the Tata group’s signature Nano plant in Singur the focus of her campaign to oust the Left Front from its more than three-decade rule in the state. Her high-decibel crusade, centred on defending the rights of those who had been unwilling to sell land for the project, worked. The group exited Singur in 2008 and relocated to Sanand, Gujarat, when Narendra Modi was chief minister there, with then group chairman