Manufacturing sector is considered as a growth engine having multiplier effect on employment and output. Various studies show that there has been a deceleration of industrial performance in West Bengal. While it is understood that there has to be a concerted effort for reviving the industrial growth, given the budget constraint the new Government should set priorities for focusing on the most promising sectors. Our study has attempted to find out the potential sectors by considering the demand and supply factors using a simple methodology. These sectors should be the most attractive sectors for investment and policy intervention. We have come out with a four quadrant matrix for identifying Star, Attention, Dull and Slow sectors. While Government needs to have a three pronged strategy of creation of land bank, infrastructure development and simplification of procedures, sector specific recommendations have been provided on the basis of our analysis and stakeholders inputs. 1. Introduction 1.0.1 India has experienced lopsided growth across its major sectors especially after the reform process have been initiated in the early 1990s. Studies show that if the pre-reform period is compared with the post-reform period, economic growth has definitely picked up in India. Given the structure of the economy and the state of human capital availability reforms have led to the increase in share of the services sector at the expense of manufacturing and agricultural sectors. On the other hand number of people living below the poverty-line has also come down during the post-reforms period. Problem is most of the studies showed inequality in income distribution have actually increased in the post- reforms period. Moreover, given that still around 60% of the people are dependent on the agricultural sector, its growth and productivity are still affecting livelihood of a major share of our population. Searching for answers have led to a renewed emphasis on industrialization as it was felt that mobility of people from agrarian occupations to manufacturing may be smoother than to services sector which is highly human capital- intensive. The Government of India thus has accorded highest importance to rapid development of the Manufacturing sector in India. Contributing over 15 percent to the National Income, the Manufacturing sector is set to leapfrog to the next level of growth, with policy support from the Government. This might result in the sector contributing a larger share to the National Income in future. Manufacturing Sector in West Bengal: Advantages & Potential Abhishikta Roy Chowdhury 1 , CII Eastern Region, Kolkata, India Bibek Ray Chaudhuri, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Kolkata, India Abstract 1 e-mail: abhishikta.chawdhury@cii.in The Journal of Industrial Statistics (2012), 1 (2), 283 - 298 283