The MSME and Entrepreneurship Forum Committee of The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry organized this year’s “The Bengal Entrepreneurship Recognition 2016” awards programme on Friday, 19th August 2016 at the Williamson Magor Hall in the Chamber Premises.

“The Bengal Entrepreneurship Recognition” initiative has been undertaken by The Bengal Chamber to help identify and reward entrepreneurs of West Bengal with outstanding entrepreneurial vision irrespective of their size and capital who are instrumental in the socio-economic development of the State. The aim of the initiative is to encourage dynamic, sustainable and forward thinking entrepreneurs of West Bengal, who are contributing to the development of the State’s economy. This Initiative recognizes entrepreneurship aiming at promoting further entrepreneurial activity. The recognition also aims to contribute to the promotion, growth & implementation of Bengal’s dynamic entrepreneurial network.

Guest Speakers at the programme were Shri Sadhan Pande, Hon’ble Minister-in-Charge, Consumer Affairs Department and Self Help Group & Self Employment Department, Government of West Bengal, Mr Sandip Mukherjee, Regional Corporate Affairs Manager, Amway India Enterprises Pvt Ltd and Dr Debapi Roy, ABO (Amway Business Owner).

The 1st edition (conducted in 2015) had seen around 50(fifty) budding entrepreneurs being recognized for their initiatives and at least 3 (three) successful entrepreneurs, each from the Manufacturing and the Service sector receiving Awards from the State’s Finance & Commerce and Industries Minister, Dr. Amit Mitra at The Bengal Chamber’s Annual General Meeting of 2015.

This year apart from Services and Manufacturing Sector, Start-ups have been added as a separate category to encourage and promote new businesses and ideas. The main objective of this initiative is not competition but to recognize the efforts of entrepreneurs towards the overall socio-economic development of the State. There were applications from different industry verticals like IT & ITES, Manufacturing, Retail, Hospitality, HR, Education, Real Estate, Financial Services and others.

Applications this year were under 3 categories :

• Services Sector

• Manufacturing Sector

• Start-ups

Total 6 applications from the Start-ups, 7 from Manufacturing and 9 from services sector have been shortlisted for the final interview. These are :

The final interview is scheduled on 30th August 2016.