The Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry, in association with StartFed, organized a Seminar titled “STARTUPs – OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES” held on 25th April 2017 at the Williamson Magor Hall in The Chamber premises.

The focus of the seminar was to create a relevant platform for the Start-Ups as well as the MSMEs regarding information, Schemes and Policies of the Government while also covering the initiatives of other institutions, which are providing support for incubation-led business and financing.

The Inaugural Session of the Seminar was graced by Shri L N Gupta, IAS Principal Secretary, Department of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), Government of Odisha; Smt. Aastha Grover, Advisor-Startup, Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion , Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India; Shri Suman Mukhopadhyaya - Consultant (Entrepreneurship), Department of Industry, Commerce and Enterprises (IC&E), Government of West Bengal; Shri Ravindra Prasad, ITS, Director - Technical Development, Directorate of Technical Development, Department of Industries, Government of Bihar; Mr. Kallol Datta, Past President, The Bengal Chamber and Founder, StartFed; Mr. Abhijit Hazra, Chairperson - The Entrepreneurs’ Committee, The Bengal Chamber and Mr. Subhodip Ghosh , Director General, The Bengal Chamber.

On this occasion, Smt. Aastha Grover, Advisor-Startup, Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India spoke about the various Schemes & Policies by the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), Government of India in this context. She also shared that the Central Government had planned to set up an online portal to bring together all stakeholders in the Start-Up ecosystem. The objective was to connect investors, incubators, funding sources and the facilitators with the startups.

The Panel Discussion following the Inaugural Session was graced by Dr Siddhartha Das, Professor, Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering and Executive Advisor, Science and Technology Entrepreneurs’ Park (STEP), Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur; Prof Manas Kumar Sanyal, Head, Department of Human Resource Management, Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur (IIESTS); Shri Subhrangshu Sanyal - Chief Executive Officer, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIMC) – Innovation Park, Kolkata and Shri S K Das - Assistant Director – IMT, MSME Development Institute (MSME - DI), Kolkata , Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Government of India. The panel discussion was moderated by Mr. Debkumar Basu, Chairperson, Manufacturing & MSME Committee, The Bengal Chamber.

Mr. Saksham Karwal, Founder, Seenit, a promising Startup, expressed his views about the Startup ecosystem of the Eastern Region and also shared his journey with the audience. The Seminar was attended by emerging Startups, promising MSMEs and senior bureaucrats from the Central as well as the State Government.