The Bengal Chamber (BCC&I) is closely associated with the ongoing Indo-Norwegian Cooperation between the Global Change Program, Jadavpur University (JU) and the University of Stavanger (UiS), Norway. This international cooperation began in 2015 and the Chamber is the Indian industry partner for this cooperation till 2019. An interactive interdisciplinary international workshop was jointly organized by the Global Change Program, Jadavpur University, University of Stavanger, Norway and The Bengal Chamber at the Hotel Hyatt Regency, Kolkata on 2nd May 2018. The program was unique with the special feature to identify perspective and initiatives to be taken by the Indian energy sector during the ongoing transition through direct interactions between senior people from both Indian industry and academia with inputs from EU by Norwegian visitors.

During inaugural session of the program, Prof. Joyashree Roy of Jadavpur University gave the welcome address. Vice President of the Chamber, Mr. Deb A Mukherjee welcomed on behalf of the BCC&I. Prof. Mohsen Assadi of the University of Stavanger and Norwegian Coordinator of this international collaboration welcomed as the EU partner. Prof. Sudipta De, Indian Coordinator gave the formal vote of thanks. Dr. Santipada Gonchowdhury, renowned expert of renewable energy delivered the inaugural address and shared his experience on transition of Indian energy sector.

In the technical session, three short presentations are made on Indian academic, industrial, policy issues. Another presentation was on EU perspective. Prof. Amitava Datta, Head of Power Engineering Department, JU explained the need of Indian energy education to accommodate the ongoing transition. Mr. Aloke Mookherjea, former president of the BCC&I presented the Indian industry perspective in this context. Dr. Sambit Basu, an expert and independent consultant explained the limitations and need of suitable policy for India during this transition. Finally Prof. Mohsen Assadi shared his experiences of EU energy transition. Mr. Arun Mukherjee, Chairman-Emeritus of the Energy Environment Committee of the BCC&I was also present in the program.

Then all the participants were divided into six groups. Each group consisted of members from academia and industry. Each group had a discussion of about one hour on the need and ways of accommodating the transition of Indian energy systems with close cooperation between academia and industry. One member from each of these six groups presented the summary of their discussions in the concluding session and Prof. Assadi compiled all these inputs as the chairman of that session.