The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the oldest institution of its kind in India, is organizing a Webinar on .Education for Doing Business.. The objective of this online session is to focus on the role of education in Entrepreneurship Development, post Covid. The situation post COVID is assumed to be such that jobs will be fewer. Hence Entrepreneurship is the future ahead. Keeping that in mind, there needs to be a proper guidance for students to develop them into successful entrepreneurs. The Educational institutes have a very big role to play in this. They shape the future of a student. Hence the educational institutes need to focus on imparting education and act as a catalyst to help students with an entrepreneurship mindset and make a career in Entrepreneurship.

We were graced with the presence of the stalwarts of the Industry:
▪  Mr. Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, MD & CEO, Bandhan Bank & Past President, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
▪  Prof. Saikat Maitra, Vice Chancellor, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology of West Bengal.
▪  Mr. Anjan Chatterjee, Founder, Chairman & Managing Director, Speciality Restaurants Ltd.
▪  Mr. Paul Walsh, MBE, Managing Trustee, Founder, Jungle Crows.

The Session was moderated by Dr. Suborno Bose Chairman, Education Committee, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Chief Mentor International Institute of Hotel Management.

Dr. Suborno Bose, the Chairman of the Education Committee of The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who moderated the entire session with utmost expertise, expressed his views and said that at a time when we are going through challenging times and job cuts are aplenty, the need of the time is all kinds of entrepreneurship among the youth of Bengal and we need to create an ecosystem of supporting such endeavors at all levels.

The first speaker, Honourable Prof. Saikat Mitra started off with an interesting points of view with regards to the nature of recovery from the virus that has been speculated, drawing an interesting analogy of the Indian GDP Growth Rate and laws of Science which tell us that a downward pressure on a propagating body is likely to raise the velocity of the body when released from the pressure. He predicts a CGGR of 2% in India, post COVID-19, as compared to negative CGGR predicted for most countries. He further went on to say that the pandemic may open new avenues for the education system which was already migrating towards a more e-automotive, analytical - "4.0" direction. With more and more dependence of the economic sector on the inter/intra-net, there will be a huge scope for cloud based learning and machine learning skills. The need of the hour thus is to promote indigenous platforms like - Swayam and Virtual Labs through extensive investment of funds, on the Government's end. He highlighted a hard-pressed requirement for scientific investment in the Agricultural Sector and the possibility of Robotics prevailing in sectors that have been essentially labour-intensive in the erstwhile era. Thus, he asserted with conviction that the socioeconomic system can only become adaptable worn 'the new normal' environment, post-COVID19 if and only if the education system adheres to the need of the hour and provides practical and innovative training in the Analytics and Automation domain.

Mr. Anjan Chatterjee, spoke intensively about the need for entrepreneurship as a part of academia by bringing to surface own personal difficulties faced when he started off with his first business. He stated that family-support too is important alongside the training that is professionally imparted. With the growing speculation of the future of the restaurant-chain business, he avowed that he and his team are constantly coming up with ideas for consumers to have a safe dining experience and for the business to prosper without falling into the traps of the intimidation that the consumers are exposed to since the wake of the virus.

Mr. Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, claimed that "Innovation is the Key", and discussed the breakdown of Bengal Chemical's flagship product - Phenyl (sold in tin-cans) to Harpic which is sold in consumer-friendly plastic bottles. He made it all the more clear that the business ecosystem is fueled by a producer's understanding of customer demand, which can only come through rigorous and analytical study of the market. Thus catering to domestic demand of a country boasting a population as big as India is a business's ladder to success only after they've studied the consumer behaviour thoroughly, hence authenticating the importance of "practical education over certificate-oriented coursework".

Mr. Paul Walsh re-affirmed the points highlighted by our previous speakers. The holy grail of improving the economic conditions is through entrepreneurship, the study of which in turn must be allowed to permeate well into the existing education system. He also brought forward the myth of "Connectivity", and how only a small part of the society can fan the privilege of being connected. Thus went on to solicit for infrastructural developments to be a part of the fiscal investments, alongside the educational reform.