Seminar on Higher Education Scenario in India

Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI), one of the most dynamic and front-ranking business chambers in Kolkata, organized a special session on ‘Higher Education Scenario in India’ with Dr Satya Pal Singh, Hon’ble Minister of State for Human Resource Development (Higher Education) and Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Government of India at Hotel Hindusthan International, Kolkata.

Dr Satya Pal spoke about the quality of higher education, no-detention policy till class 10 and laid stress on “descriptive and objective knowledge” to test the knowledge of the candidates in the Special Session. Calling for a forward-looking approach in framing educational policies, Dr. Singh said, “Scientists are talking about fourth industrial revolution, internet of things, big data, artificial intelligence. Are we preparing our children for these? Innovation and creativity have to be ensured at the school level, it can’t just crop up at the college level.”

The Conference was attended by the students of Corporate Communications, who met Professor Dilip Shah, Dean of the Student Affairs, the BESC, and were ecstatic to find a familiar face at such a prestigious Conference. Professor Shah was one of the special invitees to the Session and asked important questions related to the development of higher education directed towards the panellists.

All in all, the Session enlightened us on the various aspects of higher education in India, especially the importance of school education as the foundation of higher education quality. We also got to attend a Press Conference real time and were exposed to the working of the Public Relations department of the Chamber who handled the media and facilitated the interaction between the speakers including the Hon. Minister and the representatives of the media. We were fortunate to be introduced top some distinguished members of the media who not only helped us understand how they formed their questions and engaged the speaker but were also accommodating in inviting us for further interactions in the pursuit of our studies.

(This report has been filed by Jyotshna Agiwal of the Corporate Communication class of the BESC who is also a member of the Expressions Collective.)