CTS II REPORT

Chapter II – Entrepreneurship Development

 The second chapter of ‘Career Talks- A Series-Entrepreneurship Development’ saw a packed second floor auditorium on the 12th of April ’23 at 5:30pm. The programme commenced with a welcome address by the compere of the evening and the coordinator of the Student Activities Committee, Ms Arundhati Mazumder. Thereafter the felicitation ceremony was conducted wherein the two eminent speakers, Mr Sitanath Mukhopadhyay, Assistant Director, IEDS Cadre, Ministry of MSME, Government of India and Mr Aliv Banerjee, Assistant Professor, Meghnand Saha Institute of Technology, Entrepreneurship Educator and Startup Mentor were presented with tokens of appreciation.

The Teacher in Charge, Dr Subharata Ganguly, delivered the opening address. Dr Ganguly focused on the potential of entrepreneurship as a career, befittingly setting the tone for the evening.

The keynoter of the evening Mr Mukhopadhyay was then introduced and invited to take stage for his deliberation. He opened his session by giving students a clear understanding of entrepreneurship. He further emphasized on the importance of being in the industry as an employee for at least for 2-3 years before considering full-fledged entrepreneurship. Mr Mukhopadhyay then provided an overview of the various government policies/ plans for aspiring entrepreneurs. He discussed the methods of application and processes of availing benefits from the many governmental yojanas. In conclusion he stated the significance of information scan as a first step in research for translating entrepreneurial dreams into reality.

On being introduced, the second speaker of the evening Mr Aliv Banerjee, opened his session by drawing a parallel between entrepreneurship and startups. He spoke in details about brand value. Mr Banerjee highlighted the need of having an eye for recognizing potential or identifying problems that can be bettered, to be able to pursue entrepreneurship. Risk, he stated, was another major aspect that must be considered. Keeping oneself motivated and incorporating changes in the business model to suit the times, is of paramount importance asserted Mr Banerjee. The students seemed to connect effortlessly with his real-life examples. He concluded with a PPT showcasing success stories of students from various institutes who kept their noses to the grindstone and followed their passion, to further motivate our students.

The third speaker of the evening, Mr Aftabul Haque, an Alumnus (Dept. of Business Administration, The BESC) and Managing Director of Neos Facility Management Pvt Ltd was felicitated on arrival and invited to share the story of his journey in becoming a successful entrepreneur. While addressing the students, he first thanked the college for playing a pivotal role in giving direction to his ideas and then shared his admiration for his alma mater. Mr Aftabul further narrated his entrepreneurial venture focusing on the ups and downs and various experimental approaches before he struck the correct model. He discussed in details GEM- a government one stop e-Marketplace where common user goods and services can be procured. He reflected how his entrepreneurial endeavor skyrocketed on registering his goods and services on GEM. He explained the bidding process, payment structure and other finer particulars of the portal. He further offered to assist students if they wished to register on it. Concluding, Mr Aftabul brought to the fore the essence of hard work, dedication, genuineness and sentiment to give back to society.

The interactive session was conducted by Dr Debansu Chatterjee where students were invited to make queries. A number of students asked relevant questions to which all three speakers provided comprehensive in-depth answers.

The session concluded with the Vote of Thanks by senior faculty member Mr Arun Chettry.

The success of the session was not only in the numbers that attended it but also in the stupendous response that followed the attendance.