International Webinar on:
“Vision West Bengal – পশ্চিমবঙ্গের নবনির্মাণ“
Event Organizer: Volunteers For Better Bengal, Overseas Volunteers For A Better India (OVBI)
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Swapan Dasgupta, Padma Bhusan Awardee,
Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha
Moderator: Smt. Somanjana Chatterjee
Media Partners: Ritam Bangla
The purpose of this program was to create a platform to gather brainstorming ideas from successful people from Bengal in various fields like Economics, Science & Technology, Public Health Affairs and Entrepreneurship to implement those ideas in West Bengal State policies to revive the lost glory of the state.
Area of discussion:
Economic Affairs
Name of the Panelist: Dr. Kausik Gangopadhyay
Brief Biography: He is an associate professor at IIM Kozhkode, one of the top business schools of India. He has received his M.A. and PhD (2007) in Economics from the University of Rochester. He has served as doctoral programme chair and international relations chair for his institute. He published more than 20 papers in refereed publication and co-edited a book published by Springer Verlag Italia. His articles on social issues have been published in Firstpost, Swarajya, DNA and Matrubhumi.
Title of Discussion: The West Bengal Economy: A Broad Strategy for Revival
Summary: The average income of a West Bengal resident is about 80% of an Indian and this ratio is persistently falling for the last two decades (see figure below). Along with the decrease in relative productivity, a severe need for jobs is observed across social strata. West Bengal actually tops the list in the number of job-related migrations out of the state among the lowest educated classes. The situation may not be too different for the population with higher education too.
The situation is definitely a consequence of lack of proper economic policies. West Bengal does not suffer from lack of natural resources. As for instance, one can consider the agriculture sector in which West Bengal still has higher productivity compared to India. However, West Bengal has lost most of its core manufacturing sector with the labour share having plummeted down to a meagre 7% from the high point of 20%. We can also observe a massive decrease—from a labour share of 2.5% in 2007 to just the pre-economic-reform-era level of 1% in 2018—in the financial services centre which is the most productive sector for the Indian Economy.
The impact of the economic decline is massive for the Bengalis in their cultural sphere. On the one hand, the social life of Bengal has suffered with massive migration for the sake of basic necessities. The communities in Bengal are breaking down. The diaspora cannot enthuse the future generation about the roots and values, as they cannot see any future in the state.
First and foremost for the revival, the law and order administration of West Bengal needs a complete renovation. For decades, the police force has been used as a weapon for petty politics. This culture must end for revival of business and work ethics to flourish.
The second key idea must be a push for smart cities. Most of the policies for economic growth revolves around Kolkata only. To change that, the government must give impetus to create major hubs—for education, manufacturing and financial and information technology services—in different parts of West Bengal but all outside Kolkata. Organized effort must be made to create good hospitals, government institutes and also private universities in the new places along with the airport and train connectivity to the last mile. In the diaspora, a significant section of the Bengalis is found in academics and financial services. They must be given an opportunity to go back to the roots with all the modern amenities of life at hand. This can help West Bengal get a big push if implemented well.
I present some examples of other possible policies for reviving different sectors to create jobs. West Bengal has a potential scope for tourism which is left unexplored on account of lack of marketing of its heritage sites along with good law and order and hotels. A cultural map of the state may be made. Again, the government must be a catalyst for hotels and tourism to shine by preventing the anti-social elements blocking any new initiative.
For the manufacturing sector, the focus must be on food processing and jute industries. With the environmental concerns about the use of plastic, we must lobby and market the jute products. At the same time, the existing jute mills must be given incentive to run and the new mills should be brought in. One way to accomplish this goal is through identifying a land bank and enacting an appropriate land acquisition bill.
Name of the Panelist: Shri Sudipta Guha
Brief Biography: Presently working for Various World Bank & ADB funded Project as Consultant. Earlier he served in various Consultancy companies including RITES (Railway India Technical & Economic Services, under Ministry of Railway). In 2016, he left his job from URS India as Chief General Manager and started working as Consultant for Various World Bank and ADB funded Infrastructure Projects. He did his BE in Civil Engineering from Jadavpur University and M. Tech from IIT Kharagpur. Thereafter he completed CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst).
Title of Discussion: NA
Summary: Manual laborers from West Bengal villages are willing to put their lives at risk and willing to go to Kashmir to work in the apple orchards during the harvesting season. This simple fact quite succinctly reflects the desperation of the poor people of Bengal searching for livelihood in Bengal. In the recent times, a few of these laborers have lost their lives in Kashmir after the militants targeted them to disrupt the “normalcy” in Kashmir. However, how to change the ground reality in Bengal so that people are not pushed into risking their lives in order to earn their livelihoods?
We fundamentally need a few reforms and initiatives – 1) Infrastructure hardening or building 2) Administrative and Legal reforms. Just like India transformed its economic fortunes between 1991 to 1996 – through a series of well-intended reforms – so can Bengal from 2021 to 2025 provided we formulate the right policies with some strategic vision in mind.
Infrastructure Building :
1. Infrastructure building can be broadly targeted to achieve three visions – A) Logistic hub B) Technology Hub and C) Financial hub
2. We should focus on Renewable energy and give incentives to generate more and more renewable energy. This is bring down power cost in Bengal facilitate Industrial growth in general and MSME growth in particular.
Administrative and Legal Reforms :
1. We need to overhaul the R&R policy, SEZ policy and Agricultural marketing policy in order to make Bengal an attractive destination for big ticket investments.
2. We would need to merge departments and also create some corporations in order to provide services or build infrastructures in the context of rail, irrigation, roads, water resources. This will bring in administrative efficiency and improve our “ease of doing business” perception.
3. We should create right policy framework to encourage more and more renewable energy.
Finance:
All of these large / strategic initiatives will require financial closures and should be able to attract big ticket investors. Fortunately for Bengal, attracting investments will not be an issue provided we show the right political will and execute our strategic vision in the right earnest.
We will discuss in brief on these topics.
Starting 2021, we will build a new Bengal buzzing with economic activities and attracting global investments. The Dots are already there and we need connect the dots to create a golden Bengal.
Area of discussion:
Public Health Policy
Name of the Panelist: Dr. Rudranath Talukdar
Brief Biography: I am a “probashi” Bengali. I was born and brought up in Dehradun and studied medicine at Calcutta National Medical College. I am a cancer specialist at Baylor Scott and White Cancer Center in Waco, south of Dallas, Texas. I completed my graduate studies from Drexel University College of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, MD Anderson Cancer Center and East Tennessee State University.
I went back to India in 2012 and started a successful cancer department at Max Super-specialty Hospital in Dehradun that is still running on the principles I set up. I tried very hard to work with local authorities in Tripura and in Kolkata at that time to set up standardized, effective cancer programs but was unsuccessful. I came back to the USA in 2014
Title of Discussion: Restoring Health Care in West Bengal
Summary: I am very interested in restoring West Bengal’s healthcare system to a pre-eminent state. I have advocated the use of distance learning technology to the government of Uttarakhand.
Name of the Panelist: Dr. Dr Indranil Khan
Brief Biography: Born and brought up in Kolkata, Dr Indranil Khan is one of West Bengal’s leading cancer specialists today. Having completed his schooling from South Point High School, he completed his medical training at Calcutta Medical College and North Bengal Medical College. Today he is not just one of the finest and most respected doctors of the state with patients coming to him from neighboring states and countries for treatment, but also associated with a number of social organizations working in issues concerning public health and welfare. His concern for public health has often incurred the wrath of the ruling dispensation but he is focused on his job. For him, the medical profession is not merely about writing prescriptions but more about ensuring the finest standards of public health so that no one is actually deprived of the best possible treatment due to money, transport or logistic issues.
Title of Discussion: Healthcare: The Brutal Reality & The Way Ahead for Bengal
Summary:
All that glitters is not gold. Holds so true for healthcare situation in West Bengal where, the fresh coat of blue-white paint gets suppressed by the stench of the rotten bodies of patients dying from a faulty healthcare system.
Issues:
-Administrative lapses and bottlenecks during Covid crisis
-Data fudging, undertesting and underreporting; how IMCT changed the scenario in WB
-Problems faced by people due to non-implementation of Ayushman Bharat in West Bengal
-Lack of tertiary care institutions in North Bengal region; people from districts like south Dinajpur have to travel all the way to Siliguri or kolkata for proper treatment; many lives lost due to transport issues; loss of Tapan BDO who met with an accident but took six hours to reach trauma care hospital
– shortage of protective gear: protests by doctors and nurses across the state over PPE
-Health condition of tea garden workers
– Lack of superspecialists in super speciality hospitals which only have fresh coats of paints outside but no infrastructure inside
Vision for the future:
-Integrating entire healthcare system under centralised IT network
– Medical College in every district as per PM Modi’s Vision
– Implementation of Ayushman Bharat for the poor man’s access to world class healthcare services in the most elite hospitals of the city
– More focused Health, Nutrition & Vaccination programmes for backward/tribal areas
– Trauma Care unit in every district headquarter initially and thereafter at subdivision level
– Radiation machine in every district
– Last mile delivery of all essential medicines to the sub centre level
– Better health facilities in north Bengal districts and upgradation of north Bengal medical college
– more subject experts and not political experts in charge of medical colleges and hospitals
– Seamless transport facilities via govt ambulance network for patients from PHCs to tertiary care hospitals
– availability of anti-snake venom in every sub centre esp in snake bite prone areas like Sunderbans so that precious time is not lost in transport and lives are saved
Area of discussion:
Education & Science-Tech Policy
Name of the Panelist: Dr. Arindam Das
Brief Biography: Currently Working as Assistant Professor in the School of Mechanical Sciences at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) – Goa. Previously he worked as Postdoc Associate (2013-17) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology USA. He did his B.M.E. (2006) from Mechanical engineering Department of Jadavpur University, Kolkata and Ph.D (2013) from University of Illinois at Chicago. His area of Interest is Micro-nano Technology, Material science and Fluid Mechanics.
Title of Discussion: NA
Summary: 1. Educational and Industrial heritage of Bengal both in ancient and colonial time. – Ancient Times, Global connection, Under British India.
2. Current challenges in Education System of Bengal
3. Possible ways to change the education system and use of science and technology
4. Current Science and Technology Infrastructure of West Bengal: Potential and shortcomings.
5. Develop WB into a knowledge, Agricultural and Industrial hub of the country and south East Asia through an Effective Science and Technology Policy. Possible ways to achieve these goals
Name of the Panelist: Smt. Sahana Singh
Brief Biography: Sahana Singh is an author and commentator who writes on a variety of issues including water management, environment and Indian history. She was born in Mysuru but grew up in Kolkata and Delhi. She is passionate about travelling and connecting the dots across different societies, civilizations and disciplines. An alumnus of Delhi College of Engineering, Sahana made a career shift to writing after moving to Singapore. Her articles have been published in Reader’s Digest, Washington Post, Discovery Channel Asia, Asian Water Magazine, Swarajya, IndiaFacts, MyIndMakers and others. She has moderated panel discussions on water management at several international conferences. Sahana is Director at Indian History Awareness and Research (IHAR), a non-profit headquartered in Houston, USA. She is also on the board of Ishwar Sewa Foundation, a US non-profit dedicated to helping Hindu refugees.
Title of Discussion: Why Bengal must connect with her educational heritage
Summary: India, especially Bengal needs to urgently connect to her educational heritage in order to bring back the ecosystem of learning that once made India the education capital of the world. Almost everything we admire in western universities whether it is the culture of debate, the libraries, the conferences, the mentorship programs, the commencement ceremonies – they have their roots in ancient India. And what is more, the spirit with which education was imparted by teachers, the memory techniques that were employed, the various methodologies used whether games like Golok Dham or stories from Panchatantra, the skills that were taught and the whole ecosystem which existed to facilitate teachers and students is so inspiring that it would be a loss to not connect with our heritage.
Connecting with our rich past would not only give a sense of pride and immense motivation but also give ideas for a holistic education which is missing today. Today, our educational system is only treating the minds of students like containers to be filled up with facts and formulae, not like a lamp that needs to be lit so that it can illuminate its own self and also show the way to others in difficult times.
There is also a need to move away from the colonial/Marxist narratives of history. In the textbooks under successive governments there has been an attempt to sanitize history and present false narratives in order to further political agendas. This needs to change. Presenting despotic and religious fanatics as righteous or using subaltern lenses to poison the minds of children against industrial development will not be conducive to creating a progressive and prosperous society.
Area of discussion:
Entrepreneurship Issues
Name of the Panelist: Shri Judhajit Senmazumdar
Brief Biography: “Hind Rattan”, 2020 award recipient, for technology innovation and skill development, is a Silicon Valley based serial entrepreneur focusing on techonoloy initiatives around Artificial Intelligence & Advanced Analytics. A graduate from NIT Trichy/UC Berkeley and Alumni of RK Mission Narendrapur. Judhajit is a regular speaker in many of the technology symposiums in Silicon Valley and on the board of directors for multiple skill development initiatives, back home in Kolkata. Apart from being a technology leader he is also deeply involved in many socio political initiatives to help Indo American relationship and play the role of Global Ambassador For “Americans4Hindus” and Bengal Chair at Federation of Indo Americans (FIA),N. California. He is the founder of “Anita Senmazumdar Foundation” which works with underprivileged sections back home in Kolkata.
Title of Discussion: Leverage Technology to Enhance Employment Opportunity & Economic Growth in West Bengal
Summary:
Current Economic Situation & National Contribution:
- Contributes only about 2.6% of India’s software turnover
- WB, India’s sixth largest state in terms of economic size
- Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) estimated at Rs 14.44 trillion (US$ 206.64 billion) in 2020-21
- The average annual GSDP growth rate from 2011-12 to 2020-21 was about 12.01 per cent
Current IT Infrastructure in WB:
- Kolkata metropolitan area has an estimated of 1,000,000 of IT employment
- West Bengal had 5 operational IT/ITeS SEZs
- WB has of 21 SEZs, of which 7 are operational, 5 are notified, 7 are formally approved and 2 have in-principle approval
- West Bengal plans to raise its share in the country’s IT exports to 25 per cent by 2030.
- The major IT/ITeS companies of the country operate in the State, with the seven top companies generating about 70% of West Bengal’s IT revenues
- August 2018, the state government has launched the Silicon Valley IT hub project to attract investments in IT/ITeS/ICT and create state-of-the-art ecosystem for new technologies and innovation
Initiatives to grow jobs in IT sector:
- Create technologically enabled welfare society with extensive use of IT and ITeS
- Promote tier II cities like Siliguri, Asansol, Durgapur, Raniganj, Kharagpur, Haldia, Darjeeling, Malda, Midnapore, Cooch Behar and Howrah to set up IT hubs in the state
- Setup centre of Excellence for emerging technologies like IOT, Machine Learning, Deep Learning to become the hub of Research and development.
- Leverage the large resource pool to set up a centre for development of high-end IT products and attract technology giants like Microsoft, Google and Amazon.
- Setup incubation hub to promote and support start up in the technology field to develop Intellectual Property in the market.
- Setup large manufacturing and assembly units which works as a co manufacturer for multiple leading OEM’s across the globe.
Name of the Panelist: Shri Shishir Bajoria
Brief Biography:
He is one of the renowned industrialists in Kolkata and Head of S K Bajoria Group. He has been Knighted by the Governments of Denmark in 1998 and Italy in 2006. Currently, he is the Chairman, Board of Governors in IIM Shillong. He was appointed as a Member of the Executive Committee of Meghalaya Chief Minister’s Economic Task Force, which aims to revive the economy of the state post-COVID-19 pandemic situation.
Title of Discussion: To be determined by the speaker
Summary: To be determined by the speaker
Live at RITAM : Volunteers For Better Bengal, Overseas Volunteers For A Better India (OVBI) –
Present an International webinar
Topic :
Vision West Bengal – পশ্চিমবঙ্গের নবনির্মাণ
Date : Saturday, June 27, 2020, at 09:30 pm. IST
Chief Speaker :
Dr. Swapan Dasgupta
( Padma Bhushan Awardee, MP – Rajya Sabha)
Expert Panelists:
Economic Affairs –
Dr. Kaushik Gangopadhyay
Associate Professor, IIM – Kozhikode
Shri Sudipta Guha
Financial Analyst & Consultant for World Bank and ADB projects
Public Health Policy –
Dr. Rudranath Talukdar
Medical Oncologist, USA
Dr. Indranil Khan
Consultant Oncologist, Kolkata
Education and Science-Tech Policy –
Dr. Arindam Das
Asst. Professor, IIT-Goa
Smt. Sahana Singh
Renowned Author & Commentator, USA
Entrepreneurship Issues –
Shri Judhajit Sen Mazumdar
Entrepreneur, Silicon Valley, USA
Shri Shishir Bajoria
Chairman (BoG), IIM – Shillong
Moderator:
Smt. Somanjana Chatterjee
Social Worker, Board Member of Silicon Valley Interreligious Council representing Hinduism, USA
Convenor :
Souptik Mukherjee
Souvik Dey
Rudra Prasanna Banerjee
We cordially invite you to present and join the meeting.
