The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry
The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, India’s oldest institution of its kind, traces its origins to 1833. The Chamber, a not-for-profit organization registered under section 8 of the Companies Act 2013, has played a pioneering role as a helmsman, steering the evolution of Commerce and Industry in India. The Chamber reviewed and commented upon some of the most critical legislations in the country. The Bengal Chamber was involved in the conceptualization of the airport in Kolkata and the Howrah Bridge and had lobbied for creation of overland trade routes with China through Tibet. The Bengal Chamber has helped in the formation of a slew of educational and cultural institutions – Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management (IISWBM), Nazrul Manch and the Academy of Fine Arts apart from bringing to Kolkata the son-et-lumiere at the Victoria Memorial.
The Chamber has always recognized
The fact that in the new environment of society, industry and business, the need for Corporates to internalize and demonstrate their responsibilities to the society in which they operate is no longer a matter of debate. From being the chief relief distributor during the Great Bengal Famine of 1943 and taking a leading part in the Bihar Drought Relief programme in the late 1960s to adopting a Rural Development Programme in a cluster of twenty villages near Kolkata from 1977 to 1985 to initiating a movement on Corporate Citizenship and Social Responsibility, the Chamber has taken CSR as one of the guiding principles for business operations.
City of Analytics
The Chamber has indeed assumed a multi-faceted role while also focusing on catalyzing a City of Analytics for leveraging the big data revolution in the world. The concept was ideated in a seminar organized in December 2014 involving players from the world of analytics, in which the Chamber presented the project of creating a “City of Analytics” by repositioning Kolkata as a “niche city” specializing in IT applications rather than only a traditional IT hub. A niche city would mean promoting a select skill-set, just as Silicon Valley in the USA is known to be the home of technology companies and start-ups. West Bengal may take advantage of the most happening of businesses all around the globe – Analytics. Kolkata can ideally leverage its advantage of being home to intellectual manpower which is its unique attribute, backed by premier higher education institutions like IIT, ISI, IIEST, JU, IIM and others.