On 26th March 2022, Bikalpa-an Alternative in support with CIPE international conducted a one-day workshop on “Entrepreneurship and the Beauty of Market”, for the youths and college students in Biratnagar. The objective of the program was to educate young minds on the issues of Entrepreneurship, Market Economy, Public Policy and engage them in further activities to be conducted under The Bikalpa Fellowship program. The program comprised of sessions on “Why is Entrepreneurship Important?” “The Beauty of Market,” “Values of Entrepreneurship”, “Why is Nepal Poor?” and Movie Discussion concluding with a short introduction to the Bikalpa Fellowship. The program was conducted at the premises of Hotel Shree Krishna, Biratnagar. The program was facilitated by Mr. Basanta Adhikari, and Mr. Suman Rai.
Basanta Adhikari
Basanta Adhikari conducted sessions on “Why is Nepal poor?” and “Beauty of Market”, where the participants were presented with a different narrative on why Nepalese were forced to live in poverty and how economic freedom could help change that. During his presentation, he illustrated different examples of why some countries were rich and others were forced to remain poor. He also stressed that prosperity and poverty could be achieved through good and bad policies respectively. Those sessions also covered topics on sound economic policies and how they facilitated entrepreneurial activities and created an environment that could uplift the economic status of the common masses. The session on Beauty of Market educated students on how markets help to solve problems and ease the life of common people through its service and products. Besides this, the session highlighted how markets fulfilled the need gap between demand and supply, offered choices, and helped in prospering society through the cooperation of self-interested individuals.
Basanta Adhikari also facilitated the session on Entrepreneurship and its Importance. During the session, participants were divided into 5 groups and with a presentation assignment. Through the assignment, the participants dealt with the five core questions on Entrepreneurship i.e. What is entrepreneurship?, Why is entrepreneurship important to society? Why should I be an Entrepreneur?, How are entrepreneurs perceived in our society?, What are the conditions that promote entrepreneurship? and What are the challenges of entrepreneurship?
After 30 minutes of group work, each group presented their opinion in a 5-minute pitch. The best group was selected through a popular vote and rewarded accordingly. The session also included the differences between an Entrepreneur and a Businessman and the correlation between entrepreneurship and economic development and ultimately how entrepreneurs created value for society culminating with the types of policies needed for ushering the entrepreneurial era.
Suman Rai
The third session was facilitated by Suman Rai, in which, three short films namely “i-TSHIRT : The story of a Tshirt” (related to Economic Freedom and invisible hand ), “Let me earn my living (Sadak Chheu ko Byatha)”, were screened to help participants relate to policy issues. The first one related to story of T- shirt which highlights the challenges of doing business, what value do entrepreneurs create in common people life and to society. The second movie highlighted the bureaucratic hassles and the challenging scenario of conducting economic activities in Nepal. After each movie screening, Mr. Rai, took some feedback from the participants and clarified the issues related to those movies.
The final session consisted of a brief introduction to the Bikalpa Fellowship program following which Mr. Basanta Adhikari explained about further engagement plan for the workshop participants to enhance their capacities and work together for a cause. 28 participants from diverse group attended the Workshop.
