On 9th December 2023, Bikalpa-an Alternative, with the support of CIPE, conducted a one-day workshop on “Entrepreneurship and the Beauty of Market” for the youths and college students in Biratnagar. The program’s objective was to educate young minds on the issues of Entrepreneurship, Market Economy, and Public Policy and engage them in further activities to be conducted under The Bikalpa Fellowship program. The program comprised of sessions on Why is economic Freedom important “. and “Why Is Entrepreneurship Important?” “The Beauty of Market,” “Values of Entrepreneurship”, “Why is Nepal Poor?” Video Discussion session, concluding with a short introduction to the Bikalpa Fellowship. The program was conducted at the premises of Hotel Shree Krishna, Biratnagar. Mr. Basanta Adhikari, Sarwagya Raj Pandey and Mr. Suman Rai facilitated the program.
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. Those sessions also covered sound economic policies and how they facilitated entrepreneurial activities and created an environment that could uplift the common masses’ economic status. The session on Beauty of Market educated students on how markets help to solve problems and ease the life of ordinary 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. Participants were divided into five groups during the session 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? 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. Basanta Adhikari provided brief feedback on the presentations and further explored the definition of an entrepreneur, their perception of Nepali society, and how they evolved. The session also included the differences between an Entrepreneur and a businessman, the correlation between entrepreneurship and economic development, and ultimately how entrepreneurs created value for society, culminating with the types of policies needed for ushering in the entrepreneurial era.
Video Session
The third session was also facilitated by Suman , in which two 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 relates to the story of the T-shirt, which highlights the challenges of doing business and what value entrepreneurs create in common people’s lives and 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 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. Mr. Basanta Adhikari then explained a further engagement plan for the workshop participants to enhance their capacities and work together for a cause. 30 participants attended the workshop.
