Bikalpa – an Alternative jointly organizes the “Last Thursday’s” ( a talk program on entrepreneurship) event at Biratnagar in collaboration with Network for Free Society. The objective of the program is to disseminate the ideas and knowledge about entrepreneurship through the personal sharing of successful entrepreneurs. Also, the program creates an opportunity to do networking and share ideas among the participants.
The global spread of the coronavirus and the consequent lockdown have forced the people to follow self-isolation and social distancing with work-from-home practice. Similarly, Bikalpa adopted this strategy to conduct the 52nd session of The Last Thursday with an Entrepreneur, which was held on 28th of May, 2020 virtually. The Guest Speaker for the program was Mr. Anil Chitrakar who is a noted Nepali entrepreneur and social personality.
Mr. Anil Chitrakar is a social entrepreneur. His career graph includes the post of president at Siddartha Inc, founder of the Environmental Camp for Conservation Awareness (ECCA) and co-founder of Himalayan Climate Initiative (HCI).
He began his session by giving diverse examples of social entrepreneurship from his own working experiences. He said that the social entrepreneurs are those people who are focused on benefiting targeted communities in addition to making financial gains. They don’t work for profit maximization alone but try to bring about transformative changes in society and economy by filling gaps and addressing unmet needs. He clarified about the conservation of natural areas in Nepal and its impact in promotion and conservation of both tourism and the habitat of the wild animals. He provided examples to illustrate Nepal’s lag in growth and development.
When asked about the government policy and roles, Mr. Chitrakar shared his current experience working with different ministries at the provincial level. He said that every province had its own opportunity and capacity through which they could generate and sustain their revenue stream for themselves as well as the central government. “We require a larger vision to move ahead.” he said. It was quite interesting to hear Mr. Chitrakar talking about the market economy and governance system. He said that the market was an invisible force and we couldn’t change the fact that there was a need for a supply chain. “In order to regulate it, governance plays an important factor in the market.” he said. He also went on to talk about the inclusive form of business model where everyone should have equal opportunity and a level playing field was required to thrive the business in the society.
The discussion was followed by a Q&A session with online participants from many parts of the country pitching in their questions. On the question of startup culture and social entrepreneurship, he answered that in his view, every business needed to become a social enterprise. “We need to integrate a social aspect to every business to ensure their sustainability. There is no other way around.” Talking about the returning migrant workers from abroad, he expressed his optimism towards the incident and saw it from a positive aspect. “The brains that were drained are the brains that are being gained back by our country now. They are human capital who have skills and knowledge which will come handy in the development of our country.” he replied.
As his final insight, he mentioned about the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and how it was sweeping across the globe. He also believed that the lockdown and pause in economic activity provided important time for the businesses to introspect and plan their future steps. “We should think of this time as an opportunity for our business to implement, manage, transform and emerge in an innovative way. Digital and social media marketing is going to open a new path for businesses and actually create a lasting impact.” he added.
The virtual session was participated by more than Eighty six people through bikalpa page, who made this session successful. In the last minute of session, Vote of thanks to the guest speaker was shared by Mr Basanta Adhikari, founder of Bikalpa an Alternative, marking the end of the session.
Full Program Record:
