The Films, Music and Media Committee and the CSR Committee of The Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry organized the 2nd edition of “BCC&I-Exide Apish Parar Khabar 2021” from 2nd to 5th March 2021. It is a unique CSR initiative of The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry in association with Exide Industries Ltd since 2020 to promote street food and the livelihood of the street vendors of Dalhousie Square. 

The key objective of this unique CSR initiative is to empower the street vendors primarily at Dalhousie Square which happens to be the oldest business hub with a credible heritage aspect. This was envisaged to work towards overall heritage restoration of Dalhousie Square and allied infrastructural developments to ensure that the location gets a much-required boost and mileage. Going forward the vision set for Apish Parar Khabar will ensure enrichment of Dalhousie Square over a period of the next 3 to 5 years by developing adequate and relevant restoration projects for upholding the culture and heritage and social infrastructure of the area. 

The first year of “Apish Parar Khabar” was a month-long project which started with Training Sessions of 150 vendors from 27th January till 11th February 2020 followed by an annual gala street food festival on Saturday, 22nd February 2020. The objective was to make this into a best practice to be emulated across the city in a tri-patriate partnership format with distinct involvement of the government, corporate and the larger community stakeholders. 

This year, despite being hit by the unprecedented pandemic situation the key training related activities was organized from 2nd to 5th March 2021. The basic concept of this year’s programme consists of Government facilitated livelihood support. This year due to the pandemic situation though we had done Food distribution, Ration distribution under the auspices of ‘BCC&I –Exide-Apish Parar Khabar’ but now with slowly and steadily situation is tending to normalize and economy is tending to open up, we have connected back our beneficiary vendors with an increased number of beneficiaries from 150 to 250 and we provided them training through Food Safety & Standards Authority of India along with CSDT on Food Safety & Hygiene and Certification for Street Food Vendors (SVF). We also shared form and organized awareness camp on Bina Mulye Samajik Suraksha Yojana (BMSSY)”, a scheme by Government of West Bengal, which provides a range of benefits like – Provident Fund, Death and Accidental Benefits, Assistance on Education, Health and Family Welfare.

The inaugural session of the event was addressed by Mr Deb Mukherjee, President, BCC&I, Mr. Arindam Sil, Chairperson - Film Music Media Committee, BCC&I and Eminent Film Maker, Mr. Jitendra Kumar- Chairperson, CSR Committee, BCC&I and Company Secretary & Executive Vice President (Legal & Admin), Exide Industries Limited, Ms. Saswati Bose, Head CSR, Exide Industries Limited. The session was also addressed by last year's winners Ms. Meena Devi and Mr. Hemanta Palui. 

The entire initiative was covered by Times of India and was well appreciated by the industry stakeholders.