The Bengal Chamber of Commerce organized a ‘Financial Awareness E-Conclave: Save-Protect-Invest-Revisiting the Budget of a Common Man’ on 4th June, 2021 on virtual platform. The Conclave discussions focused on issues in the Banking sector, Insurance and Capital market and other related industry issues with special focus on tier II and tier III cities. 

The eminent speakers were Mr. Ramesh Kumar Bansal, Head-Treasury, ITC Limited and Chairman, BCC&I Banking and Finance Committee; Mr. Atanu Pan, Regional Director in Charge of SEBI, Eastern Region; Mr. Nabin Kumar Dash, Chief General Manager and Zonal Manager, Punjab National Bank, Zonal Office, Kolkata; Ms. Ritu Aswani, Associate Vice President, Investment Products, Kotak Mahindra Bank; Mr. Subhasis Ghosh, Joint President, Kotak Life Insurance Co. Ltd.; Mr. Vidya Prakash, Sr. VP- High Opportunity Market, Tata AIG General Insurance Co Ltd.; Mr. Subhankar Sengupta, Country Head-UBI &BroCA., IndiaFirst Life Insurance Company Ltd.; Mr. Rakesh Jee, Zonal Head-East Region, Aditya Birla Health Insurance; Ms. Nilanjana Banerjee, Zonal Training Manager Learning & Development-East, Aditya Birla Health Insurance Co Ltd.; Mr. Peshotan Dastoor, Group President & Head-Sales, UTI Asset Management Company Ltd.; Mr. Prosenjit Pal, Senior Manager, Business Development-Corporate, NSE; Mr. Dipan Mitra, Manager, SME Business Development, NSE, and Mr. Vibhor Tandon, AVP-Business Development, MCX India.

The E-Conclave had sessions on ‘Consumer Connect: Changing Role of Banks’; ‘Balancing Millennial Urban Population with Semi Urban and Rural Mass: Strategies of Insurance Industries’; ‘The Mutual Fund Show: Redeem, Pause or Add On’; ‘Securities Market & the Common Man’ and an In-Depth Analysis of The Commodity Exchange Market and Strategies. The speakers deliberated and addressed in detail how to invest wisely, how to choose and compare offerings from Banks, contactless banking for the touch screen generation along with priority sectors, Loan: Paper vs human, the trust factor and the risk factor and whether the pandemic and the adoption of technology would result in contraction of employability in the banking sector. The speakers also explained how to balance liquidity and investment in the time of pandemic. One of the main point of discussion was the saving options for a common man in the perspective of savings rate at an all time low, the growth under declining curve and with no interest change in near future. The speakers also enumerated the learning for consumers and insurance companies in the background of the pandemic and advised on the extent of coverage, digitization and claim settlement without cashless facility.  

Some other key takeaways from the E-Conclave were information on ‘How to finance SME Business-A Capital Market Perspective’ and ‘Exchange Traded Currency Derivatives & Gold Mini Options-Effective Tool to Manage Risk’ besides general awareness on Mutual Funds as a money making instrument, Commodity Markets, Commodity Futures and Risk Management.