National Seminar on Climate Change: A global wake-up call

Department: Economics

Date: 10^th January 2025

Time: 10:30 A.M. to 4:00 P.M.

Venue: The BES College, 2nd Floor Auditorium (Society Hall)

Participants: 3 resource-persons, 25 students and 4 faculty members.

On 10th January 2025, the Department of Economics of The Bhawanipur Education Society College hosted a National Seminar on Climate Change: A Global Wake-Up Call for the Economics Undergraduates in association with the IQAC and in collaboration with the Environmental Development Committee of the BES College. The seminar, held at 2nd floor Auditorium (Society Hall) of the college, brought together esteemed resource persons : Dr. Shamyasree Dasgupta, Dr. Devleena Majumdar and Dr. Brototi Bhattacharyya. The main objective of this seminar is to make students understand the economic dimensions of climate change, including its effects on global markets, economic growth and poverty, and to explore emerging trends in green economics.

The program with 25 students as attendees began with an introductory speech by Dr. Samyo Basu, faculty of Economics department,  who brought into light the advent of capitalistic economy during the 17th and 18^th century focusing on the Market being considered as the most efficient mechanism. He spotlighted The Framework of Anthropocene and further continued with the discussion of Ecology and dealings of the International Trade.

Next, Ms. Anuradha Dutta introduced and proceeded with the felicitation of the resource-persons. Dr. Shyamasree Dasgupta, Associate Professor, School of Humanities and Social Sciences of IIT Mandi who was felicitated by Aadya Arora and Aarushi Somani of Semester I. She raised the topic, The Economics Of Climate Change, spoke about global warming and its impacts. She highlighted the word ‘Externality’ and how its positive or negative effects can’t be compensated along with the consequences of Inter-Governmental and Inter-Generational policies and transitions, furnishing the audience through knowledge in the simplest manner with real world scenarios possible.

Further, Dr. Devleena Majumdar, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics at Victoria Institution (College), University of Calcutta was felicitated by Oishika Ray and Oendrila Majumder of semester III. She presented about International Trade and Environment, focusing on inflow and outflow of capital via International trade, hitting several aspects like Foreign Direct Investment, Capital Flight, Pollution Hypothesis and much more. She emphasised on how International Trade acts as a one-way linkage in polluting the environment and spoke in detail about scale effect, composition effect and technique effect. Environmental Kuznets Curve and Coase Theorem were also discussed and easily comprehended by the students.

In the post-lunch session, another resource-person Dr. Brototi Bhattacharyya, Assistant Professor, Department Of Economics, UGC MMTTC under Burdwan University was introduced and further felicitated by Sanjana Saha and Gracy Gupta of semester III.  She enriched the audience with Emerging Dynamics in International Trade and Relations: A Disclosure, carried out with mind maps that simplified complicated information. She vividly spoke on concepts like Globalization, Industrialization and Perfectionism , reasons for the shift from GATT to WTO , related policies and other dimensions. She enlightened further with the talks on Global Government Index and Sustainable Competitiveness Index as well, and concluded her lecture by providing the students with knowledge and book suggestions, mainly being, “Economics without Tears” and “ Make Globalization Work”.

Dr. Samyo Basu then wrapped up the seminar with meaningful insights and reflections on the topics covered. The seminar offered a holistic view of ecological challenges, their economic implications, and the policy measures required to address them, leaving the attendees enriched with knowledge and resources. Overall, the insightful presentations and engaging interactions with the audience made this event a memorable and successful one.

Report Compiled by:
Oishika Ray, Semester III
Aadya Arora, Semester I
Department of Economics