B-school focus on biz genes of city women

A B-school in town that is set to open its doors in July, promises to offer “Calcutta’s first dedicated course on entrepreneurship”, with a special focus on woman entrepreneurs.

ILEAD (Institute of Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Development), a joint venture by city developers PS Group and Srijan Group, will roll out undergraduate and postgraduate courses in entrepreneurship, business management and media, starting with 60 seats for each stream.

The institute, located on the Park Street connector in Topsia, will have 30,000sq ft of centrally air-conditioned built-up space with Wi-Fi facility. All departments will be inter-connected and every student provided with a laptop computer at a discount.

“We will have a sharp focus on female students from business families in the Marwari and Gujarati communities in Calcutta who are often more intelligent and industrious than their brothers, but end up working for their family business because of taboos. We want to dredge out the entrepreneur in them,” says Pradip Chopra, the chairman and managing director of PS Group and the chairman of ILEAD.

The Rs 25-crore institute has a tie-up with over 130 academicians, research scholars and professionals working in universities and MNCs within and outside India to be visiting faculty. Similar arrangements have been made with IAS officers, besides CEOs and HR professionals from city-based blue-chips.

PS Group is a chartered member of TIE (The Indus Entrepreneurs), an initiative started by Silicon Valley-based angel investors and venture capitalists such as Vinod Khosla and Sabir Bhatia and ILEAD is collaborating with entrepreneurship development initiatives like those promoted by TIE, CII, the National Entrepreneurship Network, Indian Innovation Center, etc.

The new B-school will initiate a programme on corporate social responsibility in collaboration with CII, focusing on the SMEs sector.

“We will also offer courses in foreign languages (French, German & Mandarin) with trainers drawn from the British Council, Goethe Institute and Alliance Francaise. We will also hold a personality enhancement programme in association with the Dale Carnegie Institute and Supersoft,” adds Shyam Agarwal, the chairman of the Srijan Group.

ILEAD will also offer programmes on real estate management and development, facility management, retail, hospitality and shopping mall management, said Chopra.