People

VET missionary

An alum of IIT-Kharagpur and the prestigious Harvard Business School, Bikram Dasgupta is the founder and executive chairman of the Kolkata-based Globsyn Group (estb. 1997). Currently the group runs the Globsyn Business School, Globsyn Finishing School (for engineers and corporates), Globsyn Blue (offering economics, finance and manag-ement degree programmes in collaboration with the London School of Economics) and the Asian Institute of Family Business, with an aggregate enrolment of 12,000 students mentored by 200 faculty. Morevoer, the group includes Globsyn Infotech, the software development division of Globsyn Innoventures (P) Ltd. Dasgupta started his career as a market development manager at HCL, was a co-promoter of Pertech Computers Ltd (PCL), and pioneered the first IT Park in India in 1996.

Newspeg. In a recent development, Globsyn Business School became the first B-school in eastern India and among the first three in India, to receive and process admissions online.

History. After he quit PCL in 1996 and went solo a year later, Dasgupta started his first venture, the Globsyn Finishing School, to make software engineers job ready. This was followed by Globsyn Business School (estb. 2002) which offers programmes in marketing, finance and HR to more than 700 students across two campuses. In 2010, Dasgupta promoted Globsyn Skills Development Pvt. Ltd (GSDL), a not-for-profit enterprise formed in equity partnership with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC).

Diirect talk. “Since its inception in 1997, Globsyn has been equipping students with vocational education and training to make them job ready, first through our finishing school for engineers followed by the B-school. Thus far we have provided VET to 150,000 business management profess-ionals and engineers. We are now focussing on imparting VET to school-leavers under GSDL,’’ says Dasgupta.

Future plans. Indian industry and the economy desperately need skilled managers and workers, according to Dasgupta. Therefore GSDL has set itself the target of setting up 100 Skills for India centres countrywide within the next decade to upskill 1 million youth. “We will also launch executive education, middle manage-ment and research programmes. With Globsyn established as the premier business and technology management education provider in eastern India, we now intend to offer Globsyn as the region’s major VET provider to create job opportunities across the spectrum,’’ says Dasgupta.

Wind beneath your wings!

Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata)