Entrepreneurship in Two Bengals: Lost in Transition

Pinaki Dasgupta ()
Additional contact information
Pinaki Dasgupta: IMI

Chapter Chapter 8 in Two Bengals, 2023, pp 217-273 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The story of entrepreneurship in undivided Bengal was about how the four distinct groups of business stakeholders made their way to kindle the spirit of entrepreneurship in their own way. Bengal remained an attractive destination for the colonial power owing to the inherent prosperity of the region and the fact that it was well-endowed in terms of natural resources. Starting with the East India Company (EIC) and its regional interests largely remained exploitative. With EIC’s dwindling fate by the turn of the nineteenth century, the Agency Houses started making headway into Bengal, laying the foundation for conducting business that seemed closer to commercial transactions and a corporate approach. Sooner the mercantile firms (and transnational companies) from Europe started finding their way through and looked at doing business. By the turn of the next century, the Swadeshi companies (entities owned by the local Bengali population) started their own manufacturing firms. With a diverse range of products, from engineering goods to consumer goods, the Swadeshi companies were the first traces of indigenous entrepreneurship. In post-independent India and Bangladesh, the trajectory of entrepreneurship has taken a form that is heavily MSME (Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise) driven. Across the two regions, sectors from textile, leather, handicraft, handlooms, and processed foods to name a few, are making their mark in the drive to achieve entrepreneurial excellence. For West Bengal, the political unrest and the stifling trade union pirouettes have all meant that large industries and corporates have remained a mirage, yet the state continues to make an environment for smaller and micro firms to thrive. While for Bangladesh, with a history of just fifty years, has remained hungry and aggressive (through the MSME initiatives) in the quest to drive entrepreneurial growth.

Keywords: East India Company; Mercantile Firms; Entrepreneur; Swadeshi Companies; Traders; Agency Houses (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-981-99-2185-0_8

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9789819921850

DOI: 10.1007/978-981-99-2185-0_8

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Books from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().