Business Desk :
Without arranging access to finance during the Covid-19 pandemic at the grassroots level, social justice and equitable distribution, for which societal banking is a must, is not feasible, experts have said.
They said micro savings should be channelled to micro investments under separate regulatory bodies.
They also said the prime minister always emphasises micro savings, which is an important factor to develop the nation.
On Sunday, the speakers were addressing a virtual seminar titled “Societal Banking and Entrepreneurial Economics”. It was organised by master’s students of entrepreneurship economics of Dhaka School of Economics.
The model of societal banking was proposed by Professor Dr Muhammad Mahboob Ali of Dhaka School of Economics. It is in line with the present government’s election manifesto and initiatives taken during the pandemic.
The speakers emphasised the need for inclusion of the proposal for establishing societal banking in the eighth five-year plan. At the seminar, Professor Mahboob, programme coordinator at Dhaka School of Economics, presented the keynote paper while Professor Dr Anisul M Islam of the University of Houston-Downtown was the chief guest. Professor Dr Parul Khanna of the Institute of Management Technology, Faridabad, India was the special guest.
Prof Mahboob said during the pandemic, it is prevalent that micro savings can transform into micro investment.
Prof Parul argued that entrepreneurship education, which in Bangladesh is currently being provided by Dhaka School of Economics, has a wide variety of scopes for human capital development.
Prof Anisul said the pandemic had shocked mainstream economies globally, and a vertical coordination among the monetary and fiscal policy was needed.
He also argued that the current world would be dominated by techno-entrepreneurship for which lifelong learning is necessary.
Prof Dr Subrata Chattopadhyay of the University of Engineering and Management, Kolkata said the current area of entrepreneurship should be developed further and entrepreneurs must gather practical knowledge.
Dr Yashoda Durge of the GNVS Institute of Management in India said the pandemic had created new lines of thought.
