GLOBAL: Belfast to teach Indians entrepreneurship

An expert on entrepreneurship from Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, is to advise business leaders, politicians and academics in West Bengal on how this Indian state can improve its economic performance with the support of higher education. David Gibson, a senior teaching fellow in entrepreneurship in Queen's management school, addressed a conference in Kolkata last week hoping to create an "entrepreneurial mindset" and ways of incorporating entrepreneurship into the wider curriculum.

West Bengal has lagged behind other Indian states economically in recent years and one reason is said to be its "apprehensive" approach to wealth creation through entrepreneurial activity. The state's politics has been dominated by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) since 1977.

Gibson is an authority on the subject and the author of a textbook used by more than 100 universities, including Cambridge. In his address he pointed to the potential of students and universities to boost economic performance and outlined what skills students would need to develop their own or their employers' businesses.

"All students can develop an entrepreneurial mindset and Queen's is one of the few universities in the world to teach entrepreneurship to students of all disciplines," he said. "What West Bengal students needed is an opportunity to develop the skills of creativity and the capacity to turn an idea into reality to help their region and their local communities." West Bengal would benefit from Queen's research and experience in this area as well as other universities and economies throughout the world, he added.

The event was organised by the California-based Indus Entrepreneurs organisation which is engaged in promoting entrepreneurship globally. The conference was attended by all major West Bengal universities.

alan.osborn@uw-news.com