Egiye Bangla TV show to highlight unique biz ideas

KOLKATA: Bengal gets ready for the first episode of Egiye Bangla this weekend. The business reality show conceived by Mamata Banerjee takes off on December 6. The show meant to promote entrepreneurship in Bengal will see innovative ideas like a mechanism to clean river surfaces to a mobile app for tailor-made Dokra and other handicrafts, contesting in the show.

Anchored by Sourav Ganguly and actor Jisshu Sengupta, Egiye Bangla will have nine episodes to be aired every Sunday. Fullly funded by the state government the first phase of the reality show will feature 40 entrepreneurs from across Bengal.

Some interesting ideas have already come up before the show takes off. For instance a young entrepreneur from Bankura's Bikna village, known for the Dokra craft, has come up with an app that not just assists Dokra craftsmen in making their products more commercially viable but also lets the end users connects with the artisans directly through the app.

A group of alumni of Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur have come up with a mechanism to clean surfaces of water bodies using inflatable technology where a ballon sucks in the litter on the water surface. Many more such unique ideas would come up at the reality show.

Chandra Sekhar Ghosh, founder, Bandhan Bank restaurateur Anjan Chatterjee and IIM Calcutta professor Ashok Banerjee who would be the panellists will be choosing a winner from each episode to compete at the grand finale.

The finale winner would bag equity funding worth nearly Rs 1 crore from the state government's venture capital fund.