The Bhawanipur Education Society College students celebrate B.O.N.F.I.R.E.

The Business Administration department of The Bhawanipur Education Society College (BESC) hosted the second edition of B.O.N.F.I.R.E. (Bonding, Organising, Negotiation, Focus, Intuition, Responsibility, and Enterprise), an annual inter-college management fest, starting March 24.

The opening ceremony was held at The Lalit Great Eastern, Kolkata, while the rest of the events were held on the Bhawanipur campus.

“B.O.N.F.I.R.E. is one of the most prominent events in this city. College students from all over come together to work in harmony. While they aspire to contest and win events, their unison reflects strong fellowship and unity. It is great to see such young minds participate with such vigour,” Suman Kumar Mukerjee, director general, The Bhawanipur Education Society College.

The fest aims to promote business interest and the spirit of entrepreneurship among students over 30 events. Delegations from more than 20 state and national colleges like iLead, Loreto College, The Heritage Academy, St. Xavier’s University, Gokhale Memorial Girls’ College and Asutosh College too part.

Competitions like Stress Interview, Shipwreck and Bluff were curated to test the skills of business ability. Stress Interview saw participants being assessed on stress tolerance at the workplace. They were required to keep their composure while handling situations such as workplace unrest, unhappy clients, and work pressure. The participants had to submit their resumes and the judges marked them on their intuitive skills. Students felt it enhanced their ability to perform better in real-life interviews. While Aparna Harnandka from THK Jain College was declared the winner, Aliza Ali from iLead bagged the second position and Elima Basu of NSHM Knowledge Campus placed third.

Shipwreck was a business event with a slight twist. Participants were assigned a particular company from sectors like banking, finance and pharmaceutical. They were assigned a crisis depending on the market economy and asked to present a solution. Avantika Singh, a third-year Business Administration student of BESC, was declared the winner, followed by Arushi Khandewal, a third-year student of St. Xavier’s University.

To create a real-life scenario of the stock market, the event Mockstock was designed to test participants’ financial management skills, market analysis, and adaptation to changing market conditions.

The main attraction of the event was the BSE-Bhawanipur Stock Exchange. Each representative from the participating institution bid stocks on a real-time basis with their fictitious money under manipulated conditions. Specific scenarios resembling real-life stock market situations were presented to the students. Representatives were required to participate as stock bidders and sellers actively. This event created a chaotic, yet exciting, atmosphere emulating real-life stock markets. Aryan Ramakrishnan from St. Xavier’s University won, with Om Gupta, a first-year BBA student of The Bhawanipore Education Society (BESC), coming second and Aditya Kumar Singh from Shree Agrasain College placed third.

Apart from these business events, there were several literary events such as Extempore, Turncoat Debate and Book Review, where participants used their wit and explored ideas. “We have been working on this for the past six months. We designed events that would incorporate corporate work culture by providing real-time simulation. I believe a lot of effort was put in by the team for this magnificent fest to be pulled off,” said Devjyoti Banerjee, a third-year Business Administration student of BESC, who is the student president of the fest.

The Bhawanipore Education Society College was declared overall winner of the fest, followed by St. Xavier’s University and JD Birla Institute being crowned first and second-runner, respectively. “B.O.N.F.I.R.E. provided an exhilarating opportunity to participate in a corporate environment,” said Kaushik Banerjee, professor and event coordinator.