Aug 05, 2019 / 17 SDGs

Kolkata starts grooming Young Conscious Leaders

Kolkata, Friday 2nd August, 2019 – Last week, from Monday 29th July to Friday 2nd August throughout, Techno India Group and ENGAGE University co-designed and co-organised the first Young Conscious Leaders bootcamp that the city has witnessed so far.

Twenty pioneering students, all stepping into their first year of college, went through 5 tremendously intense days which focused on Leadership, Complexity, Ethics, Climate Change and Emerging Technologies. Another outstanding feature of the programme: four European professors have flown to Kolkata especially for the occasion – Jérôme Cohen, Benjamin Gratton, Michaela Korodimou and Guy-Philippe Goldstein, respectively specialised in Conscious Leadership, Collective Intelligence, Climate Change and Ethics, teaching along with several other eminent personalities from India.

Back in March, Pauline Laravoire, Sustainability Director at Techno India Group, met with Jérôme Cohen, Founder and President of France-based ENGAGE University. Beyond their common French origins, they also found their professional ambitions aligned: to train future responsible leaders so they develop enough skills, initiative, risk-taking abilities and sense of ethics to solve the most pressuring challenges of the 21st century, through international cooperation. On the matter, Jérôme explained: “Our societies are undergoing a profound change affecting humanity in all its components. The key to face these urgent issues lies in civic engagement and active participation of civil society. Everyone has today the opportunity to take part in the design and construction of tomorrow’s world.”

This international encounter gave birth to a long-term partnership between the two academic leaders, starting off in July 2019 itself with the first edition of the Young Conscious Leaders Global Fellowship Programme. Not only does this programme include the aforementioned 5 intense training days, it also prolongs for the entire following academic year for the students: they will have to put their learnings into practice, by choosing a social or environmental project to implement concretely.

“Leadership has been in Techno India Group’s DNA since its beginnings, embodied by its founder Goutam Roy Chowdhury as he turned 5 rupees into today’s substantial conglomerate. It is crucial that we pass on these leadership skills to the younger generations and integrate it in our programmes.”, shared Techno India Group Co-Chairman Manoshi Roy Chowdhury. Pauline Laravoire completed: “There are many leaders among and within us, who sometimes unfortunately do not dare to take the leap, who are afraid to step into the arena of accountability, responsibility and risk-taking. It is all about learning how to gain this confidence. ENGAGE and Techno India share this belief that it is possible to teach and learn such leadership skills, in order to collectively create a more daring society based on proactive, responsible action-taking”.

One more layer needs to be added: what would leaders be without social and environmental ethics and conscience? They would be destructive leaders, as History has sadly already experienced. Leadership therefore cannot be completely apprehended without including these notions of responsibility, ethics and respect, which is exactly what the Young Conscious Leaders Programme is all about.

In order to celebrate the success of this first leadership class, Techno India and ENGAGED organised a closing ceremony on the last day of the programme, Friday 2nd of August, at Offbeat CCU where the whole residential bootcamp took place. Mrs Manoshi Roy Chowdhury, Co-Chairman of Techno India Group, hosted the session and had the honour to welcome John Andrew Bagul, Principal fo South City International School, Anuradha Das, Director of International Garden High School, Tiphaine Mayran, deputy director at the Alliance Française. The event also the occasion for the Young Conscious Leaders to present the work they have done during the week to the guests, their faculties, and their families.

Witnessing the students’ work, energy and enthusiasm regarding their week, there was a feeling of hope that could be felt through the room: the hope that the young generations will take on the right mindset and the right actions forward, in favour of a more environmentally respectful, and a socially more inclusive tomorrow.