School of Commerce & Economics, KIIT University, as a matter of practice has always tried to strive for the best, since it’s inception. It has always been the attempt of the School to make its student market-fit and industry oriented. As a part of that process, the School organized a Webinar on the theme “Budget 2021- Expectations Ahead” on 31^st January 2020 (Sunday) to discuss and deliberate on the expectations and aspirations of new India from the Budget-21, which will be presented on 1^st February 2021 in the Parliament by Honorable Finance Minister, Government of India.

The program started with the Welcome address by Prof (Dr.) Jayanta Kumar Parida, Honorable Director, School of Commerce & Economics, KIIT University. Congratulating School of Commerce Economics, KIIT University for organizing such webinar. Prof. Parida highlighted the achievements of the School in such a short period and thanked Prof Sasmita Samanta, Pro-Vice Chancellor, KIIT University for her proactive guidance in development of the School.  Speaking on the importance of this year’s budget for Indian economy amid the Covid-19 pandemic and global economic slowdown, Prof Parida highlighted some important expectations of academia from the budget, quoting the recently published Economic Survey. He expressed his optimism on increase in the spending on Education sector in the light of achieving the high aims being set by the New Education Policy- 2020. Prof (Dr.) Jayanta Kumar Parida, appreciated the fact that the first budget of this decade is going be the very first paperless budget of India.

Dr G Tulasi Rao, Professor, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University, Andhra Pradesh, said that he expects the Government will be focusing on the revival of various sectors which are hard hit due to pandemic and economic slowdown. Highlighting the recently announced Rupees One Lakh crore stimulus package being announced for Banking Sector, Prof Rao said that the focus of Government should be  curbing the Non-Performing Assets (NPA) problems which are bludgeoning for quite some time now.

Prof. S.G.Hundekar joining the webinar from Karnataka University said that the education and health care sectors should get the highest priority. He said that the pandemic showed us how ill prepared our healthcare facilities are. So we have no options left but to spend more on the sector. Prof. Hundekar also highlighted that to bank upon the demographic dividend of India, now its time when we must shift our priority from Gross Enrollment Ratio to inculcation of vocational skills in Education sector. He also expressed his expectation that public investment, especially in the infrastructure  sector will find a significant space in Budget 2021.

Speaking on the expectations from Budget- 2021, Prof. M.L.Vadera, Professor & Advisor, Vyas Institute of Higher Education, Rajasthan highlighted the expectations of the middle-class Indian society. He touched upon various issues starting from the increase in the exemption limit in income tax, reducing the tax burden on consumer durable etc.

Prof. Debabrata Mitra from University of North Bengal speaking on the various expectations of the taxpayers highlighted the various sections under Chapter VI(A) of the Income Tax  Act, where he expected to see further relaxation for common people. Prof Mitra reiterated that this budget is going to be a revival one becoming a watershed movement to give impetus to the Indian economy.

Prof. Sudhir Kumar Shukla, Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith, Uttar Pradesh spoke on the expectations from the business fraternity focusing the hospitality sector and manufacturing sector, which were hit the hardest because of the lock-downs and shut-downs in the most parts of the country amid the Covid-19 spread. Prof. Shukla expected some strong policy measures through Budget-2021 and ease in GST in bringing back the economy on track.

The Program ended with the proposal of vote of thanks, by Dr Debasi Pahi on behalf of School of Commerce & Economics, KIIT University, to all the resource persons, guests and participants. All the students & faculty members of the School and people from academia participated in the program.

On 1^st February 2021 (Monday), Honorable Finance Minister Mrs. Nirmala Sitharaman was presenting the once in a century Budget for the financial year 2021-22 in the Parliament. The whole nation was glued to the Live stream of India’s first paperless budget, be it on TV screens, Phones, laptops or any digital mode. The Union Budget directly or indirectly affects the lives and livelihoods of every Indian. So everyone is curious to know what is there in the budget for them; whether its going to give some relief to their pockets or they need to tighten their grips while spending.

It has been the constant effort of School of Commerce & Economics, KIIT to provide its students with industry oriented practical knowledge and keep them updated with the economical happenings. Understanding the importance of the budget, specifically for the students of Commerce,  KSCE, after successfully organizing a pre-budget webinar on the theme “Budget 2021; Expectations Ahead”, organized a live streaming of the Budget 2021 for all its members. All the students along with the faculty members, gathered together in a single virtual-room to witness the budget-speech 2021.

Prof. (Dr.) Jayanta Kumar Parida, Director, School of Commerce & Economics, KIIT inaugurated the session and briefed the students about the technical and constitutional aspect of the budget. Around 200 students of the school actively participating in the session were keenly noting the important points and highlights from the Union Budget speech 2021.

Post Union Budget speech by Honorable Finance Minister, the session was concluded with an open house discussion among the students and faculty members of the School on some of the prominent highlights of the budget.

In India, whenever Union Budget is announced, it impacts the lives of Indians in many ways. At times the announcement creates hopes of a brighter years ahead with flourishing economy while some times the mass at large believe that budget has nothing much for the layman. This year’s budget is also no exception. When Honorable Finance Minister, Government of India, Ms. Nirmala Sitharam presented the Union Budget 2021, it created a mixed feelings among Indians. While one part of the nation believed it to be a Budget of hope resulting in bullish stock market indices after announcement, the other section said that the middle class is being betrayed once again. During these hues and cries, what remained the hot topic of discussion in almost all forums of discussion is whether this Budget will be able to catalyse the idea of “Atmanirbhar Bharat” (self-reliant India), the idea which was originally propagated by the Honorable Prime Minister of India, Sri Narendra Modi during his announcement of the first relief package for the revival of Pandemic hit Indian Economy and reiterated by the Honorable Finance Minister during her Budget-2021 speech.

After successfully organizing a pre-budget webinar on the theme “Budget 2021; Expectations & Reality” and conducting a live stream of Budget-2021 for its students, School of Commerce & Economics, KIIT, on 5^th February 2020 organized a post-budget webinar on the theme “BUDGET 2021; Atmanirbhar Bharat !!!”, which is buzzing around. The aim of the webinar is to extensively discuss and deliberate, with distinguished experts from the field, on what was the expectations from the budget, what we got from it, what we could have got and most importantly whether this budget would make India atmanirbhar (self-reliant) in real & if not, where does it lack. Prof. Sangeeta Pawar from Mumbai University and Prof. Amarendra Das from NISER, Bhubaneswar joined as the resource persons of the Webinar.

The program started with an opening remark by Mr. Himanshu Agarwal, KSCE on the Budget 2021 and highlighting how it has been a regular practice of the School to organize seminars on current happenings to make its student market fit.

Prof. P. T. Chaudhary, Professor, KSCE making the welcome address, reiterated how quality education imparted by KSCE makes its student self-reliant contributing towards Atmanirbhar Bharat. Speaking on the topic of the Webinar, Prof. Chaudhary highlighted the focus of Budget-2021 on infrastructure, betterment of rural poor etc. He called on the academia to understand and bust the misconception that has been spread that price of petroleum is going to rise after the announcement of agricultural-cess.

Speaking on the topic, Prof. Sangeeta Pawar discussed on various sectors highlighting what we got and what we missed. Prof. Pawar started her delivery by saying that it was a budget for Recession to Revival.

Income tax has always appeared as a tough task for common man. Planning tax is a herculean task for almost every taxpayer. As the Financial Year 2020-21 is ending in two weeks, considering the above issues, KIIT School of Commerce & Economics organized a workshop in virtual mode on the theme “TAX PLANNING WITH REGARDS TO INDIVIDUALS” on 19th March 2021, for the faculties and staffs of KIIT University. Prof. Sunil Gupta, CA, a tax expert and Professor of Management Studies, Indira Gandhi National Open University, Delhi graced the workshop as the Keynote Speaker.

Prof. Gupta talked about various provisions of the Income tax Act applicable to individual assessee, explaining how an individual can plan their tax by making various investments. He also mentioned about the Direct tax Code (DTC), which the government is planning to bring into effect very soon, and what impact it is going to have on individual assessee. He explained in detail how the EEE(Exempt-Exempt-Exempt) system for specified investments will be replaced by   EET(Exempt-Exempt-Tax) after the introduction of DTC and how the new system will be proved to be a win-win situation for both the taxpayers and the government. Prof. Sunil Gupta in a lucid manner deliberated on how the quantum aspect and time aspect have to be taken care of to make judicious investments.

Faculty Members, Staffs and students from different schools of KIIT had participated in huge number in the workshop and availed the benefit of learning a judicious investments and tax planning.

Thriving in Adversity: Giving In without Giving Up

“Mental health is something that we all need to talk about, and we need to take the stigma away from it. So let’s raise the awareness. Let’s let everybody know it’s OK to have a mental illness and addiction problem.”                                             — Demi Lovato

Mental health is evenly as crucial as physical health. Although we often can’t see it with your bare eyes, a mental health problem can cause serious damage to a person’s life and well-being. The World Health Organization estimates that close to 20%, or one in five students, are actively dealing with a mental health issue. So to spread more mental health awareness among the students, the KIIT School of Commerce and Economics of KIIT-DU, organized a webinar on the topic “Mental Health of Students during Covid-19” on 20^th May 2021. The webinar aimed to encourage and motivate students to cope with the mental illness and mental stigma during this tough Covid-19 scenario.

Dr. Shubhangi Goswami, Clinical Psychologist and Senior Research Fellow at IIT Kharagpur, graced the webinar as the Keynote Speaker. Dr. Goswami emphasis on how can students calculate their mental health status through a questionnaire. She also focused on explaining how the various physical, psychological, social and economical resources available with human being can be utilized to improve mental health problems. She advised about some metal health exercise and real life solution to come out of mental stigma and live a happy life.

Prof. Jayanta Kumar Parida, Director School of Commerce & Economics, KIIT-DU vividly spoke about the importance of mental fitness and mental well-being to face this Covid-19 challenges. By sharing his real life experience, he motivated and encouraged students to lead a happy and stress free life.

The webinar ends with an engaging Q&A session where Dr. Goswami answered various mental health problems faced by students and give various tips to solve those challenges. On behalf of the entire KSCE family, the vote of thanks was proposed by Prof. Jayanta Kumar Parida, Director KIIT School of Commerce and Economics, KITT-DU.

Faculty Members, Staffs and students from different schools of KIIT and outside KIIT had participated in huge number in the Webinar and availed the benefit of learning a lot about mental health issues and how to solve these.