India’s Start-Up Hub to Host Business Literature Festival on September 13

on Sep 08, 2022

Bengaluru: Anyone who criticizes the Indian education system frequently complains that schools do not assist us to become financially educated. While a complete understanding of how the business world operates is not required for a layman, a fundamental understanding of money is beneficial.

The Bangalore Business Literature Festival (BBLF) is returning to teach us all about money. It will take place from September 13 through September 17. The first four days (13-16) will be conducted virtually, with the final day taking place at the Bengaluru International Centre.

The idea for this festival struck Benedict Paramanand, the event's organizer, in 2015, when he saw how little attention business literature receives. "While business books sell well across the world, despite many good books entering the market, sales in India aren't particularly impressive." Even best-sellers sell roughly 5,000 copies, maybe 10,000 at most," says Paramanand, a business author.

When the festival first began in 2015, it attracted 150 visitors. However, the figures have been rising.

"Since the festival's inception, we've observed a steady growth in attendance." We had 300 people in the second year, 400 in the third year, and 800 in the fifth year. The event was then hosted entirely online in 2020 and 2021, with around 2,000 people. "This year, we want to see over 10,000 people because we have a live event as well as online ones," says Paramanand.

This year's edition will feature a lot of entrepreneurial literature and interactive workshops, so it makes perfect sense to conduct this event in Bengaluru, India's startup hub.

"Startups are already an important element of this city's ecology." "By ecosystem, I don't only mean having enough business schools but also having enough involvement and talks around startups, which this city has enough of," Paramanand adds.

The celebration is also about the students, according to him. "One of the festival's key goals is to present these works to students, particularly MBA students." These pupils require access to high-quality books. "We are encouraging more pupils to come in," adds Paramanand. All students are welcome to attend the live event for free. Others must pay a modest fee of '100. The virtual activities, which take place during the first four days, are open to the public.

This year's festival includes several business-related events. The event will include book launches as well as conversations with writers about mining actual data, shark tank stories, and behavioral economics.