Vivekananda College

In 1954 our department was established with the commencement of UG courses (Honours as well as General) as per the curriculum of University of Calcutta. It is a unique department where the faculty members and the students together make the teaching-learning process quite enjoyable.
The teachers always strive for updating themselves with newer advancement of the subject along with continuing their own research works. Till date, apart from contributing a number of papers in various conferences and seminars----both at International and National levels----- six Minor Research Projects have been submitted to the UGC by all the teachers considered as a whole.

The students originating from heterogeneous socio- economic conditions build a cohesive group among themselves and attend regular classes, class tests and tutorials under the direct supervision and utmost care of their teachers. The use of projector in an ICT classroom enhances the quality of teaching to a considerable extent. The department also takes the initiative to break the boundary of classroom teaching and adopts various interesting approaches to help the students grasping the subject Economics properly. Thus

the students are motivated for (a) undertaking various research projects organized by the Research Guidance Cell of Vivekananda College on some selected and relevant topics under the direct supervision of departmental teachers since 2011-12 and as well as for (b) delivering lectures at State/National level Conferences organized by other academic institutions in and around Kolkata since 2006. Mention may also be made of the add-on courses designed and functioning since 2021-22 in this regard.
Visits to academic tours/ surveys in both the rural and urban areas to have an idea of the lifestyle and economic condition of the residents are quite frequent.. In fact, the department has a legacy of undertaking tours almost at regular intervals since 1999. Of the various tours, mentions may be made of those surveys carried out on occupational Distribution of Residents of Darjeeling Town in 2003, Assessment of Tourism Industry in Darjeeling in 2004 and Livelihood Pattern of People in and around BUXA in 2016.
The department organizes workshops and seminars from time to time. The First two-day UGC sponsored National Level Workshop cum Seminar on “Inclusive Growth : India in Global Perspective “ organized , in collaboration with Vivekananda College for Women ,Kolkata and The Livelihood School Hyderabad , was held at the department during 20-21 March, 2009 .It has witnessed eminent teachers of the likes late Professor Kalyan Sanyal, Professor (Retired) Soumyen Sikdar and others speaking at length on various issues relating to inclusive growth of Indian economy in the background of globalization and five of our students presenting papers on several aspects of the broad theme. The Second UGC Sponsored National Seminar on “Microfinance and Development in the Face of the Current Crisis” organised by our department in collaboration with The Livelihood School Hyderabad during 24-25 June, 2011 yielded quite a fruitful understanding to the subject. The Third and Fourth Workshops were held in 2016- the first on 27-28 May, and the second on 14-15 July, relating to the training of household survey on “Status of Disability, Widow and Old age Pension ” in South 24 Parganas District ,conducted by BAES, Government of West Bengal and carried out by majority of our students using the technique of the Multistage-Stratified-Random Sampling .Three other one-day Workshops broadly on Applied Econometrics using STATA organized by and held at our department in May 2018, October 2023 and December 2023 have helped the students to feel the pulse of the subject they otherwise study using textbooks.
Since 2016, the department has been publishing its Annual journal Tell- All. It is multi-faceted and narrates the journey of the department in academic as well as cultural spheres.
Bright Minds organized by our students with active support of their teachers since 2019 deserves to be mentioned with great pride. It has mainly been an inter-departmental (in 2019 and in 2022) competition on various cultural aspects. In 2020 our students could make it possible to organize a very successful inter-college competition in this regard.
Reunion, organized by the alumni and present students since 2013, reflects strong emotional cum intellectual bonding not only among themselves but also with their teachers of yesteryears at the academic level that has helped the department to grow and function properly. It would continue, come what may.