Business Environment in West Bengal: An Ethical Issue

Abstract

Ethics in Business are keywords in any business environment which are lacking in most of the cases. In a broad sense ethics means not to cheat others and to do the business in an honest way, to abide by the rules and regulations of the soil, and above all to keep the morale high so that the business can grow to a new height in long run. Unfair means and unethical business practices to earn money quickly are often fraught with the danger of losing the business permanently or losing the goodwill and respect of society. West Bengal has got bad reputation for industrial growth and fake chit funds and it has been named as ponzy capital of India by many as 72 out of 86 fake chit funds are in the state of West Bengal (as per the Report of Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Govt. of India). On the other hand the micro finance company Bandhan which has got Banking license last year (set up in 2001 in West Bengal) and Eins Edutech the company which was originally incorporated on March 9, 1983, as Ganpat Udyog in West Bengal are worth mentioning and at ease one can feel proud of them. As on 17th April, 2015 the latter company has got market capital of Rs.700 crore with its fixed assets, as per its balance sheet, as only two cell phones and one printer. As per monthly status of Bandhan in February 2015 it has 2,022 branches, 63,66,269 borrowers, 15,956 staff, loan disbursed for the month Rs.1,572 crores, and loan outstanding Rs.8,908 crores. Under such situation, this study focuses on the ethical business environment prevailing in West Bengal and the strategies adopted by them.