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Documentation Must be Very Strong From the Start for All Government Events, Says Ujjwal K Chowdhury
by Komal Darji Industry Watch | December 18, 2020 | Interview
Ujjwal K Chowdhury Adamas University, Kolkata Congregations India EEMA
With the virtual ‘CONGREGATIONS INDIA: Government, Political & Religious Events Summit’ by EVENTFAQs Media coming up on Thursday, December 24, 2020, we reached out to co-curators of the event for their valuable views on the scale of Government events as well as the expertise required by event industry professionals to manage them.
In this interview, Ujjwal K Chowdhury, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Adamas University, Kolkata, an expert in media education and also a co-curator of the #CongregationsIndia event, shares his insights.
Broad spectrum of government events
Talking about the space of Government events in India including cultural, religious and sporting events and growing segments within Government events, Ujjwal K Chowdhury, says, “I cannot state figures in this, but given the broad spectrum of the Government-supported events including cultural, religious and sporting events will surely be in excess of Rs10,000 crore annually. Involvement of the Government has been the highest in sports and cultural events pre-pandemic.”
“In 2019, the estimated total cost of election campaigning during the general elections has been to the tune of Rs40,000 crore. Though this may not be the caseevery year, but any given year the political events expenditure shall be above Rs10-12,000 crore, though exact number will depend on how many local to national elections are in the given year,” he adds.

What event planners should remember
“I am in education, so while we spend nearly Rs2 crore for events and experiential marketing in a year (down to 12% in 2020, due to the pandemic), we do not naturally have any engagement with Government events,” comments Chowdhury.
“Documentation has to be very strong from the start, legal papers and compliances all in place, and while Government events have no cash component, a large part of political events still deals with hard cash in transactions. There may be unforeseen expenses at times in Government events, though,” he explains.
The outlook for Government events
On the return of large scale congregations in the Government/political space, and also in the corporate/private events space, Chowdhury adds, “Since there is a series of elections inStates leading to the national mega election in 2024, this sector is bound to grow rapidly. Congregations will remain, with some pandemic-related precautions. However, the digital spends of all organizations is bound to increase rapidly in 2021.”
Telling us about his experience of working on Government events, he says, “I was once the media adviser of the Textiles Ministry of the Government of India, and during that time, had done three large events all totalling Rs 2 crore: launch of Rajiv Gandhi Handicrafts Bazaar near CP, Delhi, launch of measures of standards in silk and cotton garments and a mega garments fair. I have also organized one large multi-city children's film festival for the Children's Film Society of India with a total budget of around Rs50 lakh across 20 cities.”
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In this interview, education and communications expert Ujjwal K Chowdhury, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Adamas University, Kolkata, and also a co-curator of the #CongregationsIndia event, shares his insights.