Report on ‘Empowering Women through Entrepreneurship’   a  Seminar organized by National Commission for Women

Date : 31^st January, 2019

Time : 9.00 am

Venue : Stein Auditorium, Indian Habitat Centre, New Delhi

National Commission for Women (NCW) organized a conference on ‘Empowering Women through Entrepreneurship’ at India Habitat Centre on 31  January, 2019. A group of students and faculty of  Department of Management, Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology visited the conference. Dr. Virendra Kumar, Minister of State for Women and Child Development was the Chief Guest. The event was attended by representatives from other organizations involved in education/ training in women empowerment through entrepreneurship programs as also the students and staff from other educational institutes along with general public and social workers.

The event started with the lighting of Lamps and felicitation of guests. Rekha Sharma, Chairperson of NCW addressed the gathering. She stated,” Women are not empowered till they earn their own money” and further talked about the various hurdles women face while entering  the field of entrepreneurship. Some of the hurdles present for women are the lack of socializing skills, high production costs and women not talking about their achievements.
Concentration of women were more in traditional sectors like clothing, textiles, whereas their concentration is low in chemical and high technology industries.

It was followed with a new panel of speakers which included women entrepreneurs who started with a small idea and grown big and now provide large employment. These women started with a small startup and now are earning 100 crores+ annually. The panel of women achievers consisted of Ms. Revathi Kulkarni Roy, Ms. Kanika Tekriwal, Ms, Shaili Chopra and Ms, Chetna Gala Sinha. They all are the Founder and CEOs of Hey Dee Dee, Jet Set Go, She The People and Mann Deshi Bank respectively.

 

Successful women entrepreneurs shared their success stories and how they built the empire over time. One of the startup started with the passion for driving. Ms. Roy trained hundreds of women and started her taxi services and later entered the logistic field and became the world’s first logistics women run enterprise. She has been on the list of Forbes and has received various awards from the Indian Government. Another successful woman was Ms. Tekriwa, who had interest in aviation but did not have a degree in this area. Facing all the struggles and hurdles, she now earns 400+ crores annually. Yet another speaker was Ms. Chopra, who decided to resign from her post in NDTV as an editor to travel the country and share stories of women on her channel- She, The People. One of the most inspiring thing she told was, “She dreamt she could, so she did” and “Behind every women, there is herself, not somebody else.” The first session ended with a tea break.

In the post tea session, a panel discussion on “Empowering Women Through Entrepreneurship” was held which was moderated by Ms. Shaili Chopra. They discussed about the hurdles these women faced, how did they get inspired and about the financial aspects of a startup. Queries were raised by the audience, which were quite informative and was answered well by the panel. It ended with the vote of thanks by Shri. A. Asholi Chalai, Joint Secretary of NCW.

Overall, the day was very inspiring and highlighted a very powerful message about the power of women entrepreneurs in India.