NITI Aayog’s Women Entrepreneurship Platform organises Workshop on Empowering Women
Introduction
NITI Aayog's Women Entrepreneurship Platform( WEP) and Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), Office of International Programmes (OIP) University of Delhi, jointly organised a Two-Day International conference on "Empowering Women: Fostering Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Sustainability", on July 16-17, 2018.
The Inaugural event was presided by Shri Venkaiah Naidu, Vice President of India as Chief Guest, Dr Kiran Bedi, Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry, as Guest of Honor, Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, and Shri Ajay S. Shri Ram, Chairman, Governing Body, SRCC.
The Vice President in his address emphasized on increasing education and skilling for the economic empowerment of women and stressed on the need for propagating an attitudinal change for the same. Based on the mantra given by the Prime Minister, he underscored the ‘Reforming, Performing and Transforming' role to be played by NITI Aayog.
The Guest of Honour, Dr Kiran Bedi spoke of ensuring that India reaps the benefits of “Gender Dividend” along with demographic dividend. She also highlighted the importance of provisioning of different ‘family services' to ease the workload of working women.
Shri Amitabh Kant stated that for India to grow at 9-10 per cent for three decades consistently and reap the dividend of demographic advantage, promoting entrepreneurship among women has to be the key strategy. If women don't do well then the society faces an inter-generational cycle of malnutrition and infant mortality, he added.
The inaugural was followed by a Plenary Session and Panel Discussions on wide ranging topics, from how women-led enterprises enable change, to how innovation can contribute to societal good and technology and sustainability are complementary. The Panels saw the participation of eminent personalities such as Ms. Debjani Ghosh, President, NASSCOM, Ms. Naina Lal Kidwai, Chairperson Max Financial Services, Ms. Harinder Sindhu, Australian High Commissioner to India, Ms. Hanne Melgaard, Charge d' Affairs, Norway Embassy, Ms. Lavanya Nalli, VC, Nalli Sarees, Wing Commander Pooja Thakur, Indian Air Force, Ms. Kalyani Khona, Founder, Inclov, Ms. Swati Pandey, Co-Founder Arboreal Innovation, among others.
A Panel discussion on Women Empowerment in the current era and the Valedictory session which was graced by Ms. Nina Vaskunlahti, Ambassador of Norway to India, Shri Yaduvendra Mathur, Additional Secretary, NITI Aayog and Ms. Namita Thapar, CFO, Emcure Pharmaceuticals Ltd who shared their inspiring experiences and paved the way for further such collaborations between the WEP, other Institutions and Embassies so as to further provide an impetus to women entrepreneurs keeping the unique set of challenges faced by them in mind.
The conference saw the participation of remarkable national as well as international luminaries. Representatives from across the globe, including Canada, United States of America, Australia, Ethopia, Cameroon, Ghana, and Nigeria, Nepal, Tibet, Bangladesh and Thailand, took part in the Conference and actively participated in the technical sessions. This was followed by paper presentations on ‘Empowering Women', and business and entrepreneurship oriented competitions, where over 250 delegates constructively engaged in brainstorming sessions. The papers submitted for presentation cut across a range of empirical and theoretical work as well as case-studies.
Source
Press Information Bureau , 19 July 2018
