News by Nina Rai
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore

Udupi, Jan 26: The final day of the international conference on “Harnessing the Entrepreneurial Potential of Women for Economic Growth” organized by the Manipal Institute of Management (MIM) jointly with Asian Centre for Entrepreneurial Initiatives (ASCENT), was held at the MIT campus at Manipal, on Saturday Jan 24.

The day’s proceeding began at 9 at the Parallel Session 1 with a paper presentation entitled “Women in Family Business” by prof D Sampath, Trustee, ASCENT (Asian Centre for Entrepreneurial Initiatives), director Pegasus followed by experience sharing by Sumitra Iyengar, director, Infrastructure, Geodesic Techniques Pvt Ltd. She spoke on how she as a woman faced various challenges in business.

Madhura Chatrapathy, director, ASCENT in her presentation entitled “Role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the process of growth of women-owned enterprises,” after a brief speech chose to encapsulate her viewpoint by showing an engrossing film on a small village Athani in Karnataka where the womenfolk were transformed from a disorganized bunch of artisans making Kolhapuri chappals prior to year 2000, to a highly motivated and organized group. Currently they are marketing their wares and competing in world markets, all due to the able guidance and active support of ASCENT. This film was highly appreciated by the audience, who saw visually the impact of co-operative enterprise bearing fruit through mentoring. 

She was followed by another key speaker on “Women as Technocrat Entrepreneurs” Dr. Vasudev Rao, prof. TA Pai Management Institute. Next presentation was by Suma Krishnaswamy, MD, Cambium Biotech, Bangalore a specialist in plant tissue culture, who on prompting from the audience agreed to share her personal experiences, trials and tribulations she faced as a technocrat entrepreneur. She even spelt out ways and means to overcome hurdles in the way of entrepreneurship.

In the Parallel Session 2 at the venue: AC class-room was organized an event entitled “EnPower 09” which was basically a Business Plan competition for women aspirants. The key speaker at the event was Sujir Prabhakar, DGM and Head, zonal office Syndicate Bank. He was a judge at the event along-with Dr Neeta Inamdar, Faculty Manipal Institute of Communications. The winners of the event were awarded certificates later at the Valedictory function.

The Valedictory Session began at 2.30 pm, presided over by Dr S S Pabla – pro vice chancellor Manipal University and director MIT. The welcome address was given by Dr. Anantha Padmnabha Achar, faculty, MIM who in his brief speech stressed on the urgent need to harness women power and inspire the young women band to become entrepreneurs. Dr. K V M Varambally, director of MIM reading from his notes gave a summary of the events which had taken place since past two days. The guests of honor on the dais were Dr. Gopalkrishna Prabhu, registrar Manipal University and Ramesh Dharmaji, GM, SIDBI (Small Industries Development Bank of India).

The Valedictory address was given by Revathi Venkatraman, president, AWAKE. The theme of her speech was challenges faced by women in the global economy. According to her majority of women entrepreneurs are isolated despite them accounting for up-to 70% of the micro businesses. Moreover, they face challenges such as access to credit facilities, contacts, training and their problems are magnified due to lack of access to networking which can help them to compete with global businesses. “Yet, experience shows that when women have the opportunity to develop their businesses, countries (in which they live) can benefit tremendously,” she opined.

On the occasion, the Best Business Plan award along with cash prizes was also given to the winners. Since it was the Di-centenary year of MIM, the services of the staff who had been with the faculty for over 10 years were appreciated by giving themn certificates of appreciation. Pallavi Upadhyaya, faculty MIM proposed the vote of thanks. A special reference was made to the major sponsors of the event namely Syndicate Bank and NABARD.