Celebrating Women Power

WePower, a Celebration of Womanhood based on the theme Empowered Women lead India to Prosperitytargeting at Women Academia and Entrepreneurs was organized by Dr. M.G.R. Educational and Research Institute in association with SIAWED-Southern Industrial Academy for Women Entrepreneurs Development, a women empowering organization, on March 3-4^th 2017.  The event started with an intercollegiate events such as an Ideathon, fun games and Hands-on experiential learning on being an Entrepreneur on 3^rd March and the best teams were awarded with prizes and certificates.Dr. Rama Vaidyanathan, Director of Dr.APJ. Abdul Kalam Center of Excellence in Innovation and Entrepreneurship of the University gave the welcome address stressing the need for an active interaction Academia and Industry.  Ms T. Vanadhi Devi, President of SIAWED welcomed the gathering and briefed on SIAWED and its activities.

Inauguration

During the inauguration on March 3^rd 2017, Dr. N. Parasuraman, Principal Scientist, Dr. M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, spoke about the significance of Gender equity for the Society.  Gender equity focuses on allocating resources, programs and decision-making fairly to both males and females.  Every Institution must have an internal mission to encourage, maintain and develop gender perspectives in all the activities and programmes undertaken. Mrs. Banu Murugan, Director Accesteq shared her entrepreneurial journey from a PCB job worker with negligible financial resources to an Embedded Systems manufacturer of repute.  Her company now supplies to ATM rooms, security systems, access controls and Process controls for various industries.  She has recently written a book, “Overnight Entrepreneurs” which is available in Amazon. 

Opportunities for Women Entrepreneurs

The next day, eminent resource persons from various fields shared the opportunities and facilities available for women business aspirants and entrepreneurs.  Dr Srimathy Kesan, Founder and CEO of SPACE KIDZ inaugurated the session and emphasized the point that everyone of us have born with a purpose  in life and she narrated her personal life experiences in choosing an out of the box business idea and excelling in it. Ms Madhu Saran, United Nations Ambassador for women entrepreneurs Global shared how she can support funding requirements of women entrepreneurs. Dr Deepa Mala, Head – Development Initiatives of CII presented central Government schemes benefitting women especially in pharma industry  and how the marginalized women get benefitted through organizations like SIAWED in reaching out to the benefits  offered by Government and Corporates. Dr Sudha Nair, CEO of Golden Jubilee Bio Technology Park explained the emerging opportunities in bio technology field. Dr Daniel Chellappa, Senior Scientist of Baba Atomic centre (BARC ) shared the offerings of BARC technology in addressing  everyday problems in various sectors such as healthcare, farming, consumables etc.,

Akruti is a Societal Program offered by the Dept. of Atomic Energy.  The spin off technologies in the area of water, agriculture, food processing and agri-land improvement through urban and rural waste management are available for commercial use in the rural sector.  Know-how is offered on non-exclusive basis in the form of technology document containing detailed drawings, fabrication, assembly and testing procedures as applicable to technologies covered in AKRUTI Tech Pack.  Some of the technologies offered include a Soil Organic Carbon Detection and Testing kit, Vibro Thermal Disinfesot, a foldable pericarp solar dryer, a process for retaining the pericarp color and shelflife of Litchi fruit, to name a few.  These offer exciting entrepreneurial opportunities for women.

The next session was for business presentations suitable for women such as online delivery of home cooked food, organic terrace gardening for healthy living by Mr Sundaram of Foodo and Mr Senthil of Green commune respectively. Ms Vineela, CEO of Tech scribes shared her valuable insight on how marginalized girls are offered an excellent livelihood with her free training on computer skills and with suitable projects to execute. All these projects are jointly to be executed by SIAWED for the benefit of aspiring women in business.

During the Valedictory session, Mr. C.K. Mohan, General Secretary of TANSTIA spoke about the efforts made by the Tamil Nadu government to promote women empowerment and entrepreneurship. They offer Entrepreneur counseling service, Sub Contracting Exchange, Entrepreneur Development Programme, Organising Seminars, Workshops to promote the marketing opportunities for small scale industries.  Mrs. N.Alamelu, Proprieter ANSI Technologies and Mrs. Kalpalatha Mohan shared their experience and adviced the aspiring entrepreneurs.  Mrs. Kalpalatha discussed the Consumer Awareness Events organized by Dinamalar which act as a forum to introduce new products to the customers.  These would be excellent showcasing opportunities for entrepreneurs.

Prizes and certificates were distributed to the students who excelled in the competitions.  The prizes were sponsored by M/s Cocochil, a product based on Tender coconut. Around 200 students participated in these events.   RJ Karun of Big FM gave a short entertainment which was thoroughly enjoyed by all. The students of MGR University entertained the audience with their cultural programs.

Spirit of SIAWED Awards

SIAWED honoured the budding women entrepreneurs with awards and certificates and also recognized the efforts of the team members by awarding them “Spirit of SIAWED” award. SIAWED helps the women community and aspiring students with mentoring support to realize their entrepreneurial dreams and assist them in funding and other related requirements. Business aspirants, Small and medium business women can immensely be benefitted with the support eco system offered by SIAWED in creating bulk business opportunities and marketing support through their networking with corporate sector. With their partnership with several Indian and International agencies, they offer a strong resource network to reach their objective of economic empowerment of women.

The day ended with Vote of Thanks by Ms Suganyasri Venkatesh, an upcoming entrepreneur and Founder CEO of BG Future School, a chain of Preschools having more than 3 branches in Chennai. The delegates who attended the event have expressed their heartfelt gratitude for organizing such an inspiring event and resolved to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams with the support of SIAWED.

Some of the sponsors for the event include Kamadhenu Jewellery, SBI Life Insurance, Urbanclap, only4rental and Annam Dhal.  The event came to a close with the singing of our National Anthem.