It is remarkable that the state of Gujarat presents countless opportunities for entrepreneurship. Presumably, this is the result of the strain of ‘entrepreneurship’ ingrained in the culture and tradition of Gujarat.
Quite significantly, to succeed in business has always been in the DNA of Gujarati women since early times. The track record shows that they instinctively know how to grow businesses and thus, ensure prosperity for all the stakeholders involved. This has been amply visible when tracking the way the tribe of women entrepreneurs have grown in Gujarat.
Meet some prominent women entrepreneurs from Gujarat.
> Priti Patel, Chairperson, Raspian Enterprises Pvt. Ltd, Rajkot
Priti Patel is the Chairperson and Managing Director of a women-centric defence manufacturing company – Raspian Enterprises Pvt Ltd. It caters to the Indian and Global defence requirements which are unrivalled in reliability, quality and cost efficiency.
The company was established to manufacture state-of-the-art Small Arms Weapon Systems and Security & Defence Products. She heads a team of experts who work on continuous R&D for product improvements, and is mainly focused on indigenization of latest technologies. Her vision is that women of India should participate actively in the Defence and the Security sector. The contribution of Raspian Enterprises is substantial to make India a self-reliant country in arms and armament for women.
> Trupti Jain, Founder Director, Naireeta Services Pvt. Ltd, Ahmedabad
Trupti Jain has a prominent background of working with non-profits, institutions promoted by the State Government (Education Department, Women & Child Development, Urban Development and Rural Department). Her social enterprise Naireeta Services Pvt. Ltd. (NSPL) works in a niche area by creating gender-centric climate change mitigating processes for inclusive development of urban and rural poor women.
NSPL is promoting ‘Bhungroo’, a world bank awarded water irrigation technology. She is pursuing many noteworthy initiatives like – Zero Hunger, No Poverty, Gender Equality and Climate Action through Women Climate Leaders for ultra-poor women smallholders across India, Southeast Asia, East Asia and Africa.
> Geeta Solanki, Founder, Unipads India Pvt. Ltd, Ahmedabad
Social entrepreneur and Founder Geeta Solanki set up Unipads – a social business established with a vision to provide affordable and hygienic menstrual health solutions to women. Unipads engages them in manufacturing cost-effective reusable/washable cloth sanitary pads; and these are made available in remote areas. The way these products are manufactured allows them to reduce the costs by almost 50% over standard disposable pads with its lifecycle of 1 year. Direct customer availability is organised by empanelling Women Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLE) known as ‘Kalyanis’. Currently they work with 96+ Kalyanis across their network.
Unipads ensures women have access to affordable and hygienic menstrual products. At the same time, they provide livelihoods by engaging women entrepreneurs.
> Dr.Hina Shah, Founder-Director, International Centre for Entrepreneurship and Career Development (ICECD), Ahmedabad
Believing that economic empowerment is a powerful tool, Hina Shah began working on this idea in 1983, very consciously aware of how sociocultural, political, physical and religious fields have a direct impact on the lives of women. The first programme, termed as Entrepreneurship
Development programme for women, started with only 25 women of Gujarat (and their businesses are still doing well).
This clearly demonstrated the sustainability of the development approach for achieving women’s economic empowerment. In 1986, she also started The International Centre for Entrepreneurship and Career Development (ICECD). Hina’s non-stop efforts to change the lives of the deprived, dependent women of rural and tribal India has created a significant impact. The women definitely improved their status which was clearly visible. As soon as they began their small businesses, they started earning, and making profits for a sustainable and independent living. Hina Shah considers this as a major tribute to the humanity, as strives to do much more.
ICECD is building an “Entrepreneurial Society”, by facilitating access / control of women on productive resources, leading to social and economic empowerment.
> Puunam G Kaushik, Founder & Managing Director Meteoric Biopharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd, Ahmedabad
Puunam G Kaushik is Founder & Managing Director of Meteoric Biopharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd, which is a leading, integrated and well-diversified Biotech Company. She works towards pursuing an ambitious goal of introducing specialized biopharmaceutical products & biotech solutions – to meet the demands of a quality-conscious market. They continuously work towards introducing novel ingredients and formulations in the Biopharmaceuticals market by innovative research techniques, along with the finest service & quality standards, backed by strong technical support.
Meteoric Biopharmaceuticals is creating waves with its strong commitment to quality & novel
technical support.
Source:
https://pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1808758
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