EDII felicitates Mentors and Women Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India [EDII] Ahmedabad organized a felicitation ceremony for mentors and women entrepreneurs who have laudable work to their credit in their field. EDII has been engaged in spreading entrepreneurship in rural areas through Accenture sponsored Micro Skillpreneurship Development Programme [MSDP].
So far, EDII has trained over 25,000 beneficiaries and created over 45,000 direct employment opportunities. These training programmes have been spread over 13 different states and various sectors such as handicrafts, agro –food processing, value addition to local grown products and eco –friendly products.
Shri Rakesh Sharma, President CEO & Managing Director and President particularly acknowledged the winners’ passion to make a mark. Shri Sharma encouraged them to leave their comfort zones and strive for bigger targets. Shri Sharma also complimented EDII for developing micro skillpreneurs in India. He said that this is the need-of-the-hour and that EDII is contributing in a big way to the nation’s development.
EDII honoured the Mentors with the SHRESTA UDYAMI GURU PURASKAR 2020. The winners included:
Ø Dr Saji Verghese: Innovator/English Professor who has been associated with EDII in training rural women in making straws from fallen coconut leaves
Ø Thirupuram Gopan: He gave a platform to showcase coir utility articles made by rural women in Kerala, in International Floriculture Trade Fair 2019 at Netherlands
Ø Mr Mahesh. D: An innovator, who has upcycled flowers from temples as raw material for making agarbattis and dhoop; also devised a new mould out of polypropylene for cost effectiveness
Ø Sister Archana Das: She has been relentlessly working for the upliftment of women from various parts of India
Dr. Sunil Shukla, Director General, EDII said that micro entrepreneurship has been one of the most trusted and tested solutions to break the cycle of poverty. He complimented the role of the mentors in the EDII journey of eco- friendly and sustainable projects for livelihood.
“The enterprises are creating new job opportunities in the local areas and are skilling more and more people, leading to overall economic development of the region. EDII has observed that one micro-enterprise will create three direct and five indirect job opportunities on an average. MSDP has thus resulted in creation of about 60,000 local direct employments through the enterprises,” opined Dr. Shukla.
The women, who under the guidance of EDII Mentors have done remarkably well in their enterprise, were also felicitated. They were honoured with the SHRESTA UDYAM ABHIGNA PURASKAR 2020. The winners included:
Ø Ms Shobha Rani: From a village Chikkamudavadi, this woman entrepreneur is working with 30 other women in making coconut leaf straws and the mid ribs are converted into brooms by the elderly women of the same village.
Ø Mrs Vijaya: Fighting against her physical disabilities, she has been engaged in making candles and supplying to churches and other outlets in Kanyakumari.
Ø Ms Ruksaar: She makes exquisite jewelry out of silk thread. Her bangles, necklaces and ear rings have won heart and are in great demand.
Ø Ms Vanishree Praveen: With a very humble beginning, she has come a long way and today her products –different chutney powders are on the shelf of Walmart Hyderabad and there is no stopping her now.
Dr. Raman Gujral, Professor & Head-Southern Region, EDII said, “MSDP is designed as a one-month training programme where the participants are provided training on entrepreneurship and on a skill which has economic viability. EDII helped them in acquiring technical support, quality management, packaging standards, licenses, certifications and registration, product testing and market linkages. This handholding gave confidence to the entrepreneurs during the initial stages of their entrepreneurial journey. Finally, they grew into sustainable enterprises and successful entrepreneurs.”