03 Mar 2016|Noida | Amity Campus, Sector-125, Noida
Amity University joins hands with FICCI FLO to promote Women Empowerment and Women Entrepreneurship in the country
Taking a step further towardspromoting gender equality, Amity University Uttar Pradesh signed a MoU with FICCILadies Organization (FLO) at Amity Campus, Sector-125, Noida topromote Women Empowerment and Women Entrepreneurship in the countrythrough Project “SWAYAM”, (an initiative of FICCI FLO).
Ms. Pooja Chauhan- Vice Chairperson,Amity Humanity Foundation (AHF) and Ms. Archana Garollia Gupta, FICCI FLO,Chairpersonsigned the MoU in the presence of Ms. Divya Chauhan, Chairperson,Amity School of Fine Arts (ASFA), Amity School of Fashion Technology (ASFT),Amity School of Performing Arts (ASPA); Dr. W. Selvamurthy, President, AmityScience Innovation and Technology Foundation; Dr. (Mrs.) B Shukla- ViceChancellor, Amity University; Ms Sanyukta Samaddar, IAS , Director HeavyIndustries and Dr. R.K. Panigrahi, Director MSME.
Through MoU, Amity students will getan opportunity to be enrolled in SWAYAM and Amity will provide technicalexperience to the women members enrolled under SWAYAM.
“Swayam” aims at supporting aspiringand existing women entrepreneurs thus, acting as a facilitation platform,connecting women entrepreneurs to people who can guide, mentor and assist themin taking their businesses to the next level.
During the occasion, Department of Science andTechnology, Govt. of India sponsored “Women Entrepreneurship DevelopmentProgramme (WEDP)” was launched at Amity which is a 6 week Training,Mentoring and Grooming Programmes for aspiring women entrepreneurs by helpingthem to present their ideas to Venture Capitalists.
Addressing the gathering, Ms. Archana Garollia Gupta,Chairperson, FICCI FLO briefed the audience that FLO was established in1983, as a division of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce andIndustry (FICCI) and apprised that today it is one of the most prestigiouspan-India business organizations with 13 chapters and over 5000 members acrossIndia, committed to work towards women empowerment. She remarked that womenface lot of hurdles in becoming entrepreneurs, ranging from lack of adequatefamily support to Bank Funding. She averred that FICCI FLO, through itsprogramme SWAYAM, helps in promoting and expanding the ventures of womenand invited Amity students to volunteer and mentor women artisans enrolledunder SWAYAM to sell their products online.
Dr. R.K. Panigrahi, Director MSME, sharing his views, stressed that women are bornentrepreneurs and need little more support to do away with gender bias and makebig in the entrepreneurship spaces. He outlined various Programmes initiated byGovernment of India to support the cause of women empowerment.
During theoccasion, Amity Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (ACED)organised a Panel Discussion on the theme “Gender Bias inEntrepreneurial Spaces” during which Ms. Aneesha Singh from Mydala.com(E Commerce), Ms. Anuj Gupta, Apartment 9 and Ms. Pooja Chauhan- ViceChairperson, Amity Humanity Foundation (AHF) and Ms. Archana GarolliaGupta, Chairperson, FICCI FLO shared their views. Ms. Fatima Karan fromBloomberg T.V moderated the discussion.
Ms.Aneesha outlinedthat there is a difference between the thought process of men and women sincewomen tend to over think and doubt themselves and externally, they face problemsrelated to funding, finding suitable co-founders and are hesitant about makingprojections.
Ms. PoojaChauhan outlinedthat at Amity University Leadership and Entrepreneurship have been made anintegral part of all the programmes providing adequate mentoring and support toall its students. She shared that Amity Innovation Incubator has beensupporting good and viable business propositions, thus acting as a launch padfor their entrepreneurial dreams.
Ms.Archana Garollia Gupta, Chairperson, FICCI FLO said that less than 10% of MicroSmall and Medium Enterprises (MSME) are run by women and they account for 3% ofoutput, therefore there is lot of scope for women provided they get adequatesupporting entrepreneurial environment.