FICCI Tamil Nadu State Council organized a Seminar on Taking Wings: Women’s Employment, Entrepreneurship and Empowerment on 11th April 2019. 

The objective of this seminar is to deliberate further on having more women in work force, whether in jobs or as Entrepreneurs. 

Women represent half of the world’s population and therefore half of its potential too. However, according to the global gender report 2015, India ranked 136 among 144 countries on the economic participation and opportunities index. China and the US have more than 65 percent and 56 percent respectively of their women population working, even subcontinent neighbors, Nepal and Bangladesh are ahead of India. 

Lack of support, access to finance, lack of entrepreneurial education and lack of required skills are some of the reasons, due to which Indian women are unable to formally join the works force or start her own business. However, despite these challenges, the recent trends show an increasing interest in taking up the entrepreneurship as a viable livelihood option. Women are being presented with opportunities both at work and businesses, which offer greater work life balance and more such initiatives with the help of private sector participation are required to promote Women entrepreneurship. 

On the occasion, Amway launched a compendium on ‘Taking Wings: Chronicling the journey of Indian Women Entrepreneurs’. The compendium provides a riveting compilation of journeys of Indian women entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds with the objective of recognizing micro-entrepreneurship through a range of articles and interviews with prominent thought leaders in this space. It also highlights the challenges that deter women from self-reliant entrepreneurship, identifies the opportunities that make women take the plunge, and offers significant insights for policy and decision making at a macro level to tap the entrepreneurial potential of women in the country. 

During his special address, Mr. Rajat Banerji, National Head – Corporate Affairs, Amway India said, “Women play an intrinsic role in strengthening the socio-economic landscape, and entrepreneurship is a route that has witnessed tremendous adoption among India’s women. We, at Amway India, are proud to have successfully skilled and empowered more than 550,000 distributors in India. The fact that almost 60% of Amway direct sellers are women is a testimony to our commitment and our contribution towards women entrepreneurship. In recent years, India has witnessed a robust economic growth driven by market focused economic reforms favouring entrepreneurship. We believe that fostering an environment of growth and creating viable opportunities for women will not only empower them to realize their full potential but also strengthen the society and economy, overall. With this compendium we are aiming to engage, inspire and encourage current and future women entrepreneurs from all over India by presenting the journeys of women who took the plunge” 

A panel discussion on “Taking wings: Learning from the Journey of successful Women Entrepreneurs” was moderated by Ms. Vidhya Gajapathi Raj Singh, Partner, Sumyog Wedding Planners and the speakers were Ms. Rekha Rangaraj, Partner, Sumyog Wedding Planners, Ms. Jayadevi Pradeep, Director of Research & Development, Cholayil Pvt Limited, Dr. Priya Ravi, Amway Business Owner, Ms. Gunit Singla, Chief Operating Officer, Uncle Sam's kitchen. 

The Second Panel Discussion was on “Addressing the huge problem of Attrition in Work force; How to re-employ women who have taken a break in career” which was moderated by Dr. Jayakumar, Head HR, L&T Limited, and the speakers were Ms. Malini Saravanan, DGM HR, The New Indian Express, 

Mr. Karthik Ekambaram, Senior Vice President – Consulting Services, AVTAR, Ms. Rajalakshmi Subramanian , Executive Director, CareerTree HR Solutions Pvt Ltd, Mr. Vasanthakumar, Director, Prometo Consulting Pvt Ltd.