Minister for Industries and Commerce, Chander Parkash Ganga today said the government has taken various path-breaking initiatives to empower women and provide them with opportunities in business sector for leading self-dependent life. He further said mentoring and nurturing is needed to encourage women to be successful entrepreneurs to contribute in the economic growth of the state. The Minister said this while inaugurating the Centre for Women Entrepreneurship and kick starting three-week long Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP) for women being organized by JKEDI under Himayat Self Employment Scheme at Exhibition Ground. The Centre for Women Entrepreneurship, which is first of its kind in the state, will advance gender equality in business and provide training, support and mentorship for women entrepreneurs.While addressing the gathering, the Minister said the Centre has enormous potential for helping women in overcoming some of the barriers that they encounter and develop initiatives to increase opportunities for aspiring entrepreneurs to start their own businesses. He further said the Women Centre will maximize public-private partnerships to increase women’s participation in the economy and implement community-based programmes to spur economic growth and innovation. Its opening is an opportunity to support not only new women entrepreneurs but also diverse ideas and perspectives, he added.
The government has also formulated various training and development cum employment generation programmes for women to start their ventures and also introduced various schemes for promoting women entrepreneurship. In EDP, more than 40 women are participating in the programme and those who will complete the training successfully will be certified to start their units in retail, services, manufacturing and agro-allied sectors. The trained candidates shall be provided financial linkages under the Term Loan Scheme of the National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation (NMDFC). Pertinent to mention that the Centre has been opened on instructions of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti who has laid special focus on creating a conducive entrepreneurial environment for women in the State. Among others, Director JKEDI, M.I. Parray, Director Handloom, Rajesh Sharma, Director Industries and Commerce, R.S Tara, Managing Directors, JKSIDCO and JKSICOP, R.L Tickoo and Soujanya Sharma, Chief Programme officer JKEDI, Majid Manzoor Khan, Programme officers besides senior officers of various departments were present on the occasion.