IMPHAL, May 28: The national seminar on “Entrepreneurship Development in North East India with Special Reference to Women Entrepreneurs of Manipur: Problems and Prospects” begins today at Economics Lecture Hall, Manipur University.
The inauguration function was attended by Prof HNK Sarma, vice-chancellor, MU, Prof Amar Yumnam, dean, School of Social Sceinces, MU, Dr DD Mali, former director, Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship, Guwahati and Prof SS Khanka, professor of HRM, National Institute of Financial Management Ministry of Finance, Government of India, Faridabad, Haryana as the chief guest, president, guest of honour and keynote speaker respectively.
Addressing the keynote Prof SS Khanka explains the theme of his “Key Note Address” divided into two parts; “Why to develop women entrepreneurship” and “How to develop women entrepreneurship”.
Speaking on the first part, why to develop women entrepreneurship, he said that women constitute around half of the total world population. So is in India also. Therefore, while discussing entrepreneurship development, one cannot miss to mention development of women entrepreneurship in the country.
He also cited the views of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru relevance of developing women in our society: “When women move forward, the family moves, the villages moves and the nation moves”.
Speaking on the second part, how to develop women entrepreneurship, he said that the GOI has been assigning increasing importance to the development of women entrepreneurs in the country in recent years. At present, there are 27 schemes going on for development of women entrepreneurship in the country.
Creating “Mahila Vikas Nidhi” and “Rashtriya Mahila Kosh” are the two important provisions made by the government for smooth development of women entrepreneurship in the country.
He also explained the problems in developing women entrepreneurship and submitted a few suggestions to further improve women entrepreneurship in Manipur.
He suggested that, every region offers opportunities for establishing enterprises. Therefore, a perspicacious survey should be made to identify the opportunities available for developing enterprises in Manipur. He also reminded Thomas J Watson’s views about the availability of opportunities: “Opportunity never knocks on the door. You have to knock on the opportunity’s door and they are all around”.
Design and impart product and/or trade specific entrepreneurship development training to women. This is because the stereotype training program may not be suitable for the type of enterprises can be established in a state like Manipur characterized by its distinctive peculiarities.
Motivate women through proper education and training to become entrepreneurs in their careers. For this, imparting entrepreneurship education right from school level seems very much appropriate because the young minds are more susceptible to change.
Speaking during the function Prof Amar Yumnam said that during the last three/four years entrepreneurship studies has come to the core of economics studies, the step which has been taken by the commerce department today will be the milestone for taking ourselves to that level.