‘Kerala Can Be A Role Model For Women Entrepreneurship'

The stellar line-up of speakers at the event discussed the various interesting aspects of how to better women entrepreneurship in the country

Former Union Telecom Secre-tary Aruna Sundararajan IAS (Retd.) stressed the need for having a new definition for entrepreneurship to suit India's social conditions. She was addressing women entrepreneurs in Kochi after inaugurating ‘Women in Business’ summit jointly organised by TiE Kerala and Women Entrepreneurs Network (WEN), a forum of women entrepreneurs in Kerala.

“The definition for entrepreneurship we borrowed from Silicon Valley with the standard paradigm focusing on attracting capital, growth rate, scaling up etc. has only limited relevance in our society. Only a few will be able to achieve that. We need new definition for entrepreneurship to suit our social system,” she said.

Aruna, adding further, said: “The large paradigm we ought to be looking at should be about small but sustainable enterprises that can be led by women.”

Commenting on various issues faced by women due to genderbased discrimination, Aruna said she felt the society has become smarter over the years in masking gender discrimination.

Women in Business, the State conference held to motivate and strengthen women entrepreneurs and professionals, became a gamechanger, redefining the concepts and road maps to successful entrepreneurship models for women.

M S A Kumar, President, TiE Kerala and Chief Catalyst, Catalyst360 presided over the inaugural function in which George Thomas, Executive Vice President, ESAF Small Finance Bank; Sheela Kochouseph, Chairperson, Women Entrepreneurs Network (WEN) Kerala Chapter and MD, V-Star Creations and Maria Abraham, Director & Executive Editor, Dhanam Group also attended.