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Our Correspondent
Kohima, Jan. 22 (EMN): Nagaland Chief Secretary Temjen Toy on Wednesday inaugurated the Nagaland edition of ‘Wing-Women Rise Together,’ a skill development programme for Naga women initiated by Startup India of the department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), in Kohima.
A two-day workshop on capacity building for Naga women organised by the department of Commerce and Industry and DPIIT is also underway.
Speaking with Eastern Mirror Toy said the world is fast-changing and ‘if we do not keep up with the changes then soon we will become irrelevant.’
“Government of India has the most number of programmes and schemes starting from livelihood, health, education and we need to avail of such opportunity,” the government servant said. He lauded the Industry department ‘for doing well’ and said that the workshop would give a boost to entrepreneurs.
“When we look at this entrepreneurship, the percentage of women entrepreneurs is comparatively less so, with that in mind, to boost the number of women entrepreneurs, this workshop has been organised,” Toy said.
He claimed that Naga women are ‘more daring and bigger risk-takers.’ Therefore he is sure that there are lots of entrepreneurs from among the participants “who are just waiting to come out of their shell.”
“All that they require is a little bit of mentoring and exposure and this is what the workshop aims at,” he added.
The official also hoped that the workshop would ignite a lot of minds especially among the women to take up entrepreneurship “instead of joining the masses in going after unproductive government jobs.”
“We are doing quite well and a lot of interest has been generated from our Naga youths and not only that a lot of interest has been generated for Nagaland,” he said.
“The government of Nagaland in their own way is trying to facilitate as much as possible but the bottom line is people cannot be given readymade,” he said adding that ‘our people need to avail of such opportunity.’
The chief secretary also urged the people to take advantage of social networking platforms on the internet through which ‘we have equal access to, unlike the olden times when there was a famine of information.’ It may sound a cliché but ‘hard work and perseverance’ are very much relevant till today, he said.
The commissioner-secretary for the department of Industries and Commerce, Lithrongla Chishi, also informed this newspaper that as of yesterday ‘we have 19 innovators who have registered in the startup portal.’
She expressed gratitude to the government for promptly supporting the department with funds. “The government has sanctioned INR 1.50 crore last year and with that, we are able to do all these,” she said.
‘I am sure the desire of the government is that we have to build up entrepreneurship to make the people go forward and we hope that this workshop will really motivate the women, and give them the confidence that they can take it up,’ she commented.
In her opening remark, Chishi said the workshop is an opportunity for entrepreneurs who have chosen to pursue their passion. She noted that through these workshops, entrepreneurs among the womenfolk would take a leap forward and achieve great success.
The highlights of the programme included basics and advanced workshop sessions stressing on legal issues and compliance, speed mentoring with legal and compliance experts, patent protection, financial management and marketing strategies.
Inputs from the DIPR