The Karnataka government on 18th November announced the setting up of four industrial parks in the state that will be dedicated to women in Mysuru, Dharwad, Harohalli, and Kalaburagi, to encourage women, entrepreneurs. The minister of large and medium industries of the state government Murugesh Nirani. This will be the first of its kind exclusive park in the country.
As per a statement released by the ministry, Nirani had said that women should collaborate with the government for driving up industrial growth by taking to entrepreneurship and providing jobs while encouraging women to take advantage of such initiatives and share their unique ideas with the world while quoting examples of Sudha Murthy and Kiran Shaw of Infosys and Biocon.
The announcements were made at an event titled ‘Together We Grow’ organized by UBUNTU Consortium of Women Entrepreneurs Associations on the occasion of International Women Entrepreneurship Day in Bengaluru. He also spoke on how India presently has 13 – 15 million women-led enterprises that constitute 20% of all current enterprises.
The minister also commented on the recent amendments to the Factories act 1948 that has provided additional incentives to women from SC/ST communities and now allowed women to work night shifts. “Accelerating quantity and quality of entrepreneurship towards such benchmarks will produce over 30 million women-owned enterprises, and this is not an impossible goal,” he said. The consortium currently has over thirty women-owned enterprises associated and some 1,500 members who are working for empowering businesswomen of India.