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by Rajen Kumar
No Escaping Social Media
Running a magazine concentrating on issues of small and medium enterprises and managing with limited resources is a like living life on the edge. In this rush of meeting deadlines,...
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Apr 2012EMRC, Brussels Associates with SME WORLD as its New Media Partner
EMRC has promoted business partnerships with the developing world and has organised dozens of business forums in key decision-making cities, such as Amsterdam, Rome,...
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Women Entrepreneurs of the North-East -Experience Makes Them Learn
Sanjana Jog
Jul 2009
Jul 2009
Page 1 of 2
Their basic aim is to develop self employment through entrepreneurship, and to give guidance and support to the budding entrepreneur on an ongoing basis, till such time that she/he feels confident about working on their own. The institute also mentors established entrepreneurs, giving them access to an extensive library in the premises and tendering any other kind of help required.
I had the opportunity to meet a successful woman entrepreneur, Smt. Binapani Talukdar, who along with Smt. Renu Chowdhury and Smt. Chandrapava Talukdar has set up the All Assam Women Welfare Society, in October 2000. The society has a vocational training centre at Ganeshguri Chariali near Guwahati for training women in the manufacture of different kinds of decorative items made out of dry flowers and foliage, baskets, soft toys etc. The Society also helps their trainees to obtain raw material and gives them assistance in marketing their goods at Trade Fairs and National Expos.
Smt. Binapani is the owner of M/S 'Pansy', which is a SSI unit registered under the Directorate of Industries and Commerce at Guwahati since 1998. She manufactures various items like bags, jackets, file covers, ties etc from Eri, Muga and Pat silks, which she exports to Milan in Italy, Brazil and South Africa.
On speaking to Ms. Binapani I discovered that she started this venture on a very small scale by making decorative items of bamboo embellished with dry flowers and foliage. She began this business because of financial hardship at home and had very little seed money to work with.
After a few years of struggle she decided to get trained in entrepreneurship from IIE Guwahati, after which she was able to take her business to a more productive level. IIE then helped her to get a 5 yr bank loan of Rupees 2, 60,000 which she was able to pay off in 3 years.
She attributes her present success to her own hard work, risk taking attitude, and all the help she has received from IIE, Guwahati in the past 9 years. Last year her turnover was of 2 Crores and this year she already has an order for articles made of Eri and Pat silks from 'Modadini' Johannesburg, which is worth Rupees 90 lakhs. In August she will be visiting Brazil to obtain more orders for her goods. She has been awarded Certificates of Merit by the Ministry of Small Scale Industry and IIE and has been invited to take part in the trade fairs in Sao Paulo, Colombo and Milan.
Smt. Binapani mentioned that initially she had a lot of problems because of not being able to speak English and so not being able to communicate with government officials abroad. Now she has learnt a smattering of Italian, Spanish and Portuguese and is quite fluent in English. Also, she did not have any knowledge about how to get an export license, vendor number or about vat or customs duty, and lost money because she had not factored in the Bank service charges and other hidden costs while quoting a price for her export articles.
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The Last Word
More Learned than Educated, You were!
I was speechless. Rather hesitatingly I asked him, “So, what have you decided, Sominder ?” His reply was curt and candid, “I have told the doctors that I don’t want to live life as dumb. Only...
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