Tag: FICCI Ladies Organization

Business World

FLO’ Biz Talk 5th edition on ‘Business Opportunities in Millet Industry for women entrepreneurs’

Dec 12, 2020 by Neel Achary 0 Comments #Business Opportunities in Millets, #Director of Indian Institute of Millets Research, #Dr. Vilas A Tonapi, #FICCI Ladies Organization, #virtual Biz Talk, #women entrepreneurs

Hyderabad: FLO’s virtual Biz Talk, the first in the series on Business Opportunities in Millets for women entrepreneurs was held here in the city today. It was organised by FICCI Ladies Organization (FLO) pan India for the benefit of their members

Dr. Vilas A Tonapi, Director of Indian Institute of Millets Research (IIMR) and Dr. B DayakarRao, Principal Scientist & CEO – Nutrihub of Indian Institute of Millets Research addressed the session.

Welcoming the gathering Millet, UsharaniManne, Chairperson of FLO Hyderabad said Millets score highly over grains like wheat and rice in nutritional value earning them the status as “Nutri-cereals”. Millets offer so many benefits. With so many things going in its favour, the Millet Industry is the best bet for India to meet the rising demand for nutritious food.

Recognising which, FLO Hyderabad has entered into an MoU with IIMR – Indian Institute of Millet Research, to create a FLO Incubator at Nutrihub, IIMR whereby the two organisations will be working towards creating an appropriate platform for women entrepreneurs to garner the power to produce wealth by participating in the Millets industry, Usharani announced.

The mission, the FLO Chairperson said, is to provide opportunities to transform ideas into businesses, facilitate a nurturing, instructive, and supportive environment for entrepreneurs during the startup stage, and support them with an array of targeted resources and services. The incubator will also provide Technology consultancy, Business facilitation, Financial advisory,

Infrastructure support and facilitate interactions with experts, mentors, advisors, and investors. As an organisation that aims at assisting women in achieving financial freedom, FLO Hyderabad has been exploring several options that can be availed of by our members, she said.

For many years, India was the world’s major producer of millet. However, we changed our priorities somewhere along the journey. IIMR in its 60 years journey just focused on Sorghum for 53 years and in the last several years we are focusing on other millets such as Jowar, Bajra and Ragi, etc. Millets are good for health. They are nutrition-rich. We much encourage us to grow more and eat more. This food can be medicine for all especially we all are fighting lifestyle diseases. I am not asking you to bid goodbye to existing food but bring fusion into food plate. Take forward millets to every house. Adjust your food plate. This change can be the answer to all your lifestyle diseases, he said.

We have Nutrihub to support entrepreneurs who want to enter into Millets Business. NutriHub is the Central government’s Department of Science & Technology (DST) supported Technology Business Incubator hosted by the Indian Institute of Millet Research, ICAR – IIMR, Hyderabad. … It has been helping many startups in technical and product development support, technology transfer and cross-learning for women entrepreneurs, Dr. Vilas A. Tonapi said. We look forward to partner to aid women entrepreneurs in agribusiness, he said.

Dr. DayakarRao also presented a walkthrough about ‘Millets Value Chain’.Millets are also known as smart foods. They are good for the Planet as they grow in harsh climatic conditions, need less water and drought resistant. They are also good for farmers as they are short-duration crops and can fetch good income.

Technologies for puffing, flaking, baking, cold extrusion etc are developed for millet-based products to commercialise and package these products. Millet Pasta, Vermicelli, millet Upma, millet sambar mix, such ready to cook products are developed. IIMR developed over 85 millet based recipes that come under different categories like breakfast, lunch, sweets, savouries to include in our daily diet. We have built Eatrite, a brand laboriously built and marketed, solely for popularising millets as a healthy food option, he shared. Now we have created 400 plus brands in just four years, he said.

He listed out Farm Gate Aggregation and Procurement; Machinery Fabrication, Value-added products (such as ready to eat, ready to cook, beverages, plant-based, fortified and nutraceuticals), etc.

Nutrihub incubation provides Technology Consultancy, Identification of suitable products, Mentoring, Nurturing Innovation, Feasibility studies, infrastructure, and other facilities. All these efforts lead to more than Rs 500crore in business with more than 400 startups engaged. We have been successful in creating demand for sorghum through diversification in sorghum/millet food processing technologies and their commercialisation, informed DayakarRao.

Nutrihub’ is the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Govt. of India supported Technology Business Incubator hosted by the Indian Institute of Millet Research, ICAR – IIMR, Hyderabad. It is a unique and first of its kind to cater start-ups needs in the Nutricereals sector in the country, Dr Rao informed. It’s vision Rao said is to Commercialise innovations and startups in Nutricereals Industry with best in the class support system for entrepreneurs.”

It incubated 15 startups, commercialised 44 technologies, 68 technologies were transferred to entrepreneurs and industries. It has 60 millets product technologies available for commercialisation.

SarithaChilakapati, EC Member, Incubation Committee facilitated the talk.

Business World

Promote Handloom School Uniforms: Gaurang Shah, Fashion Designer and Textile Revivalist urges the Union and State Governments in a FLO virtual event held in the city today in commemoration of National Handloom Day

Aug 15, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #Chairperson of FLO Hyderabad, #Fashion Designer, #FICCI Ladies Organization, #Gaurang Shah, #Handloom School Uniforms, #Ms. Madhu Sood, #Textile Revivalist

‘Why not promote Handloom School Uniforms to help weavers?’ asks Gaurang Shah, Fashion Designer and Textile Revivalist while participating in a conversation, ‘The Handmade Life—Survival and Revival of Indian Handlooms” organised by FICCI Ladies Organisation(FLO), Hyderabad Chapter in commemoration of National Handloom Day that was celebrated Indiawide recently.

Mr. Gaurang Shah was in virtual conversation on Friday evening with Ms. Madhu Sood, Consultant—Indian Textiles, Design Innovation, Curator, Textile Researcher.

Gaurang urged the Union Textile Ministry as well all the State Governments to consider introducing Handloom School Uniforms. Handlooms are any time better than Polyester and Terrycot Shirts. The fabric is easily washable and available abundantly. And every State has a varied range of weaves and textiles suited to the climate of the region, he elaborated.

We can even extend it for Uniforms to employees working in both Government and Private sectors. The fabric breathes well, lasts long, Gaurang Shah added.

Gaurang shared his journey, his early childhood passion for Indian Sarees. He also explained about his ambitious Raja Ravi Varma project. It was an attempt to show the world the capabilities of Indian Weavers, he added.

Speaking further, Gaurang said that the Saree is a beautiful garment. ‘Why copy the West when we have a wonderful fabric like Handloom?’ he asked? People in the West are very good at marketing, which we lack in India. It is negligible here.

I take inspiration from anything that I do in my day to day life. I feel very strongly that we need to create something new every day, he revealed, when asked about his design inspiration.

Giving her opening remarks, Ms. Madhu Sood, the moderator of the conversation gave an elaborate history of Indian Traditional Handlooms. The Indian Traditional Handlooms are probably the oldest textiles in the world, she observed. It keeps us cool in summer and warm in winter. Indians knew the art of weaving even 5000 years ago, she stated, as she narrated the historical heritage of our Handlooms. The world learnt the art of weaving and dyeing from us. India has over 43 lakh weavers. But, they are living in poor conditions. We will have to change this, she said.

She explained why handlooms seem expensive. They are expensive because of the procedures involved – dyeing, spinning, quality of yarn and the time consumed in producing the fabric. All these together make it a little expensive but given the feel, comfort, look and its power to empower, it is hardly expensive, she explained.

Earlier, giving her welcome address, Ms. Usharani Manne, Chairperson of FLO Hyderabad said that Indian handlooms are much more than just textiles. They are a representation of our unique cultural heritage. They hold a mirror to our social ethos. The spinning wheel was a touchstone of the Indian independence movement and became an indelible image of the peace-loving peoples of India. And the loom…it is an enduring symbol of our strive for self-reliance.

Speaking further Usharani added, despite the onslaught of automated machines, handlooms and handicrafts continue to represent India’s soft power. As the second-largest source of employment generation after agriculture. It is all the more relevant to us at FICCI Ladies Organization, that 70% of the workforce in this sector is made up of women!

Chintakindi Mallesham, the recipient of Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award of India for his invention, Laxmi Asu machine that reduced the efforts required by weavers in Pochampally, shared details about the struggle of weavers, his mother and what prompted him to invent the Machine that took him 7 long years to create.

The spinning which took five hours now takes one and half hour and supports more looms. It reduces effort, improves efficiency and productivity, because of which the youth are getting back into their age-old profession — weaving. Asu Machine that helped reduce time, helped many young girls to pursue studies, he shared.

Master Weavers Mamatha Reddy and Rajesh Kishore shared their insights into the industry. Mamatha, a mathematics graduate turned Kalamkari revivalist, shared that she started her journey by the trial and error method. She has been working for the revival of Kalamkari Art which is dying. I started with cushion covers, dupattas and migrated to sarees she shared.

When you buy a Kalamkari saree, you are not buying a piece of fabric but you are buying a piece of art she said. She explained the differentiating factors in identifying authentic kalamkari from the screen-printed version.

Ms. Priya Gazdar, Hon. Secretary and Ms. Uma Chigurupati, Sr. Vice Chairperson, Past Chairs and Members from different FLO Chapters from across India participated.