KTR Moderates Plenary On Second Day Of GES 2017

Telangana IT Minister K T Rama Rao moderated Wednesday's plenary session on Women Empowerment and Women Entrepreneurship at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit. Ivanka Trump, wife of former UK PM Tony Blair Cherie Blair, Dell Chief Customer Officer Karen Quintos and ICICI Bank CMD Chanda Kochhar were part of a panel discussion in the session.

Kicking off the session, the minister said that the state government was taking all the necessary steps to encourage entrepreneurship among women in a big way in Telangana. He informed the delegates that his government, with the cooperation of Cisco and Microsoft, was extending enormous assistance to women trying to start businesses or get into self-employment.

Participating in the following panel discussion that Rao moderated, Advisor to and daughter of US President Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump, said that governments must come forward with new policies that were conducive for entrepreneurship and encouraged women entrepreneurs. She also stressed that women should fully utilize the opportunities that came with the latest technologies.

"Women need to be self confident in order to move forward in a big way," Trump observed, and added that the US administration was providing the needed assistance to women entrepreneurs.

Also speaking on the occasion, ICICI Bank MD Chanda Kochhar said that work-from-home opportunities for women should be increased.

Pointing out that many women chose motherhood over their careers, Kochhar said that that would not be necessary if there were opportunities to work from home for women who also needed to raise young children. "There is a need to enable women to pursue their careers from home while looking after their children. Technological developments must be used for this purpose," she said.

Kochhar also said that ICICI Bank was striving to improve the skill sets of women, and stressed the need for setting up more training centres, especially in the rural areas, besides providing the required marketing facilities for rural products.

Speaking about the financial aspect of entrepreneurship, Cherie Blair said that women encountered several hurdles in setting up their businesses or ventures, particularly in securing the required finances. "Governments must come forward in framing policies to help them secure finances without hurdles," she said.