Noting that women is an incarnation of ‘Shakti- the Goddess of power’ as per Indian mythology, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said women empowerment was “vital to India’s development.”
Addressing the Global Entrepreneurs Summit (GES) 2017 in Hyderabad, after jointly inaugurating it with Ivanka Trump, PM Modi said the theme—“women first, prosperity for all” makes the edition of GSE stand out.
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“In Indian mythology, women is an incarnation of Shakti- the Goddess of power, we believe women empowerment is vital to our development,” Modi said.
“In India, we have constitutionally provided for not less than one third of women representation in rural and urban local bodies, ensuring women’s participation in grass-root level decision making,” he added.
The prime minister said women were at the forefront of cooperative movements in India and said that the Centre has launched ‘MUDRA’ scheme to provide easy finance of upto 1 billion rupees to entrepreneurs.
“Since its launch in 2015 over 90 million loans worth Rs. 4.28 trillion rupees have been sanctioned. Of these more than 70 million loans have been sanctioned to women entrepreneurs,” Modi said.
Modi further highlighted that the host city of Hyderabad was home to female sports stars like badminton champion PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwas and tennis star Sania Mirza.
“This very city of Hyderabad is home to the champions of the world – Sania Mirza, PV Sindhu and Sania Nehwal. These women have made India proud,” Modi said.
“Here at GES 2017 more than 50 per cent entrepreneurs are women,” he added.
In her speech, Ivanka lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “transformational change” from a tea seller to a national leader and said that India was an “inspiration” for the world.
Before inaugurating the summit, PM Modi held talks with Ivanka who is leading a delegation of senior Trump administration officials for the event.
