Hyderabad: IndiaMART, India’s largest online marketplace connecting buyers and suppliers organized a high-impact immersive discussion forum for the SMEs, IndiaMART Emerging Business Forum, (in association with ZEE Business) at The Park, Hyderabad on June 20, 2015. The highly acclaimed forum under the key theme, ‘Make In India – Unleashing the SME potential’ has been widely traversing through the length and breadth of the country.

At Hyderabad, the riveting discussion pivoted on ‘Empowering Women – Fostering Entrepreneurship’. It showcased the new entrepreneurial opportunities coming up for women, particularly in the SMB space.

The Hyderabad chapter of the 5th edition of IndiaMART Emerging Business Forum was preceded by the success of the event in Faridabad, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Kolkata and Jaipur.

According to Sumit Bedi, Vice President – Marketing, IndiaMART, “Today, Hyderabad boasts of nearly one in every six start-ups having a female co-founder when there were hardly any women leading the way a few years back. The business environment for women entrepreneurs is changing and there is scope of substantial evolvement. This forum will predominantly intensify the discourse of women empowerment in a broader picture. The need of the hour is to create a more enabling ecosystem with concerted efforts and policies by government and industry bodies to help women entrepreneurs partake directly in the economy of the country and setup their ventures. High time to augment specific skill based training and education with special emphasis on latest technology adaptations for excellent results. They should not be lagging behind because of inappropriate financial support from bankers.”

“IndiaMART’s Emerging Business Forum is committed towards empowering woman and helping them in whatever way possible, so that they can realize their dreams to be successful entrepreneurs of tomorrow,” said Sumit.

The event witnessed some of the most prominent leaders on the panel with enriching thoughts and ideas culminating into an enlightening discussion on the entire women entrepreneurship subject:- challenges, measures to improve the condition, expectations from government and so on.  Some of them are:-  Meghana Musunuri (Founder & Chairperson of Fountainhead Global School, Creator My Edu Guru and NGO, SWAN), Rama Devi (President, Association of Lady Entrepreneurs of Andhra Pradesh (ALEAP), Chairperson: Center for Entrepreneurship Development and Veena Reddy (Chairperson of Young COWE).

The event was also graced by the presence of Jayesh Ranjan (Secretary Information Technology, Govt. of Telangana), who presented some in depth insights and wisdom on the promising impact of entrepreneurship towards women economic empowerment and global economic development in his special address at the forum.

The symposium will now progress towards other Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities including Ludhiana, Surat, Vadodara, Bengaluru, Indore, and Pune. It is deemed to unfold a series of profound discussions along with various influential industry experts on important topics related to the growth and development of SMEs in the country. The grand finale would be conducted in Delhi in the month of October.