In order to boost Women Development & Empower the women entrepreneurs for starting their small scale ventures, the country’s first ever women-centric industrial park will be established at Rudrapur in Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand. The only women industrial park is a major step taken by the government to attract and encourage the women entrepreneurs to initiate start-ups in the state. In order to make the project successful, the state government will allocate 200 acres of land and in the initial stage, a 10-acre industrial park will be set up in Sitarganj Phase-II of the State Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakhand Limited (SIDCUL). As per the SIDCUL officials, more such specialized industrial parks will be opened across the districts.
According to the reliable sources, the state government is planning to grow the entire state as a business hub for women by coming up with a slew of financially alluring subsidy schemes and launching online portals such as www.himani.org, a platform where female buyers and sellers can communicate and promote their business online and offline. The Managing Director of SIDCUL, Mr. R. Rajesh Kumar stated, “We are determined to provide a comprehensive framework to enable an investor friendly environment for ensuring rapid and sustainable industrial development wherein women participate on an equal footing. Preference will be given to knowledge-based industries like R&D, IT, handicrafts and handlooms etc. Along with this, special subsidies would be given to women for setting up units in the state. The mechanism will be completely online under a single window clearance and land would be given totally on a first come first serve basis.” He further added that “a special scheme of providing 25% capital subsidy up to a maximum of Rs 25 lakh would be provided to encourage women entrepreneurship in the manufacturing as well as services sector.”
At present, Uttarakhand is a home to over thousands of women entrepreneurs and boasts of 469 units which are being run by the women entrepreneurs. According to SIDCUL, the state has about 2,929 registered business units and the numbers are running. The President of FICCI Ladies Organization (FLO), Vinita Bhimbhet, also expressed happiness over the state’s decision to come up with the country’s first women industrial park. In an interview, he said, “It is a great news for women entrepreneurs, and we are quite excited about the decision. The state has recently climbed up from number 23 to top position in the ease of doing business rankings. All the women entrepreneurs are actually curious to know the policies and strategies that the state has crafted for the women entrepreneurs.” She added that FLO, which has 13 chapters across the country, is also considering opening its next chapter in Uttarakhand.
Inputs from: TOI
