Union Minister for Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises Nitin Gadkari on Saturday said that there are now around 80 lakh women entrepreneurs in MSME sector of the country.

H added that there has been an increase of about 38% under PMEGP enterprises being established by women entrepreneurs in last 5 years.

Addressing the inaugural session of 'Conference on Empowering Women Entrepreneurs' in New Delhi last evening, Gadkari said that the Government is committed to no discrimination against women entrepreneurs, and called upon them to maintain high standards in the quality and delivery of products.

Recognising that the women entrepreneurs face daunting challenges, he complimented them for standing tall against all odds.

He also informed that the Government is working on launching a new website for MSME sector on the lines of Alibaba platform for marketing MSME products.

More than 6000 women have been trained by the Ministry of MSME in incense stick (agarbatti) manufacturing and packaging.

Over 150 women have been trained in Electric pottery in the terrorism affected areas of Baramula district.

Further, nearly 25 girls in Pulwama and around 100 girls in Kathua have been trained in tailoring. 125 women from Nagrota near Jammu are making 7500 khadi rumals per day.

Now, Central Ministries & PSUs are procuring 25% from MSMEs and it has been directed that 4% of purchases should be from SC/ST entrepreneurs and 3 % from women entrepreneurs.

Efforts are being made to increase the participation of women in the field of honey production. The work on a marketing website to sell honey products in the global market is in progress. Women are also being given “Solar Charkhas”.

The three-day conference has been organised by Ministry of MSME in collaboration with various industry associations like FICCI-flo, CII and India SME Forum.