Citi Micro Entrepreneur Awards, which acknowledge the entrepreneurial skills and exemplify the spirit of the winning micro entrepreneurs, were today presented to 11 deserving winners by Guests of Honour, Ms. Shabana Azmi and Mr. Deepak Parekh amidst an august audience at a specially held event in Mumbai. The worthy winners of 2007, who were awarded for exhibiting best performance in building self-sustaining micro enterprises, creating employment and contributing meaningfully to the society, started from below the poverty line and used their ingenuity, acumen, hard work and access to micro credit to create their successful business enterprise.
Women applicants gave a tremendous response to the programme with nearly 50% of all applications coming from women micro entrepreneurs. Interestingly, over 80% of eligible nominations received for the awards were from states, ranked below the top ten, in terms of Human Development Index as per the National Human Development Report 2001, published by the Planning Commission of India.
The awards were classified in three distinct categories- National Winner, National Runner-up and Social Responsibility. Keeping in mind the social, cultural and economic challenges in different parts of the country, awards in each category were presented to winners from four regions- East, West, North and South. Each National Winner of the 2007 Citigroup Micro Entrepreneur Awards received a cash prize of Rs.200,000/-. The National Runners-Up and winners in the Social Responsibility category received prize money of Rs.100,000/- each. NGOs, which nominated the awardees, received a special citation commending their efforts.
Congratulating the winners on their significant achievement, noted film personality, social activist and Former Member of Parliament, Ms. Shabana Azmi said, "Citi Micro Entrepreneur Awards are an excellent example of recognizing the true heroes of our country. Having been personally associated with the awards program since its inception in 2004, I can proudly say that the rigor of the process, its uncompromising emphasis on transparency and grass roots approach have truly made it a unique programme. I am truly impressed with the response from women entrepreneurs which has consistently grown over the last four years."
Mr. Deepak Parekh, Chairman HDFC and member of the National Advisory Council for Citi Micro Entrepreneur Awards, said, "These awards have played a key role in mainstreaming microfinance in a vast country like ours. Sharing of best practices through this award will further encourage the delivery of microfinance in under-serviced regions."
Earlier, at a lively panel discussion held on the subject of 'Entrepreneurship - Challenges in India', the participants unanimously echoed the 'ripple effect' of micro entrepreneurship and highlighted the crucial role this played in enriching the society as such entrepreneurs typically looked after many more families than just their own. The panelists also acknowledged the positive impact on the social development and economic empowerment of women through micro entrepreneurship. Noting that an increasing number of Indians are beginning to dream and dream big, the panel observed that for equitable and holistic growth, India needed, "a Mittal, a Tata and an Ambani in every village".
Participants in this panel discussion included successful entrepreneurs from diverse fields - Ms. Meenakshi Madhvani, Founder, Spatial Access Solutions, India's first Media Audit & Consulting firm, Mr. Manish Sabharwal, Chairman and Co-founder, Teamlease Services, India's largest temporary staffing firm, Mr. Pramath Sinha, MD, 9.9 Mediaworx Pvt. Ltd., a specialist firm involved in the creation of traditional and new media businesses and Mr. R Sriram, Co-founder, Next Practice Retail, which incubates and innovates news businesses. Mr. Suhel Seth moderated the discussion.
The discussion emphasized that the single most critical enabler for the growth in entrepreneurship has been the shift in mindset from jobs to setting-up business, especially among the middle classes. This has resulted in an increasing number of students turning to entrepreneurship, resulting in setting up of more enterprises and millions of jobs being created through the success of their ventures. The panelists also urged increasing focus on participation from all stakeholders including corporate, government, banks, regulators and media to propagate the benefits of micro entrepreneurship and to take further initiatives to make finance easily available to micro finance practitioners and consumers.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Sanjay Nayar, CEO, Citi India, said, "The Citi Micro Entrepreneur Awards play an important role in illustrating that the impact of broader economic participation is profound for the individual and for the economy as a whole. Our endeavour is to further raise awareness about the underlying potential of microfinance, its meaningful role and contribution to economy and to highlight best practices in micro entrepreneurship."
An in-kind reward has also been introduced in addition to the cash prize wherein each of the winners are provided requisite training and skill enhancement opportunities to enable them to further upscale their ventures. A conclave of past winners was organized earlier this year to discuss and evaluate such needs and opportunities. Accordingly, training programmes and workshops are being identified for each winner, which they will be encouraged and sponsored to attend.
Speaking about this concept of in-kind reward, Mr. PS Jayakumar, Country Business Manager, Global Consumer Group, Citi India said, "To further expand and grow their businesses, micro-entrepreneurs often lack requisite skills and training. Appropriate training, based on identified needs and imparted at the right stage, can provide the right impetus to entrepreneurs to further grow and efficiently manage their businesses. With the introduction of qualitative in-kind awards, we hope to address the critical need of micro entrepreneurs in key areas of finance, marketing, production and technology to expand their knowledge and resource pool."
The Citi Micro Entrepreneur Awards programme is supported by the Citi Foundation through a grant of US$ 200,000 to Partners in Change (PiC), a Delhi-based NGO, which is the process implementation partner for the programme.
About Citi
Citi (NYSE: C), the leading global financial services company, has some 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 100 countries, providing consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, and wealth management. Major brand names under Citi's trademark red arc include Citibank, CitiFinancial, Primerica, Smith Barney and Banamex. Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com or www.citi.com
About Partners in Change
Partners in Change, a not for profit organization, promoted by Action Aid International India in 1995, has the promoting and deepening of the Corporate Social Responsibility as its focus. A pioneer organization in CSR, its origins lie in the recognition that business will have an increasing impact on society and this impact, especially on the poor and marginalized communities can be positive and negative. To maximize the positive and minimize the negative impact, it is critical to engage with the business sector. Developing partnerships between business and civil society organizations representing disadvantaged communities and other vulnerable and marginalized stakeholders in PiC's means to influence the impact of business on society.
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