“Women empowerment through entrepreneurship only,” Uma Gurkha, Preseident, COWE - Trade Carnival 2009 inagurated

While taking with yourstory.in COWE President Uma Gurkha said the trade carnival was provided with an aim to provide a platform for women entrepreneurs to showcase their products, widen market opportunities, test market preference and networking opportunities.

“Our objective is to ensure women empowerment through entrepreneurship,” said Uma Gurkha . The Trade Carnival offers benefits to both budding women entrepreneurs as well as existing women entrepreneurs. Budding women entrepreneurs and those who want to setup businesses can learn and enrich themselves with the advice and experiences of successful women entrepreneurs, she added.

Trade Carnival has 150 stalls — 20 commercial stalls, 8 sponsored stalls, NSIC has sponsored 25 stalls for the SSI sector, 10 stalls for Franchising Association and remaining for women entrepreneurs. Exhibitors exhibited products such as Fashionware, Handicrafts, Home Need Products, Decoration items, Jewellery, Household goods, and many more consumer durables all manufactured by women entrepreneurs. These exhibitors are from various places such as Jaipur, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Mumai, Goa, Kanpur, Madurai, Kashmir, Hyderabad and other parts of Andhra Pradesh.

COWE Trade Carnival 2009 is organized with the support from the Government of Andhra Pradesh. The third in the series of annual fairs and it is also supported by ZDH/Sequa partnership program of Indo-German Chamber of Commerce. Several other organizations like SBI, SBH, NSIC, MSME (Medium and Small Enterprises) – Govt. of India, PNB, SIDBI, Corporation Bank, GVK, LANCO, APSFC, Margadarsi, Radio Mirchi and NABARD are also supporting the trade fair. MADHISIA (Madurai Small and Tiny Industries Association), FAPCCI (Federation of AP Chambers of Commerce & Industry) and GOA Chamber of Commerce are the partner associates. Various financial institutions such as BOI, SBH, PNB, SIDBI, AXIS, SME (Medium and Small Enterprises) – Govt. of India, NSIC and others are participated in the Loan Mela. The Loan Mela is organized to facilitate banker-entrepreneur interactions for quicker loan processing. The five- year- old COWE, which was started with six members, today has about 600 members engaged in diverse fields, engineering, Information Technology, bio-technology, pharmacy, food, textiles, service sector, industry, legal and financial services. Cowe on its part helps its members by organising six-week programmes, giving them motivation, awareness, entrepreneurship skills, exposure through field visits , networking through tie-ups with business organizations. Confederation of Women Entrepreneurs (COWE), a Hyderabad-based non-profit business organization promoted to bring about social and economic upliftment of women force through entrepreneurship.