India is the youngest start-up nation with most of the founder women and young entrepreneurs below 35 years, said NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant while felicitating young women entrepreneurs along with ace designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee here on Wednesday.
The felicitation took place at the FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO) meeting on "Make in India: Hand Made in India" here. It recognised women achievers from Indian fashion and textile industry who have been rallying behind the cause of handmade textiles.
Some of the achievers included eminent designer Asma Hussain for skilling India and reviving heritage of Awadh, Choti Tekam from Madhya Pradesh for reviving the Gond form of tribal art and Anavila Misra for innovative designs.
Kant said that women entrepreneurs hold the key to achieve double-digit growth rate in the country.
"Worldwide, women contribute to 40 per cent to GDP while in India their contribution is 17 per cent so. If women's share in India's GDP rises to 40 per cent, the country would be able to add $700 billion to its GDP by 2025," he said, and cited references of former US President Bill Clinton who in one of the speeches said that "the best thing that has happened to my life and that will happen to America is Hillary Clinton".
Kant said India needs to register a 9 to 10 per cent growth annually for the next 10 years to take care of its myriad problems. This, he said, could be achieved through the hard work of young entrepreneurs, especially women.
"The government is committed to make Start-up India initiative a scalable reality and to provide an environment for our start-ups to thrive in. Similary, the New Textile policy announced by the government will give boost to exports and generate employment, especially for women," said Kant.
Mukherjee, a celebrated name in the fashion world, also said Indians need to respect the country first for the success of the 'Make In India' initiative.
"For the longest time, the country has been very close to the western world. They (people) are exposed to everything from the time they are born. They have realised that the most important thing is to address your culture and roots, because if you want to create a global identity, then the first identity that you have to create is nationalism.
"This is one of the reason why all the new millennial are far more focused and conscious about the importance of being Indian than previous generations. And India can never be successful if Indians don't understand the importance of being Indian today," said the designer.
He feels the attitude of Indians needs to change.
"If India paid as much attention to its social and cultural roots rather than just religion, India will be a different country," he said.
--IANS
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