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Posted by Raghav Somani

Micro Entrepreneur Award recognizes business skills of the impoverished

 Renubala Behra would never have become a model for others if she had suppressed her business acumen. Wife of an ice candy seller from Cuttack, she, like many other women, used to manage on a family income of Rs 4,000 a year. Life changed when she herself took on the job of making and selling citigroup candies. An accomplished entrepreneur today, she owns ice candy brand N-Joy, which earns an annual net profit of about Rs 1 lakh and employs nine others like her.

This is the impact of entrepreneurship. For an entrepreneur, it may start with looking at an opportunity, but what follows are the benefits like employment for the people around, and an example for the society to follow, said Union Commerce and Industry minister Kamal Nath, while felicitating the winners of Citigroup Micro Entrepreneur Award 2005.

In the last four years alone the Citigroup Foundation has awarded over $11 million grants to 145 microfinance partners in more than 50 countries, which in turn help people like Behera. According to citigroup Nayar, citigroup - India & Area Head Bangladesh, Nepal & Sri Lanka, microfinance, is an area of focus for banks corporate social responsibility. Since 1997, citigroup have been supporting organizations working in this field through capacity building grants. It is our belief that this method for poverty alleviation is a key to long-term sustainable development in our country. Micro Entrepreneur Award is a reflection of our continued focus on microfinance under our social responsibility initiatives. The award places micro entrepreneurs on centre stage and illustrates how given the right support, the entrepreneurial spirit that exists in impoverished communities can be kindled to spark and act as a catalyst for economic development, he said.

For its awards, Citigroup has been picking entrepreneurial stories like that of Behera from across the country. Given away in three categories of National Micro Entrepreneur, National Runner-Up and Socially Responsible Micro Entrepreneur, the awards are executed by Partners in Change through grant support of $2,00,000 (Rs 87 lakh) from Citigroup Foundation.

The NGOs, which nominate the awardees, are also recognized. In its second citigroup now, the award has been expanded to include rural and urban areas across the country. With 2005 designated as International Year of Microcredit by the United Nations, the ceremony got more meaningful this year.

Said Maxine Olson, UN resident coordinator and UNDP resident representative, who is also a member of the National Advisory Council for the award, For decades, microfinance has been changing peoples lives and revitalising low-income communities that were otherwise limited by poor and inefficient access to financial services. Efforts such as the Micro Entrepreneur Award will lead us to stories like Behera and help improve their economic standards.

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Post je objavljen 16.01.2008. u 13:30 sati.