Women\'s Expo turns crowd-puller in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: Day 1 of the 3rd Business Women Expo for women entrepreneurs turned out to be a crowd-puller with the presence of over 220 exhibitors from 15 states and thousands of visitors on Friday.

The three-day exhibit also had the actress Amala akkineni, director of Annapurna Studio, and Gareth Wynn Owen, British Deputy High Commissioner to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, in attendance.

Dr K.B.R.S. Visarda, principal scientist-IIM; Deepthi Ravula, CEO, We Hub; Dr Shilpi Reddy, KIMS Hospital; M. Srinivas Rao, ministry of MSME; Kadambari Umapathy, founder, WeDo; Anil Agarwal, president of FTCCI; Krishna Yedula, secretary general, Society for Cyberabad Security Council (SCSC) and Sambit Kumar Mund, senior general manager, Hitex, joined them in the inauguration.

Addressing the gathering, Amala said there are three strengths and weaknesses to look out for in women. "The three strengths are understanding feminism and the equality of the sexes. The second strength is to be proud to be a businesswoman — 75 per cent of the Indian population gets employment through family-run businesses. And the third strength was to build one's own identity and not be stereotyped," she said.

The three weaknesses were fence-sitting feminists, who ere neither there nor here, the second was the mindset that one can’t do it, and the third was how women could be the worst enemies of women, she added.

Gareth Wynn Owenn said that to be successful, both genders need each other as partners in each other’s progress. “Hyderabad fosters a good business environment, we need to see more women in business. They bring more perspectives, and new ideas and broaden the horizon for better business,” the envoy said.

The three-day expo, which will conclude on Sunday, is open from 10 am to 7 pm and close to 18,000 people are expected to visit the expo in the next two days.