India's first 100% women-owned industrial park has turned operational in Hyderabad on March 8. A partnership between the state government of Telangana and FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO), the 50-acre industrial park has 25 women owned and operated units across 16 different industrial segments. Inaugurating the park, KT Rama Rao, industry minister of Telangana, assured another 100 acres of land for the expansion of FLO women industrial park, subject to the park's focus on novel products. While the government has offered the land at 50% rebate to the entrepreneurs, FLO and its members brought in ₹250 crore as investment to the park. The state government has also provided basic infrastructure like roads, electricity, water and sewerage and is in the process of setting up common facilities like tool room, testing centre, exhibition centre, crèche, cafeteria, skill development centre, postal service, banks, etc within the park.
The industries that have come up in the park manufacture touch screens, fans, packaging, steel and modular furniture, medical devices, organic and natural fabric apparel, read to eat foods, food processing, signage, jewellery, recycled plastic artifacts, hydraulic elevators, pre-cast cement blocks, nutraceuticals and wellness and beauty products.
The women entrepreneurs who have set up units in the park are Anju Dubey (furniture), Arti Agarwal (electrical), Anuradha Chepyala (beauty products), Bindu Madhavi (hydraulic components), Harjinder Kaur (health products), Ishita Singh (garments), Khushboo Baid (plastics), Mansa Yedulla (packaging), Nirmala Agarwal (chocolate plant), Padmavati Raju (lamination), Radhika Agarwal (jewellery), Renu Swarup (packaging), Richa Jalan (plastic), Ritu Shah (paper products), Sangeeta Reddy (health foods), Sarika Lakshmi (jewellery), CH Saritha (metal powder), Sharmila Raj Jain (packaging), Srivani M (wooden products), Sudha Nallaparaju (herbal products),Sujitha Chityala (cement precast), Sumita Srimal (LED lights), Usharani Manne (instrumentation), Vasu Reddy (graphic design) and Vinita Surana (LED lights).
"The dream-to-reality of this project is the result of the support from the Government of Telangana. We are happy to announce the commencement of 25 green projects totally owned by women, with many more in the pipeline, we expect this industrial park to generate 1600+ jobs in the next 2 years of operation," Uma Chigurupati, chairperson of FICCI FLO, Hyderabad, said.
