FLO stands for FICCI Ladies Organization, which was established in 1983. Its members include professionals, corporate executives and entrepreneurs. It is an All India Organization, which has 18 chapters across India including – Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Bhubaneswar, Coimbatore, Jaipur, Indore, Kanpur, Pune, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Northeast, Uttarakhand and head office in New Delhi.
The industrial park by FLO, which is a great move for women entrepreneurs, has begun its operations with 25 women-owned and their focus is mainly on Green Projects. As it is promoted by FICCI Ladies Organization (FLO) it is called the FLO Industrial Park. From the opening of this park many women entrepreneurs will be benefitted, who are interested in operating their business from the location.
One more step was taken for gender sensitization, gender equality and women empowerment by FLO on International Women’s Day 2022. In partnership with Telangana government, FLO opened India’s first 100 percent women-owned industrial park in Hyderabad, on 8 March 2022. The park was inaugurated by Telangana Industries Minister KT Rama Rao.
It is a flagship project which is unique and novel in itself and the park area stretches across 50 acres with an investment of Rs 250 crore. During his inaugural address, Telangana Minister KT Rama Rao urged women entrepreneurs to think big and becoming aware of emerging technologies specially defense, aerospace, food processing and take participation in global partnership. He also promised another 100 acres for the expansion of the park in which main focus would be on the novel products and 10 percent subsidy for women entrepreneurs.
In the same way Karnataka government has taken a strong step towards women empowerment by launching the country’s first all-women Tech Park, which is located 40km south of Bengaluru called Harohalli. It has been launched as part of the proposed special incentives to encourage women entrepreneurs. Spread over 300 acres of government allotted land, the tech park will be planned and designed by women architects and women contractors will take care of the construction as well.
Let us think about the significance of such projects after their proper implementation:
As there is a famous quote, “Behind every successful woman is a tribe of other successful women who have her back” but why only women should act as each other’s back not the whole society? There are few more examples of not only empowering the women but also believing in them, like recently Prabha Narasimhan of Hindustan Unilever has been appointed as CEO and MD of Colgate-Palmolive India, in which she will take over the company at a critical time. So if we talk about strengthening the women, the initiative should be taken by every individual, family, society and government. Everyone should work for this marginalized section of the society who has faced discrimination for centuries. Now time has come to change the picture of this odd society and make it even, more beautiful and worth living place for all.
