Mission Shakti signs five MoU with leading corporate houses including Flipkart

Bhubaneswar: The boost the Self Help Groups of Odisha, the Department of Mission Shakti on Saturday signed five Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with leading corporate houses and institutions like the Directorate of Horticulture, Indian School of Business (ISB), Beauty & Wellness Sector Skill Council (B&WSSC), Rubber, Chemical and Petrochemical Skill Development Council (RCPSDC) and Flipkart during the third day of Make in Odisha Conclave 2022 being held at Janta Maidan in  Bhubaneswar.

The department will also have a partnership with WorldFish on dry fish management, IRRI on rice based value added products, and ICRISAT for value addition to ground nuts.

Highlights of MoUs signed

1. The collaboration between the Odisha government and Flipkart, is to facilitate online marketing of SHG products through its dedicated platform. The partnership strives to introduce small businesses of SHGs to access and cater to a larger market and therefore a larger
community of buyers.

2. The MoU inked between Mission Shakti, the Directorate of Horticulture, and PRADAN, aims at the expansion of the Agriculture Production Cluster (APC). Adoption of improved cropping practices in agriculture and livestock rearing with organized marketing will benefit 1 lakh SHG members.

3. Indian School of Business (ISB) and, the Department of Mission Shakti, signed an MoU to enable women’s economic empowerment and rural prosperity among 20 lakh SHG members through a robust forest economy by organized marketing of NTFPs.

4. The MoU signed between the Beauty & Wellness Sector Skill Council (B&WSSC) and the Department of Mission Shakti focuses on transforming SHGs into SMEs. The main objective of this partnership is the skilling and handholding of 15,000 SHG members in setting up enterprises in
beauty and wellness sectors.

5. The Rubber, Chemical, and Petrochemical Skill Development Council (RCPSDC) and Mission Shakti entered into a partnership for the promotion of women-led micro-enterprises, transforming SHGs into SMEs. This project aims at supporting 2,000 skilled SHG members in the field of footwear manufacturing to set up their micro-enterprises.

Future Plans- 

The signing of the MoUs coincided with a plenary session on ‘Building Economic Independence for Women Empowerment’ followed by two sectoral sessions titled ‘Realising Women SHGs as an Enterprise Model’ and  ‘Unlocking Investments for Business of SHGs’.

Inaugurating the session, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said, the industrial parks for women entrepreneurs in all 30 districts of Odisha will be established.

Besides, the state government will provide Rs 1 crore revolving funds for all district-level federations (DLFs) and Rs 50 lakh revolving funds for all block level federations (BLFs). The government will build an office building with a market complex for all gram panchayat level federations (GPLFs), he added.