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It is estimated that presently women entrepreneurs comprise about 10% of the total entrepreneurs in India. It is also clear that this percentage is growing every year. If prevailing trends continue, it is not unlikely that in another five years, women will comprise 20% of the entrepreneurial force in India. Against this background, Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust (BYST) in partnership with Tamil Nadu Corporation for the Development of Women and in association with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), and Youth Employment Network (YEN- - a joint initiative of ILO, the United Nations and the World Bank) is celebrating International Women's Day on 8th March 2004 by organizing a conference on "Empowering young women through Entrepreneurship" at the Kamarajar arangam in Chennai.

This first-ever multi-stakeholder conference will provide a common platform for governments, business, financial institutions and multilateral agencies for the concerted action on women issues. The focus of the session will be on generating employment for young women through entrepreneurship which includes educated unemployed by setting up business and synchronisation of resources, thereby alleviating poverty and create economic independency.

The Conference comprises five sessions. The Tamil Nadu Governor P S Ramamohan Rao, will inaugurate the Conference. It will also have presentations by C K Gariyali, Secretary, Social Welfare, Government of Tamil Nadu, Pamela Anna Mathew, Chairperson, Social Development Sub Committee, cn (SR), Manas Bhattacharya, Senior Development Economist, lL -Sub Regional Office-South Asia, (ILO Represents YEN in India) and Lakshmi V Venkatesan, Founding Trustee and Executive Vice President, BYST and other prominent speakers from a wide spectrum of specialization and experiences.

The inaugural session will witness the presentation of awards by the chief guest to the winners of the Kancheepuram Best Business Idea Contest. This first-ever Business Idea contest was organised for rural young women located in and around 648 villages in Kancheepuram District in partnership with the Kancheepuram Collectorate. This was done mainly to encourage and get the younger generation of women thinking in terms of setting up their own business ventures. The session will also witness a major declaration of intent by the stakeholders during this Conference, to develop an action plan for youth entrepreneurship in Tamil Nadu that could become a blue print for other States

The session on the role of stakeholder focuses on the role of various institutions such as the financial, educational, the corporate and the media in empowering women entrepreneurs. The seminar will also witness a session on Mentoring - a tool for business success, which will showcase the success of mentoring in empowering the disadvantaged youth in their business. The major highlight of the conference is the debate on the motion - 'Women make good entrepreneurs.' The focus of the debate would be to describe and emphasize upon the varying roles to be adopted by women who choose entrepreneurship as their mainstay.

Nearly 1,000 delegates from women development sectors, leading corporates, industrialists, NGOs in the field of entrepreneurship development especially young women, women students, media, representatives from government, youth associations and members from educational institutions are expected to participate in the conference.

RR