Sunday, 26th February
Pullman, Aerocity, New Delhi
SATYA MicroCapital Ltd. Organized the 3rd edition of the Vijayalakshmi Das Entrepreneurship Awards on
26th February 2023 in New Delhi which felicitated women microentrepreneurs nestled across ruralboundaries in the nation. It is an intellectual award ceremony for recognizing & felicitating Women
Entrepreneurs of the Micro, Small and Medium enterprise sectors who are breaking all the social
barriers and despite all the challenges, are able to rise up in life and have a vision to empower other
women around. The ceremony took place a Pullman Hotel, Aerocity, New Delhi. For the first time, theaward ceremony was clubbed with SATYA's Annual Day Celebration event, Vihangam, and it was graced by
the presence of 4000+ virtual attendees in addition with the physical presence of 1200+ guests.
Underlining the essence of Vijayalakshmi Das Entrepreneurship Awards, Vivek Tiwari, MD, CIO & CEO,SATYA MicroCapital Ltd. said, "It is a matter of extreme pride and privilege to honour women
microentrepreneurs who are trailblazing our society like no other continuously for the third time in a row.
Recognizing and applauding their triumphs will certainly catapult budding women entrepreneurs to face
the challenges, establish their presence and achieve success with flying colours. Additionally, it will also
instigate the aspiring women micro entrepreneurs to advance their fundamental code of business toconquer an extraordinary level of entrepreneurship. The change all these women are trying to channelize
in the lives of all those associated with them is commendable. I extend our heartfelt congratulations to all
the winners as SATYA salutes their fervour and dedication to successively operating their businessventures.''

The ceremony was conducted in collaboration with ICICI Prudential Life Insurance and Aditya Birla Health
Insurance as Platinum Partners, 92.7 Big FM as Radio Partner, Pramerica Life Insurance as Associate
Partner, and SheThePeople as Media Partner.
The ceremony had Sunil Ojha – Founder, Bal Kundan Foundation, Darhauli Dham Varanasi as Chief Guest.

Mr. Sunil Ojha – Founder, Bal Kundan Foundation, Darhauli Dham Varanasi
Sunil Ojha is a founder of Bal Kundan Foundation, Darhauli Dham and an Indian politician belonging to the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Sunil Ojha known as the Dynamic and versatile face of BJP, as he is the BJP Coincharge from Kashi, UP.

The evening hosted multifarious motivational sessions by notable personalities like Rachana Chaurasia –8th Dan Black belt International Master Instructor and Secretary General – Taekwon-do Association of
INDIA. Ranjana Kumari – Director of Centre for Social Research in Delhi. The event was also attended by
the benign presence of eminent personalities from the world of sports, finance, Government of India
including ex-RBI former directors, Google Icons, Padma Shree Awardees & many more.
Ms. Rachana Chourasia Rajendran
Secretary General- Taekwon-do Association of INDIA
8th Dan Black belt International Master Instructor

She is an International Master Instructor, Examiner & Umpire of
Taekwon-do. She is the only 7th Dan Black Belt of South Asia andMiddle East Asia and rank among, hardly less than 20 female highdegree Black Belt holders of the World. he is recipient of many awards
from the International Taekwon-do Federation, Austria and hasreceived “DELHI GAURAV AWARD” on 12th December 2015 at Vigyan
Bhawan, New Delhi by Shri Harsh Vardhan, Hon’ble Minister of Science& Technology, Government of India for “BRAVE HEARTS OF DELHI” forimparting Self Defense to the Masses of Delhi.

Winners of Vijayalakshmi Das Entrepreneurship Awards
The Vijayalakshmi Das Entrepreneurship Awards recognize many women microfinance leaders andentrepreneurs across various business categories. The year’s Vijayalakshmi Das Entrepreneurship Awards
recognized women leaders and entrepreneurs across various business categories like Manufacturing, Agri
Production, Textile, Information Technology Industries. Vijayalakshmi Das Entrepreneurship Awards 2023
were bagged by Suman Nainwal – Leader of the Year; Paluri. Padmavathi, Anita Kumari, Dibhya Rekha
Mallick in the Medium Enterprise Category; Swapnali Satpute, Alka Sinha Soni, Anuradha in SmallEnterprise Category; Jyothsna Karingula, Sarmista Ray, Ambika Bai Vaishnav in Micro Enterprise Category.

Ms. Suman Nainwal
Leader of the year
GAURAAJ (Handmade natural or organic products) - Uttarakhand
Ms. Suman Nainwal is an independent woman from Uttarakhand's hills. Professionally, she was thearchitect, serving as the organization's managing director for a decade. She was satisfied with her work,
but always wanted to do something for society, particularly rural women, with the goals of making women
self-sufficient so that they could face any situation with confidence and preventing migrations from thehills. Ms. Suman Nainwal founded the private company GAURAAJ, which sells natural and organic products,
with this goal in mind. Currently, GAURAAJ employs 5 women, and nearly 150 women sell their hand-madeproducts, such as paintings, handmade jute bags, homemade pickles and jam, homemade snacks, and soon.
Social Intervention:
To empower women in holistic way. Ms. Suman Nainwal also registered the NGO called "Nathuli Mahila
Shashaktikaran Sanstha" which is working on these areas : siksha , swasthya ,samanta , swarojgar andshelterMs. Paluri. Padmavathi
Entrepreneur of the year –Medium
Kalamkari Painting – Andhra Pradesh
Smt. Paluri Padmavathi was born in the town of Kakinada in 1982. Her father worked as a commercial
artist, specializing in pencil drawing. She always aspired to become an artist because she saw her father as
an artist and wanted to follow in his footsteps. To make her dreams a reality, she received training in
Kalamkari Paintings from late Sri. Krishna Reddy Garu, a national award winner in Kalamkari Paintings forthe third time in a row. After learning the skills, process, and design of Kalamkari painting works, sheestablished a production centre called Bhanodaya Kalamkari Paintings ten years ago with the goal ofassisting unemployed women and youth.
She created job opportunities for 90 women and 10 men over a 12-year period, and she trained nearly
1000 people in one year through a women and youth empowerment programme.
Social Intervention:
Apart from giving employment, they also educate the associated women/ girls on women rights, theirhealth hygiene, educating their children especially girl child and give legal advice for making them aware of
their legal rights. They organize workshops, health checkup, legal advisory camps in association with therelated field experts like police department, CMO, high court Sr advocates on a regular basis.

Ms. Anita Kumari
Entrepreneur of the year – Medium (1St Runner Up)
Mushroom farming – Bihar
Ms. Anita’s husband was struggling to make ends meet. They had two sons and a daughter, and a
garment shop which was suffering major losses. Anita approached the Krishi Vigyan Kendra atNalanada, Bihar. The officials there advised Anita to grow mushrooms. Anita braved all the ridiculethat the villagers showered on her to be known as the Mushroom Lady of Bihar. In 2012, her
Anantpur village was declared a Mushroom Village by the state agriculture department. A few years
ago, Anita Kumari started the Madhopur Farmers Producers Company, which she runs out of her
newly built house, to involve more women from neighboring villages in organic mushroom
cultivation.
570 farmers currently attached with her company. Her target is 2000 farmers by the end of next
year. She is planning to digitalize her business to facilitate availability of mushroom and mushroom
products to consumers’ door. She wants to spread technique of cultivation of mushroom todifferent channels (Social media platform, NGO, SHGs etc.). Apart from this business She is also
running an FPC (Madhopur farmer producer company limited) which connects her with thousandsof farmers and she helps them to know this business which creates more income to those farmers.

Ms. Divya Mallick
Entrepreneur of the year –Medium (2nd Runner Up)
Typof Technologies Private Limited – Odisha
Building Typof, a Cloud-based SaaS product, empowers small businesses to create an e-commerce site forfree & market the product using consumer-generated video content as a product catalogue. Typof isempowering small business owners/makers to create a premium e-commerce website in minutes &distribute the inventory to all channels from single platform.
After leaving her job at a hotel tech startup, Divya started her own clothing brand selling Samblpuri sarees.
However, despite receiving numerous inquiries about the prices of products, few customers actually madea purchase. She found herself constantly sharing the same pictures & prices with each customer who
reached out to her on social media, which was a tedious task as a solo entrepreneur. She was searching fora platform that would be more efficient than social media & manageable. Divya discussed her aspiration
with her Trilochan - an engineer with a product mindset who is also now Co- founder of Typof
Technologies. Trilochan is passionate about using technology to solve problems on a large scale. As the Cofounder & CTO of Bookingjini, he challenged Divya to gather 10 artisans who were facing similar challenges& promised to help her build a platform to address them. Amazingly, she was able to bring 40 artisans from
Instagram, & that's how Typof was born.
Social Intervention:
Established D2C Community where Typof is connecting with Small Medium Businesses (SMBs) to makethem understand how they can sell & network with each other so that they all can grow with the help ofcommunity. Currently this community take off happens every week to reach more & more SMBs. In aworld where people are locked by the limitations of their resources, mobility is the key to real freedom.
And she wants to bring this freedom to women in India and across the globe.

Ms. Swapnali Satupute
Entrepreneur of the year – Small
Swapnali Garments - Maharashtra
Ms. Swapnali registered her business of cloth factory on 1st February 2022. Currently she has twenty
sewing machines which are set up in two tailoring units of Maishal & Malgav Village (Sangli,Maharashtra).
Her thought approach is - Act Locally Think Globally. Swapnali aspires to provide quality product ataffordable price with fast service to customers in her area. Initially, she had three sewing machines & wasrunning her tailoring business at a very small scale. Everything was fine till 2015, but subsequently she
became victim of domestic violence. Due to the persistent pestering for money from her in-laws &husband, she had to sell her machines. Since Swapnali was skilled in tailoring, she soon got a job in aclothing factory. She gained valuable experience in managing vendors, suppliers, & other officemanagement tasks while working there. She began sewing clothes at home in 2017–18. With the birth ofher second child, Swapnali took a break from work till 2019. Due to no income & the escalating domestic
violence at home, Swapnali was in trauma. However, in 2020, she moved out of her in laws' home & began
trading in masks-PPE kits. For the purpose of selling goods, she visited numerous hospitals & vendors. She
gradually began supplying the masks & PPT kit to other cities as well, including Pune, Mumbai, Satara,
Kolhapur, etc. Through this trading business, she started making money. Soon after, Swapnali decided tolaunch her own garment manufacturing business. She completed the other necessary compliances &registered the unit under the Udhyam registration. Swapnali has extended employment to 20 otherfemales & have made them self-reliant.

Ms. Alka Sinha Soni
Entrepreneur of the year – Small (1St Runner Up)
Soap Factory – Jharkhand
Alka belongs to a small town of Jharkhand and is running a soap factory named “Sharda Enterprises”.
Before marriage, she was a teacher. But as per the tradition in most of the countries, a women must leave
her job after marriage as she moves to her husband’s place. After marriage, she has joined a renowned life
insurance company as sales executive. But she had some major health issues, due to which she had to quit.
But as they say, “where’s there is a will, there is a way”. After struggling hard for so long, she has started asoap factory with her husband. They make and sell bathing and washing soaps under the brand name “SaiSoaps”.
In initial days, they were struggling from financial crisis, but after taking financial assistance from Satya in2019 and 2022, they are now very well managing their factory. While Alka ji takes care of the factory andall supervision related task, her husband looks after the distribution network and supply to the soap
wholesalers of the nearby areas. Despite the hardships, Alka has successfully managed in driving her
business and family. She has 3 children, studying in a convent school.

Mrs Anuradha
Entrepreneur of the year – Small (2nd Runner Up)
Lalitpur Mahila Kisan Producer Co. Ltd – Uttar Pradesh
After independence in India, many efforts are being made for the all-round development andempowerment of women. Women's education level and their self-reliance in economic form areconsidered as the main measure of development and empowerment today. There has been a lot ofprogress in the education level of women in the last few decades, but the participation of women in termsof employment, entrepreneurship and economic scale is still not satisfactory. This work was started as achallenge keeping in mind the objective of making rural youth and especially women economically selfreliant, while encouraging self-employment and entrepreneurship especially among women in rural areasof India. The purpose of this business unit based on self-employment and women entrepreneurship is notjust to earn profit, but the main goal is to make women financially self-reliant with dignity. The major
works by Lalitpur Mahila Kisan Producer Company are cooperation in agricultural work to farmer
colleagues, marketing of agricultural products and manufacturing and selling of highly nutritious andquality hand-made products by women.
Social Intervention:
Mrs. Anuradha trying to motivate rural youth specially a woman to make them self-reliant and financiallyindependent. Some positive result of his effort we can see in ground level. Few women and farmers havemade their economic status good with association of Lalitpur Mahila Kisan Producer Company. Apart fromgiving employment, they also educate the associated women on women rights, their health hygiene. They
organize workshops, health checkup, legal advisory camps.

Ms. Jyothsna Karingula
Entrepreneur of the year – Micro
Shree Samarth Masale – Telangana
Ms. Jyothsna used to observe people living in slum areas and realized that they are malnourished owing tolimited access to nutritious meals. She then decided to leave her secure job and to do something to
improve the nutritional status of less privileged people. Through market research, she also realized thateven well-off people are not fully aware of nutritional food options. So, she started Satyavati Food
Products Private Limited to provide natural chemical free, nutritional value- added products at less price.
Like this she started her entrepreneurial journey of providing chemical free and nutritional feel toeconomically disadvantaged people and senior citizens living alone, in addition to regular customers.
Social Intervention:
She organizes mass educating campaigns for people living in slums to educate them about importance ofnutritious food for maintaining good health and growth. The food products are packed in small paper andplastic free packaging to facilitate their affordability to less privileged people.

Ms. Samista Ray
Entrepreneur of the year – Micro (1St Runner Up)
Swaad Badi and Papad – Odisha
Ms. Samista Roy, a Satya MicroCapital Limited client, shares her life story. She married in 1995 and wasvery active in her life after that. She cared for the family on her own because her husband is working in
Paradip, and she is living with the family without her husband and four children. She began her
empowerment journey by becoming a member of the NRLM project as a SHG member. Later in her SHG
journey, she rose to the position of President. She devoted the majority of her time to this SHG in order toassist women in the village and to address village issues. She used to spend her free time watching
YouTube videos on how to make Badi and papad. She then had the bright idea to start a small businessselling Badi and papad. She discussed it with her husband, who understands and motivates her by saying,"If you want to do this, you should definitely do it." After a while, she began making Badi and Papad athome and selling them at the nearby wholesale shops. She began this small business in April 2022 andcurrently earns 40,000/- per month. And now she has hired two more people and is paying them INR 4000
per month. She wishes to grow her business in order to provide more opportunities for women.

Ms. Ambika Bai Vaishnav
Entrepreneur of the year – Micro (2nd Runner Up)
Disposable Utensils Making – Chhattisgarh
Ms. Ambika is from Bilaspur district of Chhattisgarh. Ambika's life was like any other ordinary woman's; shemarried at a young age but always aspired to be a self- sufficient woman. Her entrepreneurial journey
started four years back with the support of SATYA MicroCapital.
She used her first loan from SATYA to start her enterprise of manufacturing disposable plates and bowls.
Since she did not have sufficient space in her marital house, she had to set-up her manufacturing unit ather parents’ place and operated from there for first 3 years. Ambika utilized subsequent loans from SATYA
to invest in her enterprise for purchase of raw material, packaging material etc. Later, with growing
income, she was able to build a separate shop in her own house premises and shifted her unit there, in theyear 2022.
Initially her husband also supported her in getting orders and operating the unit but gradually withincreasing experience and confidence, Ambika is now independently operating her enterprise with the helpof two female helpers whom she has employed at a daily wage rate of Rs100. Her perseverance has madeher a proud owner of “Vomkatraman Kuteer Udyog”.

Panel Discussion – Reviving Rural Economy & Livelihoods through Power of
Women Empowerment and Technology
Dr. Alok Misra
CEO & Director - Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN)

He has 29 years of professional experience in international development,rural finance, microfinance, inclusive finance and research at both policy andimplementation level. He holds a PhD in Development Studies from Victoria
University of Wellington, master’s in development management (GoldMedalist) from Asian Institute of Management, Manila.

Dr. Kirti Kale
Poetess & Writer

Kirti Kale is a renowned and respected name in the world of Hindi poetry.
With her unique writing style and expressions, Kirti has created a niche forherself. Today she is one of the most sought-after names in poetry acrossvarious national and international platforms. She has performed at various
radio stations and also for various channel like ETV, NDTV, Door Darshan,
etc. He received Kavya Gaurav Samman from Akhil Vishwa Hindi Samiti, NewYork America.

Dr. Ranjana Kumari
Director- Centre for Social Research in Delhi

Ranjana Kumari is an Indian social activist, writer, and academic. She is the
director of the Centre for Social Research in Delhi and chairwoman of
Women Power Connect, a national organization of women's groups. Lotus
Leadership Award winner (2015), Dr. Kumari has dedicated her life
to empowering women across South Asia and has authored many wellknown publications.

Ms. Poonam Shroti
Founder - Uddip Social Welfare Society
100 women achievers of India awarded by ex-President of India

A successful social activist, a budding entrepreneur, a motivational
speaker, and an immensely beautiful girl by heart and soul, Poonam Shroti
is no less but an epitome of achievements. Recipient of Sabal Award inchange maker category from Tata steel foundation. On 8th March 2018
Received Naari Shakti award, one of the prestigious awards for women andchild development. Currently hosting a Show ‘Super 10 with Poonam.

Ms. Rajalakshmi Srinivasan
Director – Site 24x7, Zoho Corporation Pvt. Ltd.
Global Speaker – Speaks about Technology, Youth Motivation, Women
Empowerment

She is a Director of Product Management at Zoho Corp. In her 23 years
journey with the company, she has gained extensive experience ranging
from database scaling and network monitoring to application
performance tracking and end-user-experience management. She
currently leads the application performance monitoring section in
Site24x7 - a cloud-based all-in-one monitoring product from Zoho Corp.
She has an engineering degree in Computer Science from The College ofEngineering, Guindy (CEG), Chennai. She is a fitness freak.

Ms. Shaili Chopra
Founder – SheThePeople and Gytree
Ramnath Goenka Award for Best Journalist

She is an Indian business journalist, author and entrepreneur. She is the founderof SheThePeople, TV a platform to empower women with stories of role models.
she is known for working at NDTV-profit & ETNOW and has won the 2012
Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Business Journalism among various
other awards.

Ms. Veena Gupta
India’s 1st female bodyguard
TEDx Speaker, Google Icon #SearchforChange
Founder Seam GroupMs. Veena Gupta is post graduate in hotel management and masters in law andfounder of Seam Global consulting Singapore and Seam group India . She is TEDx
speaker, Life coach Security and executive Protection practitioner. She is Martial
Artist by passion and Founder of WESS NGO. She is creator of Women safety
Mobile app called MSMR – ‘My Security My Responsibility’ and also author of
acclaimed book of same title. She is also founder of ‘She Talks’ YouTube channel
and Facebook page. She has won the title of Mrs. India queen of Substances First
Runner up.

Panel Discussion – Outlining the verdict of Andhra Pradesh Case & Regulatory
Guidelines announced by RBI for Microfinance Institutions from the eyes ofour beloved Madam Viji
Dr. Deepali Pant Joshi
Ex-Executive Director - Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
Independent Director – SATYA MicroCapital Ltd.

She has four decades of engagement in public life of which 36 years werespent at the Reserve Bank where she was a career Central Banker. She
was on the boards of the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection, theReserve Bank Note Mudran Press, the Northeast Institute of BankManagement, The Andhra Bank she is also a prolific writer with morethan 6 books to her credit.

Mr. Mahesh Payannavar
Ex-Head - NBFC Business at IDFC FIRST Bank

Currently associated with IDFC First Bank, responsible for Wholesale/corporate Lending Business of the Company. Previously associated withMilestone Capital Advisors Limited, Kotak Mahindra etc.

Mr. Manoj Gulati
Executive Director –Water.Org

With more than 25 years of experience in IT, supply chain management
and the development sector in both India and the U.S. Prior to joining
Water.org, Manoj was the Senior Director, SE Asia and Country Director,
India for SightLife, and was instrumental in scaling operations for over 17
eye banks in the region. Manoj obtained his MBA from The Fuqua Schoolof Business at Duke University. Manoj serves on the steering committee
for the India Sanitation Coalition (ISC) and is the Chair of ISC Credit
Financing Working Group.

Mr. Manoj Kumar Nambiar
Managing Director - Arohan Financial Services Limited

He holds a bachelor's degree in engineering (mechanical branch) and amaster's degree in management studies from the University of Bombay.
He has also completed the 'Strategic Leadership in Microfinance' course
from Harvard Business School, USA. Currently is the Managing Directorof Arohan. He was a member of the Governing Board of MFIN, the selfregulatory organization of NBFC-MFIs, from February 2013 to June 2016
and its President from July 2015 to June 2016.

Mr. Rakesh Dubey
Founder-Sagacia Growth Partners LLP
Ex - Chairperson, MFIN

Rakesh has over 25 years of leadership experience in the microfinanceindustry and has helped set up three high growth MFIs [Sonata, SVCL,
Cashpor and Shubhlakshmi] in some of the most difficult geographies in
the country. He has chaired the Indian microfinance industry body
[MFIN] and advised the microfinance industry in other emerging
microfinance markets.

Mr. Sadaf Sayeed
Chief Executive Officer – Muthoot Microfin Ltd.

He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Delhi and an
MBA from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University. He has over 18 years ofexperience in banking and financial services. Currently he is associated with
Muthoot Microfin as a Chief Executive Officer. Prior to this, He was associatedwith HDFC Bank Limited, Indiabulls Credit Services Limited, GE Countrywide
Consumer Financial Services Limited, Satin Creditcare Network Limited andSpandana Sphoorty Financial Limited in credit and risk management functions.