VIJAYAWADA: The Sri Padmavati Mahila Viswa Vidyalayam’s (SPMVV) mission to transform women into entrepreneurs through community engagement programmes has received a shot in the arm in the form of a slew of supporting initiatives from regional, national and international agencies.
In an informal chat with The Hindu , varsity Vice Chancellor V. Durga Bhavani, who completes her first year in office, dwelt elaborately on the initiatives envisaged to promote women entrepreneurship and their long-term vision of achieving self sustainability.
‘Rural Women Technology Park’
“Our first focus was to extend the varsity’s research activities away from the confines of the four walls. This has resulted in the establishment of ‘Rural Women Technology Park’ involving transfer of technology and training to rural women to promote their entrepreneurship skills. The Union Department of Science and Technology (DST) has recommended setting up of the facility in Chittoor district with an initial grant of Rs.1 crore. The district administration has identified the land for the technology park near Pudipatla village and it is under active consideration,” she said.
SPMVV, the lone
TOT Centre in India
Prof. Bhavani elucidated that the United Nations Asian and Pacific Training Centre for Information and Community Technology (UN-APCICT) had identified the varsity as Training of Trainers (TOT) Centre for Women and ICT Frontier Initiative, making it the only such centre in the country. “Besides this, the DST has sanctioned Rs.5 crore under NIDHI-Technology Based Incubation (TBI) Centre to promote an ecosystem of women entrepreneurs,” she remarked.
MoUs
The varsity has also 13 MoUs covering areas such as development studies, spoken tutorials, technology and skill development, student and faculty exchange.
‘Research and Development Cell’
“We also initiated a ‘Research and Development Cell’ to promote interdisciplinary research, translational research industry linkages and a culture of innovation. Several proposals have been made to the funding agencies for research grants,” she maintained.
Prof. Bhavani also highlighted the CSR activities, internationalisation, skill development, introduction of value added courses etc., along with promotion of welfare/developmental programmes envisaged by the State government.
