NEW DELHI: Addressing a predominantly women audience, comprising young college students and aspiring female entrepreneurs, some senior financial experts, bankers and motivational speakers said on Thursday that education is key to development and financial literacy could open doors of opportunities.
The 64th conference of the Taleem O Tarbiyat movement, in association with Rahat Welfare Foundation, saw experts speaking on the theme "Education to Entrepreneurship" at India Islamic Cultural Centre. They underlined the importance of education, growing opportunities in India, especially in the fields like capital market, stock exchange and entrepreneurship.
The force behind the initiative, founder of Taleem O Tarbiyat and former chancellor of Hyderabad-based Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) Zafar Sareshwala stressed the need for girls' education and bringing financial discipline in the families. "If a boy gets educated, only one individual gets educated. But if a girl gets educated, it is as if an entire family has got educated," said Sareshwala. Explaining the significance of this conference, Sareshwala said the purpose was to enable youngsters, especially college and university girls, to get acquainted with ways to make saving a habit as well as the use of stock market to create wealth and employments. "The experts assembled here are extremely busy people and it is hard to get a few minutes from them. You are lucky that they are here to guide you. Make use of this rare opportunity," he said. He stressed the need to change ideas into businesses. Entrepreneur, angel investor and philanthropist Viren Rana motivated participants never to get disheartened due to failures. "India today is a land of opportunities. Never give up and never see failures as defeats," said the Haryana village-born Rana who had gone to the US after taking a degree in software engineering, set up a company there, incurred a loss but bounced back and today, as angel investor and mentor, divides his time between India and the US. He said that people learn a lot from failures and failures should not be seen as defeats.
Former chairman of SBI Rajnish Kumar said passion is needed for success in life. Beginning as a Probationary Officer (PO), this Meerut-born banker rose from the ranks through sheer hard work and passion. He called digital awareness crucial in this world.
Senior journalist and anchor Bushra Khanam called upon young women and girls to use social media platforms for enriching their knowledge and skills. Quoting noted Urdu poet Kaifi Azmi's famous poem Aurat, she articulated that in no way women are inferior to men. "Women need to be financially independent and this can be achieved through hardwood, zeal and passion," she said. "Be selfish when it comes to get financial independence." Senior executive at Bombay Stock Exchange Harvinder Singh told the participants to set their goals and have a zid or be adamant to reach those goals. He also stressed need for saving to create wealth.
International motivational speaker Yash Shekhar called upon the audience to remain positive and stressed the importance of unity and work as team members. Founder of Rahat Welfare Foundation Sana Khan saidpur that her organization works among those girls drop out and the efforts have given good results. Anchored beautifully by Rafia Sajid who quoted couplets, Persian sayings and Quranic verses and Prophet Muhammad's hadiths or sayings in Arabic, the programme drew a full house. Later a workshop too was held which the girls participated enthusiastically.
