These women want to be their own bosses

She owns an information technology (IT) firm in New Delhi. Next on her agenda is an online venture where projects will be posted on a website and people with the required skills could pick them up and execute them.

She owns an information technology (IT) firm in New Delhi. Next on her agenda is an online venture where projects will be posted on a website and people with the required skills could pick them up and execute them.

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She also plans to launch a social venture to inculcate civic sense in the public.

Anusha Saxena, a management student at IBS Hyderabad, is doing all of this. And she is only 22.

Saxena, the vice president of the entrepreneurial cell (e-cell) in her college, is one of the 10 budding women entrepreneurs were awarded the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women-National Entrepreneurship Network Fellowship on Friday.

The young women, the oldest in the group is 26, were awarded a citation during the day-long conference, Women Mean Business, organised by the foundation headed by Cherie Blair, wife of former British prime minister Tony Blair.

“I started my IT company at 19 just for some pocket money,” said the light-eyed Saxena. Dressed in a smart business suit, she added, “My maternal uncle built his multi-national company from scratch. He inspired me and today I’m competing with him.”

“We wanted people to realise that they can be job creators rather than job seekers,” said Bhawna Anjaly (26), another fellow and student of Birla Institute of Management Technology, Noida. Anjaly, the founder of her college’s e-cell, increased the cell’s membership from seven to 300 in a short time.

Entrepreneurship cells help students, interested in starting a business venture, get in touch with professionals from various fields to guide them on the practicalities “My work helps me in my studies. Practical knowledge teaches you what theory doesn’t,” said 20-year-old commerce student Sonali Gaddam, managing director of Scribbles, a chalk-making company started by her college, Mount Carmel in Bangalore.

Gaddam turned around the loss-making company in six months to record 37 per cent profits by improving product quality.

These women enjoy being on their own in the businessworld. “It really boosts confidence levels,” said Niyanta Gupta (21), mechanical engineering student at D.Y Patil College of Engineering, Pune.

As vice-president of the e-cell of her college, Gupta brings out monthly newsletters and organises entrepreneurship weeks.

These women are also clear that they want to be their own bosses. “I am very sure I don’t want to get a job ever again,” said Saxena.