Magnificent Mega Utsav by Navodyami Program

During one of the biggest festivals of India -’Deepavali’ Deshpande Foundation’s Navodyami Program and District Industrial Centre, Dharwad

Collaboratively organized “Navodyami Mega Utsav” at Sawai Gandharva Hall in Hubballi between October 18 and 21st October 2019.

The Mega Utsav gained the traction of numerous customers since it had various artisans, snack items, traditional sweets, beautiful handcrafted fabrics, mouthwatering ice creams with unbelievable flavors, the perfect blend of gifts item to getting few new unique pieces of decorative items for once own house. Parallel there were many workshops conducted to the interested home-makers to budding micro-entrepreneurs.

Those who visited the Mega Utsav were entertained with some enthralling performances – dance, orchestra, comedy shows and soft music from the well-known artists.

The Mega Utsav was inaugurated by Mr. Pralhad Joshi, Honourable Minister of Parliament Affairs and Ministry of Coal, Member of the Lok Sabha. Addressing the gathering Pralhad Joshi said, “It feels great to see the huge number of people at the Mega Utsav of Navodyami Program. Each customer here is valued and in return, they help the micro-entrepreneurs. Deshpande Foundation is striving hard to help the micro-entrepreneurs of North-Karnataka. We are proud of Dr. Gururaj Desh Deshpande and his effort in transforming the lives of people who are in dire need.”

Mr. Jagdeesh Shettar, Honourable Minister for Large and Medium Scale Industries, Karnataka with his encouraging words to the Micro and medium entrepreneurs said, “Navodyami has created a beautiful platform for the micro and medium entrepreneurs called Sante and this bigger version of Sante at the right time offers great scope both for buyers and sellers. Educating micro and small entrepreneurs to sail in the right direction is also an important aspect; Deshpande Foundation does the checks and balances to help entrepreneurs to be successful.”

Minister Shettar also urged all the interested people at the gathering to utilize the utmost benefits that government and NGOs like Deshpande Foundation provides.

Mr. Aravind Bellad, member of Karnataka Legislative Assembly; Mr. Basavaraj Horatti,  MLC and Former Chairman Legislative Council; Mr. P Nagesh, Joint Director, District Industries Centre, Dharwad; Dr. Gururaj Desh Deshpande, Founder, Deshpande Foundation; Dr. Jaishree Deshpande, Co-Founder, Deshpande Foundation; Mr. Vivek Pawar, CEO, Deshpande Foundation; Iranna Rotte, Deputy Director, Navodyami Program, Deshpande Foundation were present at the inauguration ceremony of Navodyam’s Mega Utsav.

Navodyami Mega Utsav provided a larger market to micro and medium entrepreneurs, increase their income ranges. 66 micro and medium entrepreneurs displayed their stalls for four days and the sale work Rs.30,45,950 was done during the period of Mega Utsav.

Navodyami team recognized nine micro-entrepreneurs for their achievements in different categories which include best manufacturer, best sellers, and highest employment creation, active participation and supporting entrepreneurs and issued the achievement certificates on the occasion.

For the growth of micro-entrepreneurs, financial is very essential, so the Navodyami team has also issued ‘Provisional Sanction letters’ to eight micro-entrepreneurs with the support of Karnataka Vikas Grameena Bank and Canara Bank.

The mentorship sessions were facilitated by Dr. Hemalatha Potadar, HOD, department of food processing and Technology, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad and Mr. Manjunanth Pujar, Owner, Shri Matha Nutri Foods on Food processing, quality, packaging, value addition, food safety rules, and license. 30 plus micro-entrepreneurs benefited from the session.

Session on textile business and awareness on innovative cloths bags was facilitated by Mr. Veeresh Davale, Deputy Director, Handloom & Textile Department; Ms. Sadhana Kallolli, Head, Textile Department, Collage of Community Science, University of Agricultural Sciences Dharwad; Ms. Jyothi Vastrad, Professor, College of Community Science, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad and Mr. Nagaraj Talawar, Uday Garments. Around 100 micro-entrepreneurs benefited from this session.

Deshpande Educational Trust students; Kannada and Cultural Department’s Mr. Mahadev Sattigeri, Lead Program and Kannada Kogile Singers – Shravan Kumar and Revathi Anilkumar entertained the audience of the Mega Utsav at the cultural events held during the evenings of the Mega Utsav.