CLOSING CEREMONY FICCI LADIES ORGANIZATION INTERSTATE MEET Chief Guest: Shri. Sarbananda Sonowal, Union Minister for Sports & Youth Affairs December 7, 2015 at NORTHEAST, GUWAHATI 2015 Kaziranga

Ficci Ladies Organisation (FLO) organised the Annual Interstate Meet 2015 under the Presidentship of Ms. Archana Garodia Gupta –at Guwahati on December 4 & 5, 2015. About 250 Entrepreneurs & professionals members from all the 13 Pan-India Chapters – Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow- Kanpur, Ludhiana, Mumbai, North East & Pune will be attending this conference.

The Interstate Meet is an annual feature & is organized in different Chapters every year. This year the Interstate Meet is being hosted by Northeast Chapter under the Chairpersonship of Ms. Joyshree Das Verma.

The Concluding Ceremony of the Interstate Meet was held at Borgos Resort, Kaziranga National Park. Shri Sarbananda Sonowal, Union Minister for Sports & Youth Affairs was the Chief Guest.

Shri. Sarbananda Sonowal is an Indian politician who is currently the Union Minister for Sports & Youth Affairs. He is a Member of Parliament of the 16th Lok Sabha from the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) representing Lakhimpur Lok Sabha constituency in Assam, India. He has previously served as the president for BJP Assam Pradesh, and is also a National Executive Member of the party. Sonowal was the president of the All Assam Students Union (AASU) from 1992 to 1999.

Until January 2011, he was a member of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) political party but later joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He is popularly known as a firebrand and dynamic youth politician, also regarded as a Jatiya Nayak of Assam, a title given by the AASU, the oldest student body of the state.

While interacting with the members of Ficci Ladies Organisation, Hon’ble Minister said, “In order for India to become a stronger and a more wholesome nation, we need to fight gender inequality. This is true not only for sports but other aspects of economy also. Women represent half of the world’s population. Yet they represent far less than half of measured economic activity, there are about 865 million women around the world who have the potential to contribute more fully—almost a “blocked billion”.

The backdrop of Kaziranga National Park, a world heritage site that hosts two-thirds of the world’s Great One-horned rhinoceros, was perhaps the most apt place to conclude the Interstate Meet, which provided a perfect platform for exchange of ideas and meeting of the minds.

FLO National President Archana Garodia Gupta said, “Over the years, the Annual Interstate Meet brings together FLO members from pan- India and provides an excellent opportunity to connect and build bridges for sustainable development by promoting women entrepreneurs and professionals. It also plays an integral role in leveraging the evolving landscape of FLO as an emerging leader for women empowerment initiatives. It will also lead to an ideal platform for exchange of ideas, sharing best practices as also establishing strong business networks for members from all over India.”