Letters to the EDITOR: Women entrepreneurs: Shattering barriers to business

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Women entrepreneurs: Shattering barriers to business

Indian women entrepreneurs are steadily changing the country's social and economic scene, shattering traditional barriers and generating innovations in industries from tech and healthcare to fashion, finance, and small-enterprise endeavours. No longer hampered by restricted access to capital, mentorship, and societal expectations, women today are using education, digital media, and supportive policy initiatives like Stand Up India and Mudra Yojana to start and scale up their businesses. Success stories of Falguni Nayar of Nykaa, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw of Biocon, and Richa Kar of Zivame show how women are making a difference at the national and global scale, while many more in small towns are empowering communities through entrepreneurial ventures. Apart from profitability, women's businesses are creating inclusivity, sustainability, and employment generation, especially for other women, making them an integral part of India's growth story. Yet, problems including gender bias in finance, social pressures, and lack of institutional support persist, underscoring the necessity for systemic change, gender-sensitive financial models, and more robust mentorship networks. As India approaches a $5-trillion economy, the emergence of women entrepreneurs is not only a triumph of resilience and leadership but also a pivotal factor in ensuring inclusive and sustainable national development.

Nilakshi Borah

Golaghat, Assam

Save Manas

Manas is not just a park on a map. It is memory, it is rhythm, it is the pulse of Assam’s wilderness. Manas has lost nearly half its grasslands in thirty years, and with that we are witnessing a living landscape go bleak by the day.

Grasslands are not empty spaces waiting to be filled with trees. They are homes, ancient homes, where the Bengal florican rises like a flame, where swamp deer gather in quiet herds, and where tigers stalk only because prey is alive. When grass disappears, everything collapses like a chain of falling dominos. What remains then is not really Manas, but a shadow of it.

We are told it is a “natural succession”. But there is nothing natural in the speed with which these lands are vanishing. Fire lines untended, invasive weeds crawling unchecked, management plans gathering dust in files—these are not natural. They are human neglect dressed up as inevitability.

Yes, rhinos have returned. Yes, tigers breed again. These are achievements, but they rest on fragile ground. If grasslands vanish, these species will too. Conservation cannot be reduced to glossy reports and celebratory speeches. It needs fire management, removal of invasives, deliberate creation of open spaces, and above all, listening to local communities who know the land better than distant officials.

Noopur Baruah,

Tezpur

GMCH needs to rebuild trust

The tragedy at the Guwahati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), in which the newborn reportedly fell from a phototherapy machine bed in the Special Newborn Care Unit (SNCU), has once again thrown a harsh spotlight on the staff negligence and lack of accountability for widespread patient dissatisfaction within the state's healthcare infrastructure. One must appreciate the disciplinary action taken at GMCH against the staff members, but it is not at all the solution to the broader crisis in Assam's public health sector. We need reform, performance and transformation in the state's healthcare system, for which it requires more than equipment checks and digital platforms – a cultural shift of the entire system toward responsibility, compassion and accountability at every level – as the premier government healthcare institution remains riddled with operational chaos, outdated systems and unethical practices. Today, even a layman knows that a hospital's worth is not measured solely by its buildings or machines. What it needs urgently is an environment of trust that inspires those who walk through its doors. Unfortunately, that trust has been broken. Rebuilding an ecosystem of sustained commitment, systematic overhaul, and dynamic, visionary leadership will definitely usher in a new era and help bring back the state's premier hospital's reputation. Let us hope that broader corrective measures launched by the state government will yield positive results in all the state's medical colleges in the near future.

Iqbal Saikia,

Guwahati.

Mother is our greatest teacher

On the auspicious occasion of Teacher's Day, it is sincerely felt that beyond and over and above all our reverend teachers of the society, our own mother deserves the first wish on such a day. If we are not wrong and straightway introspect, then we will find that actually one's mother is the first teacher (of course, in some other cases, it's the father), then come all other teachers, of any nature or level. Our mother, an epitome of courage and hard work, never ever forgot that her primary duty was to teach us the basics of life, no matter how literate our mother was. She always taught us the values of life and their significance. Our mothers sacrifice for our today; they are reportedly the class of people who are ready to face pains and withstand all odds of our life, besides teaching us all to remain happy and ever encouraging. The person is our Maa, who really deserves the Happy Teachers Day wish first.

Thus, at last, once again, I wish all our mothers a happy Teachers' Day. May God bless you always.

Anjan Jyoti Patowary,

Rangiya