Josephine Selvaraj awarded IMC Ladies’ Wing Jankidevi Bajaj Puraskar 2012. An endeavor to honour the contribution & achievements of Women Entrepreneurs across rural India. Mumbai, January 7, 2013: With the vision to spread the goodness of the sweet nectar of life to one and all, and to provide employment to many women in rural areas, Ms. Josephine Selvaraj won the prestigious 20th IMC Ladies’ Wing Jankidevi Bajaj Puraskar 2012 on January 7, 2013 at IMC. The award was presented by the Chief Guest, Shri Gerson da Cunha, Noted Advertising & Theatre Personality & Social Activist.
The award is to recognise the women entrepreneurs for their extraordinary and outstanding entrepreneurial excellence in Rural India. It is focused on discovering and honoring the successive generations of women entrepreneurs who are dedicated to rural upliftment and business entrepreneurship. This initiative encourages more women to launch scalable and venture capital funded businesses.
Elaborating on this award, Ms. Darshana Doshi, President, IMC Ladies’ Wing said, “Through the Jankidevi Bajaj Puraskar, we aim at creating benchmark and a platform for recognizing excellence of Women entrepreneurs across rural India. The award indeed is a reiteration of the close association IMC’s Ladies’ Wing has with the women entrepreneurs and its endeavour to recognize the individual brilliances on the national platform. Two decades of encouragement to women at the grass root level who despite many odds have risen and have displayed exemplary entrepreneurship, needs our recognition to encourage them to move forward to attain higher goals.”
Receiving the award, Smt. Josephine Selvaraj , said, “My happiness is unexplainable, for I never expected to be the winner of Jankidevi Bajaj Puraskar 2012. My long term aim is to install honey bee boxes in each and every household, so as to enhance the lifestyle of my community at large. I wish to offer free training, every month, to anybody, who wishes to learn the skill of honey making.”
Smt. Josephine Selvaraj is the Founder of the Vibis Natural Bee Farm based in the Vadipatti Taluk of Madurai. Ms took lot of initiatives in creating the advantages of Honey and Bee keeping which provided better health and income with less investment. Her objective was to make the sweet nectar available to each and every family for their daily consumption. She believed that honey gave good resistance power to body and purified the blood and its medicinal values protect the body from major health problems like Heart ailments and Cancer.
On this occasion, Gerson da Cunha remarked “Leadership & entrepreneurship goes hand in hand”. He further quoted a New York Times article that strongly expressed the view that India would not become a superpower unless they respect and protect women”. Nandita Das was all praise for Josephine Selvaraj’s dedication and commitment and expressed her shock and anguish over recent incidents of violence and hatred towards women.
Ms. Selvaraj, the “Florence Nightingale” to the sick, poor and the needy, not only conducts sting therapy for patients at her farm but also conducts workshops and encourages entrepreneurship. She produces 24 types of products with honey and 8-9 types of honey depending on the seasons and availability of flowers, namely Hill Honey, Jamun Honey, Drumstick honey, Amla Honey, Sunflower honey, and Multiflower Honey. She is the bee keeper and an angel, who enriches lives with the touch of Honey.
