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PRESS RELEASE

Be.artsy leads Atmanirbhar Bharat with its signature “Be Your Own

Lakshmi” campaign with NSE

Be.artsy, India’s premier awareness enterprise led by Shikha Mittal inducted its long-time enthusiastic partner in investor
awareness, the National Stock Exchange to spearhead and support the women
financial literacy campaign “Be Your Own Lakshmi (BYOL)”. On the culmination
of World investor week (23-29 Nov, 2020), 5423 women attended BYOL sessions
through 132 sessions and another 8000 to be covered during this fiscal.

RBI, SEBI and NSE data, indicate that 80% of Indian women are not financially
literate. The main reason was the pervasive attitude that women are not
suited to understand finance.
This prompted Be.artsy to conceive a unique, women-centric financial literacy campaign, Be Your Own Lakshmi, also
heading to be India’s first financial literacy course for women’s specific needs. This proprietary campaign uses Be.artsy’s
arts-based approach to make complex topics simple and easy to understand. Initially targeted at employee training
programs at companies, Be Your Own Lakshmi has now gained huge traction in 2020, when Be.artsy opened the program
to individual sign ups.
Besides NSE, even educational institutions have shown great interest in BYOL. For example SNDT Women’s University,
Mumbai, has tied up with Be.artsy this December to bring the orientation session to 40,000 women students, at the
threshold of their careers. Professor Vishnu Magre, Pro-Vice Chancellor, says, “To educate its students on one of the
most important life skills through Be.artsy’s on-going campaign, Be Your Own Lakshmi, can enhance employability skills
of women.”
Dr. Harsha Merchant, Principal of Aishabai College of Education, SNDT University, where one of the initial sessions was
run, is impressed with Be Your Own Lakshmi. She wrote to Be.artsy: “You have explained and discussed many concepts
related to finance which were hidden for example, the difference between financial independence and financial freedom,
concept of Saving, etc. Let all students apply this kind of knowledge in their future endeavors. [Colleges should] teach
their students to become independent in real sense and reach towards the goal of ATMANIRBHAR BHARAT.”
There was also a widespread clamour for help for young women interested in starting up their own business. As a result,
Be Your Own Lakshmi will soon offer several levels of courses. There is a free introductory session. The first-level course
Basic Personal Finance, higher-level Be A Stock Star is for those interested in more advanced knowledge of investment.
Budding women entrepreneurs can take the high-level Be An Entrepreneur course, which Be.artsy expects will get them
a head start in the grueling world of startups, with its customised content for women.
Mittal expects the introductory and basic programs to hit thousands of women by mid 2021, when content will be released
in several more languages.

MoU Signed between HUDCO

and MoHUA
HUDCO has signed a Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU) with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs
(MoHUA) for setting key targets for the financial year
2020-21. The MoU was signed between Sh. Durga
Shanker Mishra, Secretary, MoHUA and Sh. Kamran
Rizvi, Chairman and Managing Director, HUDCO in the
presence of Sh. M. Nagaraj, Director (Corporate
Planning) and Sh. D. Guhan, Director (Finance).

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