Immediate Past President of Goa Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Manoj Caculo with organisers and awardees of Business Diva 2021
Business Diva competition 2021 organised by FiiRE (Forum for innovation, incubation, research and entrepreneurship)in association with GCCI Women’s Wing and powered by Geno Foundation was held recently at the GCCI convention hall following all covid appropriate protocols. The chief guest was then GCCI President Manoj Caculo.
‘Business Diva’ awards were conceptualised last year and this is the second edition. There were two categories: Category 1 (Start Up: less than 2 years in business) and Category 2 (Scale Up: more than 2 years in business). The purpose of organising ‘Business Diva’ was to encourage women entrepreneurs with innovative businesses and help entrepreneurs get structured incubation at FiiRE, mentoring by industry veterans, networking opportunities, access to funding, besides cash prizes to the winners. This competition aims to encourage more women – young, old, experienced or beginners to come forward and enter into the entrepreneurial world.
The winners in the Startup category were: Inner Apps (Anamika Anand); Goenkart by Digital World LLP (Rafina Shaikh and Sneha Bhagwat) and Gia Industries (Ria Patil).
In the Scale up category, the winners were Kamaxi Foods (Laxmi Kunkoliekar), AR Consulting Solutions (Rachna Deshpande); and Zesvida Natural Solutions – Narla (Nilisha Ferrao).
The sponsors for the event were Geno Foundation, FiiRE (Forum for Innovation Incubation Research and Entrepreneurship), Bicholim Urban Co-operative Bank Ltd, Women and Child Care Director Deepali Naik, Vrushali Parsekar of Happy Investments, Sandra Fernandes of Menino Regency and Shreemi Panandikar of Silverline World.
Manoj Caculo, then President of GCCI applauded the Women’s Wing for the immense work done by them despite Covid restrictions and felicitated the Women’s Wing members present at the event.
GCCI Women’s Wing members present on the occasion were Chairperson Pallavi Salgaocar, Co Chairperson Poonam Shirsat, members Deepali Naik, Women & Child Department Director; Shreemi Panandikar and Vrushali Parsekar.
Smart Investments
Khairoo Andani Khavtay and her venture, Smart Investments is a one stop shop for all your investment needs
Khairoo Andani Khavtay has launched Smart Investments, a one-stop shop for insurance and investment needs for the entire family, an insurance mall of sorts. She has been a part of the insurance and finance industry for many years. She graduated from S.S. Dempo College and has a master’s degree in sociology. Khairoo has acquired an executive MBA in Business Protection Planning and has completed her 3rd module of risk mitigation and legacy planning in Mumbai.
For the last 14 years she has continuously qualified for MDRT, COT, TOT and travelled all over the world. Khairoo is an active member of Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Business Networking International (BNI) for the last 10 years. Her core competency is Life and Health Insurance while simultaneously dealing with mediclaim policies, policies for various health issues as well a mediclaim policy for senior citizens.
Khairoo’s husband Manosh Khavtay and son Khaiman Khavtay ably support her.
Khaiman joined Smart Investments and specializes in medical insurance for all ages.
Manosh entered the business and added another feather to the Smart Investments cap. They have covered more than 65 corporates in the last one year of the pandemic for their fire liabilities and group policies. They have competent people for handling their mutual funds and their largest claim for Covid was 22.75 lacs.
Smart Investments also develops, trains and mentors channel partners for life insurance and medical insurance policy.
Smart Investments was established in 1996 and had one vertical with Life Insurance Corporation. Now, Smart Investments has eight other companies to give every family member better and competitive quotes for car insurance, bike policy, fire policy, group mediclaim policy amongst others.
