FLO Hyderabad Chapter The Installation and Change of Guard Ceremony 2015-2016

New office bearers of FLO and YFLO assume charge

Politician and Social Activist Shazia Ilmi graced the installation and delivered keynote address on “Principle Politics”

Why principles don’t work in politics? Because people vote for certain considerations. Governance is the least consideration. They vote on the basis of caste, religion, region, community and many such considerations: Shazia Ilmi,.

Theme of the FLO for the year is “Building Synergy” and YFLO’ “Learn, Implement and Inspire”

Hyderabad, April 24..... A change of guard took place at FICCI Ladies Organization (FLO) and Young FICCI Ladies Organization(YFLO) here in a function held in city on Friday. The present Chairpersons of FLO and YFLO Monika Agarwal and Shankuntala Divi completed their term and relinquished their office and the new team took over from them in a function held at Taj Krishna.

Team headed by Rekha Lahoti and Samia Alam Khan as Chairpersons of FLO and YFLO and their Governing Board Members assumed their offices.

Shazia Ilma, a Politician and Social Activist graced the installation as a Chief Guest and delivered a Key Note address on “Principle Politics”. Welcoming the gathering, outgoing Chairperson Monika Agarwal said, in recent times there has been an outpouring of reflection on the role of principles in politics. Politics today is more personality centric than ever. The key to a healthy society is actually to have a political system defined by values aligned with correct principles Monika said.

Addressing the gathering immediately after the installation Shazia Ilma said I see myself as a seeker of justice and transformation. Politics for me is a vehicle. It is an extension of myself. It wasn’t enough for me to be journalist and just keeping reporting and remain a mute spectator. I want to participate in political and process of the governance and be part of the decision making. I am glad I made a right choice. I want to keep Principles back into politics, she said.

It is easy to say that our system is bad. It is easy to keep blaming the government. It is the time we wake up and change, plunge into action, take charge and work towards changing our country.

State of Principles in Politics in this country is worrying me. What it matters is how we vote. We vote on the basis of caste, religion, region, community and many such useless considerations. As long as we keep voting based on trivial considerations such as these things, we can not have principles in politics. Shazia Ilmi said.

Politics will decide fate of India, fate of our children, quality of our living, systems in our schools and safety of our sisters, fellow citizens. So more and more with clean background must join into politics.

Replying to a question she said politics as profession is accepted in our society. Chillanese kuch nai hota hai. You must be in the system of governance. That is why I appeal everyone to get into politics, she said.

Earlier change of guard took place by signing the charter by Rekha Lahoti, New Chairperson of FLO and Samia Alam Khan, New Chairperson of YFLO. Their office bearers were invested by Past Chairpersons by decorating them with Pearl Tag.

Rekha Lahoti, the newly installed ChaIrperson of the FLO is a graduate in Commerce from Calcutta University, Rekha Lahoti holds a Diploma in Fine Arts from the Calcutta Arts and Crafts College and with another year spent at the JD Institute of Fashion Design in Hyderabad, Rekha Lahoti is currently a CEO of Kalakriti Enterprise which is into Art, E-commerce, Fashion and Construction.

Samia Alam Khan, the newly installed YFLO Chairperson is a management graduate in marketing and finance, Samia started her career as a Banking Professional and has worked in the ITES and KPO Sectors. Currently she is a partner for a leading fashion and life-style exhibition ‘Araaish’ in Hyderabad. She is also a director at ‘The Hyderabad Deccan Cigarette Factory’.

The other office bearers of FLO include Padma Rajgopal -Senior Vice Chairperson; Kamini Saraf --Vice Chairperson; Ch. Sumalatha –Secretary; Sujini dundoo --Joint Secretary; Padma Reddy—Treasurer; Renu Dham--Joint treasurer.

New Team of Young FICCI Ladies Organisation (YFLO) includes Nidhi Swarup—Senior Vice Chairperson; Sandhya Raju—Vice Chairperson; Dr. Sindhura Narayana—Secretary; Shubhraa Maheshwari—Treasurer; Ritu Shah—Program Mentor; Swapna Reddy—Program Coordinator; Geetika Chadha—Program Convenor.

Addressing the gathering Rekha Lahoti said, FICCI Ladies organization is Asia’s largest entrepreneurial organization with a pan India visibility in 13 cities with 4000 plus members. I’m very passionate about FLO and truly believe in the organization’s capability of empowering women and opening up opportunities that make a difference to us not only as individuals but also as a society, she said.

My vision for this year is Building Synergy Rekha Lahoti said. Synergy to me is an underlying thread that holds everything together. If there is synergy of ideas, minds and actions we could achieve a lot more than what we could do individually, she added .
The theme for the YFO for the year will be Learn, Implement and Inspire, said Samia Alam Khan. Speaking further she said. “Educational attainment and economic participation are they key constituents in ensuring the empowerment of women at all levels through education and skill development. Confidence and empowerment are cousins that is stemmed and fostered by self-assurance. India today is at the cusp of a paradigm change in its growth and its position in the world. Women must act decisively to capture this opportunity. We need to think big and scale up rapidly in each and every area, be it education, infrastructure, industry, financial services or business, Samia said.”
These new office bearers will be in office for one year.

The installation function was graced by over 200 members of both FLO and YFLO.