Confederation of Women Entrepreneurs

The Confederation of Women Entrepreneurs (COWE) is a NGO/social organization engaged in the social and economic "upliftment of women through entrepreneurship".

It was inaugurated on 22 December 2004 by Honourable Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Shri Y.S.Rajasekhara Reddy at Jubilee Hall, Hyderabad, India. It has over four hundred and fifty entrepreneur members in the fields of food processing, information technology, pharmaceuticals, printing, packaging, manufacturing, retailing, industries, textiles and the like.

COWE partners with ZDH-SEQUA.

Study tours by delegates of COWE have been undertaken to Australia, Sri Lanka, Germany and Egypt with the support of the ZDH-SEQUA Partnership Programme.

To enable women entrepreneurs to showcase their products and to network with member organisations in India and abroad, COWE organised its first trade fair, COWE Trade Carnival, on 26–28 October 2007, at the Necklace Road in Hyderabad. A sequel to it was organised in 2008.

An automotive park with 25 women entrepreneurs is being developed in the 30 acre allotted to COWE by Government of Andhra Pradesh.

The Andhra Pradesh government allocated 90 acre of land in three different areas in Medak district for COWE to set up exclusive industrial estates for women.

Founder Members

 * Ms Shylaja Reddy
 * Ms Sumankumar
 * Ms. UmaGurkha
 * Ms. Soudhamini
 * Ms. Sandhya Reddy
 * Ms. Girija Reddy

Managing Committee members (2016-2017)

 * Ms Geeta Goti, President
 * Ms R.RamaDevi, Vice President
 * Ms Vandana Maheswary, National Secretary
 * Ms Aluri Lalitha, Secretary
 * Ms Neeraja Reddy, Jt. Secretary
 * Ms Jyostna Cheruvu, Treasurer
 * Ms P.Girija, Past President

News on COWE

 * COWE set up a Business Innovation Centre which is a business-to-business portal aiming to create a networking circle among women entrepreneurs across the globe. The BIC was set up by COWE in collaboration with the University of East London (UEL).
 * COWE set up a food park which was supposedly posed to attract more than INR 200 crores of investment as well as participation from more than a hundred companies.