And we are proud to share that Namaste Switzerland and its cofounding team of 4 women were felicitated with the STREEconomy Awards 2023 on October 28, 2023. A quick look at the event and a brief chat with Shweta Saxena, founder of Woman TV who has initiated these international awards.
It came as a surprise when I was contacted by Shweta Saxena – a former Swiss resident who had moved back to India and started her journey afresh as an entrepreneur with her non-commercial digital channel in India called Woman TV. She wanted to present an award of recognition to ‘Namaste Switzerland’ and the founders.
The proud and humbled journalist in me thanked her for the recognition. After all, we had created and established a virtual space for the Indian diaspora in Switzerland in 2017. It was our way to feature the success stories that came from some hardships that trailing spouses faced. At least, that’s how the online magazine started.
In time, we have come to be the one-stop-shop for connecting, informing and integrating the diaspora into Switzerland with over 1.5 million views (and growing), and a genuine and relatively good following on Facebook as well.
Being an infotainment platform, I shot some questions at her for the sake of information. Here’s a brief interview with Shweta Saxena, a TEDx speaker and multiple local award winner in India herself.
On WomanTV and its purpose?
Shweta: WomanTV is a non-commercial digital channel that I launched in 2018. Its purpose is to ‘brand’ Indian women; especially entrepreneurs across the globe, and to bring to limelight their power stories and business journeys. We do this through exclusive video interviews and non-commercial felicitations.
Diving deeper…
Shweta: I have pledged to spread awareness about financial rights and freedom awareness through STREEconomy Biz Fest which I’ve conducted in India, Thailand, UAE & Switzerland so far. It will soon take place in France, Netherlands, Australia, USA & UK.
As the part of pledge, I first made myself financially ‘atma nirbhar’ (self-sufficient) by establishing two startups: ‘BrandsMaker’ which is into curating branding events and digital content creation; and ‘InDevi’ which sells handpainted eco art bags, supporting the underprivileged women artists and karigars from rural West Bengal and Maharashtra. InDevi financially supports Woman TV which is a non-profit media channel for multicultural women across the world.
And what about the awards?
Shweta: These STREEconomy Awards are to sincerely honour and celebrate the financial struggle and success stories of Indian women, who are either creating impact through their jobs or are entrepreneurs in their own league. We believe that any form of recognition brings more attention and respect to a person… this is extremely important. It takes a lot for women to make a mark; especially when they are away from their homeland and in a foreign country. Our team carries out in-depth research on the internet, social media and through various Indian Associations to tap and shortlist candidates as awardees. I feel there is a little bit of me in every ‘She’! And she’s worth the recognition!
On that note, we at Namaste Switzerland congratulate all the Indian awardees in Switzerland – some of whom we have featured right here on Namaste Switzerland and others who are our esteemed writers! It’s time for us to all stand out, and stand together, paving the way for future women change makers!
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed belong solely to the content provider. Namaste Switzerland does not undertake any financial/reputational/legal/misrepresentational impact or other obligations/ liabilities that may arise from the content.
