These products have been sent for testing in a lab. Once they get it positive, the women of Gonguluru village would start exporting these products to Japan.

Sangareddy: As a first step towards selling the products made by the Self Help Group (SHG) women of Gonguluru village in Pulkal Mandal, a five-member team of Suzuki Innovation Centre (SIC) of Japan had collected the products like handmade soaps and cold-pressed oils from Gongulur cottage industry.

These products have been sent for testing in a lab. Once they get it positive, the women of Gonguluru village would start exporting these products to Japan.

The SIC was set up by Japan government at the Indian Institute of Technology-Hyderabad (IIT-H) as part of Japan India collaboration. The SIC would work for stronger relations between India and Japan. Since Sarvodaya Grama Seva Foundation (SGSF), which had supported the Gonguluru women setting up a cottage industry called Sarvodhaya Women Entrepreneurs a year ago, had also collaborated with IIT-H, the SIC came to know about the work of Gonguluru women.

They have contacted the women expressing their interest in making a direct visit to the industry. Following it, a team of five SIC members led by the Shunsuke Aoki had visited the Gonguluru unit on Saturday.

After hours of examination of the functioning, premises, raw materials, and interaction with the SHG women, the team had collected a few products and sent them for testing. The SHG had achieved a Rs 60 lakh turnover in the first year by selling its products which were sold under Manjeera brand name. Speaking to Telangana Today, the SGSF founder Dr Sudhakar Nayak said the SHG women will certainly get good profits if the SIC approved the products for export to Japan. (eom)