Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Can Ivanka Trump get her words converted into action?' that was published in Newsband

Can Ivanka Trump get her words converted into action?

The Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) in Hyderabad had the extra splash of glamour which came undoubtedly from Ivanka Trump, who’s famously the First Daughter and special advisor to her father, Donald Trump. Ivanka  flashed smiles in all directions and made it a point to make all the right crowd-pleasing statements.

Ivanka who used to run a fashion and jewellery business, has smartly positioned herself as the president’s representative on women’s issues. She spoke about the ways to boost female entrepreneurs in developing countries.

Ivanka’s trip to Hyderabad is certainly a sign of warming relations between India and the US. Ivanka’s visit has reaffirmed India’s stronger ties. Ivanka Trump stresses on fuelling women-led business growth, equitable laws for women entrepreneurs, and closing of the gender entrepreneurship gap which could grow global GDP by up to 2 per cent.

She said that despite the soaring rate of female entrepreneurs, women still face steep obstacles to starting, owning, and growing their businesses. She spoke about the Fuelling of the growth of women-led businesses economy.

Ivanka is leading the US contingent at the Summit themed ‘Women First, Prosperity for All’. Women, according to Ivanka, can help lead the way in closing this gap and ushering in a new age of greater prosperity. According to her, there is need to ensure that women entrepreneurs have access to capital, access to networks and mentors, and access to equitable laws.

While her trip to India has been hogging media limelight, the question asked is whether her message of empowering poor women matches her actions. She has been accused of failing to use her leadership role to call out labour and human rights abuses.

Ivanka did highlight what the US is doing to reverse the trend. She said that the US Small Business Administration, for example, has increased its lending to women by over 500 million dollars this year alone. She assured that her Administration was striving to promote greater opportunity for women around the world, both through our domestic reforms and our international initiatives.