A pearl fishery is being established on the Malabar coast. Expert pearl divers are coming to Mysore from foreign lands. They will be with us for a short while until our own people can be trained. Believe me, there is glitter and romance in those pearls—and there is wealth and profit in them. Government is prepared to subsidise your training the youth in this field of work. You will also be assisted in case you suffer any financial losses in the pioneering years. Can I count on your cooperation?

There are thousands of girls and men working in the textile mills of this state under conditions which are almost a guarantee for tuberculosis

In my view, if a village can cultivate silk worms, the peasants should spin silk thread and wear silk clothing, even for work. There is no need for them to buy striped cotton “country clothes” and obi from traders from the city. But, of course, the villagers cannot do this. The villagers sell their cocoons and charcoal to the city and then must turn around and buy inferior cotton and hair ornaments, losing the money they earned to the city in exchange. The temptation, money, is there, and they sell their cocoons and charcoal in order to get it. Merchants from the cities come into the villages to take advantage of them. A peddler bundles up boxes of goods which he carries on his back into a village. [...] Girls buy collars and hair ornaments without telling their fathers. Mothers come with cocoons or hand-spun raw silk or s, or still covered with earth and wrapped in straw, and exchange these things for something worth only a third as much. Year in and year out, villagers have the fruit of their hard labor stolen by such people.

I know that Lagos State has many skill acquisition centres and that graduates of the centres are empowered with kits and some token. But if you train a woman as a florist, you must equip the woman with necessary kits. A lot of them have been accused of selling their kits. It is true. If I am not trained to be a hair dresser and you give me a kit for hair dresser, I will sell it.

It is primarily meant to get sourced from Nyagatare and nearby milk sheds like Gicumbi but mobilisation is done all over the country to increase milk production to be able to satisfy both the milk powder plant and the existing milk market

Y: Do you bear in mind, that in breeding the silkworms, we cause more to come into existence than would otherwise be the case?
Z: Though I think we are unauthorized to destroy or prevent life, life does not appear so desirable that we should perform any action for the sole purpose of producing it. Man does not possess sufficient knowledge, to do either act with design.

Over the last 20 years India’s milk production has tripled; it has increased from 20 million tonnes per annum to 60 million tonnes per annum.... Dairying has become the largest rural employment scheme in this country. And the government has had very little to do with it, even though we are a government institution.

This Sultan has an embroidery house in which 4,000 silk-workers who make different kinds of cloth for robes of honour and garments and gifts in addition to the stuff which is imported from China, Iraq and Alexandria. The Sultan distributes every year 2,00,000 complete garments, namely 1,00,000 in spring and 1,00,000, in autumn. The garments, of spring are mostly from Alexandrian stuffs made in Alexandria; the garments of summer are all of silk made in the factory in Delhi and stuff from China and Iraq. He distributes (them) in Khanqahs and hospices. The Sultan has 4,000 embroiderers who manufacture the brocades for the harem and manufacture things for his use which he bestows upon the officers of the state and presents (them) to their wives…

Spiders draw just enough silk out of their bowels to catch those half-dozen flies they need to feed themselves and their loved ones; but the rich make silk and silk and silk. Nothing can stop them. Their houses are stuffed with it. Their banks are stuffed with it, and it’s not out of their bowels they make it, but out of the bowels and lungs and eyeballs of others.

Tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills, all the night through, in the deafening noise of the spindles and the looms spinning and weaving cotton and wool, silks and ribbons for us to buy.

The foundation has established an entrepreneur school which has over 9 departments, so we have trained people in other departments like fashion design, making of soap and cream, mechanical engineering and business management.

We have empowered many women in Cross River. We are going to the North East then the other geo-political zones with our empowerment programmes. We will train the women on poultry, fishing, tailoring, soap-making, among other vocations.

Since we are developing a lot of small and medium-sized enterprises, we are trying to make all these industries free by the private sector to increase productivity nationwide to make things for domestic use and export, and at the same time create jobs so that there is no unemployment.

We can grow SMEs industries in our country for sustainable economic growth, employment and underlined innovations through efficiency.