18th Sptember 2023, Mumbai: A full moon’s night must wait for a fourteen-day cycle to complete to enlighten the world with its pleasant and cool rays rejuvenating the entire nocturnal living universe. Similarly, however mighty the women’s entrepreneurial spirits are, they must patiently toil to break through the darkest and hardest wall of social prejudice, steep inequality and widespread gender bias.
Nonetheless, from the dawn of human consciousness, reflecting the universally immortal force of energy in their very spirits, women have shown time and again that with their steely nerves, mountainous resolves, constant determination, total devotion, continuous perseverance and never-ending patience, they will claim what is theirs by righteous fight. Punam Gupta is the perfect example of a modern-day businesswoman in this regard.
Enlightening an Era
Along with being the Director of Immuno Life Pvt Ltd, Punam is also the Founder of Octa Life Sciences, Director of Quality Services & Training Pvt. Ltd. and the Founder of Together We Can Foundation.
In her more than two-and-a-half decades of a professional and entrepreneurial career, Punam has received numerous awards and accolades.
Received appreciation certificate by District Legal Services Authority (DLSA), Ambala, for Social Work, awarded Second Rank by FSSAI as Trainer all over India Performer.
Her NGO ‘Together We Can Foundation ‘got honored by PGIMER, CHD for its role in awakening people about Organ Donation and Body Donation with the help of its Nukkad Nataks performed in Ambala, Haryana, awarded by the Famous Chief Editor of INDIA TV Mr. Rajat Sharma, for the Indian CSR Award organized in Gurgaon, received award from Mr. Sunil Gavaskar, Cricket Champion, Mr. Sonu Sood and Mr. Suniel Shetty for her contributions in social work. She recently got award for social work by Honorable Governor of India Mr. Bandaru Dattatreya ji.
Today, she has more than 30 years of experience in Pharma, Food and other manufacturing Sectors.
She started Quality Services and Training Pvt. Ltd. in 2011 which is an empanel training partner of FSSAI.
She started her other unit Octa Life Sciences, under PMEGP Scheme and set up its manufacturing unit in 2017 with the production of Animal Feed Supplements and Ayurvedic Products. Apart from these businesses, she has conceived an NGO named ‘Together We Can Foundation, intending to serve people. She informs, “Our NGO works for Food Safety. Animal Welfare, Organ Donation, Employment Generation and other issues of society like Cyber Security and Safety.” In 2020, at the time of COVID-19, Punam Gupta established her Immuno Life Pvt Ltd, by considering the various needs of society to serve them with some high-quality immunity-boosting Ayurvedic Products
From a young age, she always wanted to start her own business, where there would be no time limitation. She still has that same hunger for success.
According to Punam Gupta, her motivation and keen interest in business and entrepreneurship inspired her extraordinary saga of four decades.
She has faced dominance of men and the patriarchal culture in society. “As a woman, she had faced this problem constantly in many work sectors.”
Society does not want women to perform in front or ahead of men, no matter how hardworking and dedicated they are in their work. Apart from that, another problem that she faced was financial issues. At the start of her business, she did not have enough funds to ensure all the operations in her work. “Currently, she is facing one more issue, i.e. lack of conveniences of customers towards our organization, but she is sure that she will overcome this issue as soon as possible.
She overcame all these issues with her professional values and qualities and is greatly admired by clients. “In her opinion, clients are highly impressed by her company’s management skills, knowledge and dedication towards our work. She believe that is the main quality which attracts clients towards our organization.” Another reason she finds that their customers’ value is their products’ quality. “With almost every batch, she try to enhance products’ quality by considering our clients’ reviews and ratings.
According to Punam, their USPs are product quality and high-quality packaging material. They also have one Patented product, Tulsi Nasya Inhaler,’ which contains natural oil and has preventive and curative measures. Another USP is their dedication to serving society.
In her experienced advice to the budding aspirants willing to enter the business world, Punam wants to share some things that helped her during her journey. Dedication and Hard Work. “If they perform their work with complete dedication and hard work, they will surely succeed. Moreover, I advise them to take benefit from the Govt. Schemes related to self-employment can solve the issue of funding to some extent.”
On envisioning brand Immuno and Octa Life Sciences’ operations with the emerging technologies and automated tools that are revolutionizing the business world by enabling innovations, Punam says she always ensures to modify their machines and packaging materials. They also keep enhancing their products’ quality with proper research and management. “We always tried to find the best vendors across the nation which provide us the best quality raw materials.