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 all the 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 President 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.
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Received appreciation certificate by District Legal Services Authority (DLSA), Ambala, for Social Work on 26th Jan, 2023.
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Punam Gupta has been nominated for Padma Shri 2023.
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Delivered lecture on “Entrepreneurship” as a Guest of MSME in Govt. PG College, Ambala Cantt, on 15th Feb 2022.
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Awarded Second Rank by FSSAI on 13.1.2021 as Trainer all over India Performer
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Awarded as Health Care Startup by Global Startup Summit and Awards 2021 for Immuno Life Pvt Ltd. On 30th Jan, 2021.
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Best Award for Honour (FSSAI Trainer) by Tejaswani Sangam International Award-2021 on 8th Mar 2021.
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Selected in NIFTEM Startup Incubation Program (N-SIP) for her Startup, Immuno Life Pvt Ltd. On 19th Mar 2021.
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Best Healthcare Startup Award by Startup India for Immuno Life Pvt. Ltd. on 19th Mar, 2021.
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Food Safety Mitra (Authorized Consultant) by FSSAI.
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Various webinars were conducted for FSSAI, importance to Famers Group, CSIO, Food business operators and a much bigger group of FOOD organizations.
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Nari Shakti Award from Delhi.
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Award of Best Organizer from Rab Di Mehar by Pharmaxial Council-Dr Dinesh Dua.
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Award of excellence in Drug & Food Safety Services by The LOQMAN & Director, Institute of Entrepreneurship Development and Govt. of Uttar Pradesh.
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Given a lecture on Entrepreneur’s Journey in a webinar organized by Dayal Singh College, Karnal (Haryana) on 13th Jan 2021.
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Corona Warrior Awards were distributed to organizations such as PGI, Chandigarh, FDA Haryana, Doctors, Health Workers and Front line workers in ten days.
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NGO ‘Together We Can Foundation’ got honoured by PGIMER, CHD, for its role in awakening people about Organ Donation and Body Donation with the help of its Nukad Nataks performed in Ambala, Haryana.
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Awarded by the Famous Chief Editor of INDIA TV Mr Rajat Sharma, for the Indian CSR Awards organized in Gurgaon.
Making Her Mark
Born in 1973 into a middle-class family, Punam did her post-graduation with different diplomas in Computer Science and Food Nutrition, Mass Communication, Journalism and LLB. After that, she opened a computer centre and a consultancy firm and became an entrepreneur. Today, she has more than 25 years of experience in Pharma, Food and other manufacturing Sectors.
She began her career with auditing work in ISO. After that, in 2011, she joined FSSAI, which was established in India. Punam is certified as a FoSTaC trainer, and her company Quality Services and Training Pvt Ltd is empanelled as a training partner on the FoSTaC portal. “In 2020, I got awarded by the FoSTaC team for conducting the second highest number of training sessions during 2019 in all over India.”
Moreover, in 2015, 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.” In 2020, at the time of COVID–19, Punam established her firm, Immuno Life Pvt Ltd, by considering the various needs of society to serve them with some high-quality immunity-boosting Ayurvedic products.
According to Punam, her motivation and keen interest in business and entrepreneurship inspired her extraordinary saga of four decades. “From a young age, I always wanted to start my own business, where there would be no time limitation. I still have that same hunger for success,” she states.
The Saga of Success
Sharing the many challenges surmounted by her, she says that initially, the first and foremost challenge she faced was the dominance of men and the patriarchal culture in society. “As a woman, I 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, I am facing one more issue, i.e. lack of conveniences of customers towards our organization, but I am sure that I will overcome this issue as soon as possible,” she says.
She overcame all these issues with her professional values and qualities and is greatly admired by clients. “In my opinion, our clients are highly impressed by our company’s management skills, knowledge and dedication towards our work. Moreover, we always try to perform our tasks in the given period. We 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, we try to enhance our products’ quality by considering our clients’ reviews and ratings,” she adds.
Lunar Full Wisdom
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,” she concludes.
