Nepal, Feb. 1 -- Shyam Badan Shrestha worked as a teacher for 13 years, teaching Science and occasionally Nepali too. During those days, whenever she was done with work she would start knitting or weaving. That was how she would unwind after a long day at work. In 1984, she took her hobby a bit further and started Nepal Knotcraft Centre, initially operating from a small room at home.

According to Shrestha, when she started out there weren't many women who were involved in the business sector in Nepal. She recalls two years into her startup exhibiting her products that ranged from furniture to ethnic dolls at Hotel Shankar in Kathmandu at a program organized by the UN Women and American Women. "There were only two women exhibiting their p...