Entrepreneurship is the only solution to the growing employment among rural youth. It helps to generate employment for number of people within their own social system. This is more beneficial for women in rural areas as it enable them to add to the family income while taking care of their farm, home and livestock centered tasks. Rural women possess abundant resources to take up an enterprise. She has the benefit of easy availability of farm and livestock based raw material and other resources. Hence she can effectively undertake both production and processing oriented enterprises. But to be a successful entrepreneur, women should process certain fundamental qualities beside the support of the family and government organizations. Entrepreneurial development among rural women helps to enhance their person capabilities but also decision making status in the family and society as a whole.

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Sixty at risk of coronary heart disease subjects in the age group of 40-60 years were selected from Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. The subjects were equally divided into three groups i.e. E 1, E 2 and C respectively. Flaxseed in powdered form was supplemented at the levels of 5 and 10 g to E 1 and E 2 groups respectively for a period of two months, while C group was not supplemented. The effects of flaxseed powder were studied on nutrient and hematological profile of the subjects. After the supplementation, significant (p<0.05) decrease in the energy intake was reported in E 2 group while protein intake significantly (p<0.05) increased in E 2 group and total fat intake reduced significantly (p<0.05) in all three groups. Decrease in energy intake could be due to flaxseed supplementation which is good source of soluble fibre thus gives feeling of fullness and reduced the food intake which ultimately decreased the energy intake. The mean intake of vitamin B 2 , B 3 and vitamin C decreased in all the three groups, though it was nonsignificant. Further, an increase in haemoglobin was reported in experimental groups which could be due to presence of protein, copper, folic acid and vitamin B 6 in flaxseed which helped in hemopoesis and thus improved iron status.

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The plant material and their products are being used for health care since ages. There is a vast array of knowledge among women regarding their use. But this knowledge is being lost due to non transfer to the future generations which is mainly due to more of stress being laid on instant medication. With fewer women using plants for maternal health, the future generation cannot observe there use pattern. In this context the present study was an attempt to understand the status of these medicinal plants in term of the awareness of rural women. The data collected from three districts of Punjab reveal that one third of the women were not aware that six of the twenty seven plants selected for the study were used for maternal health care . Three out of the remaining plants were known to less than fifty percent of the women. Some plants were known for their use but women were not aware of the purposes for which these were used during maternal health care, hence a significant difference was observed between the number of women aware of the use and purpose of use of these plant. All the women were aware of the plants like Chebulic myrobalan, Turmeric, Black pepper, Indian lilac, Dry ginger and Arecanut on both the parameters but some like Touch me not and Indian seena were known to less than ten per cent of the women. A comprehensive strategies need to be planned to for intra social dissemination of the information so that this rich heritage is not lost.