Mrs. Shanta Banskota Koirala holds the position of Director at Kanchanjangha Tea Estate and Research Centre (KTERC), leads planting and processing organic tea, herbs and spices in tea garden and factory at the remote hill district of Phidim, Nepal. She organizes small farmers for organic farming thereby contributing to improving quality of life by increasing income in an environmentally sustainable way; a total of 418 small farmers have been developed;the products have received NAASA, JAS, USDA certifications including FLO. There are 150 workers with 85% women for the operation of the tea garden and factory. KTERC has establishedworkers’ cooperative;savings activities by women; scholarship programme to the children of workers; cow bank project;skill training to the economically weaker communities for producing tea packaging boxes made from local bamboo; training to develop women entrepreneurs; packaging, labelling and marketing knowledge and skill to women;developing and promoting eco-tea tourism including local communities.

Mrs. Banskota is Director at Shangrila Agro World Pvt. Ltd. that takes care of processing, packaging and international marketing of organic tea, herbs and spices- the products are exported to Japan, Germany, USA, Canada, Gulf countries.

Expansion of the local business is taken care of by Banskota Group of Industries in Kathmandu where Shanta is a Co-Director.

Mrs. Banskota is also a Proprietor of Panchthar Juice that produces orange juice from the organic certified orange produced by the farmers in the Panchthar District;

Shanta Banskota Koirala represents private sector at national level policy level discussions in the tea sector as well as other areas of concern related to women entrepreneurship. She is Central Secretary at Central Women Entrepreneurs Committee of the Federation of Nepal Cottage and Small Industries. She has been crucial in advocating and lobbying for women friendly policies in agriculture business sector;coordinating training to develop women entrepreneurs;developing and strengthening national and international networks for business expo. She has also been members of high level evaluation committees for the evaluation of exhibitors expos.

A Life Member of Federation of Women Entrepreneurs Association of Nepal, Shanta is a Sub-committee Member of central for International Private Enterprise looking after policy issues at central government level, formation of women’s group and assisting in production, labelling, pricing and marketing. She is also an Executive Member of Women Entrepreneurs Association of Nepal, Executive Member of Association for Overseas Technical Scholarship (Nepal AOTS Alumni Society) where she leads the Women Sub-Committee and coordinates policy discussions by creating women’s groups, identifies raining needs and programmes to capacitate them, coordinates with various women entrepreneurs’ organizations

With a Master degree in Sociology Shanta has consolidated her corporate business knowledge through series of national and international trainings, conferences and exposuressuch as Corporate Management, Good Agricultural Practice, Value Chain, Marketing, Leadership, Innovative Agricultural Extension Systems to Improve Farm Productivity and Income, etc.

Contributions of Shanta Banskota Koirala have been recognized through various awards by many public, private and social organizations. She has received awards such as National Women Service Award, National Award on Tea Development, Special Awards in National Expo,Nepal Women Entrepreneurship Award,