India has introduced three significant initiatives to foster women’s entrepreneurship in celebration of International Women’s Day on 8th March.
Leading up to International Women’s Day events, Narayan Rane, Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), highlighted that India now boasts 14 million MSMEs led by women.
Among the new initiatives to promote women’s entrepreneurship is a mentorship platform named the “Mentorship Scheme” under the Ministry’s Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP).
Another programme, the “Award-to-Reward” (ATR), aims to propel women-led MSMEs to the next level by providing capacity-building support through the WEP.
The third initiative is a national campaign urging women-led MSMEs to register on the government portal, “Udyam,” translating to “enterprise” in English from several Indian languages. Registration and certification for MSMEs owned by women are now free of charge.
Rane emphasized the establishment of the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) by the government, honoring women entrepreneurs benefiting from the scheme and those performing exceptionally well, according to WAM.
