Rural Women Entrepreneurs

Women Entrepreneurship Cell Launched by Maharashtra Govt to Boost Female Engagement in Startups

In a bid to give a major boost to women entrepreneurship in Maharashtra, the state government has announced of establishing of a woman entrepreneurship cell. The special cell that has been launched will work towards enhancing, guiding and training the female entrepreneurs in startups and different entrepreneurship-related sectors. The news was announced by Maharashtra Employment and Entrepreneurship Minister Nawab Malik. The cell is established to improve the innovation-driven entrepreneurship ecosystem in Maharashtra.

The Minister said that there will now be a “Girl-Student Entrepreneurship Club” at schools and universities levels. In these clubs, appropriate coaching will be given to college students who aspire to be budding entrepreneurs in their career. Further, it’ll additionally create incubators for women entrepreneurs and will help them in organising accelerated packages. The Minister further added that the monetary help might be supplied to start-ups established by these women entrepreneurs.

In December, the state government of Maharashtra decided to provide financial assistance to innovative startups which wish to file for patents. Malik had said that in the first phase of the scheme, 125 to 150 startups will be supported with financial assistance of Rs 2 lakh to Rs 10 lakh. He said in order to survive in a competitive world, it is important for startups and early-stage entrepreneurs to protect their Intellectual Property Rights (IPR).

New Delhi, December 22: In a bid to support rural women entrepreneurs in India, Google India on Monday said it has partnered with Sheroes to support 500 women entrepreneurs by connecting them with experts and enabling access to resources, guidance and mentorship. In 2019, Google had started a small pilot for an accelerator programme for 10 women entrepreneurs in rural India across its Internet Saathi network. The programme by the tech giant is centered on solving for basic business issues like customer acquisition, selling and marketing, digital presence, management and self-confidence.

Google has now joined hands with Sheroes to scale this to 500 rural women entrepreneurs. Under the initiative, the tech giant would connect them with experts, urban women entrepreneurs in the same or adjacent industries and enabling access to the right resources, guidance and mentorship over a six-month period. Kerala-Based Startup Inks Pact With UN Women’s Empowerment Principles to Train, Promote and Empower Women.

In a statement, Google India said within three months, there was a rise in confidence among the participants and the women went back and applied the learning to their businesses. It stated that 80 percent of them started working on their digital presence and one of the participants had a working website within months. In a separate statement, Google said it has launched new insight tools for the travel industry.

In 2015, the Internet Saathi programme was initiated in collaboration with Tata Trusts to bring basic digital literacy skills to women in Indian villages and have them become informal teachers for other women in their communities. Since then, the programme has touched over 30 million women across the country.