Empowering Shepreneurs: Key Programs Supporting Women in Entrepreneurship

The Indian government launched the Startup India initiative on January 16, 2016, with the aim of fostering innovation, startups, and promoting investments in the country’s startup ecosystem, as stated by Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Shri Som Parkash, in a Rajya Sabha response.

The Indian government has implemented various programs to achieve specific objectives, leading to an increase in the number of Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) recognized startups to 1,17,254 as of December 31, 2023.

These startups have created over 12.42 lakh direct jobs, generating significant economic impact. There is at least one recognized startup in every State and Union Territory (UT) across 80% of districts.

For the last five years, the number of DPIIT recognized startups and direct jobs created are listed in Annexure-I and Annexure-II respectively. Since the launch of the Startup India initiative in 2016, 55,816 DPIIT recognized startups have at least one-woman directors.

Programs Implemented to promote Women Entrepreneurship:

1. To promote flow of both equity and debt to women led startups, 10% of the fund in the Fund of Funds for Startups Scheme operated by Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) is reserved for women-led startups.
2. Women Capacity Development Programme (WING) is a unique Capacity Development Program for women-led startups, to identify and support both aspiring and established women entrepreneurs in their startup journeys. The workshops are open to variety of business sectors including Tech, Construction, Product, Machine, Food, Agriculture, Education, etc. The workshops serve as a platform for emerging women entrepreneurs and other stakeholders to discuss the key challenges facing women entrepreneurs. WING workshops create a conducive environment to share best practices and experiences in overcoming challenges and to gain insights learned from the business models adopted in the Indian context. 
3. A Virtual Incubation Program for Women Entrepreneurs was conducted in collaboration with Zone Startups to support women-led tech startups with pro-bono acceleration support.
4. Startup India Hub: A webpage dedicated to women entrepreneurs has been designed on the Startup India portal. The page includes various policy measures for women entrepreneurs by both Central and State Governments.
5. ASCEND Startup Workshop Series and Women for Startups Workshops: The Government organized a series of startup workshops – ASCEND (Accelerating Startup Calibre & Entrepreneurial Drive), for the entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs, and students from North-eastern region. In addition, the workshops are conducted with a specific focus on women entrepreneurs across the north-eastern states. The workshops have witnessed participation from ecosystem stakeholders such as government officials, startups, aspiring entrepreneurs, investors, academic institutions, etc.
6. Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP): The Government launched WEP in 2018 as an aggregator platform with the aim to overcome information asymmetry in the women entrepreneurial ecosystem. By showcasing all existing initiatives and providing domain knowledge it works towards empowering both prospective and present women entrepreneurs.
7. SuperStree Podcast: With a vision to inspire a greater number of women across all regions in India to become entrepreneurs, the SuperStree video podcast series has been launched on women in the Indian Startup Ecosystem. The podcast spreads awareness related to innovations from women and to further strengthen women entrepreneurship in the country.
8. Through various awareness programmes and capacity building programmes organized by the Government, and through print media and social media platforms, the Government also creates awareness about the existing schemes which support micro, small and medium entrepreneurs, including women entrepreneurs.
9. BIRAC (under BioNEST and EYUVA schemes) has set up dedicated Bioincubation centres for women entrepreneurs that provide incubation space and mentoring (business, Intellectual Property, legal) specifically to women students/scientists/entrepreneurs as well as support women Self Help Groups (SHGs). 

10. BIRAC’s WInER Award fellowship (Women In Entrepreneurial Research), in partnership with TiE-Delhi NCR: Under this award programme, women entrepreneurs working on ideas that impact large sections of the society are provided financial support along with other benefits including mentoring, handholding, an opportunity to go through an intensive accelerator programme. 
11. Under the Startup Accelerators of MeitY for Product Innovation, Development and Growth (SAMRIDH) scheme, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) supports a dedicated women-led accelerator program hosted by Zone Startups.
12. Under the Technology Incubation and Development of Entrepreneurs (TIDE) Scheme of MeitY, financial assistance is provided to Institutions of Higher Learning to strengthen their Technology Incubation Centres for enabling young entrepreneurs to create technology startup companies for commercial exploitation of technologies developed by them. 
13. The States’ Startup Ranking on support to startup ecosystems is primarily an exercise to identify good practices across all the Indian states. The evaluation includes a specific provision to gauge the formulation and implementation of policies and special incentives to promote women-led startups in each state. The particular action point has witnessed active engagement and thereon reporting of measures undertaken by participating States and UTs.
14. To identify the depth, quality and spread of innovation, inclusivity and diversity, and entrepreneurship in country, the Government instituted the National Startup Awards (NSA). NSA recognizes and promotes startups across 20 sectors and special categories. All four editions of the NSA (2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023) have featured a special category and award for women-led startups.
15. Ministry of MSME has taken several steps to support women owned Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the country to increase women’s participation. The details of the programs implemented in this direction are as under:

1. Special drives for registration of women owned MSMEs under Udyam Registration Portal have been undertaken.
2. Various fiscal incentives are provided to women entrepreneurs under the Credit Guarantee Scheme for Micro and Small Enterprises.
3. To encourage entrepreneurship among women, the Ministry also implements a number of programs such as:

• ‘Skill Upgradation & Mahila Coir Yojana’ under Coir Vikas Yojana, which is an exclusive training program aimed at skill development of women artisans engaged in the Coir sector.
• The Ministry also implements Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), which is a credit-linked subsidy programme aimed at generating self-employment opportunities through establishment of micro enterprises in the non-farm sector by helping traditional artisans and rural/urban unemployed youth. Under the scheme, women are provided higher subsidy vis-à-vis non special category.
• Participation of women entrepreneurs in trade fairs under Procurement & Marketing Support Scheme is subsidized.

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