Lok Sabha Question No. 3801 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-03-19
Subject: Promotion of Women Entrepreneurs
Ministry: COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY
Asked by: MAUSAM NOOR

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY

## DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL POLICY & PROMOTION

## LOK SABHA

UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3801. TO BE ANSWERED ON MONDAY, THE 19 TH  MARCH, 2018.

## PROMOTION OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS

## 3801.  SHRIMATI MAUSAM NOOR:

Will the Minister of COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY be pleased to state:

## वाणिज् यवव द्योग म त्री

- (a) whether the Government is intending to bring any structural reforms aiming at supporting  and  promoting  women  entrepreneurs  in  both  private  and  public sectors in the country;
- (b) if  so,  whether  the  Government  has  received  any  recommendations  from industry  associations  or  women  entrepreneurs  in  this  regard  and  if  so,  the details thereof; and
- (c) whether the Government is further intending to create awareness and bring visibility  to  the  existing  initiatives  and  leverage  from  all  existing  schemes aimed at supporting women entrepreneurs and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY

## वाणिज् यवव द्योग म त्रालयमेंराज् यम त्री(श्री सी.आर.चौधरी) (SHRI C.R. CHAUDHARY)

- (a): In  order  to  promote  women  entrepreneurs,  Department  of  Science  and Technology,  Government  of  India  is  supporting  initiatives  to  strengthen  the ecosystem for women entrepreneurs particularly in technology domain. These women  entrepreneur  specific  programs  include  identifying  and  awarding, providing knowledge and skills, mentoring and networking, incubation and acceleration support, international exposure etc. to women entrepreneurs. These programs are implemented as a collaborative program with few not-forprofit incubators including FITT -IIT Delhi, NSRCEL- IIM Bangalore  and Zone Startup, Bombay Stock Exchange, Mumbai and  women specific  organizations i.e. AnitaB.Org and WEE Foundation etc.

Further,  Ministry  of  Skill  Development  and  Entrepreneurship  (MSDE)  has launched  a  flagship  scheme  called  Pradhan  Mantri  Yuva  Udyamita  Vikas Abhiyan  (PM-YUVA)  on  9 th November,  2016  to  impart  entrepreneurship education  and  training  to  over  10  lakh  students  throughout  the  country. Although not a gender specific scheme, the scheme with an outlay of Rs. 450

crore for the period 2017-18 to 2021-22 is expected to have 30% students as women. Main objectives of the scheme are to create a favorable ecosystem for entrepreneurship development through education and training, advocacy, easy access to various components of entrepreneurship ecosystem including mentor network, credit, incubator and accelerator, information platform, research etc.

Department of Biotechnology is supporting women under Biotechnology Based Programme for Societal Development. The main objective of the programme is to  promote the use of biotechnological processes and tools for benefit of the women population. The programme aims to create platform for selfemployment and livelihood generation among the target population by diffusion of  proven  and  field-tested  technologies  through  demonstration,  training  and extension  activities.  The  broad  focused  areas  supported  are  agriculture  and allied  sectors,  health,  nutrition  &  sanitation,  value  addition  and  post-harvest management,  agripreneurship  development,  biodiversity conservation  and sustainable utilization of bio-resources.

Biotechnology Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) is also facilitating women empowerment  and  entrepreneurship  through  various  activities which  are provided at Annexure-I.

- (b): No specific recommendations have been received from industry associations or women entrepreneurs in this regard.
- (c): Government has taken several steps to create awareness and bring visibility to the  existing  initiatives  and  leverage  all  existing  schemes  aimed  at  supporting women  entrepreneurs.  Under  the  Startup  India  initiative,  an  online  platform, Startup India online hub has been launched to solve the problem of information asymmetry  and  lack  of  access  to  knowledge.  The  platform  aggregates  and provides  information  on  Government  schemes  with  details  on  the  relevant industry, incentive, eligibility criteria, applications process etc.

Further, NITI Aayog, Government of India in partnership with the Government of the United States of America hosted the 8th Annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) in Hyderabad, India in November, 2017. The Summit brought together  entrepreneurs,  investors,  educators  and  officials  and  presented  a platform to, discuss barriers that women entrepreneurs face while starting and scaling  their  businesses  in  India.  CEO,  NITI  Aayog  announced  setting  up  of Women Entrepreneurship Cell (WEC), in NITI Aayog to promote and support established as well as aspiring women entrepreneurs in India. In view of above, a  Women  Entrepreneurship  Platform  (WEP)  has  been  formed  and  officially launched  on  08.03.2018  in  NITI  Aayog.  It  has  been  decided  that  Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) will work in collaboration with public as well as private sector organizations and help to bring them on a single platform by listing  their  women  focused  entrepreneurship  development  schemes  and programmes,  so  that  women  entrepreneurs  can  derive  benefits  from  such existing  schemes  and  use  networking  and  partner  connect  to  increase  the effectiveness of the existing initiatives in the entrepreneurial space.

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## ANNEXURE-I

## ANNEXURE  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PART  (a)  OF  THE  LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3801 FOR ANSWER ON 19.03.2018

## Activities from BIRAC to support women entrepreneurs

Biotechnology Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) supports following activities for facilitating women empowerment and entrepreneurship:

-  BIRAC runs programs focused on women empowerment such as SPARSH and various other programs under the Grand Challenges India
-  BIRAC has supported  more than  120  women  entrepreneurs  across  its  various schemes (BIG, SBIRI, BIPP, PACE etc.)
-  Additional high skilled women workforce of the tune of 150-200 has been created as part of employment generated under BIRAC supported projects.
-  BIRAC has also supported the Women Biotech Park at Chennai, which provides incubation  space  and  mentoring  (business,  IP,  legal)  specifically  to  women students/scientists/entrepreneurs.  The  Biotech  Park  also  organizes  workshops for creating awareness amongst women.
-  BIRAC  recently  announced  a  woman  focused  entrepreneurship  award  called WInER Award (Women In Entrepreneurial Research) ,  managed by TiE-Delhi on behalf of BIRAC. Under this award program, 15 women entrepreneurs have been  awarded  with  INR  5  lakhs  each  along  with  other  benefits  including  an opportunity to go through an intensive accelerator programme at Golden Jubilee Women Biotech Park, Chennai.
-  BIRAC has also provided several showcasing opportunities to women entrepreneurs at national level conferences.

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