Lok Sabha Question No. 5288 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-04-03
Subject: Incubation Centres for Women
Ministry: SKILL DEVELOPMENT AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Asked by: Midhun Reddy

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF SKILL DEVELOPMENT AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO- 5288

ANSWERED ON 03.04.2023

## INCUBATION CENTRES FOR WOMEN

5288: SHRI P.V. MIDHUN REDDY:

Will  the  Minister  of  SKILL  DEVELOPMENT  AND  ENTREPRENEURSHIP  be  pleased  to state:

- (a) the details of the incubation centres for women-Ied businesses created so far;
- (b) the number of incubation centres launched under the Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP);
- (c) the number of beneficiaries registered to the WEP;
- (d) whether there are any plans to set up more incubation centres to boost women-led businesses; and
- (e) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER

THE  MINISTER  OF  STATE  IN  THE  MINISTRY  OF  SKILL  DEVELOPMENT  AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

(SHRI RAJEEV CHANDRASEKHAR)

(a) The National Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development (NIESBUD),  Noida,  and  the  Indian  Institute  of  Entrepreneurship  (IIE),  Guwahati,  are autonomous  institutions under  the aegis of the Ministry of Skill  Development  and Entrepreneurship  have  set  up  incubation  centres  to  support  trainees,  including  women trainees. NIESBUD, Noida has setup incubation centres for Fashion designing, Beauty and Wellness,  and  Food  Processing.  IIE,  Guwahati  has  setup  incubation  centres  for  Food Processing  Livelihood  Business  Incubation  (LBI)  at  IIE,  Guwahati  campus  and  Dairy Processing Livelihood Business Incubation (LBI) at Sivasagar, Assam.

The  details  of  incubation  centres  of  other  Ministries/Departments  for  development  of entrepreneurship including development of women entrepreneurs are as given below:

- i.  Department of Science & Technology (DST), Ministry Of Science And Technology, Government  of  India, through  its  Technology  Business  Incubator  (TBI)  program  has supported  setting  up  of  startup  incubators  in  and  around  academic  setups.  Some  of  the TBIs are focused to support women led start-ups across different technology domains. DST has supported setting up of TBI with emphasis to support Women led start-up is at Indira Gandhi Delhi Technological University for Women, Delhi; Sri Padmawati Mahila Vishwavidyalaya, Tirupati; Sri Vishnu College of Engineering, Bhiwavaram.

ii. Incubator  component  under  DAY-NRLM,  Department  of  Rural  Development, Ministry  of  Rural  Development,  Government  of  India The  National  Rural  Economic Transformation Project (NRETP), a sub Scheme under DAY-NRLM has launched Incubator component  under non-Farm livelihood initiative by on boarding of dedicated Incubators who will  work  closely  with  the  State  Rural  Livelihood  Missions  (SRLMs)  to  incubate  growing micro-enterprises  and  facilitate  their  self-sustenance,  thereby  creating  local  employment opportunities.   The  objective  of  the  initiative  is  to  pilot  strategies  to  scale  up 150 existing women-owned/ women-led growth-oriented enterprises (from SHGs ecosystem) in a State and  create  models  for  replicability.  The  enterprises  supported under  incubator  should  be from manufacturing and  service  sectors.  As  of  February  2023,  Incubator  component  has been  approved  and  under  implementation in  four  States  Assam,  Bihar,  Karnataka,  and West Bengal.

iii. The  National  Institute  of  Agricultural  Extension  Management  (MANAGE) was established  as  an  autonomous  Institute  at  Hyderabad  by  the  Ministry  of  Agriculture  & Farmers Welfare (MA&FW), Government of India to strengthen the Agricultural Extension System in the country to address the challenges in a rapidly growing and diverse agriculture sector.  MANAGE  -  Centre  for  Innovation  and  Agripreneurship  (CIA)  is  one  of  the  AgriBusiness  Incubators  as  a  Knowledge  Partner  for  the  MA&FW  under  the  Rashtriya  Krishi Vikas Yojana - Remunerative Approaches for Agriculture and Allied Sectors Rejuvenation (RKVY-RAFTAAR) scheme promoting Agripreneurs and women-lead startups.

iv. Innovations  for  Defence  Excellence  (iDEX),  Department  of  Defence  Production, Ministry  of  Defence,  Government  of  India, iDEX  framework  was  launched  by  the Government  of  India  with  the  aim  to  foster  innovation  and  technology  development  in Defence  and  Aerospace  Sector  by  engaging  Industries  including  MSMEs,  startups, individual innovators, R&D  institutes and  academia  to promote  self reliance.  iDEX framework  is  gender  neutral.  There  are  19  incubation  centres  in  the  country,  which  are engaged with iDEX to support the development of startup ecosystem in the Defence sector.

(b)  Women  Entrepreneurship  Platform  (WEP)  is  an  aggregator  platform  that  showcases initiatives  of  Government,  corporate,  non-profit  and  international  entities  for  promoting women  entrepreneurship.  It  provides  relevant  information  to  women  entrepreneurs  and prospective  entrepreneurs  through  a  unique  smart  match-make  feature.  WEP  as  on 28.03.2023 provides details of 463 incubators and  112 accelerators that can be accessed through the weblink: https://wep.gov.in/access-finance?slug=incubation-and-acceleration.

(c) The number of beneficiaries registered on WEP as on 28.03.2023 are 29,439.

(d)  &  (e)  North  Eastern Council  (NEC), Ministry of  Development  of North Eastern Region has appointed IIE, Guwahati as nodal Institute to Establish four Incubation Centres in North Eastern Region (NER) States of Assam, Manipur, Nagaland, and Tripura over a period of three years.

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