Author: Intern - Yamini Gurjar
The Government of India’s Policy Think Tank, Niti Aayog released a Report – Moving The Needle – The Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) in March 2021. The Report deals with the Women Entrepreneurship Platform which was formally launched on 8 March 2018, dedicated to promoting and supporting existing and aspiring female entrepreneurs in India.
According to the Report, the majority of WEP users, 68 percent%, have sole proprietorships or private limited corporations as their business structure. Just a small percentage of WEP client users run other forms of businesses, with 11% running joint projects, 8% running limited liability partnerships, and about 3% running section 8 corporations and only 43% of WEP user-run businesses are registered businesses.
Three guiding pillars inform WEP’s 360-degree view of female entrepreneurship in the Report- 1) Ichha Shakti – to motivate aspiring entrepreneurs to kick-start their enterprise; 2) Gyan Shakti – to provide knowledge and ecosystem support; 3) Karma Shakti – to provide hands-on support in launching and scaling ventures.
As explained in the Report, WEP connects with women entrepreneurs through its online platform, which provides them with useful information and services. Three modules on the platform that enable WEP partner organisations to host content in their areas of expertise are – 1) Website’s Community Module: Enable entrepreneurs to interact with other entrepreneurs, mentors, collaborators, and the WEP Team; 2) Information Bank Module: Enable users to host blogs, checklists, infographics, and videos; 3) Events Module: Can be used to host both WEP and partner events, where users can register and show interest in attending.
The Report informs that Flipkart became an early supporting partner with an aim to modernise the group module by using the WEP website and social media to promote the concept of ‘community, redesigning the Community module’s user interface and improving the website’s Chatbot. The future improvements for the platform include Conversational AI which will make the Chatbot available 24*7 with pre-fed FAQs and Intelligent design that will lead to a reduction of time and efforts, personalization, customization, etc.
The United Nations is identified by the Report as being a core supporter of the WEP and is stated to have aided in a variety of projects. The United Nations in India (led by UNDP and UN-Women) has partnered with WEP to create the UN India-NITI Aayog Investor Consortium (IC) for Women Entrepreneurs to accelerate opportunities for investing in women’s entrepreneurship. The platform brings together key ecosystem partners that are committed to mentoring and future funding opportunities for women entrepreneurs, as well as advocates for a reduction in gender gaps in start-up investments.
The report can be accessed at: http://niti.gov.in/sites/default/files/2021-03/MovingTheNeedle_08032021-compressed.pdf
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