Niti Aayog to set up special cell for women entrepreneurs

Niti Aayog has announced that it would be setting up women's cell to help women entrepreneurs.

The announcement was made by Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant along with Telangana IT Minister K Taraka Ramarao during the conclusion of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Hyderabad on 30 November 2017. Speaking on the occasion, Kant said that the centre will extend support to women start-ups and entrepreneurs.

Key Highlights

• The cell will be handholding women entrepreneurs on matters such as financing and intellectual properties.

• It will act as a catalyst and facilitator for women start-ups that are viable and bankable.

• It will also closely work with the Telangana State Government’s T-hub.

• Atal Tinkering labs will be specially setup at schools that women own to promote innovation and instil entrepreneurship among women at early stage under the Atal Innovation Mission.

• The selected schools will be provided with robots and 3D printers.

Besides this, the Telangana state government also announced a series of measures to encourage women entrepreneurship in the state:

- The Telangana State government has announced setting up of a separate We-Hub, Women Entrepreneurs Hub, to encourage their startups on the lines of T-Hub, which is the country’s largest technology incubator. The Atal Innovation Mission would partner with the state government for the WE-Hub.

- The state’s government has also announced setting up of a Technology Fund (T-Fund) with a corpus of Rs 15 crore exclusively for women entrepreneurs. The women entrepreneurs would be able to receive Rs 25 lakh to Rs 1 crore under the fund.

- Under the state’s procurement policy, the women entrepreneurs will now get one-fourth share in 20 percent of total procurements made by the government from the private sector, mostly SMEs.

The recently concluded Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) 2017 lay special emphasis on women entrepreneurs. It also raised the issue of inadequate funding for women, following which it was decided to set up the facility to help women start-ups.

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