Brave New World of Women Entrepreneurship

One of the pillars of India’s G20 women-led development agenda is the promotion of women’s entrepreneurship. According to some studies, if women participate in the formal economy on an equal basis with men, the Indian economy is expected to grow an additional 60% by 2025, contributing to an economic growth of $2.9 trillion. Currently, only about 14% of all companies in India are led by women. According to the 6th Economic Census, women account for 13.76% (approximately 8.05 million people) of the 58.5 million total entrepreneurs in India. Undoubtedly, the number of women entrepreneurs is increasing, but the pace is patchy and slow and needs to be further strengthened.

Existing women-led enterprises employ 30% of India’s female workforce and have the capacity to create around 150 million jobs by 2030. However, as MicroSave Consultancy’s research study reveals, there are many gaps that hinder women’s employment. One is the lack of space, capital, and support to get started. By and large, India lacks physical incubation/acceleration spaces that recognize the unique challenges faced by women entrepreneurs. These include the need for shared services (legal, accounting), exhibit space, mentoring, and peer-to-peer support. Women in tier 2 and tier 3 cities also need online/hybrid girlfriend support that takes into account the time and travel constraints of women entrepreneurs.

A major challenge facing aspiring women entrepreneurs is access to capital. Most financial products are not designed or delivered in a way that suits your needs. Issues with gendered approaches to collateral and lending force women to borrow from the informal sector or remain in low-capital/low-growth enterprises. What we need is the right financing solution, tailored to the requirements of women entrepreneurs and starting from the bottom up. These offerings and designs are not based on old models, but with an innovative approach after consultation with women.

said Yashodhara Bajoria, co-founder of CAXpert, an online accounting platform that provides low-cost accounting solutions and financial analysis to small business owners. “Categorizing entrepreneurs based solely on traditional factors such as sales and investments has limitations. To truly empower entrepreneurs, we need insight into how they think and approach. Compliance Psychology provides this critical understanding, which not only helps allocate resources but also develop informed policy. At CAXpert, we believe this is where meaningful change begins.”

Women entrepreneurs and aspiring women have suffered from a lack of collective voice. There is no single organization focused on promoting women’s entrepreneurship. There are several downsides to this, including a lack of bargaining power, a lack of agenda-setting ability, a lack of ability to shape the narrative around important issues, and a lack of visibility into tailwinds, trends, and opportunities. included.

In the past, there have been models like SEWA and Lijjat papad that have shown what works for women entrepreneurship in the masses. But more than that, new models that take into account changes in technology and access routes to finance and can scale across geographies have not emerged. There is also a big gap between women’s entrepreneurship models designed for urban and rural areas.

Today, the greatest potential for women’s entrepreneurship lies in the gig economy, with the number of workers estimated to grow to 2.35 million by 2030. This is being driven by increased smartphone usage, internet penetration, education and digital payments infrastructure. Governments need to do more to support the private sector to identify, test and validate business models suitable for women entrepreneurs. Aspirations were set forth at the G20 Summit, and we are now working to realize them.

The views expressed are personal