WeCon: The Web Con Series for Women Entreprenuers

Jan 07, 2022

Women as entrepreneurs have been growing steadily in the last couple of decades and they have been successfully flourishing in almost every sector. There are almost around 8 million women entrepreneurs and 10% of all formal enterprises are owned by women, according to a recent report. Women led businesses are generally noted to be more profitable, create more jobs and are more effective. Considering the challenges faced by women in their entrepreneurial journey, it becomes highly essential to develop an ecosystem which shall contribute to key changes in policy-making to encourage and support women in entrepreneurship. In this context, World Trade Center Bhubaneswar in association with Canara Bank, MSME-DI, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII) Bhubaneswar, Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) – Niti Aayog and Startup Odisha organized “WeCon :  The Web Conference Series by WTC Bhubaneswar Women Forum”,  Facilitation Session - 1 on Schemes & Assistance Available for Women Entrepreneurs with a view to highlight Banking Assistance, Central Government Schemes, Scope for Women led Start-ups and Technical Assistance & Guidance available for the Women Entrepreneurs in order to ease their path of doing business and encourage the aspiring women to step into entrepreneurship.

Dr. Rina Routray, Chairperson, Mahila Atmanirbhar Abhiyan in her inaugural address spoke about the significance of Women Empowerment in the current scenario. She also spoke about the importance of education, awareness and the liberty to welfare schemes. In addition to that, she highlighted the practical issues like the challenges faced by the women in rural areas and how the schemes & assistance is not reaching the target groups. She emphasized on the collective measures to be adopted in order to address the issues on the grassroots level.

Ms. Nitisha Mann, IES, Deputy Director, MSME-DI Cuttack, in her address deliberated on the Central Government Schemes exclusively for the Women Entrepreneurs. She gave a detailed presentation on the existing ecosystem for women entrepreneurs, state level institutional support, the significance and procedure of Udyam Registration, Up-scaled Entrepreneurship & Skill Development Programme, Financing for MSMEs, Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Program, Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) and other credit related schemes. She further demonstrated on Procurement & Marketing Support Schemes, Public Procurement Policy 2012, Government e-Marketplace (GeM), MSE Cluster Development Program, Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI), Awareness about Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) and benefits from Startup India.

Dr. Subrata Kumar Biswal, Regional In-Charge & Faculty, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (Eastern Region Bhubaneswar) gave a detailed presentation on Technical Assistance & Guidance available through EDII for the Women Entrepreneurs. He spoke about the entrepreneurship landscape & opportunities for the Women Entrepreneurs, Entrepreneurship growth in India, EDII’s Institutional Network, EDII’s association with Central Government Ministries and Departments, transformation of a student to an entrepreneur with the guidance of EDII, potential areas of intervention for Women Entrepreneurship development in Odisha and various other ways in which EDII adds to the growth and development of Women Entrepreneurship in Odisha.

Mr. Gyana Ranjan Parhi, Manager, Canara Bank, Bhubaneswar in his address spoke about the banking assistance available for the Women Entrepreneurs. He brought various challenges faced by the common mass for the application of loan into notice. He signified various roadblocks for the start-ups or entrepreneurs to avail financial assistance from banks like lack of organizational skills, accountability, repayment issues etc. He further described about various mandatory steps for availing banking assistance like Udyam Registration, Project Report along with various other necessary documentation.

Dr. Sanjukta Badhai, Evanjelist, Start-up Odisha in her address deliberated on various schemes and assistance available for the Women Entrepreneurs facilitated by Start-up Odisha. She spoke about the product development, marketing assistance and need based assistance provided by Start-up Odisha. In addition to that, she enlightened about the mandatory requirement one needs to possess in order to register and recognition from Start-up Odisha, sector based incubation centres in Odisha to support the start-ups, subsidized incubation rates for the Women Entrepreneurs and proactive measures taken by the institution. She also mentioned about the newly inaugurated world class incubation centre O-Hub by Start-up Odisha and how it can assist and support the start-ups in their establishment.

Earlier in the session, Ms, Jyoshna Das, Honorary Convenor, WTC Bhubaneswar Women Forum welcomed all the panelists and spoke about the forum. She explicated on various activities of “Women Forum” with active and real time women entrepreneurs who not only aspire to grow their own business but also be of assistance to other women entrepreneurs.

The session was followed by a highly interactive Q&A session moderated by Ms. Nazia Ali, Honorary Co-Convenor, WTC Bhubaneswar Women Forum.

Ms. Nimeshika Natarajan, Assistant Director, World Trade Center Bhubaneswar moderated the session and proposed the vote of thanks.