NITI Aayog, Women Entrepreneurship Platform talk women-led development at Goa workshop
The workshop, held in collaboration with the Goa government of Goa, attracted participants including women entrepreneurs, local self-help groups (SHGs) and clusters, government officials, industry representatives, incubators/accelerators, financial institutions, and more.
The inaugural edition of the Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) – NITI Aayog State Workshop Series was organised at the CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) Auditorium in Goa on October 3. The topic of the workshop was "Enabling women-led development through entrepreneurship."
Incubated in NITI Aayog, the Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) is a public-private partnership platform that offers relevant information to women entrepreneurs. It offers the SmartMatch feature for government schemes, incubators, accelerators and private sector initiatives, a community page, and a mentorship module.
The workshop, held in collaboration with the Goa government, attracted participants including women entrepreneurs, local self-help groups (SHGs) and clusters, government officials, industry representatives, incubators/accelerators, financial institutions, philanthropic foundations and more.
According to a press release, the focus of the workshop was to deliberate on a hub-and-spoke model to lead women-led development to grassroots levels while covering the last mile. Dr Pramod Sawant, Chief Minister of Goa; V K Saraswat, Member, NITI Aayog; and BVR Subramanyam, CEO, NITI Aayog, attended the event.
The chief minister announced that the Goa State Vision 2047 will be prepared with help from NITI Aayog.
Celebrating the three-year milestone of the Swayampurna Goa initiative, Dr Sawant emphasised its renewed focus on skill development and the deployment of "Swayampurna Grameen Mitras" for doorstep delivery of government services in every block and panchayat.
The chief minister also reiterated the role of women in socio-economic progress, announcing the Swayampurna e-bazaar during the Dussehra festival which would help expand market access through Common Service Centres.
NITI Aayog CEO B V R Subrahmanyam reaffirmed the central government's commitment to women-led development. He underscored NITI Aayog's support in assisting state governments to set up institutions like itself in each state.
A series of new collaborations were announced to support women entrepreneurs. These include the partnership between the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and NITI Aayog; the launch of Udyam Uplift—an initiative of CAxpert to strengthen compliance among women-led businesses and the launch of the first two cohorts under WEP’s Award to Reward(ATR) initiative. The first ATR cohort led by WEP Partners Microsave Consulting and SIDBI titled WEP-Unnati is accepting applications from green entrepreneurs pan-India. The second cohort titled WeNurture will be led by Atal Incubation Centre—Goa Institute of Management.
Throughout the day, the participants engaged in panel discussions, fireside chats and deep dive discussions on important topics such as harnessing policy ecosystems for startup growth, promoting access to finance and compliance, and making women entrepreneurs market-ready.
Edited by Kanishk Singh