Lack of funds, cultural bottlenecks a bane for women SME owners

Top Stories

»	49% Indian startups now from tier 2, 3 cities: Jitendra Singh
»	'India ranks 3rd in global startup ecosystem & number of unicorns'
»	Tripura exported over 9K tonnes of pineapples in 2 years
»	CPI inflation eases to 6.71% in July, IIP falls to 12.3%
»	Rupee depreciates 12 paise to close at 79.64 against US dollar

Vaneeta Punchvedi | 06 May, 2015
Women-owned small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country are fighting hard with issues of financial assistance, social security and cultural bottlenecks, President of FIWE, Rajni Aggarwal said on the sidelines of a press conference in New Delhi on Tuesday.

"We have talked about the problems of financial issue, social security and cultural bottlenecks for women entrepreneurs. We need a society where a women can easily sustain business as an entrepreneur. We need a supportive family as well as government," Aggarwal told SME Times.

FIWE is also in talk with government for making women entrepreneurs a mainstream entrepreneurship because as of now in any notice or form women entrepreneurs are come under the category of minority. We are fighting for it for including us with general people, said Aggarwal.

Keeping this in mind the Federation of Indian Women Entrepreneurs (FIWE), in collaboration with Indo-African-Arab Women Chamber of Commerce (IAAWCC), is organizing 5th International Women Entrepreneurs Summit & Exhibition on 7-9 May in New Delhi with the active support of Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME), UNIDO-ITPO, Bahrain, Arab international Center for Entrepreneurship & Investment, NSIC, SBI, SIDBI, The Asia Foundation, NIESBUD, Google & TIE, etc.

The main objective of the Summit is to synergize the global opportunities for women entrepreneurs & facilitate an effective socio-economic development.

"The focus of the Summit is on "Make in India" as we are working towards attracting investments from Arab countries in India through women Entrepreneurs. More than 100 participants from Arab, African & SAARC countries are participating in the Summit to explore business opportunities with their Indian counterparts. The Summit will witness large number of delegations from Bahrain, Kuwait & Sudan and also delegations from Bangladesh, Nepal. Kenya, Pakistan, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Harare, Uganda and Zimbabwe, etc.," said Aggarwal.

She said, "We are working for the real empowerment of women entrepreneurs with the collaboration of Africa and Arab countries as there are so many women entrepreneurs who want of a comprehensive platform."

FIWE President said, "The MSME ministry is doing their efforts but if we see the whole India, in comparison with national capital, is far behind from all other states in implementing the government policies. We are having so many of micro level women entrepreneurs who even don't know how to register themselves or from where you will get the forms because the on-line system is not up to the mark".

"We are in collaboration with Arab countries because there women entrepreneurs have big amount in terms of money its just they need a platform to showcase their products and in India we have big amount in terms of man power and so we need that they come over here to invest on the structure of PM's "Make in India".

During the Summit, FIWE will a new initiative, FIWE - LATENT TALENT, an exhibition to showcase and provide a credible and comprehensive platform to enrich, encourage & empower innovative entrepreneurial as well as creative talent and bring them to the forefront. It's an endeavour to strengthen brand "Make in India" locally as well as globally.

"The Summit will also include a host of Knowledge and Technical Sessions on "Skill Development" and "Digitisation" to apprise Women Entrepreneurs with the latest technologies, innovations as well as government's initiatives to help them gain expertise and grow," said Poonam Kumar, President, Young, FIWE.

"The Summit will have various National and International speakers sharing knowledge about the trade and investment scenario and opportunities for women entrepreneurs, latest skills, technologies and ideas in product development and marketing, etc. There will also be productive information exchange among the government dignitaries of various Countries during these Sessions," she added.