Need to rekindle women’s business potential: Official
JAIPUR: Running a household requires multi-tasking and time management skills which equip women to become successful entrepreneurs, Mugdha Sinha, secretary in the department of science and technology, said on Friday.
The need is to re-skill women and rekindle their latent business potential, Sinha said while delivering the special address at the launch of Project ‘Her & Now’.
Project ‘Her & Now’ is the first of its kind incubation and acceleration programme for women entrepreneurs in Rajasthan.
The project has been launched by GIZ, a German development agency that provides services in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development and is being implemented in Rajasthan by Startup Oasis.
Sinha urged women entrepreneurs present on the occasion to benefit from the various schemes of the science and technology department. She also stressed that knowledge of patenting, copyright and legal contracts is essential for the empowerment of women.
She said that with increasing mechanisation and use of technology, it must be ensured that jobs of women are not being taken away and technology is gender sensitive.
The ‘Her & Now’ Project Head from GIZ, Julia Karst said the project is funded by the German g o ve r nment a nd i s be i ng launched in partnership with the Union Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship to support aspiring and existing women entrepreneurs in India. After Rajasthan, the project will be launched in Telangana and Assam.
On the structure of the programme, CEO, Startup Oasis, Chintan Bakshi said that the cohort-based seven-month incubation and acceleration program will include seven contact sessions spread over two days and will feature workshops, diagnostic panels and mentoring clinics.
He said entrepreneurs need experience, action and learning rather than purely knowledgebased sessions. Thus, all sessions will conclude with an action agenda and begin with the review of the previous action agenda.
The launch was followed by a panel discussion on the topic ‘Women in Entrepreneurship – Moving Beyond the Platitudes’.
The panelists were women entrepreneurs Sheenu Jhawar, Puja Arya, Seema Shah and Ajaita Shah. The discussion was moderated by Associate Vice President, Startup Oasis, Dr. Pallavi Tak. The topics discussed were entrepreneurial journey, platitudes, subconscious biases and challenges.
This was followed by a question and answer session with some women entrepreneurs.