Women Entrepreneurship

in India: Some Aspects

By:

Dr. Sanjay Manocha

BVIMR, New Delhi 1

Women owned businesses are highly increasing in the economies of
almost all countries.
The hidden entrepreneurial potentials of women have gradually
been changing with the growing sensitivity to the role and economic
status in the society.
Skill, knowledge and adaptability in business are the main reasons
for women to emerge into business ventures.
Women Entrepreneur is a person who accepts challenging role to
meet her personal needs and become economically independent.
A strong desire to do something positive is an inbuilt quality of
entrepreneurial women, who is capable of contributing values in
both family and social life.
With the advent of media, women are aware of their own traits, rights
and also the work situations.

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The glass ceilings are shattered and women are found indulged
in every line of business from pappad to power cables.
The challenges and opportunities provided to the women of
digital era are growing rapidly that the job seekers are turning
into job creators.
They are flourishing as designers, interior decorators, exporters,
publishers, garment manufacturers and still exploring new
avenues of economic participation.
In India, although women constitute the majority of the total
population, the entrepreneurial world is still a male dominated
one.
Women in advanced nations are recognized and are more
prominent in the business world.

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But the Indian women entrepreneurs are facing some major constraints
like

a) Lack of confidence
In general, women lack confidence in their strength and competence.
The family members and the society are reluctant to stand beside their
entrepreneurial growth. To a certain extent, this situation is changing
among Indian women and yet to face a tremendous change to increase
the rate of growth in entrepreneurship.

b) Socio-cultural barriers
Womens family and personal obligations are sometimes a great
barrier for succeeding in business career. Only few women are able to
manage both home and business efficiently, devoting enough time to
perform all their responsibilities in priority.

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c) Market-oriented risks
Stiff competition in the market and lack of mobility of women make
the dependence of women entrepreneurs on middleman
indispensable. Many business women find it difficult to capture the
market and make their products popular. They are not fully aware
of the changing market conditions and hence can effectively utilize
the services of media and internet.

d) Motivational factors
Self motivation can be realized through a mind set for a successful
business, attitude to take up risk and behavior towards the business
society by shouldering the social responsibilities. Other factors are
family support, Government policies, financial assistance from public
and private institutions and also the environment suitable for
women to establish business units.

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e) Knowledge in Business Administration
Women must be educated and trained constantly to acquire the skills
and knowledge in all the functional areas of business management. This
can facilitate women to excel in decision making process and develop a
good business network.

f) Awareness about the financial assistance

Various institutions in the financial sector extend their maximum
support in the form of incentives, loans, schemes etc. Even then every
woman entrepreneur may not be aware of all the assistance provided by
the institutions. So the sincere efforts taken towards women
entrepreneurs may not reach the entrepreneurs in rural and backward
areas.

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g) Exposed to the training programs
Training programs and workshops for every type of entrepreneur is available
through the social and welfare associations, based on duration, skill and the
purpose of the training program. Such programs are really useful to new, rural
and young entrepreneurs who want to set up a small and medium scale unit on
their own.
h) Identifying the available resources
Women are hesitant to find out the access to cater their needs in the financial
and marketing areas. In spite of the mushrooming growth of associations,
institutions, and the schemes from the government side, women are not
enterprising and dynamic to optimize the resources in the form of reserves,
assets mankind or business volunteers.

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 Highly educated, technically sound and professionally
qualified women should be encouraged for managing their
own business, rather than dependent on wage employment
outlets.
The unexplored talents of young women can be identified,
trained and used for various types of industries to increase
the productivity in the industrial sector.
A desirable environment is necessary for every woman to
inculcate entrepreneurial values and involve greatly in
business dealings.

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 Why do Women Take-up
Employment?
Push Factors
Death of bread winner
Sudden fall in family income
Permanent inadequacy in income of the family
Pull Factors
Womens desire to evaluate their talent
To utilize their free time or education
Need and perception of Womens Liberation, Equity
etc.
To gain recognition, importance and social status.
To get economic independence

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 Categories of Women
Entrepreneurs
Women in organized & unorganized
sector
Women in traditional & modern
industries
Women in urban & rural areas
Women in large scale and small
scale industries.
Single women and joint venture.
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 Categories of Women
Entrepreneurs in Practice in India
First Category
Established in big cities
Having higher level technical & professional
qualifications
Non traditional Items
Sound financial positions
Second Category
Established in cities and towns
Having sufficient education
Both traditional and non traditional items
Undertaking women services-kindergarten, crches,
beauty parlors, health clinic etc.

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 Categories of Women
Entrepreneurs in Practice in India
(Contd.)
Third Category
Illiterate women
Financially week
Involved in family business such as
Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal
Husbandry, Dairy, Fisheries, Agro
Forestry, Handloom, Powerloom etc.

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 Supportive Measures for Womens
Economic Activities and
Entrepreneurship

Direct & indirect financial support

Yojna schemes and programmes
Technological training and awards
Federations and associations

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 Direct & Indirect Financial
Support
Nationalized banks
State finance corporation
State industrial development corporation
District industries centers
Differential rate schemes
Mahila Udyug Needhi scheme
Small Industries Development Bank of
India (SIDBI)
State Small Industrial Development
Corporations (SSIDCs)
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 Technological Training and
Awards
Stree Shakti Package by SBI
Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India
Trade Related Entrepreneurship Assistance and
Development (TREAD)
National Institute of Small Business Extension
Training (NSIBET)
Womens University of Mumbai

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Federations and Associations
National Alliance of Young Entrepreneurs
(NAYE)
India Council of Women Entrepreneurs, New
Delhi
Self Employed Womens Association (SEWA)
Association of Women Entrepreneurs of
Karnataka (AWEK)
World Association of Women Entrepreneurs
(WAWE)
Associated Country Women of the World
(ACWW)
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 Women Entrepreneurship in
India
States No of Units No. of Women Percentag
Registered Entrepreneurs e
Tamil Nadu 9618 2930 30.36
Uttar Pradesh 7980 3180 39.84
Kerala 5487 2135 38.91
Punjab 4791 1618 33.77
Maharastra 4339 1394 32.12
Gujrat 3872 1538 39.72
Karnatka 3822 1026 26.84
Madhya Pradesh 2967 842 28.38
Other States & 14576 4185 28.71
UTS
Total 57,452 18,848 32.82
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 Women Work Participation
Country Percentage

India (1970-1971) 14.2

India (1980-1981) 19.7

India (1990-1991) 22.3

India (2000-2001) 31.6

USA 45

UK 43

Indonesia 40
Sri Lanka 35
Brazil 35

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 Women Entrepreneurship in
India
Earlier there were 3 Ks
Kitchen
Kids
Knitting
Then came 3 Ps
Powder
Pappad
Pickles
At present there are 4 Es
Electricity
Electronics
Energy
Engineering

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 Some examples
Mahila Grih Udyog
7 ladies started in 1959:
Lizzat Pappad
Lakme
Simon Tata
Shipping coorporation
Mrs. Sumati Morarji
Exports
Ms. Nina Mehrotra
Herbal Heritage
Ms. Shahnaz Hussain
Balaji films
Ekta Kapoor

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 Problems
Dual role to play at workplace & at
home place
Subordinate to men
Just that her being women
Non-awareness of facilities provided
by government
Competition with large scale units
Problems related to marketing
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 Suggestions
Procedure of getting finance should
be simple
Effective propagation of
programmes and yojna
Linkages between product, services
and market centers.
Encouragement to technical and
professional education.
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 Top Women Entrepreneurs
Source -
http://sneakpeaks.blogspot.com/2008/03/its-
their-business-top-women.html

Entrepreneur Dr. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairman & Managing Director of

Bioon Ltd., who became India's richest woman in 2004 (an estimated Rs.2,100
crore )~US$480 million), was educated at the Bishop Cotton Girls School and
Mount Carmel College in Bangalore. She founded Biocon India with a capital
of Rs.10,000 in her garage in 1978 - the initial operation was to extract an
enzyme from papaya. Her application for loans were turned down by banks
then - on three counts - biotechnology was then a new word, the company
lacked assets, and (most importantly) women entrepreneurs were still a
rarity. Today, her company is the biggest biopharmaceutical firm in the
country.
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Ekta Kapoor, creative head of Balajji Telefilms, is the daughter of
actor Jeetendra, and sister of actor Tushar Kapoor. She has been
synonymous with the rage of soap operas on Indian TV, after her
most famous venture 'Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi', which
started airing on STAR Plus in 2000. Ekta dominates Indian
television, producing more than eight television soaps. At the 6th
Indian Telly Awards 2006, she bagged the Hall of Fame award for
her contributions. Most of her creations begin with the letter'K' due
to her superstition that it brings her good luck.

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Sunita Narain, an environmentalist and political activist as well as a major
proponent of the Green concept of sustainable development, was awarded
the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2005. Narain, who has been
with the India-based Centre for Science and Environment since 1982, is
currently the director of the Centre, and the director of the Society for
Environmental Communications, and publisher of the fortnightly magazine,
'Down to Earth'.
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Neelam Dhawan, Microsoft India managing director, leads
Microsoft's sales and marketing operations in the country. A
Stephenian (graduated in 1980), she passed out of Delhi's Faculty of
Management Studies in 1982. Back then, while she was keen to join
FMCG majors like Hindustan Lever and Asian Paints, both
companies rejected Dhawan as they did not want to appoint women
for marketing.
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Naina Lal Kidwai was the first Indian woman to graduate from the
Harvard Business School. Fortune magazine listed Kidwai among the
World's Top 50 Corporate Women from 2000 to 2003. According to
the Economic Times, she is the first woman to head the operations of
a foreign bank in India (HSBC). Kidwai was awarded the Padma
Shri in the year 2008.
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Sulajja Firodia Motwani, Joint Managing Director of Kinetic Engineering
Ltd., is in-charge of the company's overall business developmental activities.
She is also the Director of Kinetic Motor Company Limited and Kinetic
Marketing Services Limited. A fitness freak and avid sports enthusiast, she
even played badminton at the national level. The magazine 'India Today'
has honoured her with the title of business 'Face of the Millennium'. She was
ranked among the top 25 business entrepreneurs of the country, and was
also presented with the Society Young Achiever's Award for Business in
2002. The same year, she was chosen as the 'Global Leader of Tomorrow' by
the World Economic Forum.
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Dr. Jatinder Kaur Arora, an outstanding scientist from Punjab, was
conferred a national award for her work on women's development
through science and technology. Dr. Arora, perhaps the first scientist
to get such an award, is a doctorate in microbiology and has a
brilliant academic record. An unlikely and fairly new contender on this
list, she is serving as a joint director in the Punjab State Council for
Science and Technology at present.
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Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi, chairman and executive officer of PepsiCo, was
according to Forbes magazine's 2006 poll, the fourth most powerful woman in the
world. She was also named the #1 Most Powerful Woman in Business in 2006 by
Fortune magazine. She got her bachelor's degree from Madras Christian College in
1974, entered the Business Diploma programme at the Indian Institute of
Management, Calcutta, and later moved to the US to attend the Yale School of
Management. Nooyi serves on the board of directors of several organizations,
including Motorola, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the International
Rescue Committee, and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
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Indu Jain has many identities: spiritualist, entrepreneur, humanist,
educationalist, great lover of art and culture. She was the Chairman
of the The Times Group, the biggest and the most powerful media
house in India. The company was bought from a British group. Now,
her two sons Samir and Vineet are running the company. Among the
major products of the company, The Times of India, the largest
selling English daily newspaper of the world.

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Lalita Kalpana
Gupte Morparia

Lalita Gupte & Kalpana Morparia93rd positionJoint Managing Directors,

ICIC Bank
Kalpana Morparia and Lalita Gupte are Joint Managing Directors of ICIC
Bank, the second largest bank of India. Lalita Gupte holds a Masters Degree in
Management Studies from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies. She
joined ICIC Bank in 1971. Her reason behind success is her supportive family. She
got great support from her husband and in laws.
Ms. Kalpana Morparia is a graduate in law from Mumbai University. She joined
ICIC in 1975 as a senior legal officer. In 1996, she became General Manager. She
became Executive Director in 2001. In 1999, for her contribution in Finance and
Banking sector in India, Indian Merchants' Chamber awarded her.

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Shahnaz Hussain:

She brought the breeze of revolution in the field of beauty treatment in

India.
Her herbal beauty treatments have won accolades all over the world and
have adorned women for decades.
The beauty chain of Shahnaz Hussain is known for a wide range of
treatments and herbal cosmetics offering stunning results.
She has clientele including all the renowned women personalities round
the world.
Indira Gandhi, the first woman Prime Minister of India is also one of her
well known clients.
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Ritu Kumar:

A great name in the fashion area, Ritu Kumar has

made a wonderful presence with her unique dresses
and creations.
Her style and uniqueness has won her praises in
various fashion events across the globe.

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