THE Women Entrepreneurship Program(WEP)

was launched by Niti Aayog on 8th March,2018. It is an Indian Government initiative to promote women entrepreneurs to initiate a business, undertake risks, get resources, manage a business independently, work towards scaling their profits and providing employment . It provides hands-on support to budding entrepreneurs in setting up their business.

The platform has over 16000 women registered and over 500 women entrepreneurs who have gained from it.

Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog said, “The next-big disruption in the Indian start-up ecosystem will be driven by women-led entrepreneurs, with digital platforms being the biggest enabler. This partnership with Tech Mahindra underscores our mutual commitment of leveraging new-age technologies to uplift societies and support the aspirations of women entrepreneurs in India.”

It works in collaboration with both public and private sector organizations on a sole platform by cataloguing women focused schemes. The platform is built on three pillars:-

1)Ichha Shakti which says to motivate budding entrepreneurs to set up their business.

2)Gyaan Shakti represents providing the knowledge and environment to encourage women entrepreneurs cultivate entrepreneurship.

3)Karma Shakti that is to provide hands-on support to women entrepreneurs in setting-up their businesses.

Services

WEP, with the help of its partners, provides services to its members under various support areas:

• Incubation and Acceleration

Women entrepreneurs can sign up the incubation and acceleration programs offered by WEP to speed up the growth of their startups.

• Entrepreneur Skilling & Mentorship

WEP offers many courses and programs to hone the skills to stimulate the spirit of entrepreneurship, innovation and sustainability among women entrepreneurs.

• Marketing Assistance

WEP offers marketing and associating support to its members that helps them improve marketing and positioning of their competency, get connected to programs that help increase their market presence.

• Funding and Financial Assistance

As funding is the key problem area for entrepreneurs, wep along with its partners provides advice on different sources of funding. Wep provides financial assistance including venture capital, growth capital, credit line support and discount support.

• Compliance & Tax Assistance

WEP, through its partner organizations, offers compliance services to registered users to guide them with the help of necessary tools so that they can comply with the laws and regulations as well as follow legal compliances to register their enterprises, furnish accounts, apply for loans, IPR, license counseling etc.

• Community & Networking

“The ultimate goal of WEP is to build a robust network of women entrepreneurs to enable an ecosystem of support, learning and collaboration.” The platform provides specialized services and programs that help leverage the community module, online as well as offline, to enable them to connect better.

Apart from the above mentioned services, for women entrepreneur members who are not familiar with the technology or do not have access to the internet, WEP will also launch its IVRS service to facilitate registration.

WEP not only provides services such as free credit ratings, mentorship, funding support to women entrepreneurs, apprenticeship and corporate partnerships, but also welcomes its members to share their stories and experiences.

WEP Partners

No organization can work on such a mass scale without a group circle and so is the case with this platform , working on a high framework of industrial partnerships and collaborations which are in various sectors of the economy guided by Niti Aayog.

WEP has, as of now, 35 partners from various industries and sectors. These partners include, WEE Foundation, Atal Innovation Mission, Tech Mahindra, Google, Facebook, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Institute of Company Secretaries of India, CII, Nexus Incubator, Mann Deshi Foundation, Shop Clues, CRISIL, SIDBI, FICCI, NASSCOM, SEWA Bank amongst others. This platform has attracted great investment. Connected with around 3000 rural women entrepreneurs with Internet Saathi with Google and SREI.

You can find the list of all its partners here.

WEP Road Show Series

In July 2018, WEP launched its ‘Road Show Series’ which not only initiated dialogue with various State Governments but also talked about building and improving the existing entrepreneurial ecosystem for women entrepreneurs with the help of local stakeholders. The event took place in various cities in India as follows:

• Mumbai: In Association with Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) and Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), Mumbai.
• Bengaluru: In association with Jain University and United Nations and NASSCOM
• WEP-eMERG event, in association with Ministry of Medium and Small Enterprises (MSME), Government of India and Government of Karnataka.
• Delhi: International Conference on Empowering Women- Fostering Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Sustainability in association with Shri ram College of Commerce conference, New Delhi.
• Pune: In association with Symbiosis University, Pune.

Eligibility

• Women who are aspiring to be entrepreneurs, who are at the ideation stage, as well as established women entrepreneurs in India can register under the scheme.
• Any organization like Corporates, NGOs, research organizations, Incubator, Accelerator, etc. that are willing to provide help and support in any form to the women entrepreneurs as registered users can also join the platform.

Documents Required

• All registered documents of the entity
• PAN
• GST certificate of the entity
• Self attested KYC
• Passport photograph
• Any other document as may be required by the department

BENEFITS:-

1) It provides mentorship, funding support , corporate partnership to women entrepreneurs .

2) WEP encourages the successful entrepreneurs to share their journey and experience to promote a mutually enriching experience.

3)The platform offers incubation and acceleration support to the

start-ups founded/co-founded by women entrepreneurs through its partners who can support and help in scaling their business.