Ease of doing business for MSMEs: The government’s public policy think tank NITI Aayog recently announced the launch of the revamped version of its Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) web portal to enhance support to women entrepreneurs which currently have a share of only around 13.7 per cent in India’s total entrepreneur count. The platform aims to onboard 2.5 lakh women entrepreneurs, engage with 500 partners and host over 200 capacity-building online and offline events.
WEP was originally conceived back in 2017 to boost the ecosystem for women entrepreneurship in India by aggregating key stakeholders and resolving information asymmetry existing in the ecosystem.
Also read: Women entrepreneurs and access to finance: why credit stays small
As an aggregator platform, WEP provides services in six key areas viz., community and networking, funding and financial assistance, incubation and acceleration, compliance and tax assistance, entrepreneur skilling and mentorship, and marketing assistance.
In an interaction with FE Aspire, Anna Roy, Senior Adviser, NITI Aayog tells how WEP 3.0 will further boost women entrepreneurs in India with different initiatives underway, the role of ecosystem partners, credit support, challenges for women promoters and more.