APIS-NITI Aayog to open Women Entrepreneurship Platform in AP next month

A roundtable was held recently at the Innovation Valley here by the Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) along with APIS and key stakeholders in the State, to chalk-out plans aimed at strengthening the entrepreneurial landscape of AP by functioning as an aggregator, connecting women entrepreneurs to the entire support ecosystem and enabling collaborations and convergence

With a view to creating a robust ecosystem to encourage women entrepreneurship, Andhra Pradesh Innovation Society (APIS) has decided to partner with the stakeholders to launch India's third State chapter of NITI Aayog’s Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) from Visakhapatnamnext month.

"This will be a New Year gift to women entrepreneurs dreaming of getting all possible support to scale up with proper mentorship, networking and branding," APIS CEO Tentu Anil Kumar told Bizz Buzz.

NITI Aayog has been facilitating the journey of women entrepreneurs since its launch at the 8th Global Entrepreneurship Summit in 2017. In doing so, WEP has not only acted as a one-stop shop for women entrepreneurs looking for support but also played a key role in bringing together diverse stakeholders to support the agenda of advancing women entrepreneurship.

Welcoming WEP’s New Year gift to women from Andhra Pradesh, regional manager of National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) B.K. Sahu, spoke about NRDC’s support on IPR and commercialisation of innovations created by women entrepreneurs across the country.

AP is among the top 10 States with the highest estimated number of MSMEs in the country. According to the MSME annual report for 2022-2023, there are 33.87 lakh MSMEs in AP, which accounts for five per cent of the national figure. A major chunk of this share is taken by micro-enterprises, which stand at 33.74 lakh. The significantly low number of small and medium enterprises presents a huge potential for offering support to such enterprises in order to accelerate them to the next stage.

The State also ranks sixth in terms of the number of women-owned enterprises indicating the presence of an ecosystem conducive to women entrepreneurship.

Anil Kumar said women-led enterprises in Andhra Pradesh are at 8.38 lakh, which is 6.76% of the national figure. A large number of perennial enterprises led by women indicatebusiness stability, a higher contribution to employment generation and an opportunity for external assistance towards business sustenance and growth.

A roundtable was held recently at the Innovation Valley here by the Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) along with APIS and key stakeholders in the State, to chalk-out plans aimed at strengthening the entrepreneurial landscape of AP by functioning as an aggregator, connecting women entrepreneurs to the entire

support ecosystem and enabling collaborations and convergence.

Among others, it was attended by YashodharaBajoria, member, executive committee, WDP, Aarti Mohan,who coordinates WEP State chapters,PoojaVidyashankar, head, strategic planning, CoE for IoT and AI. NASSCOM, GuheshRamanathan, CEO-Startups, IIM-Visakhapatnam, Lakshmi Mukkavbilli, IT Association of AP (ITAAP) and Ravi Eswarapu, CEO of A-Hub.

NITI Aayog's senior advisor and mission director of WDP Anna Roy gave details with regard to their focus on strengthening the ecosystem. Several incubators, startups, representatives from GITAM and other educational institutes and industry bodies also attended.

In her address, Roy pointed out that they are committed to extend wholehearted support to women entrepreneurs so as to bridge the gender gap in entrepreneurship.

At present, India is ranked 57th out of 65 countries in the Mastercard Index on Women Entrepreneurship (MIWE). India occupies the 70th position among 77 countries on the Female Entrepreneurship Index.