The government will roll out a programme in coming weeks to bring more women into the startup ecosystem by offering them mentoring and capital for setting up businesses.
"We are now trying to put together a small startup programme where we want to focus on women in technology. We are looking at three things ... In another few weeks, we will be able to give full details of the programme. We are hoping to roll it out by April 1," Electronics and IT Secretary Aruna Sundararajan said at a Facebook event here.
She added that the government is holding discussions with industry bodies like Nasscom and IAMAI to bring in various perspectives.
"We will target 10 cities to begin with. These would include metros as well as cities like Pune, Jaipur etc," Sundararajan said.
The programme would focus on three core areas of the startup journey for women entrepreneurs.
"One, the first interaction that a prospective woman entrepreneur has with a startup incubator etc has to be mediated in such a manner that she feels positive about the whole experience. I was looking at some of our incubators and they are very woman-unfriendly... So I am now trying to see whether we can have woman interfacing this," she said.
Also, the programme will facilitate the entrepreneurs to connect with more mentors.
"Third, we have a large venture fund. There we are going to insist that there should be separate rounds for women and they will also get people on the Board who are more receptive and understand the value that the women bring to the table," she said.
According to a report released today by the social networking giant, India is missing out on a potential 1.55 crore new businesses and 6.4 crore additional jobs by not addressing the challenges faced by women who want to start a business.
The study, conducted by Development Economics and YouGov on behalf of Facebook, found at least four in five women respondent saying they would like to start a business.
In India, the most commonly cited reason that prevents women from setting up their business is the constraint of family responsibilities or commitments (38 per cent), lack of access to finance (29 per cent), worry over personal financial security (30 per cent), and having an idea but not knowing where to get started (30 per cent).
"If we were to harness the still largely untapped potential of women's entrepreneurship and provide them greater support, it could lead to more jobs being created, economic growth and more diverse and representative small business communities," Facebook Director of Public Policy, India, South and Central Asia Ankhi Das said.
Facebook last year launched a programme to support women entrepreneurs through online and offline training, peer networking sessions, and resources to help build their business.
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