April 2022 ThinkTank's Innovative Session
30 minutes of transformation to leap on entrepreneurship
THINK TANK
RisingIndia ThinkTank’s April 2022 session on Sustainable Entrepreneurship with Dr Abha Rishi on Women Entrepreneurship Schemes and Challenges
At RisingIndia ThinkTank, we focus on connecting the expertise of entrepreneurs with the right resources and connections to fuel their competitive edge. Our experienced partners blend deep experience with personal commitment to support founders from start to success. One of our core beliefs is the importance of building start-ups that are sustainable in the long run not only to create a pitch deck for funding.
For our 16th edition April 2022 session, we were privileged to co-host with Dr. Abha Rishi who endorses a similar belief. The session was attended by many aspiring women entrepreneurs, who have set out on this journey full of opportunities. The session started with Dr Abha Rishi highlighting how it is important not only to establish enterprises but also to establish them in a way that they sustain for the long run.
She then went on to state some reasons as to why women choose to become entrepreneurs, these include financial independence, lack of appropriate job opportunities, the desire to monetise their hobbies or something that they’re good at, and being laid off from an organization.
Next, Dr Abha Rishi elaborated on what challenges women usually face when they choose to take up this path. The reasons are mainly societal and financial. Social factors such as lack of support from immediate family or extended family, the common social norm of a job being a more ‘safe’ option, and having to go out of one’s comfort zone to set up a business.
Financial factors such as lack of initial investment for the start-up, the responsibility to pay off a student loan, and a lack of income during the initial stages of the start-up.
How aspiring women entrepreneurs can overcome these challenges - they could present a full-fledged work plan to their family to gain their trust, work for a few years in the field in which they later want to set up a business. This would help them to build networks and also to save up money which can then be used as an initial investment towards the start-up
Research thoroughly about the different government schemes available to financially support women entrepreneurs with grants and mentorship. The Government of India has launched various Schemes to support Women Entrepreneurs. Some of them are listed here for your perusal. Udyam Sakhi by MSME, Stand up India Scheme by MSME, Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE), Micro & Small Enterprises- Cluster Development Programme
RisingIndia Think Tank’s last year's innovative internship program has opened doors to budding women entrepreneurs who struggled through career breaks or even societal challenges to provide a flexible opportunity to work only 16-20 hours a week and leap on entrepreneurship, further intrapreneurial opportunities helps to unleash their creative potential. One can fin detail at risingindia.in/iip
April session concluded with a hopeful note. The audience was left motivated by finding that there are various resources to help them make their dreams into a reality.
About Dr Abha Rishi: CEO of the Atal Incubation Centre- BIMTECH (Noida, India) which started its operation in 2018, as a sector-agnostic business incubator. She is also the Chairperson of the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development (CIED) at the Birla Institute of Management Technology & a senior faculty. Her passion and focus are student and women entrepreneurship and has mentored more than 1000 women and student entrepreneurs. . She is also an Associate Professor with 24 years of experience in the field of entrepreneurship and international trade. Her qualifications in the field of International business and management are a PhD, PGDIBO, MFT and MIB. She hold an Entrepreneurship Educators Certificate (Honors) from STVP, Stanford University. She is among the few Indians who hold both a Chevening (Chevening Rolls Royce Science and Innovation Leadership Programme- 2014 scholar from Said Business School, University of Oxford, UK) and a Fulbright scholarship (Fulbright Research Fellow from India at Rutgers University, Newark, USA for 2009-10). She has been the Programme Director from BIMTECH for two states- UP and Orissa, for the BIMTECH ISB Goldman Sachs 10000 Women global project. She has published and presented papers in various domestic and international forums, traveled across 4 continents and 21 countries as part of her work and also for research. She was also the managing editor for the South Asian Business Review- a peer reviewed journal from 2008 to 2011. Her hobbies include reading and quizzing and She has won the Championship Winners Trophy in 2008 in the All India Women’s Quiz conducted by AIMA. Besides that, She has received the following 5 awards for my contribution in various areas.