Niti Aayog to set up cell to mentor women entrepreneurs

Niti Aayog has announced setting up of a dedicated cell to fund and mentor women entrepreneurs. On the sidelines of Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) which concluded on Thursday, both Niti Aayog and the Telangana government announced initiatives including setting up of an incubator to encourage women startups.

NITI Ayog ACEO Amitabh Kant told reporters after the end of the GES that the cell will act as a facilitator and catalyst to provide all help including legal and intellectual property help.

The women entrepreneurs will get financing support from Mudra Fund and financial institutions. "We are here to help women entrepreneurs as long as the projects are viable and bankable," he added.

Kant also announced that women's schools will get priority in selecting schools for tinkering labs under the Atal Innovation Mission. The selected schools will be provided robots and 3D printers. He also said the incubator under Atal Innovation Mission will also support startups set up by women or designed for women.

Similarly, Telangana's Information Technology Minister KT Rama Rao announced that WE-Hub would be modelled on the lines of T-Hub, the country's largest technology incubator. He also announced setting up a Technology Fund (T-Fund) with a corpus of Rs 15 crore exclusively for women entrepreneurs. The women entrepreneurs can get Rs 25 lakh to Rs 1 crore under this fund.