New Delhi & Rajkot, Wednesday, 18th Jan 2024: To further promote women- led business, the Marwadi University (MU) in- house startup incubator MUIIR and the MU Women’s Cell has collaborated with the CII- Indian Women Network to promote gender equity, on National Startup Day. The collaboration aims at developing an early startup and entrepreneurial mindset for female students keen to explore entrepreneurship, startup development and professionalising their family businesses. The startup ecosystem in this regard has been a trailblazer, according to a 2023 WISER Report, currently 18% of India’s startups are women- led.
Marwadi University Centre of Innovation, Incubation and Research (MUIIR), incepted in 2017, has with its government and industry partners, including, NewGen IEDC, SSIP, GoI MoE Innovation Cell, already funded close to 135 startups, initiated 200 plus patents, and funded more than INR 5Cr to boost the startup ecosystem in Gujarat. The university has also setup the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Family Business, to aid students professionalise and scale family- led businesses.
“The Indian Women Network is committed to encourage contributions of women to India’s growth story,” said Niyati Shah, Vice President, Supack Industries and Co-Chairperson, CII Indian Women Network, Western Gujarat Zone. “We are happy to mark National Startup Day 2024 by promoting female-led innovation and entrepreneurship. The collaboration aims to inspire many more girls to choose the path of startups and entrepreneurship and thus be the growth engines of our Viksit Bharat@ 2047.” Foram Chandarana, Assistant Professor and Head of Marwadi University Women’s Cell,added that, “While significant strides have been made with the startup ecosystem generally employing a higher number of female workers than traditional corporate businesses, there is still a long way to go in order to ensure gender parity and workforce participation” added,
The gathering included interactive sessions and panel discussions by prominent female entrepreneurs, including, Anushkha Advani, Founder, Studio, Paperheads, who advised students on developing an entrepreneurial mindset in design and branding; Neetu V Bansal, Bunsiness Coach & Mentor, Business Karya; Niyati Shah, VP , Supack Industries; Shruti Kushwah, Founder & CEO, Crealoons Innovations; Vaishali Parekh, Founder, Krish Consultancy; Ananya Maloo, Co-founder at Sharktank featured Nuutjob; Piyalee Chhatopadhyay, CBO, Goa Angel Network; Nisha Kotecha, Founder & CEO, InkDiVo & GloCal Co-working; Avani Nathwani, Gulab Oil & Foods; Fonal Pabari, Founder, DSL Foods; Shraddha Dev Pandya, Director, Dadaji Group of Companies; Pooja Siddhpura, Growth Enabler, Elecon Engineering Works, Khushi Harsora, Partner, Jupiter World Trade.
Prof. (Dr) Amit Sata, Associate Dean, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Marwadi University, said that,“If India is to become the third largest economy by 2030, significant strides will need to be made to promote female entrepreneurship. It’s imperative that we fast-track female progression in and tackle any impeding barriers to innovation and entrepreneurship.”
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