Question : Problems Faced by Women Entrepreneurs

Will the Minister of Electronics & Information Technology be pleased to state: -

(a) whether aspiring women entrepreneurs planning start up ventures face a lot of barriers in terms of support and resources and if so, the details thereof and the reason thereof;
(b) whether the Government is planning to launch a special start up programme for women in the information technology sector;
(c) if so, the details thereof;
(d) Whether the Government is starting a separate programme to open up more space for the women in technology sector;
(e) if so, whether the proposed plan will be launched in all metros and non-metro cities;
(f) if so, the details thereof; and
(g) the extent to which it will provide support and access to resources to the young talented people?

(a) to (d): Various departments and Ministries have special programmes to support women entrepreneurship. The Department of Science & Technology (DST) has a programme of Women Entrepreneurship Development which helps women with S&T qualifications to get training and mentorship for starting their ventures. In addition to this, DST also supports activities for encouraging women to initiate and grow their start ups. During 2016-17, under Start up India and Stand up India initiative, special short term programmes to tap and support women entrepreneurs in technology viz Women Entrepreneurship Quest Programme (WEQ); Women Entrepreneurship and Empowerment Programme through mentoring and skilling and Accelerator Programme for women entrepreneurs have been supported by the DST. In another scheme entitled “Women Scientist Scheme C” (Popularly known as KIRAN-IPR), women scientists are trained for creating, protecting and managing Intellectual Property. Further in the ongoing scheme of “Technology Incubation and Development of Entrepreneurs (TIDE)” administrated by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), 34 women entrepreneurs have been facilitated.

Women Technology Parks established by Department of Science & Technology (DST) act as a single window hub for convergence of diverse technologies, and adoption of location-specific technologies, integrated with forward & backward linkages leading to development of women entrepreneurs. So far, 19 Women Technology Parks (WTPs) are fully functional benefitting about 20,000 women while 13 WTPs have been established during past two years.

(e) to (g): The ongoing schemes and programme are operating in metros as well as non metros.
The details of TIDE scheme, KIRAN-IPR scheme may please be seen from the following link:
http://meity.gov.in/content/innovation-promotion-0 and http://115.112.95.114/wosc/online/aboutwosc.jsp respectively.

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