Women’s Entrepreneurship Day

Women entrepreneurs are the backbone of India's business ecosystem, and their increasing presence has contributed to significant economic growth. Women-led or women-focused start-ups in India need a combination of capital, acceleration, mentorship, customers, and market access in order to succeed in the emerging female economy.

The next generation of women entrepreneurs is inspired and provided with employment opportunities by women-owned start-ups and established businesses. As part of its Start-up India initiative, the Indian government has also promoted the sustainable development of women entrepreneurs.

In addition to the Women Entrepreneurship Platform, Mudra Loan for Women, and Cent Kalyani Scheme, the government has launched several other schemes and initiatives to promote women's presence in the market.

Let's meet and hear from women leaders on Women's Entrepreneurship Day 2022 about 'How can we encourage and bring more women entrepreneurs to India by creating a suitable ecosystem'.

Akanksha Sharma is a young entrepreneur who has dressed her family business lineage with a dash of innovation, all rooted in sound business ethics and technology. As a youthful leader with strong self-belief, she established the unique business of all natural baby products at the young age of 22 years.

With an education in Apparel Industry Management from Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, Los Angeles, United States of America, she continues to approach business through her multidimensional understanding of concepts and ideas.

At the young age of 24 years, this TEDx speaker is already an inspiration to many young women who wish to live and thrive on their own terms. As a person of sound business ethics and leadership, Akanksha is known to be a dynamic risk taker who is humble and determined to make things happen.

She remains goal driven but extremely flexible as well. This is one reason for the grand success of her growing business of baby personal care products that go under the name of CITTA. Her mantra of entrepreneurship is deeply inspired by her father’s personal challenges and growth curve as a successful businessman.

Akanksha envisions CITTA to be an Indian household name for skincare products for children. She launched the brand along with her mother, Monisha Sharma (Director of The Lexicon Group & Co-Founder of CITTA) inspired by learnings from old-age recipes that work wonders on growing babies and children.

Shipra is setting up Westinghouse Electrical corporations' India arm. Being a part of several start-ups and running her own, she is obsessed with building businesses and taking them to new heights.

She has been into, relatively new, Licensing for over half a decade now and worked with brands like Pepsi, Acer, Marie Claire Paris, WWE, NBA, Oxford University, and JCB among others to establish a new vertical. Her next project touches people's lives with high-quality products while taking Westinghouse to every household. She also, on the course, would be building a licensing ecosystem model in the country.

Westinghouse electric corporation is a US-based company with over 100 years of legacy ventures in India. Westinghouse is already present in 169 countries with more than 100 product categories in the consumer electronic segment.

Westinghouse India already has a long-term and a short-term strategy for growth. We see a huge potential in the country, and we are very aggressively trying to penetrate the market. We plan to launch the brand in four additional categories by 2023 mid.

By the next year, you will see Westinghouse in all the prominent e-commerce and retail chains. We have a long-term plan in India, and we have already initiated partnerships to strengthen the base here. It is a 130-year-old brand with its own legacy, values, and name which are pretty popular in Countries like the US, China, Australia, etc. Our Plan and vision are to create the same brand value in the Indian market as well.’

Any brand, which has built itself over decades, with a great connection with consumers in no way would want to dilute its name with the wrong partner. Finding the right partner, who can live up to the brand’s name, keeping all the specifics into consideration, a win-win deal for both, with a long-term strategy is one of her expertise.

A dedicated consumer of multiple brands herself she also supports new entrants into the market and keeps trying their products ranging from nice coffee to gadgets, from clothes to cosmetics among others. This helps her understand the market from the consumer side as well.

Ms. Dubey wishes to build the same reputation of the company in India as it has developed over the years in countries like the US, China, and Australia. They thrive on technology and focus on attracting the youth which is why their televisions and appliances quickly get popular amongst millennials. Her ideology and efforts towards the company make it such a success.