Women Entrepreneurs: Now Trending in India

“ You can tell the condition of a nation by looking at the status of its women”

Jawaharlal Nehru

This quote by the first prime minister of India is more than enough to express the importance of women upliftment in any society. The India of the 21st century not only believes in women empowerment but also witnessing the development of women community at a faster pace. The grasp of women community in entrepreneurship is a notable step towards the women empowerment in India.

The contribution of women entrepreneurs towards the national economy is quite visible in the past few decades.  The women entrepreneurs can be defined in simple words as the women who or a group of women who initiate a business and establish it to earn revenue. The women-owned businesses are growing dynamically in India and it definitely indicates it will touch its next level very soon.

The Challenges Faced by Indian Women Entrepreneurs

The road towards entrepreneurial success was never easy for the women of India. There are a bunch of challenges to defeat to get success in business. Here are some of those challenges-

Fund Arrangement

The fund arrangement is one of the biggest issues of entrepreneurs of all size i.e. large or medium or small scale enterprise. Till a few years back, the women business loan applicants were considered as less creditworthy for a business loan. But the scenario has been changed in the last few years. The government has also extended helping hands towards aspiring women entrepreneurs by proving financial support and enhancing skills.

The Competition with Male Counterparts and the Established Business

The female entrepreneurs always had to face stiff competition with their male counterparts. Involving in business development area or promotion or carrying out marketing of products sometimes turn to be more difficult for the women entrepreneurs as compared to men.  

Limited Mobility

Many a time, whether it may the outlook of the Indian society towards the women or because of being physically weaker than the males, the mobility of females in India is limited. In many occasions, frequent travels or business tours especially if the places are far from the mainstream, it becomes a challenge for women to take frequent tours.  

Family Responsibilities

Most of the Indian’s have a mindset that taking care of the family and bringing up the children is the prime duty of women and the society expects them to fulfil those responsibilities before plunging into anything else. But never to ignore the fact that expectations exist. In general, most of the women are compelled to make a fine balance between work and family which is quite challenging.

The Established Women Entrepreneurs of India

Though challenges are as high as mountains, there are people who have courage as well as skills sharp enough to overcome all of them. Here are a few women entrepreneurs who have managed to make their names get a place in the list of top entrepreneurs of India.

1. Indu Jain

Indu Jain is the Chairperson, Times group. She is a widow with two sons, who are presently helping her to run the business.  Ms Jain was awarded the Padma Bhushan in January 2016 by the Government of India for her exceptional contribution towards the paper media.

2. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw

Born and brought up in Bangalore, this entrepreneur is the founder Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Biocon Limited. This company was started in 1978 with the manufacturing of industrial enzymes and at present, it is a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company.

3. Indra Nooyi

Indra Nooyi is the CFO and president of PepsiCo. She had completed her education from IIM Kolkata, she has worked for prestigious companies like Motorola and Asea Brown Boveri before joining PepsiCo.

4. Ekta Kapoor

She is the creative head of Balaji Telefilms which rules the Indian Television with serials which contained a lot of drama, romance and suspense. She single-handedly founded the Balaji Telefilms and made it a benchmark for the television industry. She is awarded Hall of Fame award at the 6th Indian Telly Awards in 2006.

5. Richa Kar

Richa Kar is the co-founder of India’s biggest online lingerie store Zivame. Born and brought up in Jamshedpur, she has completed her engineering from BITS Pilani and worked in IT Company before starting her own business of online lingerie store. She founded the business Zivame.com in 2011 with one more co-founder. She is one of the young and successful women entrepreneurs of India.

More on the Way

The mentioned above are not the only women who are able to earn their recognition in the field of entrepreneurship. There are many successful businesswomen in India on the list and many more are about to come. The women of present India gets a lot of encouragement from the government which is the driving force to make the female community take their step ahead in entrepreneurship.