The NITI Aayog organised the Third Edition of the Women Transforming India Awards 2018 and launched the upgraded portal of the Women Entrepreneurship Platform today.The Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu presided over as the chief guest of the event where he launched the WEP Portal 2.0 and conferred WTI Awards 2018.The Vice President congratulated the NITI Aayog for creating Women Entrepreneurship Platform 2.0 and placing gender equality at the centre of it's policy decisions. He stated that the Women Entrepreneurship Platform will help to realise the dreams of Women Entrepreneurs across India and that the development story of a New India is being scripted with women at the forefront.The Women Transforming India Awards were instituted to recognise and celebrate stories of exemplary women from across India. This year’s theme is “Women and Entrepreneurship” and fifteen winners have been chosen through an extensive six-month long process to identify fascinating and inspiring stories of women entrepreneurs.The Women Entrepreneurship Platform seeks to transform the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the country and shall be a one-stop resource centre for future and budding women entrepreneurs. It seeks to act as a medium for various stakeholders in the economy to come together and offer integrated services such as Incubation Support, Mentorship, Funding avenues, Compliance, Marketing Assistance etc.
The WEP Conclave saw participation of more than 400 people from various sectors, ranging from established entrepreneurs, industry veterans, renowned experts, senior government officials, budding entrepreneurs etc.Spirited discussions on topics such as 'The Entrepreneur’s Perspective: from Startup to Growth' and 'Pay it forward-How WEP as a platform can help' were held where eminent speakers such as Ms Anna Roy, Adviser, NITI Aayog; Ms Shivani Wazir Pasrich, CEO & Managing Director, SWP Productions; Ms Raseel Gujral Ansal, Lifestyle Designer & Founding Member, Casa Paradox; Robin Chaurasiya, Founder, Kranti; Ms Geeta Chandran, Padma Shri awardee & Bharatnatyam Dancer; and Ms Tajamul Islam, the World Kickboxing Champion who inspired and regaled the audience with her story. The panels discussed the challenges women entrepreneurs face in their entrepreneurial journey and the role of WEP as a platform to support and promote entrepreneurs to help them overcome their barriers and tread the path of entrepreneurship.Along with panel discussions, WEP Investment Council was also introduced by Ms Anjali Bansal, Head, WEP Investment Council and solutions to address funding related challenges faced by entrepreneurs were inter alia discussed. Later, Mr Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog engaged in a candid conversation with renowned Tennis Player Ms Sania Mirza.WTI Awards 2018 received over 2300 nominations this year, and through a highly objective and transparent screening and evaluation process have selected 15 winners from sectors such as Renewable Energy, Education, Sanitation, Art and Culture, Social Innovation and Impact to name a few.
Background of WEP
On November 28-30, 2017, NITI Aayog, Government of India in partnership with the Government of the United States of America hosted the 8th Annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) in Hyderabad, India with the overarching theme of ‘Women First, Prosperity for All’. To take the idea forward, CEO, NITI Aayog announced setting up of Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) to promote and support established as well as aspiring women entrepreneurs in India.WEP is the first of its kind unified access platform which enables meeting of several stakeholders in the entrepreneurial space on a single platform, work in collaboration with various partner organizations to provide a wide range of support services to women entrepreneurs under various service verticals of WEP. WEP partners such as Google, CRISIL, SIDBI, NIC, NASSCOM, UN India Business Forum, WEE Foundation, SEWA bank, MannDeshi Foundation, Shopclues, ICAI, ALC India, LK, GEN India, SSM have committed specific services such as WE check, Free Credit Rating, Free Ad credits, apprenticeship, mentorship, technical workshops etc. to WEP registered women entrepreneurs under verticals such as Financial Assistance and Funding Support, Entrepreneurship Skilling, Incubation and Acceleration, Compliance Assistance, Marketing Assistance and a dedicated vertical for Social Entrepreneurship.