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In 2017, NITI Aayog launched the Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP). It is a unified access portal to attract women from different parts of India and create an ecosystem to nurture their entrepreneurial ambitions.
As an aggregator platform, WEP will forge important partnerships and bring content, workshops, campaigns, learning and growth paths to its users.
Anna Roy
In 2021, NITI Aayog partnered with CISCO to launch the next phase of the Women Entrepreneurs Platform (WEP) titled “WEP Nxt”.
A year later, NITI Aayog again upgraded its platform to WEP 3.0. It is designed to meet the unmet needs of women taking their first steps into entrepreneurship and women at an inflection point in their entrepreneurial journey as they consider growth and scale.
WEP 3.0 uses state-of-the-art technology to provide smart matchmaking with pan-India outreach. Several partner companies are working with his WEP, including the United Nations, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Human X, Mastercard, SIDBI, Square Panda, Tech Mahindra, CISCO, Atal Innovation Mission, Flipkart and Microsave Consulting. The WEP 3.0 platform is managed by the Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship (GAME).
in a conversation with her storyNiti Aayog Senior Advisor and WEP Mission Director Anna Roy outlines the vision for the program and touches on the role of technology as a key enabler.
Edited excerpt from the interview:
HerStory (HS): Can you briefly explain WEP 3.0 and its purpose?
Anna Roy (AR): We call it version 3.0 because of the technology upgrades and new content. The vision and mission of the Women’s Entrepreneurship Program (WEP) has not changed since its launch in 2017.
Our partners are Human X and Square Founder, who are working with content creation partners such as Microsave. With these partners, we have a new platform with richer content and new features.
The vision and mission is fundamentally to overcome information asymmetries and seamlessly deliver information to targeted beneficiaries in a timely and easily consumable manner, making it easy to discover this information and bring it to the last mile. Being an aggregator platform to make it reachable. Pan-Indian approach.
We aim to do this for a few Indian languages, and have the ability to address literacy gaps wherever they exist, so we can cover a wider range. Along this line, we would like to expand our offline network with organizations that have a ground-level presence.
HS: While we have seen many entrepreneurial initiatives during the pandemic, especially from women in Tier II and III cities, the number of female entrepreneurs in the country remains low. How can WEP help in this regard?
AR: First, it brings various initiatives launched by various organizations to promote women’s entrepreneurship. Its scope includes initiatives under her CSR in government as well as siled companies. Most of these target Tier II and III cities, but lack information and discovery to reach their target beneficiaries.
Second, empower them by providing them with the tools and information they need to address various information gaps to become great entrepreneurs, and by connecting them with entities that can get them. I have developed the knowledge and approach to be a successful entrepreneur. It can be in the area of ​​business modeling (domain expertise, connectivity to networks, etc.).
HS: How do you bridge the urban-rural divide when it comes to women’s entrepreneurship? Has technology served as an enabler?
AR: Technology is one of the key elements in this whole process. We have made a special effort to reach out to those who are marginalized and who have barriers to access. What we are proposing is using new technologies like AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) to seamlessly access information.
For example, the platform has smart matchmaking capabilities. This gives you the information you really need, not just a data dump. Our search engine is also intuitive and uses a mobile-friendly chatbot, making us less dependent on any particular device.
HS: Can you give some examples of WEP’s success so far?
AR: The greatest success is when people in the ecosystem work together to achieve all goals.
And all this is being pushed forward by a bright young lady. Human X and his CAxpert founder, our partner, have hosted many virtual masterclasses during the pandemic to address financial and compliance-related issues for multiple entrepreneurs. When big companies in the ecosystem collaborate with us on projects for free, it shows the strength and robustness of our approach: the strength and robustness of public-private partnerships to get us closer to our goals.
In 2023, we hope to have an offline calendar of events for the physical connection so we can reach out to a wider audience.
HS: What role will GAME play in WEP 3.0?
AR: The game exists as a Project Management Unit (PMU) for a project funded by WEP’s partner, the Gates Foundation.
HS: What are the key challenges facing women entrepreneurs in India?
AR: I would like to illustrate this with an anecdote. I have been to Bangalore and had a roadshow before the pandemic. In one of them he met an entrepreneur who was unaware of the tax bases associated with startups.
I think information asymmetry is one of the biggest challenges in this country today. And providing the right information and connecting them to the right partners is the greatest empowerment we can give to women entrepreneurs.
HS: Fundraising is one of the most important parts of a startup. But what more do women want?
AR: Funding should come much later, in my view. We want women entrepreneurs to start and scale professionally healthy companies. First, they must have all the information on the sector they are launching. Aside from hiring an expert, you must have a basic knowledge of the process, be it legal or financial. To be a good entrepreneur, you have to be a jack of all trades.
HS: Mentorship and training are also important…
AR: Yes, behavioral aspects are equally important. WEP 3.0 added an area called Research and Innovation. We are trying to achieve a nudge factor there as well. We look forward to working with research institutes and think tanks such as his IWWAGE. Niti Aayog also has a behavioral unit that I would like to leverage for WEP.
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