Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM-B)’s NS Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL) has launched ‘Women Start-up Programme’ (WSP), to help women start new companies. This programme is being funded by Goldman Sachs and the Central government, according to a report in Indian Express.
WSP is being touted as India’s first customized online and classroom initiative, which will help give women entrepreneurs an in-depth training to imbibe in them managerial and entrepreneurial skills. Mentoring, incubation and financial support will be provided.
According to an Economic Times report, the programme includes online training for 12,000 aspiring female entrepreneurs. Of this, 100 business ventures will be selected for incubation and financial support.
These women entrepreneurs will then travel to IIM-B for a second boot camp, where they will be trained on developing a business plan, understanding costing and pricing, sales and marketing, and negotiation skills. These women will get networking opportunities with successful women entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, IIM-B students, and Goldman Sachs professionals.
“This initiative will empower female entrepreneurs to create jobs and in turn, strengthen the foundations of our communities,” Sonjoy Chatterjee, Chairman and Co-CEO of Goldman Sachs in India told IE.
Once completed, these women entrepreneurs can continue to incubate their business idea at any of the partner institution of their choice. At the institution, the woman will receive financial support of Rs 30,000 per month and in addition, will also receive a prototype from a small prototype fund to run their ventures.
The other partners are CIIE's Innocity, Ahmedabad, IIM Indore, IIM Nagpur, IIM Udaipur, IIM Visakhapatnam, and Presidency University, Kolkata.
Suresh Bhagavatula, professor and chairperson for Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Development at NSRCEL says that the reason behind the course being online and there being a choice of institution is because there were many women last year who refused participating in the boot camp and incubation unable to relocate to Bengaluru.
“Therefore, this year with the help of partner institutions, we would like to offer incubation in various cities," he told ET.