UGM June 2019 Q36
- Option : B
- Explanation : NITI Aayog launched the Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) on March 8, 2018, on the occasion of International Women’s day.
The platform was launched by NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant at the NITI Aayog premises in Delhi in the presence of UN Resident Coordinator in India Yuri Afanasiev, Kailash Kher, industry leaders and supporting partners.
The launch also saw the release of WEP’s theme song ‘Naari Shakti’, which has been composed and sung by renowned singer Kailash Kher
Besides this, the nominations for the Women Transforming India Awards, 2018 were also opened by Amitabh Kant and Yuri Afanasiev on the occasion.
Objective:The entrepreneurship platform for women was envisaged by the CEO of NITI Aayog during the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) in Hyderabad in November 2017.
The initiative is aimed at building a vibrant ecosystem for women across India to help realize their entrepreneurial aspirations, scale-up innovative initiatives and chalk out sustainable, long-term strategies for their businesses.Key Highlights:
• WEP aspires to substantially increase the number of women entrepreneurs who will create and empower a dynamic new India
• These aspirations are manifested in the three pillars on which WEP is built:
−Ichha Shakti: Motivating aspiring entrepreneurs to start their enterprise.
−Gyaan Shakti: Providing knowledge and ecosystem support to women entrepreneurs to help them foster entrepreneurship.
−Karma Shakti: Providing hands-on support to entrepreneurs in setting-up and scaling up businesses.
• The platform aims to address the bottlenecks faced by both aspiring and established women, entrepreneurs, by streamlining information across government and private sector schemes and initiatives with an informative, interactive website as a dedicated resource and knowledge base.
• The platform will operate within a broader framework of industry collaborations and partnerships, which cut across sectors in the economy.
• From providing unique services such as credit evaluation of women-led startups by CRISIL and potential equity investments through an INR 10 crore fund established by DICE Districts, the WEP is expected to open up avenues of growth and opportunity for women entrepreneurs.
