INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION
WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS It Is Estimated that women entrepreneurs presently comprise about 10% of the total number of entrepreneurs in India, with the percentage growing every year. If the prevailing trends continue, it is likely that in another five years, women will comprise 20% of the entrepreneurial force. With corporates eager to associate and work with women-owned businesses, and a host of banks and non-governmental organisations keen to help them get going, there has rarely been a better time for women with zeal and creativity to start their own business. Endowed with the famous female intuition that helps them make the right choices even in situations where experience and logic fail, women have innate flair for entrepreneurship. Although men and women may be motivated by different goals and expectations (In her book, When Money Isn't Enough, Connie Glaser reports that male entrepreneurs are motivated by the potential to earn lots of money, while women start their own companies because they seek greater control over their personal and professional lives.) women entrepreneurs are just as competent, if not better, than their male counterparts. Women are more likely than men to admit when they do not know something and ask for help. They are natural networkers and relationship builders, forging powerful bonds and nurturing

relationships with clients and employees alike. They are also more inclined to seek out mentors and develop supportive teams. In business this translates into establishing rapport with clients and providing great customer service. This perhaps is the reason why many women tend to launch businesses that are client based or serviceoriented. Sometimes, however, a lack of training and prior experience can render women entrepreneurs susceptible to a number of pitfalls. The following guidelines are aimed at helping women entrepreneurs cross some of the typical pitfalls that may crop up on their path to success: Don't undervalue your abilities. Women typically tend to give away too much and charge too little. This is a common phenomenon in servicebased industries where they may charge by the hour instead of charging a fee on the merit of knowledge or service rendered. Adopting value-based charges and charging per project (not on weekly or monthly basis), will help women entrepreneurs gain the actual worth of the services rendered. Learn to juggle family with business. Unlike men, it is difficult for women to completely ignore family obligations when pursuing

business, and they can quickly lose sight of their desire to have a balanced life in the face of a demanding new business. It is important to sustain a personal life and balance family obligations with professional ones, if they are to be successful and happy.

Women also need to be twice as persistent and assertive to make their presence felt in a predominantly male business world. Network, but in a way you feel comfortable with. Establish limits and do make sure that you are well within your comfort zone when networking with others. Do not forget you are running a business. Piling on work/life benefits will not do anyone any good if doing so cuts too deeply into the company's bottom line. You have to learn to be attentive to people's needs and still run a profitable business. Women typically fight shy of self-endorsement. Do not be afraid to promote yourself. Remember, if you want a thriving business you must market yourself and take credit for your achievements. If your marketing is shoddy no one will know what you have to offer Though sidelined as the `weaker sex' for long, with encouragement, support and a conducive

environment, woman entrepreneurs are fast becoming a force to reckon with in the business world. ECONOMIC REFORM TODAY NUMBER TWO 1997 15 16 NUMBER TWO 1997 ECONOMIC REFORM TODAY There was a reason for the separation. We felt that since we were a part of a larger organization, we were unable to work independently on certain issues which are very important to women. After so many years in existence, FIWE did not even have its own offices or permanent staff. But we still work together with FISME. Now that FIWE is a

separate organization, its principal goal is to foster the economic empowerment of women by helping them to become successful entrepreneurs. Another objective is to bring women business persons together to voice their needs and demands in such a way that government enacts policies beneficial to their interests. ERT: What types of members does FIWE have now? MRS. AGGARWAL: Our membership is varied. FIWE as a whole has approximately 10,000 members coming from the 17 local associations that are affiliated with it. (Their membership in turn varies anywhere from 350 to 2,000 members.) Small-scale entrepreneurs account for approximately 60% of our combined membership, large ones represent 15%, and cottage and micro entrepreneurs comprise the remainder. They work in a wide gamut of sectors, from tailoring shops, beauty parlors, printing facilities to steel manufacture. ERT: How important is it for womens business associations to play an advocacy role before government bodies, both legislative and executive? MRS. AGGARWAL: This point was recognized sometime in 1993. Everyone felt we are working successfully on a local basis, but that we had no say at the national government policy level. Now the main objective for FIWE is to interact with national government policymakers so that they understand the needs of women entrepreneurs, and these needs are at the grassroots level. I wouldnt claim that we have achieved major changes on this front thus far. But I feel that as we

continue to work well be able to bring about some of them, possibly by 1998. Given that we have more membership applications and more of our programs have been useful to individuals and local groups, the government will have to realize that women entrepreneurs must be involved at the policy level. There has been some progress. At a recent OECD meeting, I was pleased to report that, with the help of the Finance Ministry, FIWE was able to get women entrepreneurs on the boards of all of The main objective for FIWE is to interact with national government policymakers Entrepreneurs. Indias major financial institutions, government agencies, purchasing organizations, and corporations. As a result, in the future the needs and requirements of women-owned businesses are more likely to be taken into consideration. Of course, due to the fast political changes India has witnessed in the last two years weve experienced some loss of continuity. However, I feel that if we follow up persistently we will achieve other objectives by next year. ERT: How do you see FIWEs mission developing in the future? What role would you like to see the organization play over the next five to ten years? MRS. AGGARWAL: I would like FIWE to become a stronger organization which can work on all important issues related to women entrepreneurs. Interaction with policymakers should occur on a regular basis, so that at any point in so that they understand the needs of women

time they are aware of our organization and the interests it represents. They should really consider the viewpoints of our association when making any kind of policy affecting women entrepreneurs. I think the approach we are taking will support this kind of advocacy. Our leadership is very keen to strengthen FIWE. The 20 members of the Executive Committee, our principal governing body, are in constant touch with each other and regularly contact and write to national ministers about key issues of concern to our members. We also have a steering committee which basically functions as the New Delhi chapter, and it focuses on helping to solve the problems that our members face in that city. ERT: How big an issue is financing for women entrepreneurs? How do you effectively channel women entrepreneurs into mainstream

financing channels? MRS. AGGARWAL: The government has granted several concessions that benefit women entrepreneurs. For example, the Small Industries Development Bank of India and state-level government banks now require that women entrepreneurs raise a smaller percentage of the capital they need. If a man is starting a business, he has to have a funding ratio of 1 to 3; that is, he must put up one rupee for every three he obtains from the banks. But in the case of women, they must put up just 10% and can obtain financing for the remaining 90%. The only limitation is that this kind of credit can be given only to very small

businesses. Still, this is a very positive change. There are two major problems that need to be resolved. First, the commercial banks have failed to provide concessionary interest rates to women-owned businesses. The government defines such businesses as those in which women hold at least 51% of the equity and 51% of all the jobs. The second issue is that the Bank of India and the government have defined small-scale enterprises as those having a capital of up to 10 million rupees. Because 10 million rupees is much more than the capital of most small enterprises, most of the commercial bank credit continues to go to the larger companies in this range. We have tried to bring this point to their attention. However, since changes only occur graduThere are other ways in which FIWE can help women entrepreneurs. Every bank in India has failed to promote entrepreneurship among women. Through our organization, we can help bridge the gap. For women entrepreneurs who cannot approach the banks directly, we try to work like a bridge for them. ERT: Are you able to determine which women have good business plans and are the best candidates to apply to the banks for loans? MRS. AGGARWAL: I find that out of fifty women who approach us, only fifteen are genuinely interested in starting a business. The rest of them are simply forced by their husbands to go forward in order to get some

benefits from the government. But if we see a woman entrepreneur who really knows what she is talking aboutand that its not just that her husband wants her to go into businesswell do what we can to help her request a loan. Initially we were making mistakes by forwarding every application to the banks, and the banks would say many of the applicants were not genuine Entrepreneurship. CIPE has launched an interactive forum to promote discussion of economic reform, business development and democratic institutions.Visit the Forum on Economic FreedomCIPEs online information serviceto participate in our discussion of the role of public policy institutes and other timely issues.

ACHIEVEMENTS OF WOMEN SCIENTISTS AND TECHNOLOGISTS Science and technology have been an integral part of Indian civilization and culture. Women and men have been active in science from the inception of human civilization. One of the defining marks of humanity is the ability to affect and predict our environment. creation of structure. Science is the

For our world and technology, the use of

structure has been stepping stone to our progress. Women and men have researched and solved each emerging need. At a glance, women

in general might look like one of the many housewives simple, docile, unassuming and humble. But make no mistake, for behind this simple straight face is a razor sharp brain, and an uncanny ability to execute, to convert thought into action without much ado. Since Independence, Indians have been promoting science and technology as one of the most important elements of national development. The Scientific Policy of 1958 and the Technology Policy Statement of 1983 enunciated the principles on which growth of science and technology in India has been based over the past several decades and inspires us till date. The major scientific revolutions of the last century have opened the doors to many remarkable technologies in the fields of health, agriculture, communication and energy, among many others. instruments in the tasks Science and Technology are powerful of national reconstruction, economic

resurgence and maintenance of national security. The very first technical name was male Imhotep the architect of the first pyramid and the second was female En HeduAnna (c. 2354BCE). Certainly women were questioners and thinkers long before that, but unfortunately it was an untapped resource Most myths and religions place the beginnings of agriculture, laws, civilization, mathematics, calendars, time keeping and medicine into the hands of women. Women contributed in all the spheres of technical advancement of humanity. They held the same burdens of scholarship as the men did,

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and accomplished just as much.

Women were and are resourceful,

passionate and creative about their work as any other male scientist. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries most women did not have access to institutions of higher learning and laboratories, which prevented them from participation in the scientific revolution. The singular

exceptions in the 19th century being Mary Somerville and Agnes Pockels. The Academie des Sciences of Paris, The Royal Society of

London did not allow women into their meetings and were strictly male bastions. The Academie des Sciences of Paris was founded in 1666

and elected its first female member in 1962, The Royal Society of London was founded in 1662 and elected its first female member in 1945. These societies were important meeting places for the

observation of new experimental results and the discussions of new ideas. The Third World Organisation for women in Science (TWOWS) officially launched in 1993, is the first international forum to unite eminent women scientists and scientific institutions in the South, with the objective of strengthening their role in the development process and promoting leaderships. Although we are a traditional country where women are respected as MatriShakti over the years women have overcome the traditional mind sets and have excelled in professions like teaching, medicine and their representation in scientific and technological

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pure sciences. Women have made important contributions in all walks of life and made inroads into new fields like engineering and information technology. Of the women science graduated 88 % of the science degree holders are in pure science , 8% in medicine and 3% in engineering and technology. However, there has been a recent spurt of women joining the engineering and information technology fields. The field of

biotechnology has revolutionized the industrial growth of the world. In India, our own Kiran Mazumdar is an example for women

entrepreneurs to follow and emulate. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, biotech entrepreneur and CEO of Biocon India group, is one of the many scientists India should be proud of. collaborating with an Irish firm, She started Biocon in 1978 started two joint ventures,

Biochemizyme and Biocon-Quest India Ltd. She has held positions in industry councils, including Vice-President, Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Karnataka. She was awarded Rotary Award for Best Model Employer, National Award for Best Small Industry and most noteworthy is the Padmashri in 1989 from the Government of India. She was accorded a very prestigious assignment as a Chairperson of the Vision Group on Biotechnology to draw up the States Biotech Policy. In 1978, the worlds first test tube baby, Louise Joy Brown was conceived. In India, Dr Indira Hinduja produced first scientifically

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documented test tube baby.

In 1986, Indias first test tube baby

Harsha was born. Female ovum is fertilized with male sperm in a test tube, with suitable environmental conditions, and observed under microscope for more than three days. The fertilized egg is then put back into mothers womb and hence called test tube baby. Producing test tube babies is not an easy task even in advanced countries, Dr Indira Hinduja has rejected opportunities to settle abroad so that she can serve our country/India. The worlds first programmer was Lady Augusta Ada Lovelace of England in 1852. She is credited with telling a machine what to do by using punch cards to programme algebraic patterns. Indian women

have excelled in almost all fields which hitherto were fortified by men. Women are storming Information and Technology field and in the late nineties the number of women in computing and internet industries has registered a sharp rise. The IT landscape is full of women who are busy writing programmes, running network systems and delivering applications to clients on time. Recently a Japanese magazine

concluded that Indian women are number one amongst women from various countries in acquiring and applying IT knowledge. Deb Agarwal, a top scientist at a national laboratory and Radha Ramaswami Basu, a high-tech entrepreneur, are the two Indian women among the top 25 women on Web award winners for this year. Agarwal, a computer scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National

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Laboratory, serves the comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organisation as communication. an expert in the area of reliable multicast Basu is CEO, www.support.com. She was general

manager for international software at Hewlett Packard. She is also the co-founder of Maitri, an empowering organization for South Asian Women in the Bay Area. In June 1963, Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman astronaut, made 48 orbits in Vostok 6. Sally Ride and Kathryn Sullivan alongwith five men were aboard the space shuttle Challenger in 1984 for the first time. space. It was the first time a US woman Kathryn Sullivan walked in Kalpana Chawla from Haryana was qualified from over 2962

applicants to earn herself a place in space shuttle Columbia for a 16 day out of the world experience. The NASA chief called her a Terrific Astronaut. Women have also accepted the challenges of the oceans and have participated in expeditions dealing with ocean research. Dr Aditi Pant is the first Indian woman to participate in the cruise to the icy continent, Antarctica. The expedition was for a period of 4 months and the participants had to explore this continent under rough weather conditions. Shahnaz Husain is the mother of all herbal cosmetics in world. Her creams and lotions have found their way into salons in different parts

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of the globe. She has 650 salons at 104 countries. It is all due to her sheer innovation, determination and hard work. Madhuri Mathur, an intelligent lady made the life of ladies in kitchen easier by bringing out the idea of, a kitchen machine that would blend, chop, mince and grind that culminated into sumeet mixer. Although there is no disparity existing in the emoluments of male and female scientists and technologists an imbalance does exist in the decision making policies and in the exercise of authority which is solely dominated by men. Women do not get scientific recognition and are rarely recommended and nominated for awards, expertships. But the pattern occupying positions of authority has changed progressively during the past years and the trend appears to be encouraging. Many women with high qualifications and experience have reached the top. From these observations, it can be concluded that given the requisite qualifications and opportunities the women in science and technology in India can be achievers and thereby boost the growth of science and technology of our country. From the days when entrepreneurship was seen as a proposition meant either for those who were already well off and so could afford to get into 'business' or for those who could not find jobs or were not so well educated, we have come a long way. Over the last decade, thanks to the success stories of Infosys, Satyam, Spectramind, Indiaworld and several others, there has been a major transformation in the profile of

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'entrepreneurs', the approach to 'entrepreneurship' and the resultant mindset towards entrepreneurship. Yet, when compared with the proportion of men, women entrepreneurs in the IT industry are a miniscule number. If we were to analyze the proportion of women employees in IT organizations, there has been a healthy growth which on an average stands at 20-25%-which was less than 10% a decade ago. The expanding business, exposure to opportunities, access to the right education and 'the right fit' IT industry offers to women, have made this possible. However, these factors have not helped in women taking on the mantle of entrepreneurship in the IT Industry as a noticeable trend. Despite the fact that freelancing as an independent consultant has been in vogue more due to the convenience of the individuals and companies concerned, the ecosystem required to succeed as a woman entrepreneur is absent in the country. How about the entrepreneurial women we find in some other sectors, why do they take the entrepreneurial route? Most of these ventures fall into one of these categories-traditional and 'safe' zones familiar to women like catering or assisting husbands in their shops/business; professional expertise based which is self-run like running a dispensary as a doctor remain an insignificant number. What then are the key challenges which inhibit women from becoming IT entrepreneurs?

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The first challenge lies in the definition of entrepreneurship itself. Entrepreneurship involves the ability to identify the right opportunities, risk taking and access to capital/market. Largely women like to 'play it safe' and do not 'network' amongst business circles as much as men do Setting up the business, raising capital, going and seeking customers, doing 'deals' as the opportunities come along and creating conviction among the male dominated stakeholders regarding their seriousness about their venture- when it comes to financing, are not easy matters. Further, if a woman is married and has a family to take care of, it brings additional limitations especially into the entrepreneurial

venture. An entrepreneur has to breathe and live his/her dream 24x7, physically and mentally, and is required to be available to attend to the call of the business whether from the customer, the employees or the market forces. This calls for the ability to put up with tremendous amount of pressure and stress which do not come easy to most women when they also do not have an effective support system from the family or society to become 'the daredevil entrepreneurs' WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS: THE WORLD IS YOUR OYSTER Isnt the most seductive thing to be your own boss? Be answerable to no one but yourself. Set your own goals. Work at your pace. Be responsible for your own success. Seductive and Scary. More and more women are starting their own businesses right out of home and forging

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ahead. Working from home is not a limiting factor. There are choices for everyone. Have a look. SKILL BASED BUSINESS You can harness your God given or hard earned skills. For instance, if you are a good artist, you can start anything from art classes to display and selling your creations to an art showroom in your garage. If you are a qualified C.A. find smaller clients who will give you the flexibility to write their accounts from your home. An interior designer can tie up with a larger firm to do the designing aspect out of home and leave the onsite work to the contractors.

A great example amongst us is Tarla Dalal. She started cookery classes out of home and has revolutionarised the whole industry. Says Sanjay Dalal, her son who manages her kitchen empire, She started small teaching five students at a time and her empire was built over 15 years. She has a passion for her work and that is what has made a business such a success Franchises are coming of age in India. You can start your own franchise with a business model already in place. From playschools to flower shops. Dance classes to medical diagnostic centres. There are franchises available for everything. But remember franchising will require a deeper commitment in terms of time and money. You may also need to have a separate work place and employees according to

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the requirements of the franchisor. If you have the time and money, franchisees are great business models to go with. Amway, Avon, Modicare, Tupperware, Times Books, what do these names invoke in your mind? A business opportunity for women to work flexitime. You can affiliate with any of these organisations to sell an established product and have full marketing support. A word of caution here - Make sure you have enough selling power by way for selling skills and contacts because this line of work can be profitable only if your sales are at a higher level. There will also be an initial investment by way of buying a starter kit and some promotional material. Do ensure you are not lured into repeatedly buying promotional material.

If you have the eye for it, you may also be able to market product from another place which are not available in your city. Hemangini Bali, a mother of two has found a wholesaler of Gujarati textiles and handicrafts in her hometown Valsad and sells them in the uptown Versova in Mumbai. Internet Sales is a great way to go too. You can set up your website to market your products or services. Another emerging opportunity is buying and selling on the internet on websites like Ebay. After assessing the demand market on the internet, you can procure your product and sell it for a mark up on the internet. For establishing yourself as a successful seller you need to sell consistently good

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quality

product

at

competitive

rates.

Says

DeepaThomas,

Spokesperson, Ebay India, The unique business model implemented on eBay India provides a platform for Indian women sellers to sell local products/ hand made items (using existing talents) across the country & to buyers across the world. Women sellers can also use the eBay opportunity to extend an offline business to online with zero upfront investment. You can also take up an agency. The most common one of course is in insurance. Says Seema Nair, who took voluntary retirement from ONGC to become an agent of TataAIG Life Insurance, It took a lot of hard work but today I am one of their top selling agents. I did not want to just become an agent for namesake. The time is flexible but often I am working on Sundays to meet my clients when they are available.

You can also be an agent for selling mutual fund units, open a share shop from home etc. You can also start an agency, which supplies people with specialised skills (dont get naughty, I do not mean massage parlours) like nurses, odd jobs man like plumber carpenter etc

PROUD WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS BECOME BOAT OWNERS

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Women in the Dashmath fishing community along the coastal belt of Orissa are able to enjoy the benefits of their hard work after they became owners of boats with the help of World Vision.

Following the Orissa Super Cyclone, World Visions response saw the emergence of ADP Nirman to bring sustainable development to the communities devastated by the tidal waves. Rebuilding the livelihood security of the people was a key aspect of the programme and various activities had been undertaken to increase the income base of families dependant on agriculture, fishing and casual labour.

In the fishing village of Dashmath both men and women depend on the fish that they get from the backwaters for their livelihood. 'Though the people got more fish, they couldnt enjoy the profit because they had to pay a rent for the boats they hire', says Darmendra Nayak, Programme Manager of Nirman ADP.

Getting a boat on rent also meant that the people also had to handle issues of availability of boats, fixed timings apart from the money they will have to pay for the day.

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Women Self Group were determined to come out of this situation and with the help of ADP Nirman provided 15 women with 6 dangs (a boat that can accommodate 2 3persons).

'Now women own these boats, they are able to take the boats any time they want, sometimes as early as 3 a.m. and get lot of fish. The profit of the sale is shared among them and sometime they market this for export through other agencies', says Darmendra. Women entrepreneurs in India symbolise a set of women who have broken away from the beaten path and are discovering new views. They had to face many challenges, family oppositions, pessimistic remarks from their fellow workers in the process of establishing themselves as independent entrepreneurs. Wanting to do something positive in their lives urged and compelled them to be an entrepreneur. Smt JayaLakshmi Devaraj after her husband Mr Devaraj passed away took over Sri Vigneshwara Group of Industries. She took up the challenging job of running the business instead of closing it down. She had provided employment to around 200 people. In the year 1989 she won the Codissia Award for the best women entrepreneur. Roma Malkani left India in 1967. In 1979 she and her father founded an Information System and Network Corporation in the US. In a years time she took charge of the company turned the company into the largest

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woman-owned US government contractor. She was listed by the esteemed Washington Magazine as one of the 100 most powerful women living in the US capital. Most importantly the fundamental difficulty faced by a woman is that she is a woman. She has responsibility towards her family and the society. In spite of the legal equalities and the other equalities provided by the constitution the attitude of the men is tradition-bound. Finally not every business is started off from a single idea. Franchises offer better opportunities. Many women have been successful by taking over the family businesses. The most important hurdle faced by woman in addition to

discrimination is choice. Some intelligent woman chooses having children as being their first priority. Some cases, women are able to balance both the choices. Most times, it is difficult to balance time, leading to a situation where an upwardly mobile, all time consuming and well paying careers are sacrificed. Culturally such a perception is changing worldwide. Especially in the west, noticeable changes are apparent. But, nature of the job is such that, both developing and developed world should have cultural or social shift to accomplish substantial amount of women entrepreneurs. Entrepreneur Woman

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If you check this blog you will see a very common problem around the internet business (much more than we would like to believe) SCAMMERS. They are smart, and normally attach small entrepreneurs because they know we normally DO NOTHING when we get scammed. I have decided to do differently and start to speak out what happen to me. Do you know what is the beauty of all of that? Feel I am helping others.I had no one to help me do not get scammed and I am ashamed myself to speak that out and loud, however if I do not publish my experiences and warn others, the scammers will make more and more victms. There is no better feeling than to know I am being at service and helping people.

ENTREPRENEURS LIFE IS NOT EASY Suppliers - every entrepreneur need one - no matter if you manufucature yourself or if you act as agent, you need suppliers, unless you produce all your raw-materials too. When you are building something from scratch and dont have anybody to tell you or advice you on how to do something is even harder to be an entrepreneur. Find suppliers in something you have never done before can be very, very hard. To find my suppliers, I had to do a lot of research on the net, take contact with people and ask where to find this or that. For me things

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were even harder because to find local artisans in Brazil i definetely cannot use the net or even telephone. It is crucial be there - now come the question, how did I do as I am living in Finland? Simple answer, I have grown there, have friends and family there and I had to envolve everybody I know to get to those people. It is impossible to have a local center where you can just go and buy whatever you want. I need to make my family and friends go to the places, talk to the people and keep a relationship with them on my behalf, otherwise I cannot buy from these people. Fortunately I do have my contacts and this have help me, however I have to constantly be looking for other things and rely on my family to do a job that I should be doing. Do you believe that sometimes I want talk with one of my suppliers and I have to call my family to get in contact with them? In the most simple and poor places, local artisans dont even have telephone what make our straight relationship even harder.

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OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

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OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

To study the concept of Women entrepreneurship development programme or process..

To study the various types of Small Scale Industries. To study the impact of Globalization on Small Scale Enterprises. To study the policies governed by Government for overcome this problem. To study the various dominating factor which the global companies have.

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SCOPE & IMPORTANCE

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SCOPE & IMPORTANCE

Women entrepreneurs encounters only one third of all entrepreneurs. And as half the population on this planet is women there is an unnatural gap between genders. There is thus potential to enhance the level of women entrepreneurs. Women entrepreneurs have a massive potential which are yet to be unleashed. Not only due to the gender gap, but also because women bring in diversity to the innovation process. More women will provide per se entrepreneurs with a more diverse perspective. Solutions to market inequalities are not solved just by male entrepreneurs with male thinking innovation. Now women also brings in solutions to market inequalities and their innovations may not be alike those of the man. Thus women entrepreneurship is to be seen as part of the diversity question. One good example here relates to user driven innovation. Where consumer needs are the key driver for innovation. In order to produce user driven innovation the agent needs to adapt the need from the consumer5. The results of that are bound to be different whereas the agents are a man or a woman Women entrepreneurs can possibly lead to another kind of innovation. Women entrepreneurs are mainly employed in the service sector that is tourism, ICT, health, social services etc. A common factor is the great potential of these sectors. Together with creative and new ways of thinking innovation, involving the consumer and the gender gap the potential in promoting women entrepreneurs are obvious. Women entrepreneurship receives a great deal of attention in The OECD and European commission6. They conclude that among other changing mindsets, adapt policies to allow better family life and work balance by using specific instruments like tax regulation, allowances, leave provision etc. will promote women entrepreneurship.

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The paper provides the reader with a view of regional and national initiatives in women entrepreneurship in the Nordic countries and compares this to American experiences. A brush up on the discussions and lessons learned from the seminar: Nordic Women Entrepreneurs held in Stockholm on the 21st of May 2007, concludes on the discussions from the seminar in Stockholm focusing on the challenges and possibilities for Women entrepreneurs. From sets up policy recommendations based upon the different initiatives in the Nordic countries as well as the lessons learned from the seminar in Stockholm. 5 Nordic Innovation Center has user driven innovation as one of their key interests, see Call for expressions of interests Support for User driven Innovation. 6 See the LEED (Local Economic and employment Development Program, programme launched for 2005 - 2007) from OECD, Gender and economical development (OECD, 2003), BEST-report on promoting entrepreneurial culture among women (The European Commission, 2004), The role of women entrepreneurs in local development (OECD, seminar Ljubiana 2003). Women Entrepreneurship A Nordic Perspective The paper is presented as in following order: To draw a baseline on women entrepreneurship the paper outlines the lessons learned from the seminar being the obstacles and initiatives towards women entrepreneurship, which are presented in the lessons learned are combined with the small amount of present data regarding Nordic women entrepreneurship to form the challenges for enhancing women entrepreneurship. The challenges are presented in chapter 4 and in succession different Nordic initiatives are presented. Combining the Nordic initiatives with the challenges the paper presents several recommendations towards initiatives and programs towards enhancing women entrepreneurship.

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TOPIC DETAIL

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TOPIC DETAIL
Countries enjoy an advantage over those in developing countries in that they have access to greater support from women mentors and role models and easier access to formal training in the principles of business planning and organisation. Furthermore, access to capital and the acceptance of women as business owners and women in the workplace has dramatically improved (Sherman, 2003). Where women in developed countries do face obstacles, these are societal and based on old norms. Women entrepreneurs are a driving force in todays modern economy. They shape and redefine the workplace, business networks, financial institutions and culture. There are a number of initiatives designed to motivate women entrepreneurs. Studies show that the experience of women in business is different from those of men. There are profound gender differences in both womens experiences of business ownership, and the performance of women-owned firms (Carter, 2000). Most of the research on women entrepreneurs, limited largely to women in developed countries, has tended to concentrate on unique aspects of the entrepreneurship of women. The studies investigate the demographic characteristics of women (Hisrich and Brush, 1983; Watkins and Watkins, 1983), their motivations/reasons for startup (Watkins and Watkins, 1983; Cromie, 1987; Sundin and Holmquist, 1991) and the constraints/ barriers that women face in starting up. There are few studies that look at differences in individual characteristics across groups of women (Brush, 1992; Carter and Cannon, 1992; Pelligrino and Reece, 1982). The research that has been done indicates that women face different issues, depending on the stage of their personal life cycle (Kaplan, 1988) region or industry of location (Holmquist and Sundin, 1988), and role

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perceptions in business ownership (Goffee and Scase, 1985). Understanding the different goals that women have for entrepreneurship in the global context, and the relationship between these goals and the structural factors that influence womens entrepreneurship, will be of great help to researchers, planners, as well as practitioners working to promote women entrepreneurs in developing countries, especially on the African continent. This understanding can lead to the development of an African paradigm, more finely tuned policies and programmes of support for women entrepreneurs. A BRIEF HISTORY - WOMEN ENTREPRENCURS In most countries, regions and sectors, the majority of business owner/managers are male (from 65% to 75%). However, there is increasing evidence that more and more women are becoming interested in small business ownership and/or actually starting up in business. In addition, rates of self employment among women are increasing in several EU countries. Although there are no official statistics relating businesses to the gender of their owner/manager, there is a good deal of evidence to suggest a significant increase in female entrepreneurship. One consequence of this is that women are a relatively new group of entrepreneurs compared with men, which means that they are more likely to run younger businesses. This in turn has some implications for the problems they face and their ability to deal with them. A key issue, therefore, is whether women entrepreneurs face specific problems in setting up in business that are different from those faced by male-owned businesses. Like young entrepreneurs, women may have particular problems with raising finance and may have had less chance than most men to accumulate the confidence, skills and contacts necessary to start and run a successful business. In addition, gender discrimination by

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finance and support providers, customers or employees may be an issue. Some previous research has suggested that it is more difficult for women to raise start-up and recurrent business finance than men and that women are more likely to encounter credibility problems when dealing with bankers (Carter and Cannon, 1992). In this context, Carter (2000) has identified four areas of financing that previous research has noted can pose particular problems for women. Firstly, women may be disadvantaged in their ability to raise start-up finance. Second, guarantees required for external finance may be beyond the scope of most womens personal assets and credit track record. Third, once a business is established, finance may be more difficult for female entrepreneurs to raise than for their male counterparts, because of the greater difficulties that women face in penetrating informal financial networks. Finally, the relationship between female entrepreneurs and bankers may suffer from sexual stereotyping and discrimination. Certainly, recent evidence suggests that female entrepreneurs use substantially less capital at start-up than male owners, although intra-sectoral similarities demonstrate that gender was only one of a number of variables affecting the business financing process (Carter and Rosa, 1998). This chapter utilises the information collected through the survey of support and membership organisations, and through case studies of 11 female-run businesses, to investigate these issues.

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Support and membership organisations for women entrepreneurs Organisations that stated that their primary purpose was to support and/or represent women entrepreneurs. Fifty six such organisations responded to the survey, 52 from the EU countries and 4 from the 6 CEE countries covered by the survey. General support or membership organisations stated that they provided some services catering for women entrepreneurs. Just under two-fifths of the 586 general organisations stated that they provided such services: 41% of general business support or membership organisations in EU countries but only 29% in the CEE). General support or membership organisations that have a policy specifically concerning women entrepreneurs. This was the case for 119 organisations (24%). Again, EU organisations are more likely than those in CEE to have specific policies. General support or membership organisations that have a specific department, group or individual dealing with women entrepreneurs. Just under one quarter of organisations, but only 17% in CEE, had such institutional arrangements.

LIFE AND BUSINESS COACHING FOR WOMEN TREPRENEURS Are you wondering if women's business coaching is the right move for you, or if this is the right time? Only you can answer that, and to make an informed decision you should know more about what business coaching can provide for you. Business coaching for women makes an enormous difference in creating the success you want, right now, not someday/maybe. There is no need to "get ready" for coaching, because part of the power of coaching is that it starts with exactly where you are right now.

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There are only a few reasons why most people don't have the success they dream of. If you have your own business, or want to start one, small business coaching is the simplest, most effective and inexpensive way to make the changes and create the strategies you need to succeed. Life and business coaching for women entrepreneurs provides a regular time out, a focused time for you to look at your life and business and see where you are going, and to get crystal clear about your goals and make a powerful plan for achieving them. And here's the best part -- you can explore further if coaching is the right move for you right now, by scheduling a FREE, no strings attached, exploratory Coaching Consultation. The Complimentary Coaching Consultation is an excellent way to find out how coaching can benefit you and what kind of powerful results you will get from working with a professional coach. Call today at 401 338-5551 and we'll schedule your free WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS: A GROWING AND PROMISING HENOMENON Women entrepreneurs have become increasingly common in the business world. This IVCJ article examines women's relative advantages as well as some of the obstacles that persist in todays business environment. The topic of women entrepreneurs is of increasing interest to educators, businesspeople and government officials. Research findings have shown a high positive correlation between the level of national womens entrepreneurial activity and growth in gdp, suggesting that countries that are successful in promoting entrepreneurship among women could experience a positive impact on economic growth rates. In israel, as in many other countries, entrepreneurship by women is expanding steadily. There was been

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a rise of 52 percent in the total entrepreneurial activity (tea) index among israeli women in 2004, compared to 2002, and in contrast to a tea decline of 22 percent among israeli men during the same period. Israeli women entrepreneurs tend to be married with grownup children, educated and achievement motivated, and they generally have high selfesteem. Women entrepreneurs: the advantages a refreshing new approach to entrepreneurship by women emphasizes relative advantages of women and how they can be leveraged into entrepreneurship. There is solid scientific evidence that women, on average, take a broader perspective than men do, and think contextually and holistically. They also display more mental flexibility, make more intuitive and imaginative judgments, and have a greater tendency to plan long term. These female traits are important tools for entrepreneurs. As technology changes and globalization and competition accelerate, the business world is becoming increasingly complex and dynamic. More business leaders and consultants are drawing away from rewarding the linear, component-by-component atomistic and focused approach to business that is adequate to masculine thinking, and are now emphasizing the importance of system thinking that provides a framework for seeing the whole picture and interrelationships. The feminine propensity to look at business problems contextually and to concentrate on the whole of the issue rather than its parts, is more in tune to the preferable system thinking of today. Since businesswomen weigh more variables, consider more alternatives and outcomes, recall more points of view and see more ways to proceed, they can bring valuable innovation and creativity to entrepreneurship. Women have a penchant for long term planning and the ability to tolerate ambiguity and

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changes better than men do. As competition increases, todays entrepreneur must be able to alter plans quickly and frequently. A womans innate mental flexibility should be a valuable planning asset for every venture. A women's talent with words and negotiations is useful in marketing the vision and product of a new venture to prospective investors, suppliers and customers. A preference for networking and cooperation with other women are also helpful in entrepreneurial activity. Women in israel, on average, have more formal and academic education than israeli men have. This can help in reducing the gap caused by a long history of subordination of women in the business and military worlds. Rapidly changing technology should enable even more women to go into business for themselves at home. Consequently, the work-family conflict can be minimized. Women's enterprises are more likely to stay in business. Us businesses owned by women have a two-year success rate of 80 percent, well over the national average of about 50 percent. Obstacles facing women entrepreneurs despite the empowering approach presented above, one cannot ignore the fact that women in israel, similar to other countries, are almost half as likely to be entrepreneurs as men. Why? In pursuing entrepreneurship, women are impacted by barriers in a similar way that they are affected by barriers in the labor market. There are internal barriers such as low self-esteem, low need for achievement and a fear of failure. External barriers include lack of role models, insufficient institutional and family support, and absence of sufficient management experience in senior positions. As a result, women have less business skills, fewer connections and reduced access to formal and informal networks. Women also face barriers associated with access to capital. Gaining access to appropriate levels of finance is a challenge to many business owners. However, evidence indicates that women have

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additional disadvantages associated with gender. Some of the reasons stem from stereotypes created by the masculine mentality in the banking industry. Women are entering an environment constructed by men, therefore they may be perceived as less legitimate in the eyes of prospective financial backers. There is also a growing body of evidence showing how the history of gender disadvantage in the salaried sector and military spills over into entrepreneurship. It is argued that continuing subordination in the workplace has constrained the accrual of social, cultural, human, and financial capital and places limitations upon a woman's ability to amass personal savings, invest, generate sufficiently attractive credit histories for lenders, or engage the interest of venture capitalists. Obviously, chronic undercapitalization and financial constraints will impede the full realization of a woman's business potential. Those barriers, particularly the financial limitations, contribute to a propensity to establish firms in poorly performing segments of the service sector, which struggle to survive and/or grow and reinforces the negative image of women in selfemployment. Summary and onclusions women entrepreneurship is beneficial for women as well as for the economy. The increasing number of women entrepreneurs can facilitate economic mobility and self-fulfillment for individuals, promote economic and social equity, create employment, encourage trade, improve the use of valuable human capital and bolster national economic prosperity. A new perspective emphasizes the claim that women dont have to replicate mens entrepreneurial experience and the masculine mentality of doing business. Women and investors can see feminine traits and talents as sources of power with valuable advantages for entrepreneurship. Still, in pursuing

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entrepreneurship, women face many barriers and are exposed to new subordination phenomena, particularly in financing their ventures. It seems that free market forces will continue to put women at a disadvantage in the labor market. Therefore, intervention programs aimed at eliminating the obstacles and simultaneously leveraging distinct female advantages in entrepreneurship are necessary. This article appeared in the israel venture capital & private equity journal (ivcj). Ivc research center publishes the israel venture capital & private equity journal, a quarterly review of trends and developments in the israeli-related venture capital industry. Ivcj, distributed worldwide, is dedicated to provide wide-range coverage of israel's venture capital industry. For more information please visit

FINANCING ESPECIALLY CHALLENGING FOR WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS In their Submission to the Prime Minister's Task Force on Women Entrepreneurs (1993), Women Entrepreneurs of Canada identifies access to capital for women led and women owned business for development and growth as the number one issue challenging women entrepreneurs. While women owned and women led businesses provide 1.7 million

jobs in Canada, compared to 1.5 million jobs provided by Canada's top 100 companies, and women generate approximately 40% of new start up businesses in Canada, and women owned businesses are still having trouble raising the money they need to start and grow their businesses. And because women entrepreneurs are more likely than men to depend on their business earnings and personal debt for financing, women business owners are being held back

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In the same document, Women Entrepreneurs of Canada points out that 58 percent of SMEs (Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises) that are majority-owned by women entrepreneurs are in a slow-growth stage of development - mainly because of a lack of access to financing. There IS a higher turn down rate for loans to women business owners, perhaps because women entrepreneurs tend to own and operate smaller firms, and because women tend to own and operate businesses in slower growth and higher risk sectors such as retail and service. The upshot is that women owned SMEs don't have the same access to capital and services that male owned businesses do. In their Submission to the Prime Minister's Task Force on Women Entrepreneurs, Women Entrepreneurs of Canada recommends that financial institutions set and monitor targets to ensure that women entrepreneurs are receiving a proportionate share of loans. They also recommend that the federal government develop and implement an economic assistance program to support the financing of SMEs, particularly for women owned businesses. FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS TAKE CARE OVER LOCATION Recent research suggests that women setting up in business for themselves tend to do so close to home because of family commitments Where are you going to locate your new business? For many entrepreneurs, the first office at least while starting out is the kitchen table or back room. This is, of course, fair enough given how difficult it can be to find affordable premises while your business is still finding its feet. But where you decide to base your new business can have significant effects on its growth; studies show that entrepreneurs benefit from setting up near to each other

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and interacting. However, new research by academics at Rotman School of Management suggests that women in Canada tend to set up their businesses in areas where there are up to 20 per cent fewer other entrepreneurs operating nearby. They also tend to choose areas where there is less economic activity overall. Sometimes this is because women choose to keep their work close to home (the women studied had commutes an average of 20 per cent shorter than male entrepreneurs) because of family or caring responsibilities. In other cases its because they feel excluded from business networks dominated by old boys clubs, leading to a type of gender segregation of enterprise that in turn leads to lost economic opportunities for the country as a whole, the researchers say. Tanya Hine, president of the British Association of Women Entrepreneurs (BAWE), says that the situation is quite different in the UK. Here, women locate their businesses where there is most demand for their products or services, despite feeling left out of male business networks. The majority of our women entrepreneurs are based in big cities such as London, Birmingham and Sheffield, she says. But we do feel excluded from the old boys club. Obviously they have been at it much longer than we have. They go off together, go to football together and its quite difficult for women to break into that. However, BAWE represents women who run good-sized enterprises with employees, rather than sole traders or those who operate lifestyle businesses, where work-life balance is more important than big profits. Incorporate these second two groups and the picture at least as far as a desire to work close to home is much more similar to the Canadian model.

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RELATED INTERNET LINKS Jackie Brierton, the policy director at Prowess, a network of organisations that supports women entrepreneurs, says that in recent years there has been a significant growth in the number of self-employed and entrepreneurial women in rural areas: The reasons are quite complex but the obvious ones are women choosing to work nearer home because they have caring responsibilities. Rather than missing out on networking opportunities as a result of their gender or location, theyre setting up their own contact groups to keep in touch. I think that women are pretty good at forming their own networks, even though they might look quite different from old boys clubs, Brierton says. Theres also the question of finance, says Sally Goodsell, the cheif executive of Finance South East, a regional funding organisation. While a lifestyle business brings many benefits and may be exactly what a woman leaving the corporate ratrace is looking for, women who want to build high-growth businesses will need monetary backing. And that is where the lack of financial networks can hold them back, Goodsell says. Women entrepreneurs are often very uncomfortable about borrowing money. They dont want to ask, and when they do they dont ask for enough, she says. They tend to be very risk-aware and dont want it to get out of control. Whats needed from their finance networks isnt access to venture capitalists and business angels so much as support to develop their business plans and confidence in asking for money.

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INDIA WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS over the last few years undertaken a range f initiatives to promote and support the economic empowerment of women. These include the holding of a number of conferences, the establishment of the Indian Womens Empowerment Network, and commissioning of studies looking at the internal operations and external impact of both the dti and its associated institutions from a gender perspective. The womens empowerment thrust has the backing of the top decision-makers in the department and ministry. As we move forward, working hard towards fasttracking and advancing womens economic empowerment, we have realised the importance of having reliable current information on the status as well as the profile of our women entrepreneurs. Such information is critical to us and will play a vital role in assisting us to make a fair assessment of the representation and participation of women in business in our economy. Many conclusions have been drawn in the past on the status and profile of Indian women in business, particularly those owning and managing small- to mediumsized enterprises. Unfortunately, such conclusions are based on opinions and perceptions of individuals, largely supported and perpetuated by the media. As a leading economic government department, we believe it is our responsibility to initiate a process of generating factual, comprehensive and proven data about women entrepreneurs. This is the main key towards ensuring our programmes encourage the economic empowerment of women in a more valuable way. We are committed to finding ways of promoting the economic empowerment of women entrepreneurs, whether they be small, survivalist operators or businesswomen engaging in larger enterprises. This could

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be achieved, on the one hand, by ensuring that existing programmes take account of womens situation. On the other hand, it might also involve some women-targeted programmes to fast-track empowerment. Reliable data lies at the center of this. It is the basis for planning successful interventions. This research report details the outcome of our first literature survey to assess the need for a much broader indepth study.I trust it provides some light to many of us who want to make a diffrence out there and grow women entrepreneurship for a prosperous Indiaeconomy. Lindiwe Hendricks: MP The Former Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry

WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS ARE ILL-EQUIPPED educationally and financially. Training requires preparation of targets, budgets and knowledge of business performance. Communication technologies, in some instances, still contribute towards the negative or degrading portrayal of women (Brohman, 1996; Cabinet Memorandum, 1996, unpublished; Maistry, 1999; Ndu, 1997). Access to finance Black women entrepreneurs are denied access to affordable financial services (Brohman, 1996; the dti, 2004; World Bank, 1990). The nature of the many challenges and obstacles facing women entrepreneurs suggest that their full economic potential is not actualised and women do not feature on the mainstream of the economic agenda. In summary, the major constraints on women entrepreneurs in South Africa include: . Social and cultural barriers; Infrastructural barriers; . Educational and occupational barriers; . Role barriers; and . Behavioral barriers. (Bolas and Valle, 2003)

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SUPPORT FOR WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS Support provisioning for women entrepreneurs includes: . Education from dependency and entitlement to self-sufficiency and economic growth; . Development/facilitation of information and communication technologies that bridge the gap between new enterprises and established businesses; . Establishment of networking links, international partnerships, community participation and access to national and global markets; . Development of partnerships between stakeholders (government, private sector, NGOs, trading partners); . Provision of business skills training, facilitation of business incubation, mentoring and support services; . Establishment of appropriate changes to trade, investment and tax policies that promote sustainability and does not stifle the economic dream of women entrepreneurs; and . Review/changing of regulatory frameworks that stifle women entrepreneurs and accelerate economic growth (Nasser, du Preez and Hermann, 2003).

IDENTIFYING POLICY/PROGRAMME MEASURES TO SUPPORT WED The main objective of the field visits to Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania was toobtain information that would enable an assessment of the strength of the support environment for the development of womens enterprises, particularly topromote future growth. The application of the integrated framework (Figure 1) was guided in its application by a list of questions for each of the frameworks component: namely, policy coordination and leadership; promotion; financing; training and mentoring; business support and information; associations and networks; premises; regulatory and legal environment; and research (see Annex 3). The lists of questions that were developed served to highlight

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where gaps existed and where further actions would be required. It should be noted that it was not expected that any one individual government would be able to answer yes to all of the questions in the list, and several might have to qualify the extent to which actions were being implemented in particular areas. Nevertheless, the list provides a useful template for assessing the degree to which women are taken seriously as a target group for MSE support, and the extent to which integrated actions are already underway and in place. The outcome of this assessment is a series of recommendations and good practices specific to each of the three countries, and these have been itemized in detail in the respective country reports. What follows is a discussion of the overall observations of the activities found in all of the three countries as they relate to each of the framework components, along with a summary of the recommendedactions. It is important to remember that the frameworks components are interconnected, and that actions may be necessary in each area to affect the desired changes in the environment for women entrepreneurs generally, and for growthoriented enterprises specifically.

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problem. It may be understood as a science of studying how research is done scientifically. In research methodology, we not only talk about the research methods but also consider the logic behind hem methods.

A RESEARCH DESIGN Research Design is the plan, structure & survey of investigation conceived so as to obtain answer to research questions & to control variance. There are several ways of studying & taking a problem. There is no single perfect design. Different types of research design have emerged an account of different perspective from which a research study can be viewed. DATA COLLECTION The task of data collection begins after a research for problem is defined & research design/plan chalked out. While deciding about researcher should keep in mind two types or data viz: primary & secondary. The Secondary data can be collected by sources: Websites Magazines Newspapers Journals

The main accentuated method is secondary data information from websites magazines, newspapers and journals. 50

FINDING

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FINDING
The educated women do not want to limit their lives in the four walls of the house. They demand equal respect from their partners. However, Indian women have to go a long way to achieve equal rights and position because traditions are deep rooted in Indian society. Despite all the social hurdles, many women have become successful in their works. These successful women have made name & wealth for themselves with their hard work, diligence, competence and will power. Following is the list of few top Women Entrepreneurs in India: Indra Nooyi

Indian born American businesswoman, Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi born October 28, 1955 is the Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PepsiCo, one of the world's leading food and beverage companies. On August 14, 2006, Nooyi was named the successor to Steven Reinemund as chief executive officer of the company effective October 1, 2006. On February 5, 2007, she was named Chairperson, effective May 2, 52

2007. Nooyi joined PepsiCo in 1994 and was named president and CFO in 2001. Nooyi has directed the company's global strategy for more than decade and led PepsiCo's restructuring, including the 1997 divestiture of its restaurants into Tricon, now known as Yum! Brands. Nooyi also took the lead in the acquisition of Tropicana in 1998, and merger with Quaker Oats Company, which also brought Gatorade to PepsiCo. In 2007 she became the fifth CEO in PepsiCo's 44]year history. Nooyi's key contributions include promoting and supporting socially responsible business practices, including taking on one of the planet's most pressing problems, climate change. Her commitment to global citizenship is evidenced by her multi]year growth strategy, .Performance with Purpose.. Nooyi was named on Wall Street Journal's list of 50 women to watch in 2007 and 2008, and was listed among Time's 100 Most Influential People in The World in 2007 and 2008. Nooyi has been named 2009 CEO of the Year by the Global Supply Chain Leaders Group (GSCLG).

Dr. Kiran Mazumdar]Shaw

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Entrepreneur Dr. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairman & Managing Director of Bioon Ltd. She was educated at the Bishop Cotton Girls School and Mount Carmel College in Bangalore. She founded Biocon India with a capital of Rs.10,000 in her garage in 1978 the initial operation was to extract an enzyme from papaya. Her application for loans were turned down by banks then on three counts biotechnology was then a new word, thecompany lacked assets, and (most importantly) women entrepreneurs were still a rarity. Today, her company is the biggest biopharmaceutical firm in the country. to take charge of the company. Entrepreneur Dr. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairman & Managing Director of Bioon Ltd. She was educated at the Bishop Cotton Girls School and Mount Carmel College in Bangalore. She founded Biocon India with a capital of Rs.10,000 in her garage in 1978 the initial operation was to extract an enzyme from papaya. Her application for loans were turned down by banks then on three counts biotechnology was then a new word, thecompany lacked assets, and (most importantly) women entrepreneurs were still a rarity. Today, her company is the biggest biopharmaceutical firm in the country. In 2004, Biocon went for an IPO and the issue was over]subscribed by over 30 times. $ 480 million). Anu Aga

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This woman became the Chairperson of Thermax Engineering after the death of her husband Rohinton Aga. The companys condition was critical at that time. Its share price dipped to Rs. 36 from Rs. 400. Anu Aga, the then Director of Human Resource, Thermax, was compelled to take charge of the company. In order to make the company profitable, she brought a consultant from abroad and restructured the company. The strategy worked and the company saw profit again. She stepped down from the post of chairperson in 2004. Now, she spends most of her time in social activities. Bombay Management Association awarded her Management Woman Achiever of the Year Award 2002]2003. After retiring from Thermax, she took to social work, and 2010 was awarded the Padma Shri (Social Work) by Govt. of India. Sulajja Firodia Motwani

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Sulajja Firodia Motwani is Joint Managing Director of Kinetic Engineering Ltd, she is the in charge of the Companys overall business developmental activities. She is also very well performing the role of the Director of Kinetic Motor Company Limited and Kinetic Marketing Services Limited. She as made an incredible contribution in making the firm reach heights of success. Prior to joining Kinetic Company, Sulajja worked for a period of four years with a well known investment analytics company, BARRA International, based in California. She has been an active participant in setting the operations of the company in India. Throughout her studies, she has been a rank holder. She has always cleared exams with merit. Her name appeared in the toppers list in the SSC examinations and HSC examinations. She graduated from the Pune University. Thereafter, she went to the United States for pursuing further studies. She is an MBA degree holder from the reputed Carnegie Mellon University at Pittsburgh. She is an epitome of boldness and courage. With her strong determination and courage, she has been able to establish a niche for the firm in the business world. The Company has witnessed tremendous expansion during her tenure. From being a mere moped manufacturer, today, it has set its foothold in the industry as a manufacturer offering a complete range of two wheelers right from mopeds, scooters to motorcycles.

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Ekta Kapoor

Ekta Kapoor, creative head of Balajji Telefilms, is the daughter of actor Jeetendra, and sister of actor Tushar Kapoor. She has been synonymous with the rage of soap operas on Indian TV, after her most famous venture 'Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi', which started airing on STAR Plus in 2000. Ekta dominates Indian television, producing more than eight television soaps. At the 6th Indian Telly Awards 2006, she bagged the Hall of Fame award for her contributions. Most of her creations begin with the letter'K' due to her superstition that it brings her good luck. She is `a smart woman with a definite agenda` and has also been appropriately termed as Asia`s most powerful communicator and the lady no.1 in Hindi serials and movies

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Simone Tata

With her visions, she changed a small unknown cosmetics company, one of the subsidiaries of Tata Oil Mills, into one of the leading cosmetic companies of India. Lakme changed the face of Indian fashion and cosmetics forever. For her success, Simone N. Tata is also known as Cosmetic Czarina of India. Simone joined Lakme in 1961 and became Chairperson in 1982. Eyeing growth in the retails sector, in 1996 Tata sold off Lakm to Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL), and created Trent from the money it made through the sale. All shareholders of Lakm were given, quivalent share in Trent. The Westside brand and stores belongs to Trent.Simone Tata was the wife of late Naval H. Tata and is stepmother to current Tata group chairman Sri Ratan Naval Tata.

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Vidya Manohar Chhabria

The wife of late Manohar Rajaram Chhabria, is now leading Jumbo Group, a Dubai based $1.5 billion business conglomerate. She became chairperson of the company after the death of her husband in 2002. She runs the business with the help of her three daughters. She was ranked 38th most powerful women by the Fortune magazine in 2003. The interests of the Jumbo Group include consumer electronics and durables, tyres and tubes, brewing and distilling products, chemicals, machinery and equipment. The group's Indian companies have interests in brewing and supply]chain management. She manages to also attend to household chores and spend time with her daughters. A great lover of Indian cuisine and music, at present, her dream is to develop Jumbo as a focused global entity.

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Priya Paul

Priya Paul (born 1967), is a prominent woman entrepreneur of India, and currently the Chairperson of Appeejay The Park Hotels chain of boutique hotels. She joined the company, after finishing her studies in Economics at the Wellesley College (US) working under her father, as Marketing Manager at the Park Hotel, Delhi, at the age of 22. After the death of Surrendra Paul, she succeeded him in 1990 as the Chairperson of the Hospitality Division of the Apeejay Surendra Group.Her contributions to industry and commerce, particularly in the field of Hospitality Industry have been repeatedly recognized and she has received several awards and citations, including the following: The Federation of Hotels and Restaurants Association of India conferred on her Young Entrepreneur of the Year award (1999]2000), She was nominated for The Economic Times Awards as the Businessperson of the year (2002]2003), and UKs Tatler magazine rated The Park (Bangalore, India), a part of her Group, as one of the 101 Best Hotel Worldwide in 2003.

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Women Entrepreneurs may be defined as the women or a group of women who initiate, organize and operate a business enterprise. Government of India has defined women entrepreneurs as an enterprise owned and controlled by a women having a minimum financial interest of 51% of the capital and giving at least 51% of employment generated in the enterprise to women. Like a male entrepreneurs a women entrepreneur has many functions. They should explore the prospects of starting new enterprise; undertake risks, introduction of new innovations, coordination administration and control of business and providing effective leadership in all aspects of business. Push-Pull factors and Women in business Women in business are a recent phenomenon in India. By and large they had confide themselves to petty business and tiny cottage industries. Women entrepreneurs engaged in business due to push and pull factors. Which encourage women to have an independent occupation and stands on their on legs. A sense towards independent decision-making on their life and career is the motivational factor behind this urge. Saddled with household chores and domestic responsibilities women want to get independence Under the influence of these factors the women entrepreneurs choose a profession as a challenge and as an urge to do some thing new. Such situation is described as pull factors. While in push factors women engaged in business activities due to family compulsion and the responsibility is thrust upon them. Problems of Women Entrepreneurs in India Women in India are faced many problems to get ahead their life in business. A few problems cane be detailed as; 1. The greatest deterrent to women entrepreneurs is that they are women. A kind of patriarchal male dominant social order is the building block to them in their

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way towards business success. Male members think it a big risk financing the ventures run by women. 2. The financial institutions are skeptical about the entrepreneurial abilities of women. The bankers consider women loonies as higher risk than men loonies. The bankers put unrealistic and unreasonable securities to get loan to women entrepreneurs. According to a report by the HRD India), "despite evidence that women's loan repayment rates are higher than men's, women still face more difficulties in obtaining credit," often due to discriminatory attitudes of banks and informal lending groups. 3. Entrepreneurs usually require financial assistance of some kind to launch their ventures - be it a formal bank loan or money from a savings account. Women in developing nations have little access to funds, due to the fact that they are concentrated in poor rural communities with few opportunities to borrow money (Starcher, 1996; UNIDO, 1995a). The women entrepreneurs are suffering from inadequate financial resources and working capital. The women entrepreneurs lack access to external funds due to their inability to provide tangible security. Very few women have the tangible property in hand. 4. Women's family obligations also bar them from becoming successful entrepreneurs in both developed and developing nations. "Having primary responsibility for children, home and older dependent family members, few women can devote all their time and energies to their business" (Starcher, 1996, p.The financial institutions discourage women entrepreneurs on the belief that they can at any time leave their business and become housewives again. 5. Indian women give more emphasis to family ties and relationships. Married women have to make a fine balance between business and home. More over the business success

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is depends on the support the family members extended to women in the business process and management. The interest of the family members is a determinant factor in the realization of women folk business aspirations. 6. Another argument is that women entrepreneurs have low-level management skills. They have to depend on office staffs and intermediaries, to get things done, especially, the marketing and sales side of business. Here there is more probability for business fallacies like the intermediaries take major part of the surplus or profit. Marketing means mobility and confidence in dealing with the external world, both of which women have been discouraged from developing by social conditioning. Even when they are otherwise in control of an enterprise, they often depend on males of the family in this area. 7. The male - female competition is another factor, which develop hurdles to women entrepreneurs in the business management process. Despite the fact that women entrepreneurs are good in keeping their service prompt and delivery in time, due to lack of organisational skills compared to male entrepreneurs women have to face constraints from competition. The confidence to travel across day and night and even different regions and states are less found in women compared to male entrepreneurs. This shows the low level freedom of expression and freedom of mobility of the women entrepreneurs. 8. Knowledge of alternative source of raw materials availability and high negotiation skills are the basic requirement to run a business. Getting the raw materials from different souse with discount prices is the factor that determines the profit margin. Lack of knowledge of availability of the raw materials and low-level negotiation and bargaining skills are the factors, which affect women entrepreneur's business adventures.

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9. Knowledge of latest technological changes, know how, and education level of the person are significant factor that affect business. The literacy rate of women in India is found at low level compared to male population. Many women in developing nations lack the education needed to spur successful entrepreneurship. They are ignorant of new technologies or unskilled in their use, and often unable to do research and gain the necessary training (UNIDO, 1995b, p.1). Although great advances are being made in technology, many women's illiteracy, strucutural difficulties, and lack of access to technical training prevent the technology from being beneficial or even available to females ("Women Entrepreneurs in Poorest Countries," 2001). According to The Economist, this lack of knowledge and the continuing treatment of women as secondclass citizens keeps them in a pervasive cycle of poverty ("The Female Poverty Trap," 2001). The studies indicates that uneducated women donot have the knowledge of measurement and basic accounting. 10. Low-level risk taking attitude is another factor affecting women folk decision to get into business. Low-level education provides low-level self-confidence and self-reliance to the women folk to engage in business, which is continuous risk taking and strategic cession making profession. Investing money, maintaining the operations and ploughing back money for surplus generation requires high risk taking attitude, courage and confidence. Though the risk tolerance ability of the women folk in day-to-day life is high compared to male members, while in business it is found opposite to that. 11. Achievement motivation of the women folk found less compared to male members. The low level of education and confidence leads to low level achievement and

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advancement motivation among women folk to engage in business operations and running a business concern. 12. Finally high production cost of some business operations adversely affects the development of women entrepreneurs. The installation of new machineries during expansion of the productive capacity and like similar factors dissuades the women entrepreneurs from venturing into new areas. HOW TO DEVELOP WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS? Right efforts on from all areas are required in the development of women entrepreneurs and their greater participation in the entrepreneurial activities. Following efforts can be taken into account for effective development of women entrepreneurs. 1. 2. Consider women as specific target group for all developmental programmes. Better educational facilities and schemes should be extended to women folk from government part. 3. Adequate training programme on management skills to be provided to women community. 4. 5. Encourage women's participation in decision-making. Vocational training to be extended to women community that enables them to understand the production process and production management. 6. Skill development to be done in women's polytechnics and industrial training institutes. Skills are put to work in training-cum-production workshops. 7. Training on professional competence and leadership skill to be extended to women entrepreneurs.

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8.

Training and counselling on a large scale of existing women entrepreneurs to remove psychological causes like lack of self-confidence and fear of success.

9.

Counselling through the aid of committed NGOs, psychologists, managerial experts and technical personnel should be provided to existing and emerging women entrepreneurs.

10. Continuous

monitoring

and

improvement

of

training

programmes.

Activities in which women are trained should focus on their marketability and profitability. 11. Making provision of marketing and sales assistance from government part. 12. To encourage more passive women entrepreneurs the Women training programme should be organised that taught to recognize her own psychological needs and express them. 13. State finance corporations and financing institutions should permit by statute to extend purely trade related finance to women entrepreneurs. 14. Women's development corporations have to gain access to open-ended financing. 15. The financial institutions should provide more working capital assistance both for small scale venture and large scale ventures. 16. Making provision of micro credit system and enterprise credit system to the women entrepreneurs at local level. 17. Repeated gender sensitisation programmes should be held to train financiers to treat women with dignity and respect as persons in their own right. 18. Infrastructure, in the form of industrial plots and sheds, to set up industries is to be provided by state run agencies.

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19. Industrial estates could also provide marketing outlets for the display and sale of products made by women. 20. A Women Entrepreneur's Guidance Cell set up to handle the various problems of women entrepreneurs all over the state. Independence brought promise of equality of opportunity in all sphere to the Indian women and laws guaranteeing for their equal rights of participation in political process and equal opportunities and rights in education and employment were enacted. But unfortunately, the government sponsored development activities have benefited only a small section of women. The large majority of them are still unaffected by change and development activities have benefited only a small section of women i.e. the urban middle class women. The large majority of them are still unaffected by change and development. The reasons are well sighted in the discussion part of this article. It is hoped that the suggestions forwarded in the article will help the entrepreneurs in particular and policy-planners in general to look into this problem and develop better schemes, developmental programmes and opportunities to the women folk to enter into more entrepreneurial ventures. This article here tries to recollect some of the successful women entrepreneurs like Ekta Kapoor, Creative Director, Balaji Telefilms, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, CEO, Biocon, Shahnaz Husain and Vimalben M Pawale, Ex President, Sri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad (SMGULP). Microcredit helps women entrepreneurs in India With Loans, Poor South Asian Women Turn Entrepreneurial By CRIS PRYSTAY Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNALPage B1May 25, 2005 CHERVUANNARAM, India -- Every morning, Sarjoni Nandyala puts a few bars of Unilever PLC's Lifebuoy soap and sachets of Clinic

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shampoo in a canvas bag and sets off to sell them to her neighbors in this dusty farming village in southeastern India. For Mrs. Nandyala, who took out a $200 loan from a staterun microcredit agency to start her business, the work is challenging and the returns modest -- $16 a month is her average profit. But Hindustan Lever Ltd., Unilever's Indian subsidiary, is counting on thousands of women like 40-year-old Ms. Nandyala to sell more goods to tens of millions of low-income rural consumers it couldn't reach before. Today, about 13,000 poor women are selling Unilever's products in 50,000 villages in India's 12 states and account for about 15% of the company's rural sales in those states. Overall, rural markets account for about 30% of Hindustan Lever's revenue. "There's incredible potential in rural markets," says Sharat Dhall, Hindustan Lever's director of new ventures and marketing services. "That's where the growth will come from." And that is where the microcredit connection comes in. Microcredit blossomed in South Asia in the early 1990s, when development agencies began giving loans of $100 or so to poor women to help alleviate rural poverty. Villagers used the money to make handicrafts, buy cattle or seeds and fertilizers to expand family farms. In India and Bangladesh, state governments eager to boost local incomes got in on the act, as did private banks, which found that repayment rates were high enough to make microlending profitable. Development agency CARE International, for example, has hooked up Canadian shoe maker Bata Ltd. with its microcredit clients in Bangladesh, who now sell inexpensive flip-flops and sandals in villages that Bata can't otherwise reach. And Max New York Life Insurance Co. Ltd., a joint venture of New York Life Insurance Co. and Max India Ltd., has created co-branded insurance products with CARE India that are sold through the nongovernmental organization's microcredit clients. Hindustan Lever, meanwhile, has

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expanded its own program into Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, and its African units plan to adopt it by next year. About 70% of India's population lives in villages, but many companies still focus on urban areas, where competition is intensifying as the economy expands and profit margins are thin. "For many fast-moving consumer good companies, the bottom of the pyramid is not marginal anymore -- that's where the market is," says C.K. Prahalad, a professor at the University of Michigan's Stephen M. Ross School of Business, Ann Arbor, Mich., and an author of several books on rural marketing. "It's not about making cheap stuff, or being nice to poor people. Western markets are saturated." When executives at Hindustan Lever were plotting how best to reach untouched markets in rural India in 1999, they noticed that dozens of agencies were lending microcredit funds to poor women all over the country. These would-be microentrepreneurs, the company thought, needed businesses to run. So Hindustan Lever approached the Andhra Pradesh state government in 2000 and asked for access to clients of a state-run microlending program. The government agreed to a small pilot project that quickly grew. The initiative, dubbed Project Shakti (which means strength in Hindi), has expanded to 12 states. Agencies such as CARE India, which oversees one of the subcontinent's biggest microcredit programs, also have teamed up with the company. "For the women, it provides a livelihood," says Hindustan Lever's Mr. Dhall. "For us, it is a great one-to-one medium for brand communication and consumer education." When one of Mrs.

Nandyala's neighbors, who used a knock-off soap called Likebuoy that comes in the same red packaging as Unilever's Lifebuoy brand, balked at paying an extra rupee (about two U.S. cents) for the real thing, Mrs. Nandyala gave her a free bar to try. A skin rash caused by the fake soap cleared up after a few days, and the neighbor converted to Lifebuoy.

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When another neighbor asked why she should pay more for Unilever's Wheel detergent than a locally made bar of laundry soap, Mrs. Nandyala asked her to bring a bucket and water and some dirty clothes. "I washed the clothes right in front of her to show how it worked," she says. Project Shakti women aren't Hindustan Lever employees. But the company helps train them and provides local marketing support. In Chervuannaram, a Hindustan Lever employee, who visits every few months, demonstrates before a gathering of 100 people how soap cleans hands better than water alone. Dressed in a hospital-style smock, she rubs two volunteers' hands with white powder, then asks one to wash it off with water alone and the other to use soap. She shines a purple ultraviolet light on their hands, highlighting the specks of white that remain on the woman who skipped the soap. As the crowd chatters, the Hindustan Lever worker pulls Mrs. Nandyala to the front of the hall, and tells the crowd she has got plenty of soap to sell. Mrs. Nandyala wasn't always comfortable with her new, public role. She first applied for a microloan from a government-run agency to buy fertilizer and new tools for her family's small lentil farm four years ago. In 2003, the agency introduced her to a Hindustan Lever sales director from a nearby town. She took out another $200 loan to buy sachets of soap, toothpaste and shampoo -- but was too shy to peddle them door to door. So a regional Hindustan Lever sales director accompanied Mrs. Nandyala and demonstrated how to pitch the products. Mrs. Nandyala has repaid her start-up microloan and hasn't needed to take another one. Today, she sells regularly to about 50 homes, and even serves as a miniwholesaler, stocking tiny shops in outlying villages a short bus ride from her own. She sells about $230 of goods each month, earning about $16 in profit. The rest is used to

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restock products. Hindustan Lever says it isn't making much profit from Project Shakti yet, because of support, marketing and other start-up costs. Still, the distribution gambit pays for itself and it is growing. The company aims to expand Project Shakti to 40,000 rural women by 2006. Project Shakti could account for as much as 25% of the company's total rural sales within the next three to five years, Mr. Dhall says. For NGOs, such commercial link-ups have meant shedding distrust of big business. "At first we were unsure about it," says Vipin Sharma, director of CARE India. "But in the long run, we think the poor will benefit from learning about retailing, distribution and marketing." CARE, meanwhile, hopes to use Hindustan Lever's marketing expertise to promote other small, rural businesses. In one state, Hindustan Lever agreed to help create packaging and branding for pickles and spices made by a local group of CARE's microentrepreneurs. Those women now sell their own brand of spice, called Jyoti, alongside Hindustan Lever's products. ERT: What are the most important services a womens business association should provide its members ?MRS. AGGARWAL: The most important service we provide is counseling because most of the time women dont know where to start or what kind of enterprise they should take up. So our main thrust is to guide them towards making a decision based on their situation; in other words, assessing the kind of environment they are in or the kind of family support they have. Based on this information we try to help them identify options and make a decision. Second, we try to see that most of the women get help with the formalities required by the government and with acquiring financing. Government purchases are important to many businesses and learning how to tender offers to the government is important to their success. For example, someone may have a

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tailoring shop but doesnt know how to sell its services to the military. We try to help them out in filling out the tenders, getting their organization registered, etc. Its a form of marketing support. Training programs are another service we provide. There are women running very small enterprises who dont even have the most basic level of business know-how. In India, the Ministry of Industry has established the Small Industries Institute that has facilities in all themajor cities where women (and men) can get training on manufacturing agricultural products, jewelry, and other products.We assist women entrepreneurs to obtain training at these government-owned facilities, as well as at others established by some private companies. Fourth, women often are not able to get the information they need to run their businesses.We provide it to them because often their involvement in family affairs is so great that they do not have time or they are not able to gain access to information they need for their businesses.We also encourage them to come least two or three times to one of our local chapters and interact with other members. Newsletters are also an important means of providing essential information to our membership. We find it useful to ask members for different topics and ideas for our newsletter. ERT: How is the Federation of Indian Women Entrepreneurs (FIWE) structured and what are its goals?

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CONCLUSION

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CONCLUSION
India is brimming with the success stories of women. They stand tall from the rest of the crowd and are applauded for their achievements in their respective field. These women leaders are assertive, persuasive and willing to take risks. They managed to survive and succeed in this cut throat competition with their hard work, diligence and

perseverance. Ability to learn quickly from her abilities, her persuasiveness, open style of problem solving, willingness to take risks and chances, ability to motivate people, knowing how to win and lose gracefully are the of the Indian women entrepreneurs. In a recent survey it is revealed that the female entrepreneurs from India are generating more wealth than the women in any part of the world. The basic qualities required for entrepreneurs and the basic characters of Indian women, reveal that, much potential is available among the Indian women on their entrepreneurial ability. This potential is to be recognized, brought out and exposed for utilization in productive and service sectors for the development of the nation. Support needs of women entrepreneurs Specialist organisations representing and/or providing support to women entrepreneurs were asked to suggest what types of policy assistance might be of greatest benefit to their clients or members. In addition, they were asked to state whether they thought that the

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need for support in different areas was greater than the needs of small businesses in general. Respondents were given a number of options to choose from, and also had the opportunity to suggest policies or initiatives that were not listed on the questionnaire. Finally, respondents were asked to put forward what they felt to be the main success factors in the provision of support for women entrepreneurs. Case study interviews with women entrepreneurs also explored their perceptions of the types of support that might be most helpful for them in addressing the issues and problems that they are facing.

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LIMITATIONS

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LIMITATIONS

During the winter training research the researcher came across the following limitations-: The time period was very short. The data collected for the report is secondary which can be modified as per the requirements. The verification and purity of report data cannot be promised. The required stuff can be drawn from various journals that are not updated so may be current records cannot be fetched from them.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Bruni. A, Gherardi. S, & Poggio. B. (2004). Entrepreneur-Mentality, Gender and the Study of Women Entrepreneurs. Journal of Organizational Change Management. Vol. 17 No. 3. (pp. 256-268). Emerald Group Publishing Limited. 2. Buttner. E. H. & Moore. D. P. (1997) Womens Organizational Exodus to Entrepreneurship: Self-Reported Motivations and Correlates with Success. Journal of Small Business Management. (pp. 34-46). 3. Gundry. L. K., Ben-Yoseph. M., & Posig. M. (2002). Contemporary Perspectives on Womens Entrepreneurship: A Review and Strategic Recommendations. 4. Journal of Enterprising Culture. Vol. 10, No. 1 (pp. 67-86). 5. Helms. M. (1997) Women and Entrepreneurship: The Appealing Alternative. Business Perspectives. Vol. 10, i1 (pp. 16-19). Gale Group Information Integrity. 6. Weiler. S. & Bernasek. A. (2001) Dodging the Glass Ceiling? Networks and the New Wave of Women Entrepreneurs. The Social Science Journal, 38, (pp.85103). Elsevier Science Inc.

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