The NS Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL) at Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM-B) recently announced the launch of the nationwide Women Start-up Programme (WSP), funded by Goldman Sachs and the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India.
The WSP is India’s first customised online and classroom initiative designed to inspire aspiring female entrepreneurs across the country. The programme seeks to facilitate the growth of women entrepreneurs by providing in-depth training to foster and augment managerial and entrepreneurial skills through mentoring, incubation, and financial support.
Hands-on training
During the coming year, the WSP will provide training for up to 12,000 women through its five-week 'Do Your Venture' massive open online course (MOOC), which has been customised to encourage women to systematically identify and test their business ideas. Thereafter, 300 women entrepreneurs-to-be will be shortlisted for a bootcamp to be held at partner campuses in the towns nearest to them, where they will receive classroom instructions on communications and customer interaction.
From the 300 ventures, a select 100 women entrepreneurs will then travel to IIM-B for a second bootcamp, where they will receive classroom instructions on developing a business plan, understanding costing and pricing, sales and marketing, and negotiation skills. During this period, they will also have networking opportunities with successful women entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, IIM-B students, and Goldman Sachs professionals.
Partner colleges
After the completion of the boot camp, these women entrepreneurs will have their business ideas incubated for a year at a partner institution of their choice where each women will also receive ₹30,000 per month for financial support and funding from a small prototype fund to run their ventures. The partner institutions are CIIE’s Innocity, Ahmedabad; IIM Indore; IIM Nagpur; IIM Udaipur; IIM Visakhapatnam; and Presidency University, Kolkata.