Wednesday, 9th March 2022 (GPN): The Atal Incubation Centre (AIC), set up by India’s premier B-school, the Goa Institute of Management (GIM) under the auspices of the NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), has put out a call for women entrepreneurs who are looking to scale up. The ‘WE-Nurture’ program is aimed at micro-ventures founded by women.

Rajesh Joshi, CEO of AICGIM explained, “Women entrepreneurs face a lot of barriers; compared to male peers, they have a smaller network, subtle and blatant gender bias, lack of access to capital and market. A woman entrepreneurs’ capabilities are questioned based on personal life decisions as well. Every entrepreneurs’ journey is difficult but a woman entrepreneurs’ journey is lonelier and a lot harder due to the said factors. But this is a good time to encourage women entrepreneurs, as it contributes to their empowerment as well as national and state growth”.

‘WE-Nurture’ is a program rolled out by AICGIM to support Women Entrepreneurs. “Goa has the highest percentage of women entrepreneurs per capita compared to other Indian states. This program is designed exclusively to promote women entrepreneurs in Goa. We had significant success with our first cohort”, added Joshi.

Recently, members of the first cohort had an opportunity to display their products at the four-day Carnival event at Samba Square in Panjim, which saw a lot of footfalls.

The WE – nurture program began with ten women who not only sustained their business but also provided livelihood to rural women and farmers in a lot of ways. These women entrepreneurs were provided support in the form of access to investor networks, market support, knowledge and monitoring support, access to technical support, legal compliance support, and much more.

During the pandemic, many women became entrepreneurs for the first time. Most of these women-led businesses were small and informal in nature. The WE – nurture program of AIC-GIM intends on providing assistance and support during these times, to build resilience and give the women, up-skilling resources to scale up.

Link to apply-  https://www.aicgim.in/we-nurture/