The Indian government is sending a group of women tech entrepreneurs from India to Silicon Valley to meet with executives from companies like Google and eBay. The goal is to help the entrepreneurs understand the startup culture, gain mentoring and strategic investments, and connect with investors to help grow their businesses. Some of the Indian women entrepreneurs hope to showcase their innovations, such as technology to enhance product images for online retailers and wearable devices that can power gadgets using solar energy. The government recognizes the important role of women in development and has several initiatives to promote entrepreneurship among women.
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Can woman entrepreneurs lead the next Flipkart? The Indian government thinks so.
The government, in collaboration with Indo-US Science and Technology Forum and
Anita Borg Institute, is sending a group of Indian woman tech entrepreneurs to the
Silicon Valley in the US to help them understand the entrepreneurial culture there.
This month they will meet some of the top executives at eBay , the world's largest
online market place, and Google to get mentoring and strategic investments. They
will also connect with government agencies, trade associations and venture
capitalists to grow their business and raise capital, which is one of the biggest
challenges for woman entrepreneurs.
“The government of India has initiated several measures to promote
entrepreneurship among women as it realises the critical role of women in national
development,“ said Anita Gupta, director at government-run National Science &
Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board, Department of Science and
Technology .
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“The government alone cannot sustain the movement of empowerment of
women,“ said Gupta.
From helping online retailers know the emotions of their customers to making
wearable tech clothing that charge gadgets, these woman entrepreneurs are
drumming up business from innovations that have traditionally been led by men.
“I am keen to grab the opportunity of taking our solution to the US market,“ said
Sreepriya Koppula, 33, founder of Bengaluru-based Turnaround Systems. The
startup provides a technology to online retailers like Flipkart, Snapdeal and Myntra
that automatically enhances the image quality of their products, makes them three
dimensional and interactive on websites.
An alumnus of IIT-Kharagpur, Koppula has also won a grant of Rs 5 lakh from Anita
Borg Institute for her year-old startup. The mother of two children is hoping to get
some strategic investment in the Silicon Valley which is home to many of the
world's largest corporations like Apple, Facebook as well as thousands of tech
startups and top institutes like Stanford University.
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Another entrepreneur Lavina Mahbubani would showcase her
wearable tech firm Lumos Design Technology . An alumnus of National
Institute of Fashion Technology Mahbubani is creating a wearable
platform to deploy a range of solu tions to problems faced by consum
ers. For example, her Bengalurubased firm makes bags that can power
gadgets running out of charge using solar energy .
Experts like Geetha Kannan, India managing director at Anita Borg
Institute, say there has been a significant increase in businesses led by
women in the last few years.“This is truly encouraging and I am
confident that this partnership will help identify and support woman
entrepreneurs to set up innovative companies,“ said Kannan.
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“Lot of work is required to create a level playing field for woman
entrepreneurs, it has been so biased,“ said Ashwini Asokan, 33-year-oldchief
executive of Chennai-based Mad Street Den, an artificial intelli gence and
computer vision startup that helps large online retailers analyse emotions of
customers by tracking facial expressions and eye gaze when they shop
online. It also sells a product that enables consumers do a visual search for
fash ion items by feeding images.
“Now lot of kinship is getting created among woman entrepreneurs, we are
forming informal support structures like WhatsApp and email groups to help
each other,“ said Naiyya Saggi, 31, chief execu tive of BabyChakra, an online
platform that helps parents discover and decide on the best local services for
their child, right from when they are expecting a baby to when their child is
five.
6. For details and bookings contact:-
Parveen Kumar Chadha… THINK TANK
(Founder and C.E.O of Saxbee Consultants & Other-Mother )
Email :-saxbeeconsultants@gmail.com
Mobile No. +91-9818308353
Address:-First Floor G-20(A), Kirti Nagar, New Delhi India Postal Code-110015