As part of its State Support Mission, NITI Aayog organised the Second State Workshop on Empowering Women-led Development through Entrepreneurship in Arunachal Pradesh. In collaboration with the Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) and the Government of Arunachal Pradesh, the workshop took place at the Dorjee Khandu State Convention Center in Itanagar, focusing on all eight northeastern states.
In the inaugural session, the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh, Shri Pema Khandu, announced the establishment of a Women Entrepreneurship Cell with an initial funding of INR 5 crore to assist women entrepreneurs in the state. The Cell will conduct special incubation and acceleration programs, in alignment with the Government’s commitment to ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, Sabka Prayas.’
In his address, Shri Dharmendra, the Chief Secretary of the Government of Arunachal Pradesh, emphasised the government's support for the development of women's entrepreneurship in the region. He highlighted initiatives that can help facilitate access to finance, skill development, digital literacy, and mentorship.
Initiatives for Women-Led Development in the Northeast
Ms. Anna Roy, Senior Advisor at NITI Aayog and Mission Director of WEP, highlighted NITI Aayog's mandate to promote cooperative federalism and the key features of the State Support Mission in advancing this agenda. Emphasising WEP’s role as a catalyst for women-led development in the Northeast, she underlined the commitment to this cause. The event also featured leading women entrepreneurs who shared their journeys and insights into navigating policy ecosystems, the impact of philanthropy, and collaborations to bring about transformative change for women entrepreneurs.
Supporting Clean Energy Entrepreneurship
As part of the workshop, the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh and the Chief Secretary launched many initiatives for women entrepreneurs of the north-eastern states under the Award to Reward (ATR) of WEP, which were specifically curated in partnerships with industry and ecosystem leaders. The first launch was the “CatalyseTech EntreprenueHer Innovation Challenge”, an Atal Innovation Centre-SELCO Foundation partnership focused on supporting clean energy entrepreneurship. The ATR will empower women entrepreneurs in critical sectors such as agriculture, healthcare, and micro-businesses and aims to create awareness and solutions for sustainability and climate resilience among women entrepreneurs.
Training & Capacity Building for Women Homestay Owners
The second launch involved the “Maitri program” in collaboration with MakeMyTrip, focusing on the training and capacity building of women homestay owners in the northeastern region to promote the growth of women entrepreneurs. Under the ATR program, homestay owners will receive training in utilising online marketplaces, including MakeMyTrip, to establish a robust digital presence and market their businesses online.
Skilling & Development for Entrepreneurs
The next set of collaborations focused on building an enabling environment for women enterprises. This included the launch of the “NASSCOM Future Skills Program”, which will provide skilling to women entrepreneurs from three backgrounds: Non-tech, Semi-tech, and Tech through short learning modules to help entrepreneurs test concepts through structured experiments, refine business strategy, raise capital to grow their business and create value for their customers.
Mentorship & Networking Opportunities
The “FLO MSME Assist Centre” by the FICCI FLO was launched as a helpdesk for North-Eastern women entrepreneurs to provide them with a platform for mentorship and networking opportunities, fostering partnerships, accessing new markets, and providing skill development and capacity building tailored to the needs of women entrepreneurs, while also creating international business opportunities for them.
Support with Technological Transformations & Growth
The BITS Pilani and Aditya Birla Foundation's "Womenpreneur" program launched at the event aims to acknowledge women-led enterprises driving technological transformations in India. This initiative offers a unique 18-month-long incubation opportunity for women entrepreneurs, featuring personalized mentoring, market support for scaling up, and a chance to secure seed funding of up to Rs. 10 Lacs.
To broaden the impact of WEP, key partners, Mastercard and SquarePanda, introduced new features on WEP, including content in 12 languages, a chatbot, and several others.
Hon’ble Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh urged the participants to register on the WEP platform (www.wep.gov.in) and get benefits from all the programs that he launched.
The workshop recorded over 1500 participants, including women entrepreneurs, local self-help groups, government officials, industry representatives, incubators/accelerators, financial institutions, philanthropic foundations, and more.