this reveals total india's dynamic women entrepreneurs

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DYNAMICS OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN INDIA
1
Ambati Joga Rao 2
Saumendra Das 3
Dr. D. Vishnu Murty
ABSTRACT
Entrepreneurship is necessary to initiate the process of economic development for both developed and
developing countries.Every country triesto achieve economic development for prosperity and better
life to their people. So, contribution of both men and women is essential in economic activities for
healthy nation development. But in India, women are facing many constraints in carrying out
economic activities or undertaking any entrepreneurial work. Sometimes women have to face various
socio-economic and otherproblems as entrepreneursas they are not treated at par with men due to
social and cultural restrictions. In recent years,it is observed that there has been increasing trend in
number of women enterprises in India as a result of changing scenario of the present world.Both men
and women are participating in large number. Today, more and more women are undertaking various
economic activities where they are playing very important role in socio-economic development of all
countries. Because of their participation, global economy is being changed. It is estimated that
approximately one third of the business organizationsare owned by women in India and all over the
world. The study aims at understanding the development of women entrepreneurship in India and
their success and challenges.
KEY WORDS: Women Entrepreneur,BusinessCommunity,Entrepreneurship,Socio-Economic
Problems, Women Entrepreneurs and Women Entrepreneurship.
1
Student, 2nd
MBA, Aditya Institute ofTechnology & Management, Tekkali, Srikakulam Dist.
2
Asst. Professor, MBA Department, Aditya Institute ofTechnology & Management, Tekkali,
Srikakulam Dist.
3
P.G Director, Aditya Institute of Technology & Management, Tekkali, Srikakulam Dist.

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FULL PAPER
INTRODUCTION
The father of nation “Mahatma Gandhi” cited that women is the cohort of man, gifted with equal
intellectual capacities, she has the right to participate in minutes at details of the activities of man and
she has the same right of freedom and liberty as she is entitled to a supreme place in her own place in
her own sphere of activity as many as in her. Last three decades in most of the countries of the world
has experienced the emergence of Entrepreneurship as it is one of the most important avenues of
socio-economic change. Number of studies revealed the positive linkage between entrepreneurship
and societal development where contribution of women has been remarkable in spinning the positive
changes towards the development of society. In this present context, women expect equal status from
the government, organizations and society. They seems to be right in their attitude because the model
of women entrepreneurial leaders and professional executives are plenty starts from managing tiny
shop to the level of chairing the position of Prime Minister of a country, one could single out
substantial number of successful and entrepreneurial women. The term “entrepreneur” has been
derived from the French word, entreprendre which means to undertake. So the term entrepreneur may
be defined as “an entrepreneur is a person who combines capital and labor for production”.
Today women entrepreneurs are gaining hold in all business market. They became an important part
of the business. Women entrepreneur are diversifying from some set business. Normally, they were
involved in beauty product business, or boutiques, or even restaurants. However, trend changed and
they diversified into more technical businesses such as computers, software or technical. They also
venture into male dominated business like supplying and contracting etc. Women entrepreneurs are
gaining a strong hold in most of the developing countries including India, Brazil and China. Another
trend can be women are increasingly coming on the forefront in private and government business
organizations, occupying top positions like Indra Nooyi and EktaKapoor. Again there is increased
awareness and women entrepreneurs are increasingly finding it easy to finance their business in the
coming years. The purpose of the study is to focus such women in right perspective. The success
stories of these stalwarts would enable the aspiring women, to take up entrepreneurship as potential
tool for their betterment. The women are trying to come out of routine orthodox career rather than
aiming to become receptionist, typist, clerk etc.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
1. To examine the growth and performance of the women empowerment in India.
2. To know the recent trends in development of women entrepreneur in India.
3. To understand the women empowerment in various levels.

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REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Review of literature is basically confirmed the need of women entrepreneurs in India and their success
stories in different areas which has been collected from journals, books and periodicals. It observed
that entrepreneurship is not only belong to family but it requires individual interest, in this connection
Kanitkar (1994) studied that entrepreneurs and micro enterprises in rural areas by selecting 86
entrepreneurs who belonged to 22 villages of Bihar in northern India, West Bengal in East India and,
Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh from central India and found that 88 per cent of the business
entrepreneurs were not from families with business background and 48 percent had parents who
belonged to the farming group.
According to Amin, Becker and Bayes (1998), concept of women’s empowerment into three
components each measured separately i.e inter-spouse consultation index, which sought to represent
the extent to which husbands consulted their wives in household affairs; individual autonomy index
which represented women’s self-reported autonomy of physical movement outside the house and in
matters of spending money; and the authority index which reported on actual decision- making power
which has traditionally in the hands of the patriarch of the family.
In this connection Balk (1994) also cited the same in her study. Comparable components of
empowerment have been included in the eight indicators by Hasemi (1996) where mobility, economic
security, ability to decide small purchases, ability to decide on larger purchases, involvement in major
decisions, and relative freedom from domination by the family, political and legal awareness, and
involvement in political campaigning and protests. Several different efforts have been made in recent
years to develop comprehensive framework delineating the various dimensions along which women
could be empowered. He found that the membership in the Grameena Bank had a significant positive
effect on women empowerment.
In their study, Goetz and Sengupta (1996) have used a five point scale to measure the level of control.
Women exercise over loans and have arrived 44 at the conclusion that micro credit had a negative
impact on women’s empowerment. They found that less than 18 % of the women in the sample
studies retained full control over the loans they availed from credit programmes where 39 percent of
respondents were judged to have very little control over the loans.
In another study, Heggade (2002) discussed the development of rural women entrepreneurship, trends,
and patterns of growth by various types of economic activities and the problems faced by them. The
government schemes such as DWCRA/ TRYSEM and other income generating activities in the group
and by individual entrepreneurs have enlightened the process involved in the promotion of self- help
groups, networking of the bankers / NGOs / village panchayats/ departments/ societies in organizing

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and promoting self-employment ventures by these women. The study has revealed that the
marginalized groups like SC/STs, religious minorities like Muslims/ Christians are very negligible
whereas the rural women belonging to Hindu forward groups are substantial. Activities selected by
these women were purely village based, lacked tapping the avenues of wider markets due to gender
bias of the promoters, their restrictions in mobility, constraints of market expansion ideas by taking
additional working capital. The author has failed to comment on the personality growth of these
women, and mode of inculcating risk taking, decision making, and capacity building aspects.
Major Challenges Faced By Women in the Industry
1. No access to capital
2. Low access to information
3. Low access to networks
4. The effort to balance work and family as their most difficult task
5. Difficulties in exporting their product overseas and in increasing the volume of production
both of which are of importance for their competition in the global market
6. Also important is lake of confidence in female business owners
7. Lack of abilities on the part of bank, suppliers, and clients
8. Additional problems, such as marketing and labour difficulties and disagreement with
associates, may arise after start-up phase
9. Social and cultural gender-based inequalities and biases
10. Limited knowledge of marketing strategies
11. Weak business associations
12. Lack of networking facilities
13. Poor access to education and training programmers.
Problems ofWomen Entrepreneurs in India
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 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 United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), “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 (UNIDO,1995b).

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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. The women entrepreneurs are
suffering from inadequate financial resources and working capital.
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”. The financial institutions discourage women entrepreneurs on
the belief that they can at any time leave their business and become housewives again.
The result is that they are forced to rely on their own savings, and loan from relatives and
family friends.
5. Indian women give more emphasis to family ties and relationships. Married women have
to make a fine balance between business and home. Moreover, the business success is
depends up on the family members extended to women in the business process and
management. The interest of 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 offices staffs and intermediaries, to get things done, especially, the
marketing and sale side of business. Here there is more probability for business fallacies
like the intermediaries take major part of the surplus or profit.
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 organizational skills compared to male entrepreneurs women have to constraints from
competition. The confidence to travel across day and night and even different regions and
level freedom of expression and freedom of mobility of the women entrepreneurs.
8. Less Confidence: Women entrepreneurs are not confident about their strength and
competence. Their family members don’t stand by their entrepreneurial growth. In recent
years, though the situation is changing, yet the women have to face further change for
increased entrepreneurial growth.
Helping Aid Given to Women Entrepreneurs in India
1. Multilateral lending agency Asian Development Bank and Japan will extend support,
including financial assistance, for initiatives to improve skills of low-income women
entrepreneurs in India. A grant of $3 million from the government of Japan – financed

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Japan Fund for poverty reduction, administered by ADB, will be used to help women
entrepreneurs in India.
2. Further assistance would be given to Small Industries Development Bank of India and its
partner microfinance institutions to review and revives their gender policies and practices.
3. Additional funds of $ 1, 08,000 from the Government of India and $ 1, 06,700 from
beneficiary communities will be provided for a total grant cost of $3.214 million, it noted.
Table No.1 Schemes for Women Entrepreneurs
Bank Schemes
Bank of India PriyadarshiniYogana
Central Bank of India Cent kalyani
Oriental Bank and Commerce Oriental MahilaVikasYojana
Central Bank CAN mahila
Dena Bank Dena Shakti
State Bank of Mysore StreeShakthi
Punjab National Bank MahilaUdyamNidhi Scheme
State Bank of India StreeShakthi package
Punjab and sind Bank Udyogini scheme
SIDBI MahilaUdyamNidhi
TmilanadMarchantile Bank Mahalir
Source: CLSA Asian-Pacific Markets.
Types ofIndustries Promoted by Women Entrepreneurs
1. Agarbati Manufacturing.
2. Pappdmaking .
3. Embroidery.
4. Batik Painting.
5. Special Bedspread Making.
6. Running Restaurants,Snack Bars Etc.
7. Handicrafts For Export.
8. Retail Shop- Textiles, Readymade Garments, Grocery Shops Etc.
9. Apparels Manufacturing.
10. Catering Service.
11. Running Working Women’s Hostel.
12. Florist Shops and Dry Cleaning.
13. Xeroxing and Photographic Studios.

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14. Pickle Manufacturing.
15. Stationery Manufacturing and Packaging.
16. Urban Diaries, Milk Distribution.
17. Travel and Advertising Agencies.
Powerful Women Entrepreneurs in India
Table No. 2 The Top 20 Leading Businesswomen in India
1 Akhilasrinivasan, Managing Director, Shriram Investment Ltd.
2 Chandakocchar, Executive Director, ICICI Bank.
3 Ektakapoor, Creative Director, Balaji Telefilms.
4 Jyoitnaik, President,Lijjat papad.
5 Kiranmazumdar-Shaw, Chairman And MD, Biocon.
6 Lalita D Gupte, Joint Md, ICICI Bank.
7 Nainalalkidwal, Diputy CEO, HSBC.
8 Preetha Reddy, MD,Apollo Hospitals.
9 Priya Paul, Chairman, APEE JAY Park Hotels.
10 Rajshreepahy, Chairman, Rajshree Sugars And Chemicals Ltd.
11 Ranjana Kumar, Chairman NABARD.
12 Ravina Raj Kohll, Media Personality And Ex-President, STAR News.
13 Renukaramnath, CEO, ICICI Ventures.
14 Ritu Kumar, Fashion Designer.
15 Ritu Nanda, CEO, ESCOLIFE.
16 Shahnazhussain, CEO, Shahnaz Herbals.
17 Sharanapparao, Propritor, Apparao Galleries.
18 Sione Tata, Chairman, Trent Ltd.
19 Sulajjafirodiamotawani, Joint MD, Kenitic Engineering.
20 TarjaniVkil, former chairman and MD, EXIM Bank.
Source: CLSA Asian-Pacific markets.
MAJOR WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS OF INDIA
Indra Nooyi- 4th
Position- ChiefExecutive – PepsiCo
She was born in Madras and “A” class student in her school. She did her bachelor’s degree from
Madras Christian College and MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. Nooyi then went
USA and attended Yale University. From Yale University, She obtained her degree on management.

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This brilliant woman started her career in Boston Consulting Group and moved on to Motorola and
Asea Brown Boveri. She joined PepsiCo. In 1994 she turned the company into bold risk taker. In
1998, Pepsi acquired Tropicana. In 2001, she became president of Pepsi Cola. Wall street journal
included her name in their top 50 women to watch in 2005. Fortune magazine declared her 11th
most
powerful women in business.
Lalita Gupte & Kalpana Morparia-93rd
position – Joint Managing Directors, ICICI Bank.
Kalpana and Lalita are joint MDs of ICICI Bank, the second largest bank of India. Lalita holds a
master’s degree in management studies from Jammnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies. She
joined ICICI Bank in 1971. Her reason behind the success is her supportive family and husband. Ms.
Kalpana is graduate in law from Mumbia University. She joined ICICI in 1975 as senior legal officer.
She became the executive director in 2001. For her contribution in 1999 she got merchant’s chamber
award from Indian government.
Indu Jain—chairperson (former) The Times Group
Jain has many identities: spiritualist, entrepreneur, educationalist, great lover of art and culture. The
Times group bought from a British group. Now her two sons Samir and Vineet are running the
company.
Priya Paul-Apeeajay Surrendra Group
Priya Paul finished her bachelor’s in economics from USA. She got into her family business at age of
24 after her father Surrendra Paul was assassinated 1990. Appee Jay Surrendra group has several
subsidiaries such as tea, hotels, shipping, retail, real-estate and financial services. At present, Proya is
the chairperson of apeejay park hotels.
Neelam Dhawan—Managing Director, Microsoft india
She has become a pioneering figure in the IT Industry of India. Neelam has been working in the
Indian IT field for the last 23 years. Before coming to Microsoft, she worked in all the top IT
companies in India such HP, IBM and HCL.
CONCLUSION
Now days, women entrepreneurs are becoming the stars of business market. Since independence of
India women entrepreneur are occupying their position in technical businesses such as computers,
software or technical or professional business like consultancy and agency. It can be observed that
women are increasingly coming on the forefront in private and government business organizations,

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occupying top positions like Indra Nooyi, Lalita Gupte, Indu Jain and Neelam Dhawan. The success
stories of these stalwarts would enable the aspiring women, to take up entrepreneurship as potential
tool for their betterment. It also revealed that there is a positive linkage between entrepreneurship and
social development in which contribution of women has been remarkable in spinning the positive
changes towards the development of society. So in this present context, women expect equal status
from the government, organizations and society as well they seems to be right in their attitude because
the model of women entrepreneurial leaders and professional executives.
REFERENCES
1. Belcourt, M (1990), “A Family Portrait of Canada’s Most Successful Female Entrepreneurs”,
Journal of Business Ethics.
2. Brush, C.G (1997), “Women-owned Businesses: Obstacles and Opportunities”, Journal of
Developmental Entrepreneurship.
3. Buttner, E.H (1993), “Female Entrepreneurs: How Far have they come? Business Horizons.
4. Kanitkar, A (1994), “Entrepreneurs and Micro Enterprises in Rural India”, Economic and
Political Weekly, Vol. 29, No. 9.
5. Byes Abdul, Amin Rahul and Beeker Stan (1998) “NGO Promoted Micro Credit programs
and Women Empowerment in Rural Bangladesh, quantitative and qualitative evidence”, The
Journal of Developing Areas, (Winter 1998; 221-236)
6. James A. Black, Dean J. Champion (1989),”Methods and Issues in Social Research “,
London, John Wiley& Sons, INC.
7. Hasemi(1996) Women Entrepreneurship In India Review (www.siteresources.worldbank.org)
8. Malhotra,Schuler and Boender (2002), “Measuring Women’s empowerment As a variable in
international development”, International Center for Research on women(ICRW).