Telangana & Gujarat collaborate to promote women-led start-ups across sectors

Governments of Telangana and Gujarat have joined hands to augment women-led start-ups across sectors. Telangana government's WE Hub has partnered with Gujarat government's I-Hub, to support women entrepreneurs in both the states.

The programme will start from first week of February

The partnership will start a pre-incubation programme for 240 women entrepreneurs in the EdTech, MedTech and Fintech sectors in the two states out of which a total of 20 will be shortlisted for the final co-incubation programme. This initiative is scheduled to commence from first week of February. 

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The programme which got virtually launched was hosted in the presence of Telangana IT and Industries Minister, KT Rama Rao, Gujarat State Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, and Minister of State for Women and Child Welfare, Gujarat Vibhavariben Dave.

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An MoU was signed between Telangana IT and Industry Principal Secretary Jayesh Ranjan and Gujarat Higher and Technical Education Principal Secretary Anju Sharma.

While launching the pre-incubation programme, Telangana IT Minister KT Rama Rao said, “When we announced the formation of WE Hub in November 2017, little did people understand the vision of this initiative and the impact it would create. In the last two years, WE Hub has pushed the narrative of democratising entrepreneurship by breaking the barriers that exist for women entrepreneurs through its work. We are happy that WE Hub has now become the best practice model for many State governments.”

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“Through this partnership, we would like to create a roadmap of how Women Entrepreneurship can be scaled, supported & sustained not just in India but across the world. I wish this collaboration the best & pledge our support for an Atma Nirbhar Bharat where Entrepreneurship is based on competence and not gender,” he added.

WE Hub CEO Deepthi Ravula said that through this collaboration, they are going to equip i-Hub with the learnings, knowledge and ecosystem they have developed in the past three years working with over 3,400 women entrepreneurs, 11 startup programmes, incubating 148 startups and creating over 300 jobs.

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Meanwhile, in November last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had attended the 8th convocation of Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU), Gandhinagar via video conferencing where he had said, "Today, you are entering the industry at a time when due to the pandemic, major changes are taking place in the energy sector of the world. At this time, there are many opportunities for the growth of entrepreneurship & employment."