L&T Financial Services (LTFS) has conceptualised a ‘Digital Sakhi’ programme for women from rural under-resourced communities. As part of the programme, LTFS has launched the Business Plan Competition (BPC) for women entrepreneurs.

As many as 521 rural women entrepreneurs from across Osmanabad, Pune and Solapur districts of Maharashtra participated in the competition, out of whom 24 will be shortlisted and awarded next week.

This competition mimics the real-world process of launching and developing a business. Women entrepreneurs from the Digital Sakhi Programme will have an opportunity to pitch their business proposal to a panel of judges made up of business professionals and subject experts.

The programme focusses on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 — gender equality, wherein 100 women have been identified from a rural community and trained extensively on digital financial literacy, leadership and technology.

These 100 women are called ‘Digital Sakhis’. Each Sakhi is equipped with a tablet preloaded with LTFS Digital Financial Literacy (DFL) modules to learn and then disseminate information on digital payments and other government schemes including insurance.

The ‘Digital Sakhi’ programme chooses 1,000 women entrepreneurs practising agriculture and allied trades and they are up-skilled in their trades to yield better results. These women entrepreneurs are also meticulously trained in enterprise development wherein they are taught to collaboratively develop market linkages and ascertain higher bargaining rights.

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