‘Udayam Sakhis’ to mentor budding women entrepreneurs

Mentorship for budding women entrepreneurs from well-experienced business women and professionals may soon be a click away.

The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Ministry will formally launch a portal — under an initiative called Udyam Sakhi — on Thursday to bring aspiring business women and their possible mentors together on one platform so that they could be hand-held through the process of setting up and running an enterprise.

“While there are some mentorship networks already available for entrepreneurs and start-ups, our Udyam Sakhi initiative is based on the belief that women are more comfortable and at ease when they are hand-held by other women. The level of trust is higher and there is more seamless sharing,” an official from the MSME Ministry told BusinessLine .

The mentors, who would be extending their services on a voluntary basis, could be social entrepreneurs, senior executives, retired businesswomen, former bank officials or members of non-profit organisations, the official explained.

“The mentors or Udyam Sakhis should have the will to share voluntarily their knowledge with other women and help them create value through entrepreneurship. Of course, the Ministry would provide basic minimum resources so that they don’t end up spending from their own pockets,” the official said.

The website www.udyamsakhi.org is already operational, although the Ministry insists that it is in its basic avatar.

Once the portal is formally launched by the Minister of MSME Giriraj Singh on Thursday, women would be urged to register on it so that a network of mentors and future entrepreneurs could be created “What we are creating is a basic platform. We expect the Udyam Sakhis to come and help the portal to evolve,” the official added.

COMMENT NOW