Bikky Khosla | 13 Mar, 2018
The MSME ministry last week launched a web portal for women entrepreneurs of the country. Called 'Udyam Sakhi',
the platform is designed--according to official claims--to be "a
network for nurturing entrepreneurship and creating business models for
low-cost products and services in order to empower women and make them
self-reliant and self-sufficient". While launching the portal, the MSME
minister viewed that women in India can play a vital role in the growth
of the economy. All this sounds good.
According
to government data, India has around 8 million women who have started
and are running their own businesses, and definitely any new development
toward their promotion is a welcome one. Getting the news, I couldn't
help visiting the website, and two sections on its homepage--'Entrepreneurship Learning Tools' and 'Information/Resources'--
immediately attracted my attention. But delving deep I found the
information--though helpful to some degree-- not much fresh.
Meanwhile, a few entrepreneurs I'm in touch with have informed that the 'Create an Account' option on the site is not working. It leads to a '404 (Page Not Found) Errorâ.
If it is really so then it is the time for the ministry to focus on
stepping up its commitment. These things may be small to some, but they
clearly reflect lack of dedication, which is a concern, particularly in
the background of scores of similar complaints raised time and again in
relation to most of the websites maintained by the ministry.
In
another development, the government has formed a Steering Committee to
study issues relating to development of Fintech in India. The objective
is to ease the regulations and generate enhanced entrepreneurship in the
field. An official release adds that the committee will also focus on
how Fintech can be leveraged to enhance financial inclusion of MSMEs.
Needless to say, this is a welcome development, but again it is the
level of commitment that will finally determine its outcomes.
I invite your opinions.
