A Stakeholder Meeting on Women Entrepreneurship was jointly held on 10 Janaury 2025 by Keio University and Indian Institute of Technlogy Gandhinagar at IITGN Campus.
Ms. Tomo Kawane, Senior Researcher, India Japan Laboratory, presented the research outcome on the interviews of 200 women entrepreneurs in Gujarat.
Mr. Yu Yoshida (Director-General), Mr. Sanchit Oza (Director), and Mr. Satoru Iida (Director) participated from the office of Japan External Trade Organization in Ahmedabad and informed us of the history of JETRO and their support programme for startups in India.
Ms. Soumya Harish, Programme Manager-II, NEEV (the outreach programme of IITGN) gave a brief on the programmes for nurturing women entrepreneurs and vulnerable communities in their localities that also consists of part of educatioal programme of IITGN.
Ms. Rupsha Mukherjee, CEO and Founder, Galanto Innovations, a startup incubated at IITGN Research Park, gave the presentation on the evolution and current status of her startup.
The meeting was inaugurated with the speech by Professor Rajib Shaw and Dr. Kabeer Jasuja, Indian Institute of Technoology Gandhinagar. Post the meeting, a policy note was submitted by Ms. Kawane and Prof. Shaw, from the Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University to the Cenre for Entrepreneurship Development, Industrial Commissionerate, Government of Gujarat.
From Government of Gujarat, Shri M. Nagarajan, I.A.S. Collector & District Magistrate, District Administration Mehsana, Mr. Kunal Gadhavi, Section Officer, Health and Faily Welfare Department, and Mr. Sandeep Patel, Centre for Entrepreneurship Development were present and shared their valuable inputs.
Mr. Utsav Patel, Deputy Director, Door Darshan Gujarat, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, and Mr. Bhavin Bhagat, President, TiE Ahmedabad Chapter and Fonder of IndiaBizForSale (M&A and fundraising, mainly for SMEs) incubated at Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, emphasized that the voices of women entrepreneurs need to be heard more regardless of the size of theri enteprises.
We thank all the stakeholders to gather on this occasion. We sincerely hope to see some concrete outcome will be there for further dialogue and action for enhancing women entrepreneurship in Gujarat and beyond.