The UN India Business Forum and the Women Entrepreneurial Platform of NITI Aayog on Thursday formed a consortium to reduce gender disparities in start-up investments by providing mentorship and networking opportunities and accelerating financial and market linkages for women entrepreneurs.
UN India-NITI Aayog Investor Consortium for Women Entrepreneurs will bring together key ecosystem stakeholders, including venture capitalists and impact investors, international donor and funding agencies, private sector partners and state governments, according to a joint statement.
The consortium aims to strengthen women’s entrepreneurship by creating an enabling ecosystem for investments. Women entrepreneurs will be identified through key partners, including WEP, UN Women, and UNDP. The consortium secretariat will then connect entrepreneurs, according to their requests, with relevant members.
In “full potential” scenario when women participate in the economy, equally to men, it could add $2.9 trillion to India’s GDP by 2025, according to the statement. However, Indian women entrepreneurs continue to face challenges in accessing investors and raising capital.
Sustainable development has the potential to open up markets worth $12 trillion around the world by 2030.
$5 trillion estimated
It is estimated that up to $5 trillion is needed in a year to implement UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) worldwide. Return on investments on implementing the SDGs could be about $30 billion a year.
The UN India Business Forum, an alliance of India’s businesses, financial institutions, the government and the UN, aims to accelerate India’s rapid growth and achieve the SDGs.
Key partners for finance include HDFC, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Ambuja Cement, Tata Housing and LinkedIn while for health and nutrition companies such as Cadila Pharmaceuticals, Philips India, and Tata Chemicals have enrolled.
