Women's Entrepreneurship in India: Opportunities, Challenges & Future Outlook

By: Ayushi Dutta, Senior Correspondent

The Current State of Women’s Entrepreneurship in India

The growth of women-owned enterprises reflects a broader shift in India’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. According to sources, women own around 20–22 per cent of formally registered MSMEs on the Udyam Registration Portal. These enterprises contribute close to 19 per cent of MSME employment and more than 10 per cent of total MSME turnover.

The picture becomes even more significant when informal enterprises are considered. Women-owned units account for more than 70 per cent of enterprises registered on the Udyam Assist Platform, which captures informal micro-enterprises. This highlights both the scale of women’s entrepreneurial activity and the remaining formalisation challenge. A substantial proportion of women are already running businesses, but many operate at a level where access to institutional credit, organised procurement opportunities and expansion support remains limited.

Women also accounted for 41.3 per cent of the MSME workforce in 2023–24. The contrast between workforce participation and ownership, however, points towards a significant opportunity. Women are contributing substantially to enterprise-level employment, but their representation in ownership and decision-making positions continues to lag.

The startup ecosystem presents another encouraging trend. India has over 7,000 active women-led startups, representing approximately 7.5 per cent of the country’s startup base. Collectively, these ventures have raised more than $26 billion, demonstrating that women-led businesses are increasingly capable of attracting institutional and private capital.

Access to credit is also expanding. Women borrowers had accessed credit worth ₹76 lakh crore as of 2025, accounting for nearly 26 per cent of total system credit, according to figures cited in the Economic Survey.

Public procurement has emerged as another important growth channel. Through the Government e-Marketplace’s Womaniya initiative, more than 2.1 lakh women-owned micro and small enterprises registered in FY 2025–26 and secured contracts worth over ₹28,000 crore. The figure represented a 27.6 per cent year-on-year increase and exceeded the government’s mandated 3 per cent procurement target for women-led businesses.

Together, these indicators reveal an entrepreneurial ecosystem that is expanding rapidly, while also highlighting the scale of the opportunity that remains.