Jharkhand Launches 3-Year Rural Women Entrepreneurship Drive

By: Women Entrepreneurs Review Team | Friday, 31 July 2026

In a bid to encourage rural women entrepreneurship, Dipika Pandey Singh, the minister from Jharkhand, on Thursday launched ‘Jharkhand Incubator Programme’ aimed at developing women-owned businesses. This scheme is set to run for three years and will provide full support in identifying potential women entrepreneurs, incubating them, increasing access to finances, formalization of their businesses and scaling up of their rural micro and nano manufacturing and service enterprises.

The incubation program has been initiated under the guidance of Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (JSLPS) with IIM Calcutta Innovation Park (IIMCIP) as the implementing partner.

The minister emphasized that such partnership would result in building a strong support eco-system with institution linkages, entrepreneurial training, and incubation facilities. It would help develop the capacities of around 1.5 lakh women entrepreneur businesses linked with JSLPS and improve the skills and productivity of workers associated with such businesses.

Key Highlights:

• Jharkhand launches a 3-year incubator to scale women-led rural enterprises
• 150 rural women-led businesses to receive incubation, funding and market support
• Programme aims to empower 1.5 lakh women entrepreneurs through JSLPS and IIMCIP

In the initial stage of the program, there will be an incubation of about 150 enterprises which are run by women in the rural areas within the next three years. The program will provide business training, mentoring, finance and investment, enterprise formalization, branding, and marketing, and e-commerce to women entrepreneurs making the economy more sustainable.

Speaking during the launching of the programme, Dipika stated that the government sees women entrepreneurs as some of the major players in the economic transformation of Jharkhand. Although the state has been known for the richness of its natural and mineral resources, she added that its growth in the future ought to be measured in terms of the innovative, entrepreneurial, and leadership qualities of women. The programme has been developed in such a way as to assist women-owned businesses in generating sustainable income.

"So far, Jharkhand's identity has primarily been associated with its mineral wealth, but the hard work, skills, and entrepreneurial spirit of our rural women will now also become the state's identity. With this very objective, this initiative has been launched," Dipika explained.

"Our goal is to ensure continuous growth in the income and business of these enterprises, making them self-reliant and competitive," she added.

This initiative will help the women-owned businesses access professional skills, financing, and markets, thus helping them develop a sustainable business model, improve efficiency, and create more sources of livelihood. The second objective of this project is to empower women in Jharkhand through creation of sustainable and self-sustaining enterprises in the non-farm rural economy of Jharkhand.

The project is also geared towards increasing the participation of women in the non-farming rural sector in Jharkhand, and promoting the development of locally owned businesses.