MSINS, Udyati Foundation Join Hands to Empower Women Entrepreneurs

By: Women Entrepreneurs Review Team | Thursday, 15 October 2026

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed between the Maharashtra State Innovation Society (MSINS) and Udyati Foundation in making efforts to improve women’s involvement in entrepreneurship with the creation of a women’s start-up hub.

As stated by Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday, the state will give priority in fostering a growth environment for women entrepreneurs along with increasing multiple opportunities for them. Through this agreement, both organisations will collaborate in providing technical and knowledge-based assistance to women entrepreneurs.

Key Highlights:

• Maharashtra plans a dedicated start-up hub to support women entrepreneurs across the state
• Udyati Foundation will support mentorship, financing, market access and business acceleration
• Women’s start-up index will track entrepreneurial progress across districts and departments

The proposed business development hub will be concerned with fulfilling various needs for growth of businesses such as financing, marketing and entrepreneurship. The initiative hopes to increase coordination between the concerned stakeholders and will enable greater accessibility of business development resources by the women entrepreneurs of Maharashtra through putting all government departments, ecosystem partners and related organizations on one platform.

According to the press statement, the Chief Minister mentioned that the initiative will help in empowering women economically independents. The MOU has been signed by Dr Shrikanth Patil, Chief Executive Officer of MSINS and Ms Pooja Sharma Goyal, Founder & CEO of the Udyati Foundation in the presence of the Skills, Employment, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Minister of Maharashtra Mangal Prabhat Lodha.

In the process, Udyati Foundation shall offer its technical assistance in helping the MSINS develop an accelerator program for women-led businesses. This will include aspects like mentorship, requirements from industries, financing, market linkages, and coordination with Central and State Government schemes. It is expected that the initiative will bring easy access in terms of knowledge, resources, and institutions allowing women entrepreneurs to set up and grow their business ventures.

This proposed center is expected to act as a hub which will link government ministries, entrepreneurship ecosystem players, and supporting organizations. Collaboration between these stakeholders is expected to enhance availability of business support services for women entrepreneurs in the state.

Further, the partnership will be geared towards developing and institutionalizing a women start-up index to be able to measure the performance of women’s entrepreneurship across various government departments and districts. This will involve the use of gender-disaggregated data to be able to analyze developments in the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

For the successful implementation of the index, the partners will assist in establishing an interdepartmental steering committee. It is believed that the committee will ensure coordination among government departments and offer guidance in the implementation of the initiative.

Udyati Foundation is engaged in fast-tracking the participation of women in the economic and entrepreneurial space in India. As per the official announcement, the foundation works with State Governments and businesses in order to make 156 million women who are employable but not employed join the work force.