NITI Aayog Expands WEP Across States

By: WE staff | Thursday, 18 December 2025

• The Women Entrepreneurship Platform of NITI Aayog, WEP, is expanding to various States
• The model is strengthening its public-private partnership approach
• WEP is expanding its horizons from information support to such realms as artificial intelligence

NITI Aayog's Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) is scaling up its presence at the state level and focusing on the successful public-private partnership model that will help advance woman-led development initiatives.

“WEP was launched on International Women's Day in 2018 to fill the gaps of information that exist on government initiatives targeting woman entrepreneurs. It has now assumed the role of mentoring, capacity-building, and addressing the issue of behavioral change that holds back the entry of women as entrepreneurs," says Anna Roy, the Principal Economic Advisor of NITI Aayog and the Mission Director of WEP.

Well over seven years since the launch, Roy observed that the importance of WEP endures, given the underrepresentation of women in the entrepreneurial culture in India.

The founding mission of the platform, according to Roy, informs the efforts of the initiative, although the level of progress regarding women's entrepreneur opportunities has yet to come to the desired level.

The model being used by WEP involves cooperation between the government and the industry, aligning with the national development emphasis on women.

The initiative has further widened its coverage to incorporate other rising technologies like ‘artificial intelligence’. As part of this initiative, WEP is championing the ‘AI By Her’ challenge in partnership with National AI Mission and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in preparation for the Global AI Impact Summit slated to take place in February 2026.

Technical advancements have made it possible for WEP to reach further, even to areas that have been underserved.

As an effort to ensure that there is stronger local engagement, WEP has begun starting chapters over different states, which initially included Telangana, then Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Haryana, Assam, Mizoram, Uttar Pradesh, as well as Odisha.

The state governments are allowed to customize a WEP model as per their need. Industry has been a big help to ensure that WEP becomes a big success, as different organizations help WEP through mentorship, training, and financial help. Because of these efforts, WEP has been able to achieve over 98,500 registered members.