Smriti Irani: Need More Women to run Mid-Sized Businesses and Expand them into Major Organisations

By: WE Staff | Thursday, 8 September 2022

Smriti Irani, the Union Minister for Women and Child Development, urged for increased female entrepreneurship in the expansion of mid-sized firms into major corporations. Irani remarked that "the SME sector is swamped with women, it would be good to have more women run mid-size organisations and expand them into huge enterprises" during the US-India Business Council's (USIBC) India Ideas Summit 2022.

Irani stated in her speech that “We need to know what kind of technological skills women need and support them in attaining those for the greater good of society.” The minister also emphasised the need for more women to participate in business decision-making and join teams in charge of administration, marketing, and strategic planning.

“I would like to see more involvement from women in the boardrooms not just to fill quotas but to significantly contribute to organisational strategy,” she added. 

In order to realise the government's goal of a $5 trillion economy, there is a growing call for more engagement of women in business and entrepreneurship. Importantly, only about 20% of business owners are women, at least in the MSME sector. Out of 6.33 crore MSMEs (based on the NSS 73rd cycle conducted in FY16), 6.08 crore were proprietary concerns, with men controlling 79.63% of businesses compared to 20.37% held by women, according to the MSME Ministry's 2021–22 annual report.

The new MSMEs Udyam registration platform also shows a low percentage of female businesses. Only 18% of MSMEs registered on Udyam were owned by women entrepreneurs, according to data given by Minister of State for MSMEs Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma in the Rajya Sabha in August of this year. On Udyam, 1.06 crore MSME registrations were total as of September 7.