Bharti Walmart, the cash and carry format of Bharti Enterprises and Walmart Stores, has launched ‘Best Price Members Women’s Council’ in Chandigarh, Punjab to understand and address the hurdles faced by women entrepreneurs in their startup, scale up and other phases of business expansions.
As a tribute to the growing role of women entrepreneurs in India, this unique initiative endeavors to foster inclusive growth by providing training aimed at empowering women to better run and grow their businesses in addition to providing women greater access to market, both at a domestic and global level. The Council will also help bring Walmart’s best practices through supplier meets to benefit these entrepreneurs.
“We are committed to women’s empowerment, both within our organization and externally. The Council will endeavour to understand the various impediments that prevent women from becoming successful entrepreneurs. We will provide a common platform where women across our supplier network can collaborate, learn and share insights and best practices. Going forward, we will replicate the Punjab model in other regions across India.” siad Mr Raj Jain, MD and CEO, Bharti Walmart.
The Council will help the company to understand business challenges faced by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as most of the women-owned businesses tend to be of small or medium size.
Bharti Walmart is currently engaged in a number of initiatives directed towards economic upliftment of women such as the Cashew Value Chain Initiative in Cuddalore and Nagapattinam districts in Tamil Nadu. The initiative helped in setting up 3 women-owned and managed cashew processing units and 15 literacy centers.
The Sunhara Walmart project in Uttar Pradesh aims to empower 2,500 underprivileged, rural women through training in best agricultural practices and linkages to higher value market outlets.