Comments
Kerala section of Institution of Electronics and Electrical Engineers will set up a mechanism to support all-women start-ups in information technology and related technology domains.
A team is working to get the first such start-up in the social media space going early next month, says Sarada Jayakrishnan, who heads the Women in Engineering (WiE) initiative of IEEE Kerala Section.
SOCIAL MEDIA
This start-up is focused on utilising existing technology trends in social media to address applications of ‘crowdsourcing’ with special relevance to the market and social requirements of India.
Crowdsourcing is the process of getting work or funding, usually online, from a crowd of people.
Recruitment and business model of the new start-up will leverage the power of crowdsourcing to solve real-life problems by co-opting human resources organised through virtual communities.
Women constitute 50 per cent of students in engineering and other technical areas, but their presence and visibility in the realms of start-up enterprises is rather low, said Jayakrishnan.
“One can identify several reasons behind this, but empirically I would say lack of family support, risk aversion and the organisational culture of start-ups,” she added.
The WiE initiative would like to support formation of start-ups by ensuring that we create a women-friendly atmosphere and culture by providing mentoring and thorough technology support.
“Eventually, we would like to incorporate our learning in the process to all future start-ups.”
R. Srinivasan, chair, IEEE Kerala Section, said that women were as innovative, if not more, than men. There was no inherent reason why women’s start-ups could not emerge in the State.
HIDDEN RESOURCE
In fact, women are a hidden resource for start-ups as there are many who are, for various reasons, unable to go in search of jobs to other cities.
Promoting women’s start-ups will go a long way to tap into this resource and also bring women into the mainstream, he said.
IEEE has been taking a focused approach towards enterprise and innovation - both technological and social. Several projects have been taken up worldwide for fostering innovation for social and humanitarian causes. The Kerala Section has formulated a special task force called Promotion of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (PIE) as an effective contributor and mentor for innovations.
“We would like to draw upon the experience of local institutions in promoting these enterprises,” Srinivasan added.
Comments
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.