The International School of Entrepreneurship Education and Development (ISEED) has launched an incubation programme to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation.
Aimed at start-ups and early stage companies, this six-month-long development programme will provide an investment fund of Rs 2 crore towards investments in incubatee ventures. The programme lays special emphasis on promoting girl students, with one-third of the funding reserved for women entrepreneurs.
Separately, according to an ISEED study, only 10 per cent of girl students have access to entrepreneurship resources as compared to 20 per cent of their male counterparts, 5 per cent of girl students start their entrepreneurship ventures even while they are studying, and another 19 per cent would want to start immediately after studies.
In fact, across tier-II and III cities such as Amritsar, Ludhiana, Kanpur, Indore, Raipur, Tiruchi, Surat and Coimbatore, girl students show a stronger inclination for entrepreneurship as compared to those in tier-I cities.
The report — ‘ISEED Girl Students Entrepreneurship Aspirations Report 2014’ — presents the results of a nationwide survey across more than 30 cities to understand the entrepreneurship aspirations in Indian girl students.
“The study also establishes the causal relationship between education and entrepreneurial aspirations. Girls with graduate and post-graduate education in science and technology have overcome their fears and inhibitions and show greater desire to start. This is a significant shift from the past. The investment in girl’s education is paying dividends,” said ISEED Chief Executive Officer and Founder Sanjeeva Shivesh.
“These findings have helped us design our incubation programme. We want girls to build their dream ventures. Therefore, we have allocated one-third of seed funding earmarked for women,” Shivesh added.
The Gurgaon-based ISEED is an educational institution offering India’s first full-time one-year post-graduate level programme in entrepreneurship.