Bengaluru tops Indian cities in women entrepreneurship

IT capital Bengaluru is India's No 1 city when it comes to fostering women entrepreneurs.

The city is among the top 50 cities globally to promote entrepreneurship among women, a report released on Monday said. Titled Dell WE Cities 2017, the report names New York at the top of the worldwide list, followed by San Francisco and London.

Bengaluru finds itself in the 40th slot among global companies. The only other Indian city on the list is New Delhi at the 49th slot, just above Jakarta.

The study is a measure of a city’s ability to attract and support high potential women entrepreneurs (HPWE) — women that want to grow and scale up their businesses. The top 50 cities have been chosen on their reputation as established or emerging hubs of innovation and entrepreneurship, the report said.

Geographic diversity was also a criteria in city selection. Singapore came eighth and is the only city from the Asia Pacific and Japan region.

Among the various sub-pillars of the study, Bengaluru comes 10th in the markets category.
The category measures, among other things, “the transparency and clarity of steps or ladders to gain access to potential customers... and the local policies that help level the playing field for women-owned businesses.”

The Karnataka government has been supportive of women entreprenuers. On Women’s Day, it declared a grant of Rs 10 crore for them.

Under Elevate 100, an initiative of the department of information technology and biotechnology, Karnataka aims to provide an entrepreneurship platform for start-ups. Under this, the goverment has recieved close to 1,700 applications, 27% or 450 of which are from women entreprenuers.