As we celebrate #FutureFemaleForward, the focus is firmly on women, their empowerment and their solid contribution to the India story. At Tuesday's CNBC-TV18 ‘Future Female Forward — A Women’s Collective’ event, Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani said there's a lot more that needs to be done in terms of empowering women, a sentiment that was echoed by Swati Mishra, Director, and GM, Small Businesses, Dell Technologies India, in an interview with CNBC-TV18.com.

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Dell Technologies recently released its annual WE (Women Entrepreneurs) Cities Index Report, in which Mumbai was ranked among 55 cities surveyed globally. Delhi topped the overall momentum score, while Bengaluru was ranked in the top 10 operating environments for markets.

The cities on this list are ranked on 23 key areas, based on two key pillars — operating and enabling environment, Mishra said. A city’s operating environment score is a measure of markets, talent and capital, and the enabling environment score sums up the impact of culture and technology.

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The first edition of the report was launched in 2016 and since then, it has served as a diagnostic tool for policymakers to create data-driven insights and recommendations, she said.

According to Mishra, there has been huge progress in inclusiveness and collaborative growth in recent years, with significant improvement over the past few years in terms of creating an infrastructure for women-led businesses. "Yet, there are gaps that we need to address to create an environment which is equipped to sustain the growth of women entrepreneurs."

She said most women face barriers when they are entering the workforce to start a business. "There is an underlying need for women to challenge the limiting beliefs in society and seek validation of innovative ideas. Scaling one’s knowledge quotient, being the change agent, fostering a growth mindset in an operating environment and building an ecosystem of trust are absolute musts for women to grow and thrive," Mishra explained.

According to Mishra, as per the report, the availability of capital remains one of the biggest pain points in nearly every city.

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"There is a need to reduce gender bias to ensure that women-led businesses also have access to funds and investments. This can be made easier by creating networks and communities that support women in business. Bridging the pay gap and strengthening pay transparency policies are also important ways to ensure that women don’t drop out of the playing field," she said.

Further, she said, in today’s digital era, technology is very closely linked to and impacts all business pillars and an education gap to effectively navigate through this digital age is another key challenge — the same point was highlighted by Irani on Tuesday (March 14).

Mishra highlighted the factors that helped these two Indian cities score well.

"Delhi benefits from a low cost of living, increasing population, which results in a larger market size, and the availability of educated and skilled labour across genders. Bengaluru has been recognised for its accessibility and inclusive policies for women entrepreneurs — it has been ranked higher than Paris and Washington, D.C. making it a huge feat for India. The city also offers a large market size and affordable costs that can support women entrepreneurs," she explained.

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Both cities are also placed in the ‘Cities on the Radar’ category of progress, which is a list of 13 cities that have the potential to attract and host more women entrepreneurs, she added.

The role of technology

Mishra said technology serves as a leveller, and high-performing technology sectors present smaller cities with the chance to become the centre of women's entrepreneurship, surpassing established ones.

"The latest report indicates that technology is directly linked to talent, which has been transformed as a result of remote work. This holds particular significance for women entrepreneurs who frequently juggle multiple roles, as a robust tech infrastructure provides them with the flexibility to run their businesses from anywhere," she said.

Key factors

"The WE Cities Index provides insights into the different needs of female entrepreneurs and the importance of creating a conducive operating and enabling environment. The research ranks cities based on the impact of market size, local policies, connectivity, technology support, availability of funding, and access to a skilled workforce among several other pillars," Mishra said.

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Some of the key factors are markets, capital, talent, culture, and technology. The median score of all these factors measures the growth of the city, as per Mishra:

Markets: The markets category is a measure of the market size of operation, the cost of being profitable, access to customers and finally the policies that create a level playing field for women-owned businesses.

Talent: This is the likelihood of finding women with the right skillset, training, and experience required to scale the business. It is also the availability of a skilled and educated workforce.

Capital: This category measures the frequency and value of funding received by women-owned businesses, the capital base they can draw, and how is the environment when compared to the proportion of funding received by men

Culture: Women entrepreneurs believe that culture is a critical enabler for businesses. This pillar is a measure of the prevalence of mentors and networks to enable growth, the attitude towards women in business, and the policies created to elevate women to assume leadership positions

Technology: Technology has become critical for the operation of nearly all businesses and is closely linked to all the above-mentioned pillars. The pillar is therefore a measure of global connectivity, the cost of staying connected and the equality in access and education.

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Dell's roadmap for women

Mishra said Dell’s vision is to bring about social change and progress through technology. "The increase in women entrepreneurs and their increasing significance in driving the world's economic growth is remarkable. To support this growth, we have built and sustained a network of female business owners called The Dell Women's Entrepreneur Network (DWEN), which incorporates the WE Cities Index," she said.

Founded in 2009, DWEN is a network of women entrepreneurs who receive IT resources, funding, and expert guidance to help them scale their businesses.

"DWEN provides a platform for like-minded women entrepreneurs to exchange ideas and explore opportunities to expand and grow their businesses. As a global network, DWEN supports more than 80,000 members. DWEN has also created entities such as the DWEN Dream Tech contest, DWEN Tech Hub, Empower Hour and Tech Talk series, and the WE Cities Index, among others, which play an important role in the ecosystem's overall growth. We will continue to work closely with these businesses and enable them with all the technology resources required to thrive in today’s fast-paced environment," Mishra said.

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(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)

First Published:Mar 15, 2023 6:02 PM IST