women entrepreneurs

Neha Bagoria from Mumbai has founded Tapu Sustainable Solutions and launched a device named EcoTrapIn that converts urinals into odourless and waterless ones.

Hanjabam Shubhra Devi started Meira Foods, a small packaged foods venture, from her kitchen in Bamon Leikai, Imphal East. They sell 45 different items, including a variety of candies, pickles and salted dry fruit.

Maria Kuriakose, a resident of Thrissur, Kerala, launched Thenga, to manufacture bowls and other products from coconut shells, which were otherwise discarded as waste.

Babita Bhatt, a former software professional, quit her job to move to Dehradun and start Himalaya2Home, a direct partnership channel that works with organic farmers in the area to help them sell their produce.

Lucknow-based Vidushi Vijayvergiya launched Isak Fragrances to continue her family's business of making and selling perfumes. These fragrances are artisanal and vegan, and aim to popularise the forgotten trend of Indian perfumery.

Arjita Sethi, a Silicon Valley-based serial entrepreneur, cracked the 'Valley code' with her edtech startup 'Equally' in San Francisco. Today, she runs two other ventures, 'New Founder School' and 'Indiarath', which helps startup founders find their way.

The brain behind Bengaluru startup Cydee Technologies, Monica Jha built a sustainable innovation that reduces the number of street lights required for well-lit space, saving energy and money.

70-year-old Kanchan Parulekar helms Swayamsiddha, a Kolhapur-based organisation that, in the last 28 years, has worked to create women entrepreneurs. The businesses range from bakeries to food processing units, bag manufacturing units, beauty parlours and handicrafts.

"The lack of women in this industry would always be a concern and at several instances, people have tried to insinuate that I was nothing more than a showpiece. But, I have worked my way through all this, taught myself, and now I’m proud,” says Zainab Raj from Rajasthan.

A survey report conducted with 1,267 homemakers across the country, revealed that although 48% housewives have entrepreneurial dreams when they are young, only 1 out of 4 attempt at it.