NCW and EDII Unite to Champion Women’s Entrepreneurship and Empowerment
New Delhi, July 4, 2025: In a step towards fostering inclusive growth and economic self-reliance, the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII), Ahmedabad, in collaboration with the National Commission for Women (NCW), conducted an interactive session of Smt. Vijaya K. Rahatkar, Chairperson, NCW with women entrepreneurs.
This event which was held at EDII’s campus also had the presence of Mrs. Shivani Dey, Deputy Secretary, NCW; Mr. Ramawatar Singh, Head – Training, NCW and Dr. Sunil Shukla, Director General, EDII.
One of the highlights of the event was a workshop on ‘YASHODA AI’, a digital literacy programme specially designed to teach women the basics of Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity.
Smt. Vijaya K. Rahatkar spoke about the need to give women more opportunities to lead, build businesses, and keep up with the fast-changing digital world.
Addressing the women entrepreneurs, Smt. Rahatkar said, “Empowering women isn’t just about giving them skills — it’s about building confidence and shifting mindsets. Women should feel safe, capable and ready to lead, whether it’s in business, technology or everyday life. With novel initiatives and with meaningful partnerships, NCW is helping women step into the world of technology and innovations. AI is a new and rapidly growing field, offering immense opportunities and possibilities for women. NCW’s effort is to ensure that our daughters and sisters understand, learn and move forward in this emerging technology. We are committed to empowering every woman in the field of AI, so that they can also play a significant role in developing the future of our nation.”
In the year 2023-24, EDII in collaboration with NCW conducted 100 Entrepreneurship Awareness Programmes (EAPs) across 35 states and Union Territories, reaching out to 5,976 aspiring women entrepreneurs. In addition to these capacity-building initiatives, the Institute has also partnered with NCW to undertake research studies in Varanasi and Indore, conducting Women’s Safety Audit to assess the safety levels experienced by women in public and workplace settings.
Dr. Sunil Shukla, Director General, EDII, said, “NCW’s novel efforts, as well as and progressive national and state schemes and policies for promoting women entrepreneurship envision an inventive new generation of entrepreneurs who will build startups on the premise of knowledge, innovations and technology. NCW and EDII’s joint effort has also been rewarding in the way it has built capacities and generated knowledge among aspiring women entrepreneurs.”
The interactive session was attended by around 250 participants who discussed the challenges they faced, the lessons they learned, and how capacity building programmes could help them evolve as visionary entrepreneurs.
Smt. Vijaya K. Rahatkar, Chairperson, NCW also inaugurated exhibition which was put up by EDII trained artisans.