Britannia Marie Gold’s My Startup has chosen the top ten winners of its fourth season and given them Rs. 10 lakhs apiece to help them launch their businesses.
The programme is a platform that promotes women to become entrepreneurs, therefore creating jobs and being financially independent. The flagship project, which has been running successfully for four seasons, has attracted over 2 million potential participants this season. With a business skills training course, the team has been able to teach over 80,000 people.
This year, the shortlisted applicants presented their ideas to an esteemed panel of jury members that included women entrepreneurs Rashmi Daga, Sairee Chahal, Piya Bahadur, Latha Chandramouli, and Ruchika Bhuwalka. Along with members of the leadership team, the jury featured significant business and media figures such as Senthil Kumar, Amit Bapna, Gaurav Lagathe, Prasad Sangameshwaran, and Delshad Irani.
The project has successfully run for four seasons, creating an ecosystem for aspiring female entrepreneurs to obtain capital and skill development. Over the course of four years, the programme has worked with organisations such as the National Skills Development Council (NSDC) and Google to deliver online training in financial literacy, microentrepreneurial skills, and business communication skills.
One of the season’s highlights was that all participants had access to Google’s WomenWill initiative, a business literacy training with a ‘how to’ curriculum on converting a passion into a business, managing an organisation, and marketing it for development. Everyone who finished the learning trip received a certificate.
Britannia Industries Limited’s chief marketing officer, Amit Doshi, stated, “Over time, Britannia Marie Gold has established a strong connection with women across the country.” A World Bank research found that just seven out of every hundred entrepreneurs are women. According to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation’s 6th economic census, women account for only 13.76% of all entrepreneurs in India. Our goal with the My Startup programme is to progressively and sustainably increase the participation of women in India’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.”
“The programme focuses on three key requirements: financial assistance, skill development, and market access.” In Season 4, we attracted over 2 million candidates from throughout India, the biggest amount ever. Our season’s winners come from some of the country’s most rural towns and villages, and they have demonstrated great resilience and enthusiasm in bringing their company ideas to life. “Britannia will serve as a consultant to the winners as they embark on their entrepreneurial journeys,” he said.”We’re delighted to have offered a new community of homepreneurs this specially designed curriculum through Britannia’s My Startup Contest for the second consecutive season,” said Shalini Puchalapalli, director of Google Customer Solutions, Google India.