IIM Bangalore and Goldman Sachs Launch Women Start-up Programme (WSP)

NSRCEL, also known as NS Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning at Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore and Goldman Sachs have launched India’s preliminary customised online and classroom initiative, Women Start-up Programme (WSP). WSP is a nation-wide programme that supports women start-up ventures.

WSP will provide an in-depth training to augment and foster entrepreneurial and managerial skills to women entrepreneurs through mentoring, financial support and incubation. Similar to every year, IIM Bangalore will shortlist 100 women entrepreneurs from 300 ventures. The shortlisted women candidates will have to travel to a boot camp at IIM Bangalore. During the boot camp, the women entrepreneurs will receive classroom instructions on developing a business plan, negotiation skills, sales and marketing, and understanding cost & pricing.

Also Read: - Reservation for FPM Course at IIM Bangalore

WSP initiative will play a salient role in empowering female entrepreneurs to create jobs. During this programme, the participants will also get networking opportunities with popular and successful women entrepreneurs, Goldman Sachs professionals, IIM Bangalore alumni and venture capitalists.

After the successful completion of boot camp, women entrepreneurs will get a chance to incubate their business ideas for a year at a partner institute of their choice. During this period, each women entrepreneur will receive Rs. 30,000 per month. The financial support will help women incubate their idea and run ventures.

Last year, women from various parts of the country participated in WSP. However, only 80% of finalists among them who are currently working on incubating their ideas at NSRCEL are from Bangalore. Most of the finalists refused to take part in boot camp as they were unable to relocate to Bangalore. Therefore, IIM Bangalore and Goldman Sachs decided to offer incubation facility in various cities with the help of partner institutions.

Also Read: - IIM Bangalore Faculty Members Selected for 'Teaching Innovator Award'

NSRCEL of IIM Bangalore collaborated with the following institutes to enable women to incubate ideas under WSP: -

• Presidency University, Kolkata
• IIM Visakhapatnam
• IIM Udaipur
• IIM Nagpur
• IIM Indore
• CIIE’s Innocity, Ahmedabad

Interested women can visit the official website of IIM Bangalore or NSRCEL for registration. The classes (boot camp) will begin from January 22, 2018.