India has only 6 per cent women entrepreneurs: Tata ex-director

Bengaluru: Former Tata-director and a serial entrepreneur, Alan Rosling, launched his book, Boom Country: The New Wave of Indian Enterprise, in Bengaluru on Wednesday. 

The book throws light on the challenges and opportunities that the country presents for the businessmen. Mr Rosling has aggregated stories of entrepreneurs who are transforming India into a “boom country”. 

“Entrepreneurs in India face many challenges, including lack of innovation, sectoral changes and access to capital for those people who cannot speak English. Sadly, we have only 6 percent of women entrepreneurs," he said. 

He moderated an engaging panel discussion with Ms Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairman and managing director of Biocon and Amuleek Singh, founder of Chaipoint, Sharad Sharma, co-founder and governing council member of iSpirit, and Saroja Yeramilli, founder-CEO of Melorra. 

The panelists spoke about the change in the mindset towards entrepreneurship, which is occurring slowly in India with families being positive and supportive of entrepreneurs. 

Mr Gosling said that many companies have lost their employees who quit their careers to launch their own startups. 

Talking about the kind of infrastructure that Aadhaar has created in India, Mr Sharma said that today, there are over 18 million Aadhaar authentications happening in a day. “It is creating an infrastructure for entrepreneurs to reach out to people. It is creating an edifice on which enormous changes will happen,” he said. 

Mr Singh spoke about the opportunities available for people living in Bengaluru. “The city has become the technology centre that people subscribe to. The city is becoming a role model," he said. 

Speaking about the challenges, Ms Shaw said that many venture capitalists don't invest in innovation that's gestational. They have been investing in low-risk and quick-return business models. 

“The copy-cat models are slowly taking a backseat. Entrepreneurs have to understand the India demographic to be able to be successful,” said Ms Yeramilli.

However, the panelists were optimistic that the digital India is progressing and they hope it will become a boom country very soon.