IIMK, MRPL to support women entrepreneurs

: IIM Kozhikode and Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemicals Ltd. (MRPL) have announced a special drive to support women entrepreneurs in the country.

Labelled as La Eve (meaning The Woman), this initiative aims to identify innovative, promising women founded start-ups to provide a comprehensive start-up support programme.

The initiative would be steered by the institutes entrepreneurship development centre,Laboratory for Innovation, Venturing and Entrepreneurship or IIMK LIVE with the support of the start-up fund of the oil PSU, MRPL, an IIMK press release said.

Last year MRPL had signed an MoU with the institute and since then it has provided seed funds to over 11 start-ups incubated at IIMK LIVE.

Under La Eve a drive to support women-led start-ups, IIMK LIVE would identify women founded, innovation-led start ups and provide incubation that would provide access to the institutes intellectual, network and infrastructural resources.

MRPL would provide seed fund assistance from the start funding initiative under start-up India Program.

"No economy can grow at its full potential if a section of human resource is not actively contributing to it.

Promotion and support of women entrepreneurship can contribute significantly to the countrys economic goals", said Professor Debashis Chatterjee, Director, IIM Kozhikode.

"IIM Kozhikode has always recognized the potential of women in the management practice and business leadership.

Having been at the forefront in starting several initiatives that provide fair opportunity to women in pursuing career in management, this is yet another initiative to harness the potential of women resources to actively contribute to the countrys economy," he added.

Professor Keyoor Purani, Executive Director, IIMK LIVE said, "Given the larger socio-economic context, a large number of educated and skilled women prefer to work on their own terms compared to the traditional jobs.

Technological developments have further facilitated location and time neutrality favouring many of them to start up and lead ventures that create economic value and make social impact.

This trend, if channelled well, can contribute significantly to the innovation-led entrepreneurship."