Is India Moving in Conjunction with the Other BRICS Countries in Terms of Women Entrepreneurship?

Abstract

During recent years, the number of female entrepreneurs across the world has been growing gradually. Efforts are being taken globally to provide a basic platform for equitable development of women entrepreneurs and bridge the gender gap in access to opportunities. The paper attempts to analyze India's position vis-í -vis its counterparts in the association of BRICS nations. The 2015 Female Entrepreneurship Index has been taken as the base for the study as it includes both individual as well as institutional factors that tend to enable or restrict high potential female entrepreneurs. The study unearths the fact that majorly all the BRICS countries face gender-based employment segregation. Although, amongst the BRICS nations, Russia came out to be the most unbiased and the most highly ranked in terms of the gender gap between males and females, yet, none of the BRICS countries have been able to make a position among the list of top ten countries in terms of women entrepreneurship. In fact, India is the only country among the five BRICS countries to have registered a positive increase in global ranking (Gender-GEDI 2014 compared with FEI 2015) with respect to women entrepreneurship. Female entrepreneurs in India are not only sectorally separated but also geographically concentrated.

Off late due emphasis is being given by the Indian Government on the issue of empowering women entrepreneurs and some recent measures taken up by the Government, both present as well as the previous few, are expected to create a swirling impact in the women enterprise space in the country.