NEW DELHI: The National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT), a body under Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), government of India has launched a unique initiative “Power of She” aimed at encouraging entrepreneurship among women under ‘Digital India’.

Under this initiative, over 200 female students from NIELIT Centres spread across different geographical locations participated through the smart virtual classrooms that facilitate live interactive session through video conference. These NIELIT students who are in the process of acquiring industry relevant skill sets in IT and Electronics were sensitized and encouraged to take up entrepreneurship development by a panel of experts comprising mainly women entrepreneurs. While more such sessions are planned, the initial session was attended by students from NIELIT Centres at Chandigarh, Guwahati, Patna, Ajmer, and Srinagar, according to a release.

Ashwini Kumar Sharma, director general, NIELIT unveiling the campaign said, women have an inborn trait towards entrepreneurship as they have to effectively manage a household. This needs to be honed so they can step out and make a meaningful contribution to India’s economic growth. He further elaborated that with the increase in proliferation of IT and electronics services, the need for entrepreneurship development in the digital space has grown manifold. Thus, these opportunities should be tapped in right earnest as it is said that, “If you teach a man to fish, he’ll eat for a lifetime. But you teach a woman to fish, she’ll feed the whole village.”

The panel of expert included Vineeta Dixit, public policy & government relations at Google, Ruby Sinha, founder, Women Entrepreneurs at Work (www.weatwork.in), Sanjeeva Shivesh, founder & CEO, The Entrepreneurship School, and Prabha Shukla, founding director, EasyGov.