New Delhi, Oct 2: To celebrate the 75th year of independence, NITI Aayog’s flagship initiative, The Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP), will felicitate 75 women achievers as part of the Amrit Mahotsav celebration. In its fifth year since inception, Women Transforming India Awards (WTI) 2021 will celebrate the contribution of women entrepreneurs towards ‘Sashakt aur Samarath Bharat’ – by building self-sufficient businesses and/or overcoming challenges via unique business solutions.

The WTI Awards is NITI Aayog’s endeavour to recognise and celebrate stories of exceptional women change-makers from across India. Since 2018, the WTI Awards have been hosted under the aegis of the Women Entrepreneurship Platform with a focus on ‘Women and Entrepreneurship’. The awards continue to bring to the fore, inspiring female role models charting impact across the country. The previous editions have shed much needed spotlight on the stellar work of women-led businesses, both in commercial and social sectors.

This year, the WTI Awards are being launched in partnership with the UN, CISCO CSR, FICCI and Grant Thornton Bharat. The application form is available on https://wep.gov.in/, and applications will be accepted till 31st December, 2021. Women entrepreneurs can self-nominate or can be nominated by others as well. Nomination can be done under one or more than one of the seven categories – Public and Community Service, Manufacturing Sector, Non-manufacturing Sector, Financial Products enabling Economic Growth, Climate Action, Promote Art, Culture and Handicrafts and Digital Innovation. Detailed guidelines for the submission of the application form and eligibility criteria are available on https://wep.gov.in/wep-faqs.

After the last date of submission, the applications will go through a three stage evaluation process consisting of independent assessment, jury and super jury rounds. 75 inspiring women entrepreneurs breaking the glass ceiling will be identified. These winners will be felicitated on the occasion of International Women’s Day on Tuesday, 8th March, 2022, celebrating 75 years of India’s Independence – ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’.

The Women Entrepreneurship Platform seeks to transform the entrepreneurial ecosystem for women by bringing together stakeholders offering information and services to address the existing information asymmetry. Based on the three pillars of Iccha Shakti, Gyan Shakti and Karma Shakti, it is an aggregator platform for established as well as aspiring entrepreneurs. The platform provides incubation support, mentorship, funding avenues, compliance/taxation support and peer learning.

Currently, the Women Entrepreneurship Platform has more than 21,000 registered users and has ongoing programmes with 37 partners (30 existing + 7 newly approved partners whose onboarding are under process).