Towards an Equitable and Integrated South Asia: Building Enabling Environments for Women in Trade – India Country Report

Teams from Amazon and Flipkart educate and upskill SHG women in eCommerce processes, features of the platform, and the regulations and norms to be followed (Arun and Aggarwal, 2020). [...] The digital transformation part of the program enables selected women entrepreneurs to strengthen their skills in trade in order to be able to export around the globe by integrating solutions to address the complex and wide–ranging challenges that women entrepreneurs and women–owned businesses face. [...] Our consultations revealed that women entrepreneurs engage less in trade with South Asia as compared to the rest of the world.12 One reason for this is that the impact of NTBs is intensified on women as compared to men because information about rules and regulations is more difficult for women to obtain. [...] Build institutional support for women entrepreneurs: The Report by the Expert Committee on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (2019) under the aegis of the RBI recommended setting up a National Council for MSMEs at the apex level under the chairmanship of the prime minister to facilitate a coherent policy outlook and unity of monitoring. [...] Incorporate gender mainstreaming in FTAs: Gender mainstreaming in FTAs means the inclusion of gender concerns and gender perspectives in the drafting and implementation of FTAs and thereby in trade liberalization efforts and policies.