Raj women entrepreneurs look for growth boosters in interim Budget

Jaipur: As finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presents the vote-on-account or interim Budget on Thursday, women entrepreneurs in Rajasthan expect her announcements to address emerging challenges and concerns unheeded historically.
Sheenu Jhawar, TiE Rajasthan president, and healthcare entrepreneur, said, “India’s population is its biggest strength for its growth, and to keep it mentally and physically healthy requires a greater budgetary allocation.The healthcare spend needs to reflect focus on infrastructure, R&D, technology driven ecosystem with a bold focus on the startup sector to truly achieve the ‘Make in India’ dream of taking ‘local to global’.”
Jhawar said the healthcare budget was 2.2% of the GDP in the financial year 2021-22 which declined to 2.1% in 2022-23.
After Covid pandemic many MSMEs faced severe headwinds. Some had to shutter their businesses and others are still struggling.
Neha Gupta, entrepreneur, and director of firm, said, “Rajasthan’s industrial landscape is dominated by MSMEs. The sector needs government attention to survive. The policies governing the sector are adversarial to its growth. Without a strong base of MSMEs, a country like India cannot create jobs for its masses.”
Interestingly, the entrepreneurs feel that its time the government should announce women-dedicated clusters.
Sunita Sharma, president of the FORTI Women Wing, said, “The Union Budget should develop industrial clusters and parks for women entrepreneurs across the country, while giving incentives on cost of land, machinery and other equipment.”
Sharma said this way more and more women would be encouraged to join the workforce and contribute to economic growth.
Entrepreneurs who small start in hospitality sector feel neglected as they are left out of many schemes because of their size.
Neelam Sharma, an entrepreneur in tourism and hospitality sector, said, “Small hotels in Rajasthan are facing a lot of challenges. There is no incentive from the central government for budget hotels. There should be a scheme because more than 80% of the tourist burden is borne by budget hotels only.”
She said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s roadshow in Jaipur with French President Emmanuel Macron will further boost opportunities in the tourism and hospitality sector.