1. INTRODUCTION
On January 22, 2026, a multi-stakeholder meeting was held at the DC Office in Namsai, Arunachal Pradesh, to discuss strengthening rural women’s entrepreneurship in Namsai District (an aspirational district). Organized by Council for Social & Digital Development (CSDD) and North Eastern Development Finance Corporation (NEDFi), under its “Udyamita – Women in Entrepreneurship) project, the session addressed critical gaps such as the lack of end-to-end support in handloom and mushroom value chains and the need for better inter-departmental coordination. Key issues raised included necessity for market-specific skills like online marketing. Stakeholders recommended focusing on import substitution, product diversification, and stricter financial discipline for loan access.
2. BACKGROUND
The need to transition from livelihood to entrepreneurship for rural women has been highlighted in recent times. n this transition, the potential rural women entrepreneurs face sustained challenges in – (i) Access to sustained and meaningful entrepreneurship education, skills, capacities; (ii) Access to business / enterprise information, resources, schemes, and opportunities within their local ecosystems; (iii) Access to enterprise development and management support; (iv) Access to reliable and affordable credit and finance linkages; (v) Access to sustained relevant training, counselling, mentoring and guidance; (vi) Access to relevant digital resources, skills and support; and (vii) Access to sustained market and forward-backward linkages. In the light of these, the initiatives like the Startup Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP) under Ministry of Rural Development, and private efforts like ‘WiE- Udyamita’ are seemed to be a step forward, in addressing barriers.
