Main Street: The rapid rise of female entrepreneurs in India

Data from the RBI shows that women in India's urban areas have more money in their accounts than men. Across all levels of the education system, Indian women are outnumbering and outperforming Indian men. Both during our travels and through our number crunching, we can see that urban women are getting wealthier, thanks to a trifecta of greater access to consumer markets and beyond (via the internet), easier access to financing (courtesy financialisation and the India Stack) and a growing target market of aspirational and affluent women. The result is that entrepreneurship is spreading far faster amongst Indian women than their male counterparts. "A few years of high school catapulted a young woman from a life of drudgery and disrespect into a world of comfort and courtesy, or so it seemed to her. The young man, however, did not often see high school as having so positive an impact. The rather dead-end clerical and sales positions opened to young women were not the road to success for the young man. Machinists, electricians and other tradesmen could enter their craft with far less than a high school diploma and little apparent loss. Thus, the apparent private return for young women [of getting educated] was actually higher than for young men, even though the latter remained employed for a considerably longer fraction of their lives." —Nobel Laureate Claudia Goldin, The U-Shaped Female Labor Force Function in Economic Development and Economic History [square brackets are ours]. The rise of a celebrity from Jail Road Market Nestled in the crowded Jail Road Market in New Delhi is a tiny shop selling bedazzling kurtas and pants for women. However, the story of its owner is anything but ordinary. She is Jasmeen Kaur, the creator of the now famous phrase, "So beautiful, so elegant, just looking like a wow!" Social media ensured that 'looking like a wow' became viral and made Ms Kaur a celebrity, possibly helping her garner business. Ms Kaur

This article was originally published on March 01, 2024.