Small, Growing Businesses and Employment

Connections: How Social Interactions Shape Growth Stories of Women-led Enterprises

Aishwarya Joshi, Mridulya Narasimhan

India has an estimated 14.9 million women-owned enterprises, which hold the promise of job creation and improved agency for the country’s working-age female population. While positive spillover effects of these women-led businesses have been documented, women own only 20.4% of … Read More

Scorecard for Women Entrepreneurship : Unlocking the Potential of Women – charcha 2022

In India’s journey to creating more than 150 million jobs by 2030, the emphasis on female entrepreneurship cannot be disregarded. Sharon Buteau, Executive Director, LEAD at Krea University, will join other policymakers & leaders to share thoughts on ‘Scorecard for … Read More

SARDI India MSME Tech Policy Fellowship Program

Background USAID through its South Asia Regional Digital Initiative (SARDI) has launched the India MSME Tech Policy Fellowship Program to conduct policy research at the interface of digitalization and MSMEs in India and facilitate sustainable change in the policy ecosystem. … Read More

Postcards from the Village Square

LEAD at Krea University

Our research and field teams occasionally run into curious and amusing situations on their data-collection missions into the hinterland. These experiences also offer insights into people’s lived experiences and the various dimensions of the problems central to our research. Here … Read More

Women and Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries – Perspectives from India, Indonesia, and Bangladesh

Studies show that labour force participation rates have been declining in all economies, especially among women, reflecting the impact of the pandemic. The socio-cultural barriers faced by women entrepreneurs are common in every part of the developing world, and are … Read More

Barriers and Opportunities For Aspirational Women Entrepreneurs

Neelanjana Gupta, Preethi Rao

Historically, in India, household gender norms and restrictions on women, along with lack of education and mentorship among women, have proven to be significant obstacles to nurturing women entrepreneurs, thereby inhibiting women’s advancement. This study was undertaken by IWWAGE to … Read More

Delving Into the History of Pulicat, Its Inhabitants and Its Ecosystem

Vighnesh P, Kaavya Kumar, Sathiyan S, Siddarth M

This post on the history and socio-economic context of Pulicat was produced in collaboration with students from Ashoka University to observe World Environment Day. Pulicat or Pazhaverkadu is home to over 56 fishing communities which depend on this endangered ecosystem … Read More

Multidimensional Impact of Finance on Microenterprises

Sharon Buteau, Abhishek Gupta, Sanjana Vijay

The micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector in India has consistently contributed more than 30% to the country’s GDP over the last decade. The significance of MSMEs in India’s economy also arises from both its scale in the country … Read More

Exploring the Intersection of Climate Change, Livelihoods, Gender and Well-being in and around Pulicat Lake

This project aims to capture and understand the various phenomena and dimensions namely livelihoods, climate, socio-economic, finance, power and gender interplay at various levels in the Pulicat region. BackgroundLocated between Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in South India, Pulicat is … Read More

M&E From the Ground Up: Lessons From Monitoring the Swashakt Program

Partners: Global Evaluation Initiative, 3ie How can M&E frameworks for complex development programs be more inclusive and adaptive to ground realities? LEAD at Krea University along with 3ie will co-host a session on key milestones learnt from developing and implementing … Read More