Being the leader of her ilk

Entrepreneurship isn't a cakewalk for anyone, and it can be even more challenging for fairer gender. Giving opportunities to women entrepreneurs has been at the priority for the State government, as it generates employment for women and inspires them to get educated and help in nation building.

However, women face a number of hurdles in starting a company of their own, such as finance management, family issues and lack of confidence in their business idea and so on. To motivate and provide all support to women entrepreneurs, the Telangana government came up with Women Entrepreneur Hub ( WE hub). The CEO of WE hub, Deepti Ravula shares her inspiring story with The Hans India.

Deepthi is an Electronics Engineer by profession and passion, having 15 years of experience working in USA with Palm, Nokia, Qualcomm and RF Communication among others. She joined the Government of Telangana as a Joint Director for Electronics in 2016 and has been appointed as CEO of WE Hub since its inception in 2017.

Sharing her education and initial days, she says "I am a daughter of Hyderabad soil. I completed my schooling from St Ann's and joined Vignana Jyothi for further studies. After completion of my Degree in Electronics Engg, I left for the US and started my career. Later, I decided to come back from the US to do something for my country and State.

The then IT Minister, KT Rama Rao gave me a prestigious position as CEO of WE Hub, a startup incubator exclusively for women entrepreneurs. Through WE Hub we aim to support women entrepreneurs with innovative ideas, solutions and entities focusing on emerging areas in technology.

WE Hub will also support under-explored / unexplored sectors along with the service sector. The mandate and goal of WE Hub is to eliminate financial, societal and support barriers for women and help them succeed in their enterprises."

She says, "Currently in the Indian system, women have to overcome many social, cultural and financial barriers to be able to realise their potential and be an equal partner, not just as job-seekers but also as job creators and entrepreneurs.

WE Hub platform has been created not to just foster women entrepreneurship, but also to understand the solutions needed to encourage women to be a part of the startup and business ecosystem"

On venturing into startup ecosystem, Deepthi says, "Any startup needs a lot of hard work, determination and persistence. It is not for the faint of heart. Success is determined by you and you alone. It's all in how you define it. So, we are giving every woman a chance of being successful in their career." She adds, "Nowadays women entrepreneurship contributes a lot to nation's economic growth.

They are job creators for themselves and others and also provide a society with different solutions to management, organisation and business problems. However, the number of women entrepreneurs is quite less and often face gender-based barriers to starting and growing their businesses. I always believe in living life as a female entrepreneur is a great learning adventure. Not only will you learn about the industry you choose, but you will learn more about yourself."

She further says, "My family has always supported me. In fact, the only challenges I faced were more internal – when you are a working woman and you're a mother, you worry if you're being a good mother. My husband supports me in everything and he is my role model."