Former Union Minister Smriti Irani said on Monday that empowering micro enterprises run by women is important from social as well as economic point of view. Addressing the Rajasthan DigiFest and TIE Global Summit 2026 held here, Irani said, women should be ready to take risks even at the pinnacle of success.
Irani, who holds the portfolios of Women and Child Development and Textiles, also mentioned the SPARK initiative which aims to provide access to credit, formalities and institutional support to one lakh women entrepreneurs in 300 cities.
The second day of the conference also saw the launch of a campaign aimed at strengthening micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) as key drivers of economic growth and employment.
According to Tyee, the initiative aims to generate 10 million jobs and economic value of over $100 billion over the next five years. For this, governments, industry organizations, capital providers and TIE chapters around the world will be connected.
Key focus areas include regulatory simplification, access to capital, skill development, technology adoption and cluster-based regional development. In another session focused on MSMEs, officials from Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh discussed the role of stable regulations, easier GST compliance, better credit availability and technology-led cluster development.
The session was followed by exchange of MoUs between Government of Andhra Pradesh, TIE Hyderabad and TIE Visakhapatnam. Earlier, global technology ecology was discussed in a session focused on building future cities.
The discussion highlighted the growth of Dubai Internet City as the region’s largest technology ecosystem and its role as a gateway for Indian startups.
