India's Top Woman Digi-preneur Says Nation's Digital Revolution Behind Its Women's Success Bhargava believes India is now at a tipping point and welcoming women to take up entrepreneurship and C-suite roles.
By Aashika Jain
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Swati Bhargava, the co-founder of Cashkaro.com – India's pioneer cashback site - says she has seen a paradigm shift in women entrepreneurship in India.
The Ambala girl launched Cashkaro at a time when the cashback business in India had just begun mushrooming.
An ex-Goldman Sachs employee, Bhargava started UK-based cashback and voucher website Pouringpounds.com with her husband Rohan Bhargava in 2011 before starting her own maiden venture in India.
She is now counted among the country's top women entrepreneurs who believe India is now at a tipping point and welcoming women to take up entrepreneurship and C-suite roles.
The Oxford University graduate says digital revolution has played a pivotal role in promoting and enabling women take the entrepreneurial plunge as it has eased the herculean task of marketing the product for them.
"Women now sitting at home in a distant city can easily market and promote the service/product anywhere and everywhere. Today, the concept of a woman entrepreneur no longer elicits surprise or curiosity in India," says Bhargava.
In an interview with Entrepreneur, Bhargava said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "Stand Up India' initiative is also encouraging and empowering women to take up entrepreneurship and build opportunities for others.
Bhargava does not believe in boundaries but only in the power of going online and digitization.
When it comes to starting a business, Bhargava feels eCommerce has enabled women to start a business sitting in a small city like Bhubaneswar in Odisha and market the same globally.
Lauding a woman's multi-tasking ability, Bhargava says a woman's typical investment is her "time' at work as she plays numerous roles every single day.
A believer of women empowerment, Bhargava thinks women were always ambitious and confident in what they did.
"Family support and investor interest & trust in women-led organizations can surely boost their business growth," says Bhargava.
However, equality for both sexes is what distinguishes Bhargava from many other women entrepreneurs.
"I think both the genders are equally strong when it comes to leadership and it is the individual's qualities that make them a good leaderas opposed to their gender,"
Bhargava says women tend to be more compassionate and for some that may translate in their boss being empathic to their commitments and responsibilities outside of work, though she believes each individual has to earn respect, growth & flexibility based on their own work.
