19th November is celebrated as the Women Entrepreneur’s Day worldwide. To celebrate the extraordinary and bold women of the modern era who led with courage and vision to build their businesses, SMBConnect organized the Women Entrepreneur Award 2024. These awards were bestowed upon extraordinary women in startups, Small & Medium Businesses (SMBs) and Entrepreneurship. Each of them had an inspiring story and a struggle which made their journey remarkable.

The event was supported by Startup India, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology Startup Hub and was in partnership with the TiE Kolkata, the TiE Chandigarh, the Association of Businesswomen in Commerce and Industry, Maritime She Eo, Wista India, Rajasthan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, NSN Women, HEN (Her Entrepreneur Network), Exim Club and MUS Center.

The event started with an introductory note from Mr Sandipan Ray, founder of SMBConnect. He elaborated on the journey of the Advaita Women Entrepreneur Award. How the idea was conceived! Sandipan recalled in a business conclave of SMBConnect where there was a room full of businessmen comprising only 5% women. He understood the need to make the SMBConnect community gender inclusive space. Thus started the journey of the Advaita Women Entrepreneur Award from Jaipur, Rajasthan.

Dr Ambika Sharma of CEO of AWBCI led the panel discussion between Stuti Jalan Founder of Women Inspiring Network and Ankita Sheel Gupta Founder of New Age Mompreneur on The Role of Women Entrepreneurs in Viksit Bharat. The session highlighted the pivotal role women entrepreneurs play in shaping India’s growth story. Ankita of the New Age Mompreneur community emphasized the importance of community building which provides a safe space to women entrepreneurs who are consistently trying to balance their personal and professional lives. She elaborated on how everyone in their community is helping their peers grow by using services and products among themselves. Stuti shared her optimism about community-building initiatives among women entrepreneurs which started at the core of Metro cities and is now trickling down to tier-2 and tier-3 cities.

Following the round, there was a Q&A session led by Ambika Yadav, Program Manager of SMBConnect which delved into the individual experiences of the women entrepreneurs with their respective journey and growth. Penu Kumari of Ramya Clinic highlighted the need to address the mental health challenges faced by everyone. She emphasized how mental health discourses are stigmatized in general and it is specifically worse for women entrepreneurs, Indian society had little acceptance of its potency. She started her journey with Ramya Clinic following her experience with one of her students losing his life to depression. She has been a vocal advocate of the Institutionalization of Mental Health Treatment, and her entrepreneurial spirit is also driven by that cause.

The next session was a fireside conversation between Harpreet Puri of Momwearsprada, and Dr Ambika Sharma CEO, of ABWCI. They followed up meticulously on the health issues of women in Business and every other aspect of life, how in the process of nurturing a family the lady herself goes through unsaid struggles. They emphasized the role of women's support groups where everyone can empathize with their journey. Women should support women and community building is the way forward.

The event concluded with the distribution of Awards. Dr Ankita Singh, Stuti Jalan and Ankita Sheel Gupta distributed the Awards to winning candidates across Startup, Small & Medium Businesses (SMBs) and Entrepreneurship categories. Garima Pallavi was awarded the Advaita Women Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Healthysoulzz Nutrition Clinic. The complete list contains 27 additional entrepreneurs who received 18 different awards for their achievements in their respective domains.

The list includes-

Nishita Thakur	Altilum Tecnologia LLP Services Startup Startup	Services Startup	Startup
Mansi Mahansaria	JustDeliveries	Service Startup	Startup
Anshika Jain	AR Studio	Women in STEM Award	Startup
Anuradha Jalan	GreenCove	Innovative startup	Startup
Saumya Kabra	Confetti Gifts	Bootstrapped Startup	Startup
Ira Agarwal	AIM Elevate Ventures	Social Impact Startup Award	Startup
Mandeep Sharma	Vedatoddler Foundation	Most Promising Startup Award	Startup
Tanvi Kadyan	The Lavenry Co	Most Promising Startup Award	Startup
Rekha Antil	Lavenry Natural	Most Promising Startup Award	Startup
Seema Singh	Seema Singh's Diet & Nutrition Clinic	Healthcare & Wellness	Small & Medium Business
Penu Kumari	Ramya Clinic	Healthcare & Wellness	Small & Medium Business
Monica Negi	Daksh Hello Travel	Emerging Leader Awards	Small & Medium Business
Uzma Charania	Z Education	Education & Training	Small & Medium Business
Shashi Chaudhry	Innova Communications	Information Technology (IT)	Small & Medium Business
Malika Khatri	SeaTech Integrated Technology Pvt Ltd	Information Technology (IT)	Small & Medium Business
Ritu Jain	Solicitude Parenting By Ritu Jain	Social Impact Award	Small & Medium Business
Shampa Sahay	Ekan infocool LLP	Food & Beverage	Small & Medium Business
Malvika Jain	Sereko	Innovation Award	Small & Medium Business
Pashneet Kaur	Sit With It- Holistic Healing Solutions by Pashneet Kaur	Freelancer of the Year	Entrepreneurship
Dr. Meenakshi Chadha	Geetaakshi Deliteful Creations	Freelancer of the Year	Entrepreneurship
Priyal Thakkar	Priyal's Art	Freelancer of the Year	Entrepreneurship
Dr. Pooja Malhotra	Ayaan International School	Overall Excellence Award	Entrepreneurship
Dr. Shweta Verma	Ancient Veda Ayurvedic Clinic	Overall Excellence Award	Entrepreneurship
Dr. Divya Patidar	Cryptoyoog	Overall Excellence Award	Entrepreneurship
Aarushi Vij	Ramya Clinic	Influencer of the Year	Entrepreneurship
Trisha Shreyashi	AT & Partners	Influencer of the Year	Entrepreneurship
Vaishnavi Sinha	Intellectual Innovation Academy	Inspirational Leader of the Year	Entrepreneurship
Garima Pallavi	Healthysoulzz Nutrition Clinic	Woman Entrepreneur of the Year	Entrepreneurship

Advaita Women Entrepreneur Award 2024 is an initiative of SMBConnect. This is the second edition of the Award show. The first Women Entrepreneur Award was hosted in Jaipur, Rajasthan in 2018. SMBConnect continues its commitment to honour the women business leaders of our generation and celebrate their success in the coming times.