Women Are Building India’s Economy — 2.86 Crore Female Led-MSMEs Prove It

For years, India’s MSME sector has been described as the silent engine powering the nation’s economic growth. But today, something even more transformational is happening within that engine — women entrepreneurs are stepping forward in record numbers, reshaping local economies, building employment pipelines, and rewriting the story of grassroots enterprise.

From bustling metros to remote towns tucked into the country’s hills and coastlines, Indian women are not just entering business — they are leading it. And now, the latest data from the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises confirms just how significant this shift has become.

A Landmark Moment: 2.86 Crore Women-Led MSMEs Registered

In a written reply to Parliament, Minister of State for MSME Shobha Karandlaje revealed that over 2.86 crore women-led MSMEs have been registered on the Udyam Registration Portal and the Udyam Assist Platform as of 30 November 2025.

This is not just a statistic; it reflects one of the largest waves of women-led entrepreneurial formalisation India has ever seen.

The Ministry notes that since 1 July 2020, when the Udyam Registration Portal was launched to simplify and modernise MSME classification, the platform has accumulated a massive 7.22 crore MSME registrations across manufacturing, services and trading.

Women now form a decisive and rising segment of this base — signalling growing ambition, stronger policy support, and a shift in cultural and economic participation across the country.

Where India’s Women Entrepreneurs Are Leading the Charge

The latest figures show a vibrant and geographically diverse spread of women-led MSMEs.

Top-performing states include:

• Maharashtra: 33.54 lakh

• West Bengal: 28.47 lakh

• Tamil Nadu: 25.51 lakh

• Karnataka: 20.58 lakh

• Andhra Pradesh: 20.10 lakh

These states, already established hubs of manufacturing and services, are now emerging as powerful centres of women-led economic activity — contributing significantly to both local and national growth.

Broad Participation Across India

The momentum is not limited to traditional industrial states.
Women-led enterprises are thriving in:

• Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Telangana, Gujarat

• Smaller states like Goa, Sikkim, Puducherry

• Union Territories and Northeastern states, which show encouraging participation despite smaller populations

This dispersal paints a clear picture: women-led entrepreneurship is penetrating every corner of Bharat, from rural blocks to emerging towns and major business hubs.

Services and Trading Sectors Dominate Women-led Growth

The Ministry’s analysis reveals that women entrepreneurs are particularly active in services and trading sectors — areas where digital tools, small capital requirements, and growing local demand have enabled quicker scalability.

These women-led enterprises are:

• Driving grassroots job creation

• Facilitating local economic development

• Powering innovation in community-driven markets

• Moving rapidly toward formalisation, thanks to digital-first platforms and simpler compliance structures

Initiatives like online registrations, credit-linked government schemes and market-access support have played a major role in enabling more women to formalise their businesses and access new growth pathways.

A Sustained Policy Push Behind the Numbers

The state-wise data presented in Parliament forms part of a broader national effort to strengthen India’s MSME ecosystem through:

• Targeted policy interventions

• Financial incentives for women-led units

• Skilling and capacity-building programs

• Improved credit access through banks and NBFCs

• Support via the Udyam Assist Platform for unorganised enterprises transitioning into the formal sector

The government has reiterated that supporting women entrepreneurs is critical to India’s vision of inclusive and distributed economic growth.

Women Entrepreneurs: The New Drivers of India's MSME Future

Behind every registration number is a story — of a woman launching a manufacturing unit, a trader scaling her marketplace presence, a service provider digitising operations, or a first-time business owner transforming household skills into commercial opportunities.

What the data unmistakably shows is this: India’s women-led MSME movement is no longer a trend — it is a structural shift.

And as these enterprises continue to formalise, scale, and innovate, they are set to become one of the strongest pillars of India's economic resilience in the years ahead.