Women’s Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (WICCI )

A National Business Chamber for Women, Women’s Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry, (WICCI) boosts and builds women’s entrepreneurship and businesses through greater engagement with government, institutions, global trade and networks.
To share a perspective on our various endeavours and free platforms for women empowerment over the years, with a collective strength of 500,000+ members across 150+ countries: ALL Ladies League (ALL) is a movement of “sisters beyond borders” with circles of sisterhood worldwide in a She-for-She spirit; Women Economic Forum (WEF) is a global conference platform for women worldwide to speak, share, connect and collaborate for business beyond borders; SHEconomy is our e-commerce and trade platform for both goods and services by women worldwide; and WICCI is our industry and business chamber which works closely with the government, other chambers, corporates, universities and diverse stakeholders across India and Internationally, toward empowering local and global ecosystems in support of women’s enterprises and businesses.

Core

WICCI enables fundamental changes in governmental policies, laws and incentives with a view to robustly encourage and empower women in business, industry and commerce across all sectors.
WICCI with its 2500+ Councils at National, Regional, State, City and Bilateral levels, comprising 50000  office bearers in honorary roles, along with the 3 National Boards viz. Governing, Advisory and Executive, suggest from time to time concrete steps and recommendations to empower women-owned businesses to become more competitive. All councils prepare & submit policy recommendations for the government/authorities as required.
Councils further act as networking powerhouses and support groups for women to grow their businesses and careers.
National Boards: There are 3 National Boards comprising Governing, Advisory and Executive.

  1. National Advisory Board:   This apex national board provides the thought leadership to the national sector councils on the vision and policies required to help integrate women into mainstream industry and commerce, toward a robust and thriving parity.
  2. National He-for-She Advisory Board:   This advisory national board comprises invited He-for-She industry and policy leaders from India and abroad.
  3. National Executive Board:   This executive national board comprises ex-officio presidential representation of all the WICCI councils at National, Regional, State, City and Bilateral levels.

    National & Regional Councils:   There are National Sector Councils across 300+ sectors. There are 4 Regional Councils.
  4. National Sector Councils:   Representing each of the 300+ Sectors at a National level.
  5. Regional Councils:   Coordinating for Northern, Southern, Eastern, Western regions across India.
    State & City Councils: There are State Sector Councils in each State/UT of India in all of the 300+ sectors. There are also unitary State Councils that help coordinate all the sectoral state councils in their States and its Cities. There are further unitary city councils that are non-sectoral.
  6. State Councils & Union Territory (UT) Councils:  Coordinating for State Sector Councils. They help connect the work all the sectoral State Councils and help set up the City Councils.
  7. State/UT Sector Councils:   Representing each of the 300+ Sectors at a State level.
  8. City Councils:   Multi-sectoral councils at city level which offer policy and practical suggestions to local administration and government departments at the grassroots for enabling women, with a multi-stakeholder approach.
    Bilateral Business Councils:   There are bilateral councils with 150+ countries for global exchange and developing business connections and collaborations with women in India and abroad.
  9. Bilateral / Multilateral Business Councils:   Bilateral / Multilateral Business Councils develop business opportunities for their members globally. They are not sector specific, but multi-sectoral. Their role is to coordinate with our sector specific State and National councils, and other bilateral / multilateral councils as needed for business relations and expansion.

With active engagement of a wide cross-section of women entrepreneurs, businesses and professionals in all walks of life, we:

  • Empower our collective influence on policy-making and decision-making at all levels;
  • Empower our collective influence on policy-making and decision-making at all levels;
  • Foster the much-needed momentum toward changes at all levels, enabling equitable growth, inclusive development, and sustainable approaches optimising economic growth and societal wellbeing.

Commitment

WICCI and its manifold multi-sectoral and sector-specific Councils at International, National, Regional, State and City levels, suggest from time to time concrete steps and recommendations to relevant government authorities, engage in community outreach and collaborate with a variety of institutions to:

  • develop policy frameworks for incentives and concessions especially regard improved access to finance and credit, and tax benefits;
  • develop areas of focus sector-wise and with diverse stakeholders to mainstream women’s voices and uphold women’s interest, voice and visibility at multiple levels.
  • hold programs, webinars, conferences, and especially around how to: raise funds, structure businesses, increase market share, drive sales, improve branding, and enable B2B collaborations.
  • help mitigate our many challenges and boost business prospects through networking and mentoring;
  • collaborate across councils in India and abroad in mutual exchange and empowerment, boosting business-to-business interaction and economic activity.
  • strengthen women’s voice and leadership in the media and across institutions;
  • and other measures that empower the competitiveness of Businesswomen, Entrepreneurs and Professionals, toward enhancing our economic inclusion and business growth overall.

WICCI Councils are flexibly structured, enabling them to work with inclusion, diversity and self-determination, within an enabling organisational framework and a guiding Code of Conduct.
Across all our platforms, we work with a spirit of sisterhood in trust and togetherness and an ethos of participatory/distributed leadership. We seek active engagement of all council members. When thousands of us give our ideas, then we will truly understand what needs to be done and implemented. These ideas and thoughts should continuously come from all strata of life and diverse backgrounds, so that one can assimilate and implement with understanding of what is truly required at grassroots for policy and mindset change. It is these diverse inputs that form the broad basis of many of the unique ideas and innovative actions/recommendations evolved by councils and presented to various government authorities.

AUSPICES 
With five sister platforms, as five fingers of the hand, in support and solidarity. G100, ALL, WEF, SHEconomy and WICCI, are under mutual auspices, particularly the primary platform of ALL. In order of their creation since 2011, ALL Ladies League (ALL) is a global sisterhood movement in She-for-She spirit uniting women as “sisters beyond borders”; Women Economic Forum (WEF) is a conference platform for women’s greater visibility, voice, recognition and networking for pursuing “business beyond borders”; WICCI is the industry and business chamber for advocating “policies beyond borders”; SHEconomy is an e-commerce platform and app for both goods and services by women entrepreneurs for strengthening “commerce beyond borders”; and G100 is a global platform for joint action empowering “gender equality beyond borders.”

All platforms together ensure women’s advancement in all walks of life with an integrated vision and inclusive values. With a powerful network of 500,000 women across 150 countries, growing toward Mission Million 2023, and engaging the support of men, these empowering ecosystems are among the largest global communities of women in all their rich diversities, with free outreach and sisterhood support.

Membership in all cases is free and by invitation only. We are non-political, non-religious, non-dogmatic. Our Core Values and Code of Conduct across all are in accordance with our G100-100 Commitments. Briefly, we follow the thumb rule of All Positivity, No Negativity, with Sisterhood as the organising principle.