Include bibliographical references.

Entrepreneurs play the pivotal role in shaping the economic destiny of a nation. It is the enterprise of a few in a society that helps change the growth profile of the economy and diversify its economic base. Entrepreneurs not only launch and run business but also contributes to employment creation, output, growth, technological up-gradation, and improvement in the quality of goods and services by altering production function. It is widely recognized that lack of entrepreneurship is a major reason for relative backwardness of the developing economy. Augmenting the supply of entrepreneur who perceive new opportunities, convert them into viable business propositions, undertake business related risk and contribute to the growth of the economy by harnessing available but dormant resource potentials- capital, labour, technology and markets is therefore essential for development of any region, country or economy. The past three and half decades have seen a growing interest in strategies to enhance the economic status of women, especially in the developing world, through promotion of small and informal sector enterprises. The interest on women managed enterprises has mainly focused on sectors such as industry, commerce and services. The number of women moving into these sectors is on the rise because women are of the opinion that there are better prospects in improving their economic standing in these sectors than in the traditional agricultural sector.
The growth of Indian economy has activated the involvement of women, both in the organized and unorganized sectors. The opening of the market economy, globalization, privatization, liberalization, modernization, technological advancement and the pattern of development adopted have greatly affected the economic role of women.
In this study, an attempt has been male to an analyze socio-demographic-economic characteristics of women entrepreneurs engaged in small-scale industries in Ghaziabad district of Western Uttar Pradesh and to analyze women entrepreneurs engaged in small-scale industries with regard the nature of product, factors of production, raw material, financing, marketing and infrastructural facilities, generation of income, output, employment, capacity utilization, profitability-investment, surplus etc. It has been sought to examine the impact of liberalization on developmental changes in women entrepreneurs since its implementation and to identify the factors contributing and constraints encountered by women entrepreneurs at the institutional and entrepreneurial levels. An attempt has also been made to examine the adequacy/inadequacy of training facilities, support system and guidance extended to women entrepreneurs and to suggest measures to streamline future strategies for enhancing entrepreneurship among women.
In this study, an attempt has also been made to test the following hypothesis : (1) There is positive relationship between age, work experience and business background of women entrepreneurs and choice of industry, (2) Education, training, work experience and business background have been contributing position towards entrepreneurial performance, (3) Government have been playing an immerse role for further development of women entrepreneurs.
The study is confined to one district i.e. Ghaziabad district of western Utter Pradesh. In order to select the sample, multi stage stratified random sampling technique has been adopted to select 425 sampled women entrepreneurs for intensive study. The study is mainly based on primary sources of information or data which were collected with the help of to questionnaire
cum-schedule. The personal interview technique has been used the collect the primary data. In order to the supplement the primary data, secondary data were collected in this study. In order to achieve the objectives of the study and to test the hypothesis and to draw infrastructure of the study, simple statistical tools have been used.
The study revealed that 33.17 per cent of the respondents informed that they them self started small scale industrial units. 24.00 per cent of the respondents indicated that their parents were encouraged to start entrepreneurial activities. 20.94 per cent of the respondents felt that their husbands motivated to start entrepreneurial activities. 12.94 per cent of the respondents indicated that their friends motivated to start small scale industrial units. 8.94 per cent of the respondents felt that others like relatives neighbors encouraged etc to start business.

Indian Council of Social Science Research.

English