The importance of fostering entrepreneurship is inevitable in poverty alleviation programmes because it is the best way to create capabilities. Nurturing women entrepreneurship in a competent outfit will be a way to fight poverty. Schumpeter’s and Kirzner’s economic models of entrepreneurship show how women’s entrepreneurship should be identified, recruited, mentored and encouraged. So, the notion of eradicating poverty through profit in rural India can be by women entrepreneurs taking up radical and incremental innovation and achieving profitability, self-fulfilments and thus the positive economic outcome. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which are vehicles in which women entrepreneurship thrives, are very conducive for rural women. The unique qualities and skills which women entrepreneurs introduce into SMEs constitute a real potential source of innovation for economies. To Schumpeter, while the identification and exploitation of this source of opportunities involve radical innovations, Kirzner’s incremental innovations are brought to market and exploited by alert entrepreneurs.

Schumpeter’s and Kirzner’s economic models of entrepreneurship, innovation, SME, rural women

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