MAM
Visa grants $10,000 to women-led businesses in She’s Next Program
Mumbai: Visa, the global leader in digital payments, today announced the grant recipients of the She’s Next Grant Program in India. She’s Next is a global advocacy program by Visa that aims to empower women-led small businesses across segments, with insights and tools such as networking, mentoring, and funding opportunities. Visa has awarded a grant of US$10,000 to each of the three winning businesses owned and led by women. It also partnered with Razorpay Rize, an exclusive community for founders, to provide all grant recipients with complimentary access to the invite-only Razorpay Rize incubator program, including a range of benefits like mentorship, assistance with incorporation and fundraising, and networking opportunities with fellow founders.
The program received over 700 applications spanning across sectors, including agriculture, specialised education for children, elderly care, homestays, law, literature, travel, handicrafts, and support for local artisans, reflecting the diversity of women-led entrepreneurship in India. The recipients of this year’s She’s Next grants program are:
1. Suchita Bhandari, Urvara Krsi, Gurugram, Haryana
2. Nidhi Chawla, Silver Talkies (Active Age India Pvt. Ltd.), Bangalore
3. Elizabeth Thomas, Phonologix Health Solutions Pvt. Ltd, Kerala
Visa group country manager, India and South Asia Sandeep Ghosh said, “Visa is committed to fostering financial and social inclusion by investing in small enterprises, which are pivotal to economic growth. Women-led businesses like Urvara Krsi, Silver Talkies and Phonologix, enthuse us with their profound community impact, and we are honoured to extend this grant to these very inspiring women entrepreneurs. The She’s Next Grant Program in India is a key initiative for Visa in its ongoing focus on galvanizing female entrepreneurship and promoting inclusion across the country.”
The recipients were chosen through a meticulous review process, including their background stories, societal challenges they aim to address and the potential for future growth in their respective business models. Each of the three grant recipients, chosen from a pool of over 700 applicants, presented a compelling vision for how Visa’s grant would contribute to the expansion and advancement of their businesses and empower more women. They also outlined plans for supporting local communities and the broader Indian economy through their businesses.
Visa continues empowering small and medium businesses through opportunities like the She’s Next Grant Program providing women-led businesses with the vital tools, resources, and financial support that enable them to thrive. Concurrently, Razorpay Rize, an embodiment of entrepreneurial support, offers a comprehensive program that addresses the challenges faced by founders during the early stages of business growth. With a focus on mentorship, incorporation, and fundraising activities, Razorpay Rize seeks to build a community of like-minded founders in India’s thriving startup ecosystem, demonstrating the company’s dedication to empowering entrepreneurs and contributing to the growth of the startup community. Visa’s She’s Next Program aligns with Razorpay’s mission of investing in the country’s talent pool and fostering innovation.
In recent years, Visa has undertaken such initiatives for women-led businesses across India. In 2020, its grants program in partnership with global partner IFundWomen facilitated women entrepreneurs with access to funding and mentorship opportunities. In 2021, Visa collaborated with the NASSCOM Foundation to enhance digital and financial literacy among over 650 women micro-entrepreneurs in rural areas. Most recently, Visa committed US$ one million to United Way Mumbai (UWM) to uplift women-owned and women-focused businesses across more than 240 villages in four states. The program has already provided financial literacy education and financial linkages to over 8,500 women.
Globally, Visa has invested over US$3.83 million in over 380 grants and coaching for women small and medium business owners through the She’s Next Grants Program since 2020. By equipping women micro-entrepreneurs with vital skills and facilitating access to relevant financial resources, Visa aims to empower both individual enterprises and the communities they serve.
Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
