Union Budget 2026-27: FM extends Lakhpati Didi scheme, 'She-Mark' badge announced to boost women entrepreneurs

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, presenting her record ninth consecutive Union Budget amid global volatility and geopolitical uncertainty, placed women’s economic participation back at the centre of the government’s growth narrative, building on last year’s sharp rise in gender-linked allocations and entrepreneurship-focused policy signals.

In a key announcement aimed at moving women beyond income-linked livelihood models, Sitharaman said she would extend the Lakhpati Didi programme, proposing to help women take “the next step from the credit-linked livelihoods to being owners of enterprises”. The pitch, framed around enterprise ownership rather than only participation, signals a sharper focus on scaling women-led businesses across sectors.

The Budget also introduced a new identity and support mechanism for women entrepreneurs. Sitharaman announced the rollout of She-Mark for women entrepreneurs, positioned as an access tool for financing and growth-oriented instruments.

'She-Mark' badge for women entrepreneurs

The She-Mark framework, according to the announcement, is meant to expand women entrepreneurs’ access to “credit-linked products and innovative financial instruments”, indicating an attempt to connect women-led enterprises with formal finance channels beyond traditional lending.

Budget announcemnt on women in 2025-26

The new push comes after FY26 saw a significant expansion of gender budgeting across the Union government. In the 2025-26 Budget, the Gender Budget allocation rose 37.5 per cent to Rs 4.49 lakh crore, with 49 ministries and departments, along with five Union Territories, reporting allocations under the Gender Budget Statement (GBS), up from 38 a year earlier.

The GBS framework was split into Part A for schemes with 100 per cent women-specific allocation, Part B for schemes with 30–99 per cent allocation for women, and Part C for schemes with less than 30 per cent women allocation. Part B accounted for nearly three-fourths of the overall pool. The Ministry of Women and Child Development remained the biggest contributor, allocating over 81 per cent of its total funds to women-centric initiatives, backed by spending across departments such as Rural Development, Health and Family Welfare, Food and Public Distribution, School Education and Literacy, and Drinking Water and Sanitation.

Alongside welfare-led allocations, Sitharaman has also flagged women’s entrepreneurship as a Budget priority through the government-backed startup funding ecosystem. In Budget 2025, she said, “The alternate investment fund for startups has received commitments of more than Rs 91,000 crore. These are supported by the fund of funds set up with the government of India's contribution of Rs 10,000 crore,” pointing to the scale of capital already mobilised through the broader innovation pipeline.