January 27, 2021 Struggling with the Covid-19 slump, India’s female entrepreneurs are hoping for a win with this year’s budget. Between March and June when India was under a complete lockdown, several people—especially thousands of women—took to entrepreneurship. This was either because these people had lost their jobs and were looking for ways to earn, or because they sensed an opportunity in the growing trend of hyperlocal demand as physical stores and restaurants remained shut. For instance, thousands of women turned home chefs, serving customers who wanted home-cooked food but lacked the culinary skills. Many others tried to make a buck from pandemic-related trends. In rural Karnataka, for instance, 200 women banded together to start producing and selling masks. Others created healthcare and ed-tech products to solve new problems birthed by the pandemic.