Sustainable Financial Practices and Women’s Contribution to Green Startups in India: A Conceptual Framework

India's shift to a sustainable and low-carbon economy has raised the importance of green startups as drivers of environmental innovation and inclusive growth. At the same time, women entrepreneurs play a crucial role in promoting sustainable business practices. However, their participation in green startups is still limited due to challenges like lack of access to financing and structural barriers. Sustainable financial practices, such as green finance, ESG-linked funding, ethical banking, and inclusive digital finance, offer great potential for empowering women entrepreneurs and improving green startup ecosystems. Despite the growing academic interest in sustainable finance and women-led entrepreneurship, the link between these areas remains mostly unexplored in India. This conceptual paper suggests a framework that shows how sustainable financial practices affect women's financial empowerment and, in turn, their contributions to green startups in India. The study draws on insights from sustainability, entrepreneurship, and gender-finance research. This framework sets the stage for future empirical studies and provides valuable perspectives for policymakers and financial institutions looking to promote gender-inclusive green growth in emerging markets