Considering the contributions of Micro-Small-&-Medium Enterprises (MSME) for a regional-economy, an empirical study of 213 MSM entrepreneurs in Odisha, in eastern-India, was conducted to validate and verify various causal-relationships of socio-economic factors associated with 'entrepreneurial-intention'. Women constituted 25% of the respondents. The study evaluated their post-facto motivation factors. It also studied gender-gap in the field of entrepreneurship and examined the differences in motivation level between genders towards entrepreneurship. The study found women take up business as the 'second income' source and for 'social wellbeing'. The findings indicated that entrepreneurial intent is related to the following factors: prior knowledge of business functions, source and evaluation of the business idea, efficacy, ability to measure business performance and satisfaction derived from entrepreneurial effort. However, intent is not related to social support, work experience, substantial wealth, starting team size and differentiation in business.