“Men,
a home truth in office- Study finds women ahead in employment growth”– thus
ran a headline in a city newspaper on the occasion of Women’s Day, 2007. The
news item read that Indian women have clocked a 3.35 per cent rise in
employment between 1998 and 2004, according to a survey that covered both the
public and private sectors. The figures were thrown up during a study on “Women
Employment Growth Rate and Gender Budgeting” by industry chamber ASSOCHAM. According to the study, women employed in
the public and private sector increased to 49.34 lakh
in 2004 from 47.74 lakh in 1998; for men, it has
fallen to 215.09 lakh in 2004 from 233.92 lakh.
You've
really come a long way, lady! … A Salute to
Indian Women
(Commemorating International Women’s Day on
Colorful festivals al the year round,
masses below poverty line, corruption, pollution, extreme climatic conditions,
spicy curries, elephants, snake charmers, and a spiritual haven are some of the
stereotypical images that are associated with India. But when one thinks of
Indian women no other word than ‘exotic' comes to mind. The story of the fairer
sex in this country is one of duality. There is still much poverty,
unemployment, illiteracy, and discrimination when it comes to Indian women, but
there is a certain segment of them that is making a mark in the public domain.
Globalization has provided opportunities for the educated, middle class woman
to build her own dreams and excel in fields, which were earlier perceived as
complete male territory. Though they are not the majority, Indian women
professionals are definitely on the rise, banishing the erstwhile culture of
gender discrimination.
Indian women are becoming increasingly
visible and successful in the professional and public sphere. Whether it is Barkha Dutt, who has become a idol for several journalists or Arundhati
Roy, a Booker Prize Winner and a social activist or Kiran
Mazumdar Shaw, who became the wealthiest Indian woman
after the initial public offering of her company, Biocon;
they have all heralded the arrival of Indian women professionals.
Who are these women? What drives them
on … just the will to make big money or are there other motivating factors as
well? Is it sheer luck or is it a labour of sweat and
tears? The answers are as varied as the women themselves. However, one common
factor is their passion for work. They are totally committed and it can be
safely said that their professional lives and their work are all just an
extension of their personalities. The Indian working woman, with her resilience
and intellect, balances her family and career judiciously.
A handful of businesswomen in India,
including Lalita Gupte, Kalpana Morparia, Anu Aga, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw
and Simone Tata, have
quietly broken through the barriers of social conformity--both at home and in
the workplace--to become successful entrepreneurs and professionals. A few,
like Indu Jain of
privately held Bennett Coleman,
India's biggest media house, have even reached billionaire status. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw started one
of India's first biotech companies, Biocon. Lalita Gupte
and Kalpana Morparia run
India's second-largest bank, ICICI Bank.
Simone Tata built one of
the first indigenous cosmetic brands, Lakme. And Anu Aga
turned around an ailing company, the engineering firm Thermax Group.
Another
sector in today's India that can boast of female leadership is technology.
Since joining Microsoft India as its managing director in 2005, Neelam Dhawan has
helped it grow 35%. Cisco's vice-president Jayashree Ullal; Yahoo! Content Editor Srinija Srinivasan; DigitalLink Chairwoman Vinita Gupta; Smart Modular
Co-Founder Lata Krishnan; Rightworks CEO Vani
Kola; former Hewlett Packard GM and current CEO of Tioga
Systems Radha Basu are
among the achievers who have shown that when it comes to the tech world, they
are in fine fettle too. Says Anu Shukla,
CEO of the San Mateo-based Rubric, an e-marketing company, “Our time
has come.”
A brief account into the professional
lives & success of some of the outstanding Indian women in the corporate
world is given below:
Indra Krishnamorthy Nooyi, President and Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo is a
powerful force behind the consumer giant's strong profit pipeline and $108
billion stock market valuation. Nooyi is the first
woman of Indian origin to head a Fortune 500 company and the highest ranked
Indian-born woman in the United States. She is all set to succeed Executive
Chairman Steven Reinemund as the Chairperson of the
board of directors of Pepsico on May 2, 2007. Nooyi, who has a degree in Management from Yale and a
career span that includes stints at the Boston Consulting Group and Motorola,
attributes much of her success to her upbringing in India. She believes in
constant reinvention: "The minute you've developed a new business model,
it's extinct, because somebody is going to copy it."
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is the Chairman and Managing Director of Biocon Ltd, the first biotech firm of India. In 2004, she became India’s richest woman. In 1978, Shaw set up a small operation to extract enzyme from papayas in her garage in Bangalore. Most people in India had not even heard of biotechnology back then. Her ambition was to build a world –class institution using India’s own scientific talent, which she has most successfully fulfilled. Shaw increased research-and-development spending by 76% and built a $250 million facility to produce Biocon's first proprietary drug, for head and neck cancer. Her one strategy: break into the U.S. generics market.
Priya Paul, chairperson
of Apeejay Park Hotels, is a prominent Indian
entrepreneur. Her contribution to industry and commerce, particularly in the
field of hospitality have been repeatedly recognised
with several awards nad citations from various organisations.
Naina Lal Kidwai is the first
Indian woman to graduate from Harvard Business School. As of 2006, she is CEO, HSBC India. Fortune Magazine listed her
among the world’s top 50 Corporate Women between 2000 to 2003 According to
Economic Times, Lal is the first woman to head the
operations of a foreign bank in India. Her focus is on expanding the retail and
small-business operations of the bank, which saw net profits in India rise 53%
last year, to $114 million, on net revenue of $5.2 billion.
The Joint Managing Director of Kinetic Motors, Sulajja Firodia Motwani
has two full time jobs. Being a career woman and being mother of a one-year old
son. She says life is tough, but she loves it like that. Her unassuming demeanour, her black coat and her ambitious eyes are her
trademark. And what gives her a kick is the vision of Kinetic as part of every
home in India. She has ensured that in the past six years her company has
collaborated with firms in Korea, Italy and Taiwan and helped it grow from a
niche moped maker to a manufacturer of a full range of two wheelers and auto
components.
Chanda Kochhar, who ranks 37 in Forbes’ 2007 list of the world's most powerful businesswomen, joined ICICI in 1984 in the Project Appraisal division. Today, she is the Deputy Managing Director and heads the Retail Banking Division at ICICI. Kochhar, one of three women on the bank's board, is said to be a strong candidate to take over as CEO in 2008.
Why are women doing so well in India?
One reason: the country's long history of valuing education, so women who achieve
academically are seen as smart and savvy. But three decades ago, when India's
top women were just out in business, women were discouraged by society from
pursuing careers. "In the 1970s, the odds were against them," says Bakul Dholakia, director of Asia's
premier business school, the Indian Institute of Management, in Ahmedabad.
The number of senior women managers are
swelling, in fact, an increasing number of women are proving that when it comes
to making the right business moves and keeping their best foot forward in the
world of high finance, they have more than just a pretty face to show. However,
women in India, a country that prides it on being a traditional society, still
face enormous pressure to conform to social mores. More often than not, the hurdle
of conforming to traditional roles within families poses as much of a barrier
to businesswomen in India as the still-too-thick glass ceiling at companies.
Keeping to the month of March’s theme of celebrating WomanPower, we would salute the perseverance and sense of individuality that has led the Indian women to struggle against odds and carve out a niche for themselves in a traditional male dominated society. "What really made them successful was their sheer determination to break through," adds Indira Parikh, a former dean at the Institute of Management and president of the Foundation for Liberal and Management Education in Pune.
Work hard, play harder, party hardest -
that's the mantra of the New Age woman. Team Kolkata Inc’s kudos to this New Age Woman!