iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-
In the spirit of celebrating this year’s International Women’s Day, Biocon, an Indian biopharmaceutical company, brought together two of India’s most successful women role models who are an inspiration for today’s generation of girls to become tomorrow’s business leaders.
Biocon Executive Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and NASSCOM President Debjani Ghosh participated in a very engaging virtual Fireside Chat on the topic of ‘Women in Leadership: Achieving an Equal Future in a COVID-19 World’ on Monday, March 8, 2021.
Debjani Ghosh’s name is almost synonymous with NASSCOM, India’s well-known IT industry body. A veteran of the technology industry, Ghosh is the first woman to head NASSCOM and has also played a very important role in raising the profile of India as a digital economy and as a leader in digital transformation.
Mazumdar-Shaw kicked off the session by saying how inspired she was by Indian-American aerospace engineer Swati Mohan, who played a key role in the successful landing of NASA’s Perseverance rover on the Martian surface.
“I strongly believe that give an equal opportunity, women will rock! And across fields. We don’t need to do anything else but create that environment of equal opportunity,” Ghosh told the audience which had logged in to listen to the two industry stalwarts.
Mazumdar-Shaw pointed out that corporates often fail in providing a level playing field when appointing women leaders. “When creating the selection process for women leaders we keep saying ‘all things being equal.’ That itself is unfair because all things are not equal for women. They often don’t have the same exposure or the same opportunities when being considered for certain leadership roles.”
During the course of the chat, Ghosh pointed out that successful female role models need to be the driving force behind the women who want to change the world for the better in the future. “Each one of us has to be a catalyst for change. Our role is to ensure that as we move up we don’t shut the door for other women,” she said.
Commenting on how best women can battle bias as they navigate their careers, Ghosh said: “Biases and stereotypes will exist as long as women decide to keep quiet. When you bring value to the table, all stereotypes go away. We need to speak with purpose & commitment, we can’t be scared all our lives.”
