“Women in power: Their Voices, Their Stories” Crystal Ball Room I, Hotel Lalit, New Delhi

Ficci ladies Organisation brought together a panel of 14 Women Achievers from across the nation, for the programme “Women in power: Their Voices, Their Stories” on August 31, 2015 at Hotel Lalit.

It was anexceptional opportunity to hear the success stories of theseextraordinary women, who are pioneers in their respective areas. These outstanding women have been featured in the book “30 Women in Power: Their Voices, Their Stories”, authored by Naina Lal Kidwai, Chairman India & Director HSBC Asia Pacific.

While drawing out the six principles that India’s most successful women in business share, Naina Lal Kidwai said that the book “30 Women in Power: Their Voices ,Their Stories” convey the dreams, inspirations, challenges and accomplishments of a range of powerful women in their inimitable voices.

In her welcome address, Archana Garodia Gupta, President FLO said “We are indeed privileged to have amongst us some of the most important and influential women in the country, who have done much to shatter gender stereotypes, and have each created new paradigms for our society in varying fields,” She added, “An issue I would like to ask for your cooperation on Improving Women’s access to Finance. As per Goldman Sachs, rejection rate of women’s loan applications in India is twice as much as that of men’s.”

The 1st session was on “Women in the Workplace: Key Success Factors.” The panellists were:Avani Davda, Chief Executive Officer,Starbucks India; Bharti Gupta Ramola, Markets and Industries Leader, PwCIndia; Debjani Ghosh, Managing Director, South Asia Intel; Dr. Jyotsna Suri, Chairperson& Managing Director, LalitSuri Hospitality Group; Kaku Nakhate, President, Bankof America, India and Kirthiga Reddy, ManagingDirector, Facebook India. Naina Lal Kidwai moderated the session.

The women in power shared their experiences, challenges and achievements and answered the questions that confront all working women, from how best to balance the personal and the professional and how to dismantle gender biases. The panelists unanimously agreed that womenwere more capable then men in many ways, in terms of work life balance and multitasking their way ahead. They also said that having an active support system around them helped in overcoming the challenges of work life. The pearls of wisdom that emerged from the discussions were- passion, ambition, humility, integrity, hard work and dealing with failure positively.

The topic of the 2nd session was “Thoughts on CSR, Philanthropy & Making a Difference”. The panelists were: Mirai Chatterjee, Social Worker & Coordinator, SEWA; Shaheen Mistri, Chief Executive Officer, Teach For India; Sudha Pillai, Former Union Labour Secretary; Vijayalakshmi Iyer, Member ( Finance & Investment)IRDAI; Vineeta Rai, Former Revenue Secretary andRoopa Kudva, Partner, Omidyar Network.Shweta Rajpal Kohli, Economic Affairs, Editor NDTV India moderated the session.

The discussions focussed on the need of integrating CSR to business strategy and providing the right boost to structured philanthropic activities to make a difference in the real sense. It was suggested that the approach to handling CSR can be rightly done with effective strategies, disciplinedmethodology,partnershipwith diligent NGOs and buildinglong term and sustainable relationship.

Vinita Bimbhet, Sr. Vice President FLO anchored the programme. Vote of thanks was given by Vasvi Bharat Ram, Vice President, FLO. Sandhya Sethi, Governing Body Member, was the lunch host.