Dipti Gore
India 26 February 2015: According to Geetha Kannan – Managing Director, Anita Borg Institute (ABI) India, “Year on year we see our government introduce some commendable policies, schemes and funds that either focus on women empowerment, increasing their financial independence, supporting women led business ventures and so on. While there is a lot out there, more planning and budgets need to be allocated in creating awareness of these initiatives, program management of their progress and on efforts to get these schemes and programs reach the right target group, ensuring more women are able to benefit from them. The Government needs a system that allows effective monitoring of the allocated funds with definite transparency and accountability at all levels. Education is another important area of focus to empower women.”
“The Government should look at creating specific platforms for recognizing women leaders from various industries and build more role models for young girls to draw inspiration from. We would also like to call out attention to women entrepreneurs, who have the potential to make significant contributions to technology innovation and economic growth if they get the required support from our Government in the form of training programs, easy financing and market access.”
Ms Kannan added, “During the last few months and pre-budget planning sessions, it has been encouraging to see our Government have a special focus on e-commerce, innovation and entrepreneurship – all of which are important drivers for the technology industry. We now strongly hope that the Budget 2015 will focus on growth, implementation and real actions from our Government. Increased Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), simplifying and stabilizing tax regulations, ease of doing business in India and improved laws regarding IPR protection continue to score high on the expectations wish-list. These will help to accelerate the overall growth in the technology sector, in turn opening new opportunities and business prospects for all. ABI focuses on delivering programs that support individual women in growing their technical careers and advises organizations on how to improve performance by building more inclusive teams.”
About the Anita Borg Institute (ABI)
The Anita Borg Institute (ABI) connects, inspires, and guides women in computing and organizations that view technology innovation as a strategic imperative. Founded in 1997 by computer scientist Anita Borg, our reach extends to more than 65 countries. We believe technology innovation powers the global economy, and that women are crucial to building technology the world needs. As a social enterprise, we recognize women making positive contributions, and advise organizations on how to improve performance by building more inclusive teams. ABI partners include: Cisco, Google, HP, Microsoft, Thomson Reuters, Amazon, CA Technologies, Dell, eBay, Facebook, First Republic Bank, IBM, Intel, Intuit, Juniper Networks, Lockheed Martin, National Science Foundation, National Security Agency, NetApp, SAP, Symantec, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Broadcom, EMC, Neustar, Raytheon, Salesforce.com, VentureLoop, Xerox, and Yahoo! The Anita Borg Institute is a not-for-profit 501(c) 3 charitable organization. For more information, visit www.anitaborg.org