Fortune India Magazine - October 2016

In this issue

This issue is, at heart, about power. It’s about the denial of power in the workplace to certain sections of the population because of an accident of birth. I’m talking of how, after decades of struggle, there’s still a caste system at work. The good news is that there are tiny green shoots of change here. The government is doing its bit, sure, by mandating reservations in education and public sector jobs. Deputy editor Ashish Gupta says that the private sector is trying to fight caste without resorting to government-style quotas. Read the story on page 92

Another group that’s struggling for acceptance and support in the workplace is one that’s hardly ever mentioned in the business press—the LGBT community. Unlike Dalits, these people have little recourse to the law. But, as senior correspondent Soumya Gupta found, it’s not so much a case for laws as of societal changes. And that’s where corporate India can show the way, by making the workplace less hostile to the LGBT community; no homophobic jokes, for instance.
The problem is that while many companies have such policies in place in their global offices, they have not yet seen the need to implement them in India. Catch this story on page 102

Diversity and inclusion are key to modern workplaces, and it’s heartening to see that India Inc. is slowly moving out of its conservative mindset. Much more needs to be done, of course—and we’ll be around to chronicle that story.