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A Boardroom Win For Women
Fortune India
|November 2021
Regulations have ensured board seats for women, but that’s a battle just half won
IN 2000, Raghunath Anant Mashelkar, in his inaugural speech at the Indian Science Congress, dwelt upon the need for a woman-centric society. “Can the India of the next millennium afford to stand on only one of its legs?” Talking about women empowerment at the annual congregation of scientific luminaries might have sounded odd, but for Mashelkar, the connection was personal, since his mother had not let him succumb to socio-economic challenges while he was growing up in the coastal state of Goa.
Today, two decades later, Mashelkar, a director with Reliance Industries, can take heart from the fact that women are making their presence felt on company boards, traditionally considered an all-men’s club. “It began as a compliance exercise, but eventually boards are realising that women directors, indeed, bring value to the table,” says the 78-year-old, who also chairs the conglomerate’s new energy council.
He is not off the mark. The number of women directors on India Inc. boards has gone up nearly eight-fold since the Companies Act 2013 made it mandatory for listed companies to have at least one woman director (See
This story is from the November 2021 edition of Fortune India.
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