The Hindu Tamil Nadu Women’s Summit 2024 will be held on July 30 in Chennai by The Hindu Group in association with Guidance Tamil Nadu (TN). Experts will participate in sessions, including on women in manufacturing, STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), global capability centres and space.
Significantly, 42% of women working in India’s factories reside in Tamil Nadu, playing a crucial role in the State’s economy.
“As we travel around India and the world spreading the word about Tamil Nadu’s unparalleled strengths as the top-most destination for investments flowing into our country, one of our most proud talking points, which never fails to amaze the audience, is the astounding fact that 42% of women factory workers in India are from Tamil Nadu,” said T.R.B. Rajaa, Minister for Industries, Investment Promotions and Commerce. “Under the visionary leadership of Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, Tamil Nadu continues to lead the way in empowering women via various welfare schemes which have driven economic growth and setting example for the rest of the world to replicate,” he added.
Geetha Ramamoorthi, managing director of KBR India, said: “We have close to 600 women in our workforce in Tamil Nadu out of 2,000 people. Our aim is to further increase the gender balance by taking conscious efforts to provide equal opportunities to women as we grow and expand our business operations in Tamil Nadu.” “At a broader level, the number of women employed in certain sectors that provide engineering services such as Information Technology is quite high at around 50-60% across levels and around 30-35% at senior levels. But, in the case of a few sectors which are traditionally male-dominated such as Oil and Gas and Architecture/Engineering/Construction, while there is an increase in the number of opportunities given to women, their representation is still low.”
Enhancing holistic skills
She suggested, the government can take a lead in introducing schemes targeted at the girl students to enhance their holistic skills so that they can become more confident and well suited to take up jobs in the traditional engineering/ STEM fields.
A spokesperson of Indian Bank said 29.7% of its approximately 40,000 employees, were women (12,241). In Tamil Nadu, 3,566 of its 9,754 employees were women. At the helm of the bank’s leadership is also a woman serving as the Chief General Manager and Secretary to the Board, who closely collaborates with the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer to oversee daily operations and implement strategic initiatives. Additionally, women hold significant roles across various divisions such as Field General Managers, Zonal Managers, and Deputy General Managers.
The summit is powered by Naga Foods in association with Tamil Nadu Skill Development Corporation, KBR India and Indian Bank. Prestige, VFS Global, KPL, Port of Chennai and United India Insurance are the associate partners. Other partners include, Grundfos (sustainability partner); Chennai Metro Rail (mobility); Nippon Paint (colour); ITC Mangaldeep (fragrance); Confederation of Indian Industry & CII Indian Women Network (industry); CREDAI Chennai (real estate industry); and Puthiyathalaimurai TV (television partner).
