Natasha Mudhar - Chief Executive of Global Impact Enterprise The World We Want, calls for Inclusivity Agenda in India Boardrooms

Natasha was speaking as part of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) Young Leaders Forum 2019 – Global Ambitions: Transformational Talent and Technologies during the India Inc. Leadership Summit in Buckinghamshire, UK

Despite India’s status of being a rising superpower, there are 21 million “unwanted” girls and 63 million women who are not accounted for, representing a demographic dividend that isn’t being leveraged 

She laid out the business value for more women leadership in companies and stressed that this shouldn’t just be a checklist for accompany but strategic decision

Natasha called for gender neural decision making in aspects such as promotion and leadership 

Thursday, 27 June 2019: Natasha Mudhar, the Chief Executive of Global Impact Enterprise The World We Want, an organisation aimed to unlock the creative potential of ideas, peoples, network and technology to accelerate progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), delivered a fireside talk on The Inclusivity Agenda in the Boardroom, while speaking at the India Inc. leadership summit in Buckinghamshire, UK.  Natasha was part of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) Young Leaders Forum 2019 – Global Ambitions: Transformational Talent and Technologies.

Delivering her TED talk style address to the audience, Natasha Mudhar said: “The concept of Inclusivity in the Boardroom is a subject that has been raised on several occasions, making both national and global headlines, and as a subject has different dimensions such as gender, ethnicity and even disability. 

“As a huge advocate for Sustainable Development Goal 5 which is Gender Equality and a with a commitment to reduce inequalities by 2030, I’ll be approaching today’s topic from the gender lens. Whilst I’m a staunch feminist and back girl power, I’m also a big believer that it’s not about special rights but equal rights, and that business decisions shouldn’t be based on one’s gender but instead their merit and ability.” 

In India currently, only 25% of the workforce is female. In 2018 out of the 100 companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange only 59 women were on company boards out of 1,112 board members. With only 14% of SMEs being owned by female entrepreneurs, India ranks 52 on a list of 57 Nations for women entrepreneurs and 2% of startup funding being given to woman founders,

Highlighting the gender gap in India, Natasha added: “Despite India’s status of being a rising superpower, it was really sad to learn that as per one of the Indian government’s own economic surveys there are 21 million “unwanted” girls in India, where couples prefer sons, which we all know is an outdated belief system. This has had a substantial impact on the status of women in India with statistics showing that there are an estimated 63 million women who are just not accounted for. For me this 63 million presents our future hidden impact and the demographic dividend we’re not leveraging.” 

She also mentioned how a gender inclusivity stance by certain companies is merely just a tick in a box. Directly addressing the role corporates can play in actually making a difference on ground, Natasha added: “Women empowerment is central to closing the gender economy gap and is key to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Speaking the language of numbers that corporates would understand, a UN study found that increasing female employment rates in the OCED countries to match that of Sweden could generate an additional USD 6 trillion dollars in their economies! Excluding women from employment has meant that there has been a deficit of 15% in GDP worldwide!

“More women in leadership roles brings a diversity of thought, perspective and execution.  They’re usually more collaborative and inclusive in their decision-making and are less willing to take impulsive risks.  Companies with more women on their boards have better corporate governance and more ethical behaviour. But to put it simply more women at work means out economies will grow faster” 

Natasha also called for companies to set targets for the proposition of women on their boards, breakdown gender stereotype barriers by removing unconscious bias when evaluating progress, and investing in  training and mentoring to bolster a pipeline of female leaders. 

Concluding her speech, Natasha said: “Considering that about half of the world’s population are women, we cannot afford to ignore them. The world I want is one where efforts are made by organizations to unlock the potential of their female employees, they work proactively on supporting women to capitalize on their strengths, women don’t underestimate their superpower, own abilities but negotiate themselves in the workplace to own their own success and where there are no gender undertones or bias when it comes to making decisions, so that gender itself as a concept whilst being important isn’t something that ends up defining you.

“And finally, the world I want is one where as Sheryl Sandberg said: a future where there are no female or male leaders but just leaders, which is not based on your gender but determined by your abilities.” 

The speech was delivered as part of The India Inc. Leaders’ Summit - a two-day exchange of enterprise, innovation and dialogue convening business leaders, changemakers and entrepreneurs to enhance collaboration. Tackling critical areas of trade, investment and partnership over two days of debate and dialogue, the summit featured senior global leaders discussing on the future of global India.