Mike Hankey, US Consul General, Mumbai while delivering special address at the workshop on ‘SHE and SME: Inclusive Future’ said advancing economic empowerment and inclusion of women across the board is a top priority for the US Mission in India. “The US Consulate General, Mumbai, is committed to help transform the landscape and level the playing field for women in the workforce. We are happy to partner with the Confederation of Indian Industry on this effort by training human resource teams at SMEs across Western India on how to formulate and implement workplace policies that recruit, promote, and retain women,” he said. As part of the continuing engagement and collaboration between India and the United States, the US Consulate General in Mumbai and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) organised the workshop in here in the city on Thursday.

 

This is the third of the four such workshops which is being organised in the Western Region. Mike Hankey further said that the key to inclusive growth is shared between the emerging and developed economies. “The corporate sector needs to develop new strategies and innovative approaches to accelerate growth,” he observed. In his remarks, Dr Kishore Malviya, Chairman, CII Vidarbha Zonal Council Director, SMS Envocare stated that $12 trillion can be added to the global GDP if gender gap is reduced by 2025. Further, he pointed out the importance of gender partnership and empowerment, especially in SMEs, to enable women to shine. He highlighted the need to address gender-related barriers to achieve equity.

 

In her remarks, Vineeta Mittal, Director - People & Culture, Grant Thornton Bharat LLP pointed out that there is limitless potential in under-represented groups at workplace. “Focused efforts are needed to build an equitable environment that can help advance the goal of gender diversity and inclusion,” she added. The workshop was attended by about 30 organisation representing the small and medium enterprises. The objective of the series is to bring together experts from both India and the United States to share their experiences and global best practices on gender inclusive work policies. The workshop focused on how to address the gender gaps through internal policies that can attract and retain female staff and offered some best practices and experience sharing to encourage industry to take the next steps towards adoption of policy and practice.