India’s largest diversity & inclusion conference organized in Chennai; over 20 speakers from across sectors share insights on emerging workplace policies

Chennai, November 8, 2019: Diversity & Inclusion pioneer - AVTAR Group in association with celebrated gender parity champion, Working Mother today organized India’s largest Diversity &Inclusion (D & I) conference – Best of the Best Conference 2019, in Chennai. In an effort to celebrate and showcase the best in class workplace policies for women at India Inc, over 20 speakers from different walks of life deliberated on the theme “Innovate to Include” by highlighting key challenges, opportunities and solutions in the journey of achieving 50-50 gender balance at the workplace. The conference also recognized and awarded 100 companies from India as part of its annual flagship property ‘Best Companies for Women in India 2019’amidst the presence of eminent industry veterans. With power-packed sessions helmed by D&I practitioners, the conference was inaugurated by Dr. Saundarya Rajesh, Founder - President, AVTAR Group who delivered the welcome address. The third edition of the Male Ally Legacy Award was conferred upon Mr.Mohan Sekhar, Senior Managing Director, Lead - Accenture Advanced Technology Centers in India (ATCI) as part of the one day conference. Alongside this, the Male Ally Legacy Choice of Jury award was bestowed upon Mr.Vikas Gupta, Director, Credit Suisse and Anshul Jain, CEO and Managing Director, Cushman & Wakefield India Pvt. Ltd. Instituted jointly by AVTAR Group and Working Mother, the award aims to bring to limelight male champions who promote and support gender inclusive policies at the workplace. Speaking at the BOB conference 2019, Thiru K. Pandiarajan, Minister for Tamil official language & Tamil Culture, said, “I would like to quote one of the famous saying of Abhijit Banerjee where he has emphasized on reinventing the term housewife/homemaker from economic terms who have never been recognised. Given the fact that labour participation rate is alarmingly low at 28%, if we add the unrecognised and unmeasured labour of the large no of home makers, our country’s GDP will be up by 30% from wherever it is today. We will be able to achieve the PM’s $ 5 trillion economy vision in far less no of years than what has been calculated till date. With amendment to last PWD ACT, there has been steady increase in the no of people with disabilities who have been employed & empowered in this diversity strand. Over the years, it has also been observed, the inclusion of depressed class is not getting recognised. Most of the corporates don’t divert their funds for CSR on skill development for SCs & STs to increase their employability that might eventually integrate them with rest of the society.” Established last year, the second edition of CSR award was conferred to - CRISIL Ltd. under the category Winner – 2019 Working Mother & AVTAR PUTHRI Award for Excellence in CSR. Infosys Limited and Standard Chartered Global Business Services were recognized under the Choice of Jury -2019 Working Mother & AVTAR PUTHRI Award for Excellence in CSR category. These two categories were presented by Thiru K Pandiarajan, Minister for Tamil official Language & Tamil Culture for their exemplary contributions towards increasing women’s workforce participation.' Commenting on the awards and the study, and conference, Dr. Saundarya Rajesh, Founder & President, Avtar Group said, “I see a positive progress in the Indian corporate industry as a movement of significance that not only motivates other segments to follow but contributing to the overall development of the country in gender equality in order to join the club of global leaders”.