WEF 24: CII launches first women leadership lounge ‘WeLead’ at Davos
Smt. Smriti Irani, Hon’ble Minister of Women and Child Development and Minority Affairs, Government of India and Minority Affairs and Mr Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Housing & Urban Affairs, Government of India inaugurated the WELEAD : Women Leadership Lounge at Davos, World Economic Forum.
For the first time, India has put up the “We Lead” Lounge at the Davos annual meeting of the World Economic Forum with the vision of promoting global commitment towards building women leadership.
Led by the Ministry of Women & Child Development in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry and supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the We Lead lounge is conceived as a dedicated space, designed to champion the message of global prosperity powered by women, emphasizing India's pivotal role in this narrative.
The lounge aims to showcase India’s achievements in women-led development, underlining the potential of investing in women as drivers of economic growth. It will focus on unleashing women’s economic power in India, nurturing financial literacy & inclusion for women and investing in parity.
“As Indians, we can take pride that in this promenade, we are possibly the only country, the only democracy that has passed a 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament,” Ms Irani said. She expressed pride that India has made a financial case for the need for added administrative and legislative support for women. She also noted that the Industry and development sector partners are resolutely talking about inclusive growth in India, which is the women-led development phase of the Indian economy. This lounge highlights the female and young potential of the industry, she added.
Noting that India started with women-centred development and has now moved to women-led development, Mr Puri said that wherever there is women-led development, GDP invariably goes up between 10 and 30 per cent. The Minister also talked about various women-centric schemes of the Government of India and how they are changing the lives of women across the country.
Mr R Dinesh, President, CII and Chairman, TVS Supply Chain Solutions Ltd said that there is an economic need to ensure the participation of women in the economy. He talked about three levels of women's involvement – (i) improving women's involvement in certain sectors at different levels, (ii) reaching a certain level of women taking leadership roles, not mandated but as a practice, and (iii) reaching a stage where deliberations are no longer required as women participation is practised, lived and sought by everyone involved.
Mr Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII said that ‘WeLead’ is a unique lounge at Davos and noted that the Indian Industry has an important role to play in the mainstreaming of women in the country. He talked about the CII Centre for Women Leadership and said that the centre will be devoted to capacity building, mainstreaming and sharing best practices from the Indian Industry. He noted that CII will leverage this lounge to seek partnerships between the CII Centre for Women Leadership and the international community.
Over the course of 5 days of WEF, the WE LEAD Lounge will host inspiring and impactful dialogue sessions focusing on a range of issues related to women including health, climate, AI and others.
The Lounge is also presenting a curated showcase of indigenous craft talent of India. This includes an ongoing exhibition of crafts and live demonstrations of craft making by women master artisans from different regions of the country.
In continuation of India’s commitment to promote Millets as Food of the Future, the Lounge would serve millet based snacks to the visiting participants from across the world, through the five days of WEF.
16 January 2024
Davos