Women are also moving up the corporate ladder and in startups and financial technology In the space, about 18 per cent of the 111 unicorns (valued at $1 billion) are led by women in India, she said.
The Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs was speaking at a conference on Rise of Women: The Invisible Barriers in Power, Politics and Beyond, organised by the Chennai chapter of FICCI-FLO.
On the number of women directors in active companies, he said, “At the all-India level, there are 8.83 lakh women associate directors in active companies as of August 2024, which is more than 3.4 times more than the 2.58 lakh in 2014.”
In Tamil Nadu, he said, the number of female directors has increased 4.3 times from 15,550 in 2014 to 68,000 by August 2024.
On budget allocation, she said that in FY14, the Centre had allocated Rs 97,134 crore as budget estimate for women welfare and empowerment schemes and this figure has tripled to Rs 3.10 lakh crore in the FY25 budget. “Over the years, the element of centrality of women in government initiatives has been increasing and it is visible in the expansion of the schemes.” gender budget“, he said. Citing a study by research firm Deloitte, he said the presence of women directors on the board of Nifty 50 companies has also increased to 22 per cent currently from 18 per cent in 2019.
Addressing a variety of topics in her over 40-minute speech, Sitharaman said India’s largest civilian research organisation, the Council of Scientific Industrial Research (CSIR), which was established 81 years ago in 1942, has its first director general, Dr N Kalaiselvi, in 2022.
On the presence of women in defence and national security, she said that they are allowed in combat services in the three forces and that the entry of women into various ranks of the Navy began from June 2023.
“The recruitment of officers in the IAF is now gender neutral. Women officers are being recruited in all branches and branches of the IAF,” he said.
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