INDO - US TECH WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS

For women entrepreneurs in technology, a workshop was conducted at the India-US Technology Summit 2014 on 18th November, 2014. Ms. Pratibha Sharma, Ms. Sarita (Asst. Professors, CSE Department) and Mr. Yashvardhan Soni (Associate Professor, IT Dept.) attended the workshop on the 1st day of the summit. Leading Indian and U.S. women tech. entrepreneurs addressed aspiring women professionals on building career in science & technology.

The workshop started with the welcome remarks by Smriti Trikha (Senior Science Manager, Indo-US Science and Technology Forum) followed by special addresses by Dr. Renu Swarup, (Senior Advisor, Department of Biotechnology, Government of India), Dr. Anita Gupta (Associate Director, National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Board, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India), Ambassador Kathleen Stephens (Chargé d’Affaires, a.i., U.S. Embassy New Delhi), Mr. H. K. Mittal (Department of Science and Technology, Secretary of Biotechnology, Government of India) and Dr. Jonathan Margolis (Deputy Assistant Secretary for Science, Space and Health, Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs). All the speakers discussed various issues and hurdles which come across women entrepreneurs.

After the opening remarks, there were sessions on sharing of success stories, and creating mentoring and networking opportunities for women in science & technology. There were various panel discussions which involved dignitaries like Ms. Dianne Farrell (President, US India Business Council), Ms. Elizabeth Hernandez (Vice President, Corporate Affairs, Asia Pacific and Japan), Ms. Eve Psalti (Global Director, Education Audience Strategy, Microsoft Corporation), Ms. Ankhi Das (Public Policy Director, India South & Central Asia, Facebook) and Ms. Shweta Khurana (Head K12 Education, Corporate Affairs Group, Intel South Asia).

The workshop identified areas for U.S.-India collaboration on creating opportunities for networking and mentoring for women scientists in both countries.

The panel discussion on “Tech women leaders as mentors – how to get there?” involved panel moderators Ms. Meera Kaul (Chairperson, Meera Kaul Foundation), Ms. Anuradha Acharya (Founder, Ocimum Bio Solutions), Ms. Srimathi Shivashankar (Associate Vice President, HCL Technologies), Ms. Deepanwita Chattopadhyay (MD & CEO, ICICI Knowledge Park), Ms. Telle Whitney (CEO and President, Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology), Ms. Ellen Stofan (NASA Chief Scientist) and Ms. Amy DuBois (Health Attaché and Regional Representative for South Asia, US Embassy, New Delhi). The panelists discussed the importance of enabling policies to promote women in science and engineering and to strengthen mentoring.