Presence Of Women Directors In Active Companies Grew Three-Fold In Last 10 Years: FM

The presence of women directors in active corporate companies has increased over three-fold in the last 10 years, while in Tamil Nadu it has jumped over four-fold, Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government has been encouraging women's participation across sectors and this has been visible in the funds allocated to schemes allotted for women empowerment in the Budget, she said at an event here.

Women are also rising on the corporate ladder and in the startup and financial technology space, about 18 per cent of 111 unicorns (valued at USD 1 billion) are led by women in India, she said.

The Union Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister was speaking at a conference on Women Rising - The Unseen Barriers in Power, Politics and Otherwise, organised by the FICCI-FLO Chennai Chapter.

On the number of women directors in active companies, she said, "At the all India level, there are 8.83 lakh women directors associated with active companies in August 2024, which is over 3.4 times up from 2.58 lakh in 2014".

In Tamil Nadu, she said, it has increased by 4.3 times from 15,550 in 2014 to 68,000 women directors in August 2024.

On the budget allocation, she said that in FY2014, the Centre provisioned Rs 97,134 crore as the Budget Estimate on the schemes for welfare and empowerment of women and this has tripled to Rs 3.10 lakh crore in FY2025 budget.

"Over the years, the element of women-centricity in government initiatives has been rising and is visible in the expanding gender budget," she said.

Citing a study by research firm Deloitte, she said the presence of women directors on the Board of Nifty 50 companies also increased to 22 per cent currently from 18 per cent in 2019.

Delving on various subjects in her over 40-minute speech, Sitharaman said the largest civilian research organisation of India, the Council of Scientific Industrial Research (CSIR), which was established 81 years ago in 1942, got its first woman Director General, Dr N Kalaiselvi, in 2022.

On women's presence in defence and national security, she said they are allowed in combat services across the three forces with the entry of women in various cadres in the Navy commenced from June 2023.

"Recruitment of officers in the IAF is now gender-neutral. Women officers are inducted into all the branches and streams of the IAF," she said.