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Gender Diversity
State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest lender, has devised a strategy to boost gender diversity, aiming to increase its women workforce to 30 per cent within five years. "If we talk about frontline staff, women are almost 33 per cent, but as a total if you see, they account for 27 per cent of the total workforce. So, we will be working towards improving this percentage so that the diversity gets further improved," SBI Deputy Managing Director (HR) & Chief Development Officer (CDO) Kishore Kumar Poludasu told PTI in an interview. The bank is taking measures to bridge the gap and achieve its medium-term goal of 30 per cent women in its workforce, he said. SBI has a total staff strength of more than 2.4 lakh, one of the highest in any organisation in the country and the highest in the banking industry. He further said that the bank is committed to creating a workplace where women thrive at all levels and through targeted programmes, SBI fosters leadership, work-life balance
References to a World War II Medal of Honor recipient, the Enola Gay aircraft that dropped an atomic bomb on Japan and the first women to pass Marine infantry training are among the tens of thousands of photos and online posts marked for deletion as the Defense Department works to purge diversity, equity and inclusion content, according to a database obtained by The Associated Press. The database, which was confirmed by U.S. officials and published by AP, includes more than 26,000 images that have been flagged for removal across every military branch. But the eventual total could be much higher. One official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details that have not been made public, said the purge could delete as many as 100,000 images or posts in total, when considering social media pages and other websites that are also being culled for DEI content. The official said it's not clear if the database has been finalized. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had given the militar
India's progress towards gender equality has accelerated in recent years, with increased investments and focus on women's leadership at the grassroots but social norms, limited workforce participation and gaps in safety measures hinder full gender parity, UN Women officials said. In an interview, Daniel Seymour, UN Women's Director of Strategic Partnerships and Susan Jane Ferguson, Country Representative for UN Women in India, shared insights on the country's strides and the challenges that remain. The conversation highlighted India's increased investments in women's empowerment and gender-responsive policies, yet stressed that deep-rooted social norms and limited financing continue to hamper full progress. "India's progress is significant, but closing the remaining gaps requires targeted efforts across both public and private sectors," Ferguson said. India has seen substantial growth in recent years, especially in gender-responsive budgeting, which has increased to 6.8 per cent, .
The Indian IT industry has seen significant progress in gender diversity with more women now in entry and mid-level workforce. However, their fair representation at the top and male-dominated corporate boardrooms is still disproportionate and "needs a lot of work", according to tech leaders. Any organisation which does not encourage, and indeed, proactively work towards equitable gender representation is unlikely to have a long business life span, even client acceptance, experts said adding companies need to offer flexi-scheduling and enable remote work options where needed, to support women juggling their professional responsibilities with their personal commitments and caregiver roles. Mentor circles at work, they point out, can also provide a strong support system, wherein senior women executives can handhold young working women and help them overcome obstacles to progression. "India is not doing bad when it comes to education for women. 29.5 per cent of engineers in our country