Women Empowerment

Rural women continue to spend nearly 286 minutes per day on household chores and caregiving - almost seven times more than men

The Centre on Friday launched the second phase of its national campaign on entrepreneurship under the rural livelihoods mission, seeking to turn more livelihood activities of self-help group women into sustainable enterprises and accelerate progress towards its target of creating six crore 'Lakhpati Didis'. The three-month 'National Campaign on Entrepreneurship-II', launched by Rural Development Secretary Rohit Kansal, will go on from August 21 to November 21 and focus on farm and non-farm enterprises, formalisation of businesses and marketing of products made by self-help groups. The campaign was launched on World Entrepreneurs Day and builds on the experience of its first phase, with greater emphasis on enterprise handholding, strengthening producer institutions and simplifying implementation processes. Under the campaign, the government has set a target of providing entrepreneurship and livelihood training to five lakh SHG women and supporting the formalisation of 50,000 ...

Policymakers may look at experimenting with a lower interest rate (thereby costs) for small retail repetitive savings in order to encourage the poor to save

Today's opinions examine cybersecurity in connected vehicles, India's ageing challenge, Karnataka's regional inequalities, women's entrepreneurship and the hidden world of trees

Ms Walter, who worked with refugee women, heard countless stories of women who had fled across borders for their safety. These were stories from war zones, prison camps and detention centres

The report said regardless of regions and the formal or informal nature of employment, women are over-represented in domestic work and own-use production, public administration, education and health

Financial literacy can help rural women move beyond account access to claim rights, detect fraud and lead family finances with confidence as migration reshapes rural homes

From geopolitics and women's empowerment to manufacturing, the rupee and technology, lasting progress depends less on hope and more on building capacity

A larger number of women are participating in economic activities, but the quality of employment remains a concern

NFHS data show sharp gains in financial inclusion, digital access and decision-making, but progress in paid work and property ownership remains comparatively slow

House adopts resolution after day-long debate, with parties urging swift rollout of the Women's Reservation Act and addressing concerns around delimitation and representation

More women entrepreneurs are getting loans, but limited access to larger business credit is restricting their growth, exposing deep structural gaps in India's MSME lending system

The training program will also cover crop residue management, rainwater conservation, dryland farming, and timely irrigation during the critical growth stages of crops

A complaint has been filed against a woman who berated Maharashtra minister Girish Mahajan for a traffic jam caused by a BJP rally in Mumbai, police said on Friday, clarifying that no case has been registered against her. The complaint was submitted to the police on Wednesday by Zen Sadavarte, daughter of advocate Gunaratna Sadavarte, they said. The incident occurred in the upscale Worli area on Tuesday during a rally organised by the BJP to target opposition parties over the defeat of the Constitution Amendment Bill to fast-track the implementation of 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. An agitated woman confronted minister Mahajan, who was speaking to reporters, shouting at him for blocking roads and causing inconvenience to commuters. "Get out of here. You are causing a traffic jam," she said, asking why the rally could not be held at the nearby open ground. In her complaint to the Worli police, Sadavarte said the woman created a ruckus, usin

Women remain concentrated in unpaid helper roles and self-employment, with limited access to regular salaried jobs, mainly in rural areas

The Centre has called a special sitting of Parliament from April 16 to 18

According to the PMO, the event will bring together representatives from different sectors such as government, academia, science, sports, entrepreneurship, media, social work and culture

Senior IAS officer Ashwini Bhide was on Tuesday appointed as the first woman commissioner of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), an official said. She took charge from Bhushan Gagrani, who retired on Tuesday, at a ceremony at the BMC headquarters in south Mumbai in the evening. The Mumbai civic body, set up in 1872, is one of the oldest local self-governing bodies in India. The BMC has a rich legacy and heritage of more than 150 years, Bhide told reporters after taking over as the new municipal commissioner. She said her effort will be to improve public transport safety for women commuters. Bhide said she will also ensure that the nullah cleaning work in the city is expedited before the onset of monsoon. Bhide, a 1995 batch IAS officer was the Additional Chief Secretary in the Chief Minister's Office and has handled many key infrastructure projects. An official notification said she will also continue holding charge as Managing Director of Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation

In a significant verdict, the Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that women Short Service Commission (SSC) officers in the Army, Navy, and Air Force, who were denied Permanent Commission due to arbitrary assessment, are entitled to full pensionary benefits. A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and N Kotiswar Singh held that the officers would be "deemed" to have completed the minimum qualifying service of 20 years required for a pension, even if they were released from service earlier. The judgment came on a batch of petitions, including those filed by Wing Commander Sucheta Edan and others, challenging the denial of Permanent Commission (PC) based on policy changes in 2019 and previous Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) rulings. Reading the operative parts of the judgment, the CJI said the Annual Confidential Reports (ACRs) for women officers were often graded "casually" under the assumption that they would not be eligible for career progression or PC. "The A

Agricultural research body ICAR on Sunday said it is developing a national gender platform connecting more than 900 institutions to strengthen women's role in farming, as an international conference adopted a declaration for a global alliance to boost their leadership across agri-food systems. Addressing the closing session of the Global Conference on Women in Agri-Food Systems (GCWAS-2026) on Saturday, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Director General ML Jat said the platform would link ICAR institutes, Krishi Vigyan Kendras and agricultural universities to strengthen research, extension and capacity-building initiatives focused on women in agriculture. The three-day conference here, attended by delegates from 18 countries, concluded with the adoption of the Delhi Declaration, which calls for establishing a Global Alliance on Women in Agri-Food Systems, an official statement said. The declaration commits stakeholders to champion gender-responsive policies, ensure ...