While Booz and Co., in its study, “Empowering the Third Billion: Women and the World of Work in 2012”, questioned whether the issue of women in the workforce will be a story of economic empowerment or missed potential, McKinsey & Company, in its report titled, “Women Matter” stated that companies in Asia’s leading economies have “strikingly” few women in senior jobs, missing out on a vital pool of talent to fuel the region’s growth. Statistically, India fares poorly when compared to China or even Indonesia when it comes to representation of women talent on executive committees and boards. Perhaps, taking a cue from such reports and in a bid to harness women talent, one of the key agenda for India Inc. in 2013 would be to invest in women talent. Media reports state that companies are putting extra efforts into increasing the number of women in their workforce, including paying higher fees to third party recruiters for finding appropriate women candidates. It seems that India Inc. is keen to move beyond policies and frameworks to actually doing things to increase the representation of women in their workforce and train them for leadership roles.

A survey conducted by Avtar Career Creators and Flexi Careers India, across 130 companies in India that operate in multiple domains, states that some 79 percent of the companies believe that investing in women would bring them sustainable growth and increased productivity. According to the survey, respondents said that more than 75 percent of their diversity & inclusion (D&I) investments for 2013 would go into inducting, developing, training and retraining women talent. In terms of budgetary allocation, IT, BPO, KPO and FMCG companies have higher budgets for gender diversity compared to other industries. Further, as much as 83 percent of respondents in the survey said they were keen on hiring second career women - those who took career breaks for marriage or childbearing. Given that there is a direct correlation between a diverse workforce and improved business performance, it is a good sign that companies are exploring it in India as well.