Winning stories of women headlined The MAKERS Conference, India 2021
On the first day of the inaugural The MAKERS Conference, India 2021, inspiring women leaders from all walks of life congregated to discuss and deliberate on ways to accelerate gender equality in India.
Suman Singh
![Winning stories of women headlined The MAKERS Conference, India 2021](https://images.yourstory.com/cs/2/a0bad530ce5d11e9a3fb4360e4b9139b/Image6xix-1615482744711-1615569304024.png?mode=crop&crop=faces&ar=2%3A1&format=auto&w=1920&q=75)
Saturday March 13, 2021 , 4 min Read
On the first day of the inaugural The MAKERS Conference, India 2021, inspiring women leaders from all walks of life congregated to discuss and deliberate on ways to accelerate gender equality in India.
The day was kickstarted by Verizon Media CEO Guru Gowrappan’s speech on driving action and change through dialogue. This was followed by Verizon Media CTO Rathi Murthy’s inspiring keynote address.
![Guru Gowrappan - Verizon](https://images.yourstory.com/cs/2/11718bd02d6d11e9aa979329348d4c3e/Imagea8gz-1615613203369.jpg?fm=png&auto=format)
Guru Gowrappan, CEO, Verizon Media
Shradha Sharma, CEO and Founder,
went on to share her inspiring entrepreneurship journey, and called for opening up "the playground" for women. “The access to the playground is so difficult. So once you’re in the playground - Just. Stay. Put. In. The. Playground!,” she told women.![Makers conference - Shradha & Nikhil](https://images.yourstory.com/cs/2/11718bd02d6d11e9aa979329348d4c3e/Imagep1xh-1615614719550.jpg?fm=png&auto=format)
President Debjani Ghosh emphasised on the importance of inclusion and diversity in entrepreneurship circles and the VC ecosystem. She underscored the urgent need to democratise networks and access for women’s entrepreneurial dreams to take flight in India.
![Kristina-Makers](https://images.yourstory.com/cs/2/11718bd02d6d11e9aa979329348d4c3e/Imagej9mt-1615614208087.jpg?fm=png&auto=format)
Kristiana Carlet Stagno, VP, International Sales at Verizon Media
And that was not all. The day also saw panel discussions and talks on leadership in women, the unique challenges faced by women entrepreneurs, and sharing of roles and responsibilities among genders, narrowing the investment disparity, and more.
Day Two of The MAKERS Conference, India 2021 is upon us. We have lined up inspiring talks on reimagining the role of women in society, Indian women in sport on the global arena, and conversations with stellar women entrepreneurs leading high-growth businesses today.
![Lori-Verizon](https://images.yourstory.com/cs/2/11718bd02d6d11e9aa979329348d4c3e/Lori-1615614021939.jpg?fm=png&auto=format&w=800)
Also, do not miss out on the inspiring talks by transgender activist Akkai Padmashali,
CEO Vineeta Singh, Bollywood filmmaker Alankrita Srivastava, and reputed actor Rasika Dugal.Check out the complete lineup of speakers here.
The Interview
As per the World Bank, the female labour force participation in India has gone down from 30 percent in 1990 to 20 percent in 2019. But with work from home becoming the new normal, it has the potential to add 11 billion women to the workforce. Farmizen's Gitanjali Rajamani,
CEO Suchi Mukherjee, Malika Sadani of , CEO Naiyya Saggi, and Chumbak Design's Shubhra Chadda discuss how remote working could shape gender equality at workplaces.Editor’s Pick: The Turning Point
As children, brothers (and now serial entrepreneurs) Sumit Suneja and Siddharth Suneja would always receive imported gifts, courtesy their parents’ international trips. Their parents would vouch for the quality and variety of those products. Later in life, the brothers would go on to start a company with the goal of building a homegrown, quality and trustworthy children’s brand. Rabitat, which launched in 2019, offers internationally certified products for children up to the age of six years. Read more.
![tp rabitat](https://images.yourstory.com/cs/2/70651a302d6d11e9aa979329348d4c3e/SiddharthandSumit21-1615534122986.jpg?fm=png&auto=format)
Startup Spotlight
Edtech startup SuperCubs is helping parents home-school their pre-school children
With schools shut due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many educational institutions were forced to switch to online learning. However, many students, especially kindergartners, have been greatly impacted by the sudden disruption in learning. To make the process easier, Dr Vivek Sinhar launched Read more.
in June 2020. The startup offers domain-specific activities and an international-level curriculum for young students delivered via online videos.![Supercubs snapshot](https://images.yourstory.com/cs/2/b094ec506da611eab285b7ee8106293d/StartupSnapshot-1615375452968.png?fm=png&auto=format)
Illustration: YS Design
News & Updates
- in an initial public offering, at a price between Rs 1,100 and Rs 1,101 per share. At the upper end of the range, the IPO would help raise Rs 582.91 crore in net proceeds. said it plans to sell nearly 5.3 million shares
- Elon Musk’s . The American aerospace manufacturer will be launching a special spacecraft for the US military by the fourth quarter of FY2023 as per a statement released by the Department of Defence (DoD). has signed two contracts worth $159 million with the Pentagon
- The/Nudge Centre of Social Innovation announced four non-profits — Tech4Good, Shakti An Empathy Project, India and Bharat Together, and Skilled Samaritan Foundation — have been selected to receive grants from Facebook through its CSR initiative, Facebook Pragati.
- to acquire the majority stake in online grocery delivery company – . The application filed by Tata Digital proposes to acquire up to 64.3 percent stake in Bigbasket through its holding companies. has formally filed an application with CCI
Before you go, stay inspired with…
![Nivruti Rai](https://images.yourstory.com/cs/2/a0bad530ce5d11e9a3fb4360e4b9139b/Imageiw90-1615569670997.jpg?fm=png&auto=format)
“Dress as colourful as you want, be the way you want, but don’t ever bring your gender to work. Your actions and your work — not your gender — should and will do the talking.”
— Nivruti Rai, Country Head, Intel India
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