NITI Aayog to organise 5th edition of Women Transforming India Awards
NITI Aayog’s Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) is organising the WTI Awards today, March 21. It is an annual initiative to highlight the commendable and ground-breaking endeavours of India’s women leaders and change-makers.
The NITI Aayog has announced that it will be organising the fifth edition of the Women Transforming India Awards (WTI) on Monday, March 21 under its flagship Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP).
As part of the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav to celebrate 75 years of India’s independence, the WTI Awards would be given to 75 women achievers to celebrate their contribution towards a ‘Sashakt Aur Samarth Bharat’. The awardees represent different regions and sectors, and were selected on the basis of nominations received on WEP followed by a thorough selection process. The nominations took place between October 1, 2021, and February 21, 2022.
The awards will be conferred by Kiran Bedi, former Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry; Lakshmi Puri, former Assistant Secretary-General of UN; Dr Tessy Thomas, Director-General of Aeronautical Systems, DRDO; Arundhati Bhattacharya, former Chairperson of State Bank of India; Debjani Ghosh, President of NASSCOM; Ila Arun, acclaimed singer; Salma Sultan, former news anchor at DD; Dr Sangeeta Reddy, Joint Managing Director of Apollo Hospitals; and Shivani Malik, Managing Director of Da Milano Leathers.
Applications for the WTI Awards ’21 were invited under one or more than one of the following seven categories: Public and Community Service, Manufacturing Sector, Non-manufacturing Sector, Financial Products enabling Economic Growth, Climate Action, Promote Art, Culture and Handicrafts and Digital Innovation.
Among other attendees are sports champions Shiny Wilson, Karnam Malleswari, Lovlina Borgohain, Mansi Joshi, Pranati Naik, Simranjit Kaur, and women defence officers.
NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant and Senior Adviser Anna Roy; Shombi Sharp, UN Resident Coordinator in India; and Kailash Kher, who wrote, composed and lent his voice to the WEP anthem, is expected to be present as well.
The Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) is an aggregator portal that aims to build a vibrant ecosystem for women-led enterprises, strengthen industry linkages and increase awareness of existing programmes and services. To date, more than 900 women entrepreneurs have been benefitted through 77 programmes and events hosted on the platform. During COVID-19, the platform hosted webinars to provide business support to women entrepreneurs.
Edited by Anju Narayanan