E-commerce is having a
transformational impact and there are opportunities emerging in areas such as
made-to-order meals, handicrafts and others, which women can capitalise on.
The
growing digitisation and mobility would open up more ways for women to
participate in economic activity and help in gender diversity, ICICI Bank CEO
Chanda Kochhar said.
In
her keynote speech, she said e-commerce was having a transformational impact
with opportunities emerging in areas such as made-to-order meals and
handicrafts among others, which women could capitalise on.
Ms.
Kochhar cited various studies showing that women contribute to only 17 per cent
of India’s GDP, below the global average, despite accounting for 50 per cent of
the population and having the potential to represent a much larger part of the
workforce.
A
report by McKinsey Global Institute said that bridging the gender gap could add
$700 billion to India’s GDP by 2025. The report titled ‘The Power of Parity:
Advancing women’s equality in India’ said 70 per cent of the increase would
come from raising India’s female labour-force participation rate to 41 per cent
in 2025 from 31 per cent at present. This would bring 68 million more women
into the economy over this period, it said.
“Women
are such a large part of talent pool available in the country, that in order to
use our talent pool fully we need to make sure women participate in economic
activity. I also think a large part of India’s consumers are going to be women,
so having women in decision making makes the decision much more comprehensive,”
she said.
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