2017 Best Companies for Women in India initiative launched; Calls for participation from companies in India Inc

Chennai, March 9, 2017: 100 Best Companies for Women in India 2017, a pioneering initiative to benchmark India Inc’s women inclusive practices, is inviting nominations for its second edition. The program recognizes and rewards best practices of companies across industry segments.

This initiative is spearheaded by India’s leading diversity & inclusion expert - AVTAR Group in association with US Based Working Mother Media. The first edition of Best Companies of Women in India (BCWI)in 2016 witnessed an overwhelming participation of over 300 companies from industry segments like IT, Manufacturing, BFSI, Healthcare, Education and many more. The program aims to study policies of companies based on several parameters like Women’s Recruitment, Parental leave, Safety & Security, Flexible Work and more. The Top 10 Companies from 2016 are: Accenture, Cummins, Deloitte, EY, HUL, IBM, ICICI Bank, Intel, Mindtree, Morgan Stanley, People Combine (Due to a tie for one of the positions, there were 11 companies in the Top 10).

The 2017 BCWI study lays a platform to showcase the various initiatives undertaken by companies to improve the retention rate of women at workplace and also offer a conducive ecosystem. Participating companies will also be able to make peer-to-peer comparisons on best practices, and judge for themselves the impact of their choices. Companies with already-established gender parity goals will benefit from cross industry data and some may come out as equality champions, inspiring others and becoming the most desirable workplaces for talented & highly skilled women.

Commenting on the launch of BCWI 2017, Diversity & inclusion champion, Dr. Saundarya Rajesh, Founder – President, AVTAR Group, said “Women’s workforce participation is a matter of national interest and concern, given the economic implications of advancing women in India. Discerning organizations seek data-backed inspiration to drive the agenda forward in moving towards a 50-50 gender balance. This is what the Best Companies initiative has provided – it is India’s largest gender analytics exercise. It has become that benchmark by which organizations keen on gender inclusion wherever they are in their Diversity journey, measure their policies and programs. This year, apart from identifying the Best 100 and Top 10 companies which have pushed the bar on women’s advancement, the BCWI brings a new aspect – the Male Ally Legacy award, which celebrates an iconic male leader who has made the difference to thousands of women’s careers!”

Companies from across industries can participate in the project. The last date for filing the application is June 30th, 2017.