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Pushing the Boundaries of Indian Tech Women on the Frontlines Pushing the Boundaries of Indian Tech Women on the Frontlines EDITED BY Nisha Holla Annapurna Mitra © 2020 Observer Research Foundation and Global Policy Journal. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Observer Research Foundation 20 Rouse Avenue, Institutional Area New Delhi, India 110002 [email protected] www.orfonline.org ORF provides non-partisan, independent analyses on matters of security, strategy, economy, development, energy and global governance to diverse decision-makers including governments, business communities, academia and civil society. ORF’s mandate is to conduct in-depth research, provide inclusive platforms, and invest in tomorrow’s thought leaders today. Language Editing: Preeti Lourdes John Cover and Design: Rahil Miya Shaikh Layout: Simijaison Designs Images: Getty ISBN: 978-81-948115-8-9 Citation: Nisha Holla and Annapurna Mitra, Pushing the Boundaries of Indian Tech: Women on the Frontlines (New Delhi: ORF and Global Policy Journal, 2020). Pushing the Boundaries of Indian Tech Women on the frontlines EDITED BY Nisha Holla Annapurna Mitra CONTENTS I. EDITORS’ NOTE 7 II. PERSPECTIVES FROM THE TRAILBLAZERS 11 Data-Centric Innovation and Digitalisation Will Catalyse India’s Growth 12 Nivruti Rai, Intel Corporation The Challenges and Opportunities of Innovating in India 16 Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Biocon Ltd Transforming the Biotech Innovation Ecosystem 19 Renu Swarup, Department of Biotechnology, Government of India Technology as an Enabler for Transformation 21 Vani Kola, Kalaari Capital III. EXPERIENCES FROM WOMEN ON THE FRONTLINES 1. FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY 25 Mabel Chacko & Deena Jacob, Open Financial Technologies 26 Jayalakshmi Manohar, Streak AI Technologies 28 Chaitra Chidanand, Simpl (formerly, now new stealth venture) 30 2. DATA PLATFORMS AT THE EDGE 35 Neeru Sharma, Infibeam Avenues 36 Neha Singh, Tracxn 37 Ashwini Asokan, Mad Street Den 39 3. SCIENCE AT THE FRONTIER 43 Sri Sailaja Nori & Sowmya Balendiran, Sea6 Energy 44 Ezhil Subbian, String Bio 46 Kavitha Sairam, FIB-SOL Life Technologies 48 4. MEDIA AND CONTENT 52 Shradha Sharma, YourStory Media 53 Aditi Shrivastava, Pocket Aces 55 5. EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY 59 Divya Gokulnath, BYJU’S 60 Priyanka Subramanian, Uable 63 Charu Noheria, Practically 66 EDITORS’ NOTE EDITORS’ NOTE echnology is an integral part of India’s socio-economic growth story. The country houses the third largest startup ecosystem in the world, after the US and China. Over 50,000 startups have created north of US$500 billion in value over the last decade (1). Technology has powered this trajectory, particularlyT with the development of the multilayered technology network IndiaStack, which has led to unprecedented financial and digital inclusion. India is witnessing two pivotal women-centric phenomena at this time—one, there is an unparalleled inclusion Nisha Holla of women in the Indian economy, boosted by technology platforms; and two, women Technology Fellow, C-CAMP are increasingly pushing the boundaries of technology development. This Global Policy- ORF report on ‘Women on the Frontlines’ showcases the latter. When India’s Mangalyaan mission was launched a few years ago, the iconic image that captured millions of hearts was that of the scientists behind the achievement—a group of women, in saris with flowers in their hair, celebrating the launch. This is emblematic of many women in science and technology today, particularly in India—they are pushing the boundaries in their respective fields, but often from behind the scenes. It is worthy to note that Indian women enter STEM fields in far greater numbers than in peer countries. Annapurna Mitra Women now make up 34 percent of the IT workforce in India. We are also at 50:50 gender Fellow, ORF parity rate in STEM graduates (2). This is far higher than in Europe (18 percent) and the US (about 25 percent) (3). India’s higher education system also reflects this directional movement; last year for the first time, women’s gross enrolment ratio (26.4) exceeded that of men (26.3) (4). Indian women are rising with clear aspirations. This report aims to showcase women on the frontlines of technology development and deployment and to highlight both their professional achievements and their individual stories. We first meet four trailblazers, who started working in technology when it was a relatively new field in India and, in a time that was far less welcoming to women. We then showcase the leaders of tomorrow, women who started their journeys more recently but are already seeing success across a range of ventures. 7 The contribution of the trailblazers has been invaluable in Den, is working to build generalised artificial intelligence at scale, building India’s tech ecosystem. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, founder, with use cases across a range of industries starting with retail. An chairperson and managing director of Biocon Ltd. and one of underlying theme in this section is the deployment of extensive India’s few self-made women billionaires, has fearlessly steered tech platforms to develop strong value propositions that address EDITORS’ NOTE her company into a global pioneer in the biopharmaceutical a variety of market gaps. space. Nivruti Rai, country head of Intel India, has risen through the ranks of one of the world’s foremost technology companies Internet penetration has risen exponentially in India over the and brings her multi-dimensional product experience to pushing past decade; the average Indian today consumes 11GB of data the boundaries of Indian research and development. Dr Renu per month (5). This has fundamentally changed the way Indians Swarup, Secretary of the Department of Biotechnology (Ministry access media, creating enormous challenges to the advertiser- of Science and Technology, Government of India), straddles based models of traditional media. Our ‘Media and Content’ the critical juncture of science and governance and has been section showcases entrepreneurs who have taken advantage of crucial in setting up a pipeline of early-stage high-risk scientific this trend to build thriving digital-only media platforms. Shradha development ventures in the country. Vani Kola, founder and Sharma of YourStory launched her platform to tell the stories managing director of Kalaari Capital, has pioneered the role of aspiring changemakers and entrepreneurs, with a distinct and deployment of early-stage risk capital in the development lens on women via the HerStory platform. Her focus, to a great of indigenous technologies. These trailblazers are role models to extent, matches that of this series—she wanted to give a voice the millions who have been inspired to follow them into various to rising stars whose achievements merited greater visibility. technology fields. Aditi Shrivastava from Pocket Aces has fundamentally altered India’s digital entertainment space, with a mission of ‘alleviating Our ‘Women on the Frontlines’ section features women who have boredom’. These entrepreneurs use data-backed insights and founded and built companies at the cutting-edge of technology digital platforms to connect to and create content for their ever- across a range of segments—finance, data analytics, media, growing audiences. scientific innovation and education. They have brought technical and management expertise to bear on a range of problems, using Our ‘Science at the Frontier’ features have been chosen with a either digital platforms or deep technology for their growth and strong focus on sustainability. The innovation of the last century value proposition. has brought us the technologies of today, but also threaten our planet. The COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated the fragile In the field of financial technology, India has emerged a leader relationship between nature and humanity, and the high costs of innovation. The entrepreneurs who have contributed to the when this relationship loses balances. The biggest shift humanity ‘Financial Technology’ section have all developed proprietary will need to make in the coming decades is to clean sources of fintech platforms to solve specific market gaps. Mabel Chacko and energy, and Sri Sailaja Nori and Sowmya Balendiran of Sea6 Deena Jacob from Open, the world’s largest SME-focused neo- Energy are among those leading this charge. Their company uses banking platform, help over 500,000 small enterprises resolve micro-algae to create ethanol and natural gas, reducing reliance challenges in accessing and managing finances. Jayalakshmi on carbon-intensive forms of energy. Ezhil Subbian’s String Bio Manohar, of Streak, brings state of the art technology to the creates alternatives to products from biodegradable plastic to average retail investor, earlier available only to large institutional high-performance polymers for stents and sutures, creating investors. Chaitra Chidanand, formerly of Simpl, created a circular value chains for organic waste, methane and plastic. platform to provide temporary credit to users conducting Kavitha Sairam is founder of FIB-SOL, a company that provides purchases with cutting-edge machine learning technology to solutions to two areas that are ripe for disruption—agriculture manage credit risks. A common theme with our four features is and health. Their nanofibre applications help fertilize large tracts the use of technology to assist previously underserved groups.
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