My Professional Journey: A Tale of Tradeoffs, Choices and Self-Belief The role of gender in one’s professional trajectory is much more subtle than we think. It is not as much about workplace discrimination and overt behavior, but has more to do with norms and values which are embedded in our own ways of thinking and how we react to external factors, writes Prof. Rupa Chanda

When I was asked to write about what it has taken to get to where I am today, my first reaction was to ask myself what was special about my journey to warrant writing about it? Like any other professional, I have pursued higher studies, worked hard, followed my interest, and tried to carve a niche for myself. However, when I thought more about it in the context of International Women’s Day, I realized that an important part of charting my professional course has been to confront gender norms and…

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This Women’s day raise your hands up- all the way up

Deepti Ganapathy The theme for International Women’s Day 2021 #ChooseToChallenge cannot be more appropriate at a time and moment in the new decade where a challenged world is an alert world. “Individually, we’re all responsible for our own thoughts and actions – all day, every day”- is the justification for this theme for 2021. I have taught at several Business schools in India, where each year our classrooms show an increase in the number of women. This is a moment to be celebrated and rejoiced. It was in 1800s at…

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Weaving success, thread by meaningful thread An alumna of the IIMB-GS 10K Women Programme, run by NSRCEL, Anjali Chandran recounts her journey from setting up an FB page for struggling weacing communities to representing India at global entrepreneurial meets

Impresa is an online clothing store that runs with a view to support handloom weavers all across India. In its early years, it may be seen more as an experiment in humanitarianism than a business. “We locate, across India, weaving colonies which had run into financial trouble and hire them to weave original clothes for display and sale under the brand Impresa through the venture’s Facebook page. We use social media to spread awareness about the need to support India’s weaving communities,” says Anjali Chandran, the founder, who has an Master’s degree from BITS Pilani and worked with Wipro, before choosing to launch her own enterprise. By 2013, Impresa had…

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Wrapped in soothing memories, an idea is born Incubated by IIMB-NSRCEL, under the GS 10K Women Program, Soul Quilts is the venture of three driven entrepreneurs

Soul Quilts, incubated by IIMB-NSRCEL, under the Goldman Sacha 10K Women Program, was an idea that turned into a live business with paying customers within weeks. A story of three women coming together with a creative twist, this venture focuses on upcycling clothes, with fond memories and sentimental value, into premium quilts for people to preserve and relive memories. “The winter of 2020 in Bangalore was a perfect time to start this business and it received a warm welcome (literally). People opted for Soul Quilts as they declutter homes and take a minimalist approach. We all hoard to sentimental…

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Plop from NSRCEL’s Women Start-up Program The Women Startup Program of NSRCEL, the start-up hub at IIM Bangalore, aims to support ambitious and innovative women entrepreneurs by enabling them to transform their idea into a business venture. Plop is one such example.

About the venture In the world of podcasts and Insta stories, Plop is a global, mobile-first company that creates immersive and interactive fiction for a young audience. Co-founded by Anushka Shetty, an IIMB alumna and Vineet Shetty, an ISB alum, in 2019, Plop hooks on a unique, fast-paced format to develop interactive bite-sized fiction to entertain and educate the Gen Y and Gen Z audience. The Mumbai-based platform uses a format that takes written word and infuses multiple multimedia elements like video, audio, and role-playing mobile-based simulations to give a…

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Cunomial from NSRCEL-GS 10K Programme Through programs such as 10,000 Women, NSRCEL, the start-up hub at IIM Bangalore, has successfully impacted several ventures of women entrepreneurs. Cunomial is one such venture.

About the Start-up Cunomial provides cloud-native, simple and easy-to-use digital products for institutions of all sizes through the Software-as-a-Service [SaaS] business model which reduces the need for institutions to buy and support a broad range of IT infrastructure. One of the critical challenges faced by most institutions is inadequate technical infrastructure and the skilled manpower to adopt and use digital products. Cunomial intends to bridge this digital divide by providing easy-to-use and simple cloud-native products with no infrastructure requirements and best-in-class customer support for appropriate adoption and usage. Cunomial was started in June 2018 after incubation at…

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B-school grads have avenues to create jobs in Karnataka’s flourishing eco-system Deepti Ganapathy, Faculty of Management Communication, IIMB writes about the context, culture and communication of Karnataka’s industrial path to help potential investors navigate through its complex eco-system…

Karnataka retaining it’s No.1 position in the second edition of India Innovation Index ranking released by NITI Aayog, opens up a vista of opportunities for young management graduates. As noted by a top Government official in a media report, “the pandemic triggered an economic shutdown, while the role of innovation to revitalise the economy took precedence.”  In this innovation matrix, the role of dissemination of crucial information pertaining to policy and ease of implementation of schemes cannot be undermined. This is where communication – through traditional mainstream media channels as…

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Women Entrepreneurship in India – A Story in Two Surveys The ‘one size fits all’ approach to growing unicorns as the unidimensional goal of entrepreneurial policy, that is currently considered fashionable, has to give way to a more pluralistic and inclusive set of policies for nurturing entrepreneurship among women in India, writes Dr. G. Sabarinathan

YourStory (YS) recently published a survey of women in tech entrepreneurship.  The survey MakersIndiaWomeninTechReport-1603954154238.pdf (yourstory.com)) (is based on investments consummated between January 2018 and June 2020 and startups that have at least one woman co-founder. The findings of the survey are not heartwarming to anyone who cares about women in entrepreneurship.  About 5.8% or $ 1.69 billion of a total of $ US $ 29.4 billion of capital that was invested during the period was invested in 378 enterprises that had at least one woman co-founder.  That tells us that…

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Solutions for kids with learning disability: Giftolexia

Teena Paul’s youngest child was diagnosed with dysgraphia when he was 13 years old. “This life-changing expereience motivated me to help children with learning disabilities because I realized that society lacks awareness about learning disabilities in children, as a result, such children often get sidelined,” explains Teena. She started Giftolexia, which offers early digital screening solutions, teacher-parent workshops, and online intervention support. “There is a huge gap between the potential and performance of students with learning disability. Research has shown that early identification and right intervention are crucial for the…

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Building low-cost medical devices for the Indian market

Innodeev Solutions is a healthcare start-up focussed on identifying the unmet clinical needs in the Indian market and developing cost effective medical devices. “We intend to develop products which balance innovation and cost effectiveness with an ultimate goal to have ‘Made in India’ products. We are incubated at IKP Eden and Bangalore Bioinnovation Centre. We are part of the Launchpad programme at NSRCEL in IIM Bangalore,” says Dr. Deevish ND, the founder who is a practising plastic surgeon based in Bangalore. A Stanford India Biodesign fellow, who has trained in…

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