The Hindu’s Tamil Nadu Women’s Summit 2024: India should focus on product value addition, says industrialist Gowri Kailasam 

India must focus on product value additions to stay globally competitive in manufacturing, as emphasized at The Hindu's Women's Summit.

Apart from focusing on manufacturing products, India should also focus on product value additions at every level to benefit customers and stay globally competitive said Gowri Kailasam, Vice Chairperson, CII IWN Southern Region and CEO, Rane Madras Limited at The Hindu’s Tamil Nadu Women’s Summit 2024 in Chennai on Tuesday, July 30, 2024.

Speaking at a panel discussion on the topic ‘Women in Manufacturing: Why Tamil Nadu is ahead of the curve’ moderated by Kanishka Arumugam, Co - CEO, EKKI Water Technologies, Ms. Kailasam said the focus should be on attracting women talents in management level. She urged the women to take up jobs available in the manufacturing sector.

“There are lots of jobs in the supply chain and in other areas apart from the shop floor. We should not only look at manufacturing products, but our focus should be on how to add value to it. Guilt is a wasted emotion for women. We should focus on how to learn quicker and never give up. Our previous generation stood up for us and we have to stand up for the benefit of our next generation.”

Usha Subramaniam, Country President, Grundfos India, said the number of women working in the manufacturing sector is significantly better when compared to previous years, however, statistics also point out that women leaving the workforce in their thirties are also increasing. “While we have put systems in place for initial attraction, there is a lot of room for improvement to help women grow within the system.”

She said the Tamil Nadu State Policy for Women 2024 addresses women’s empowerment in a holistic and systematic way. Instead of making sporadic initiatives, the policy looks at women’s empowerment from an end-to-end perspective to increase women’s participation in the workforce, which is highly commendable.

Saranya Mala, Plant Head - Mirror Line, Saint Gobain said creating a supportive women friendly ecosystem in the shop floor and training them about unconscious bias and gender stereotypes are very important. She stressed on the need to build a safe and inclusive infrastructure at the workplace for women and diversity in work culture.

Stressing on competency and independent decision making, Ms. Saranya said upskilling is very important to stay relevant in a rapidly growing technological world. The number of women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields is relatively less. Building a technically strong and competitive women workforce in STEM is the need of the hour, she added.