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The US Department of State has announced the US-India Business Council (USIBC), the Gupta-Klinsky India Institute at Johns Hopkins University (GKII-JHU), and the American India Foundation (AIF) as the three new anchor partners of the US-India Alliance for Women’s Economic Empowerment. Since 2019, the Alliance has advanced women’s employment opportunities, access to education, and entrepreneurship in India.
As anchor partners, USIBC, GKII-JHU, and AIF will work with the US Department of State and Alliance members to support umbrella initiatives under which different companies, academic actors, and non-profits can collaborate. With their impressive histories of advancing women’s inclusion, each partner will lead one focus area for the Alliance – USIBC will lead the Alliance’s work to advance women in India’s corporate workforce, GKII-JHU will lead the Alliance’s work to empower women and girls in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), AIF will lead the Alliance’s work to accelerate women’s entrepreneurship.
The Alliance also welcomes Boeing India, ReNew, and Mahindra & Mahindra as new members. These industry leaders have consistently championed women’s economic advancement, making substantial investments to integrate more women into their workforces and respective industries’ talent pools.
Women constitute more than a quarter of Boeing’s 6,000+ workforce in India. Boeing will collaborate with the Alliance on its initiative to establish 150 STEM Labs for girls, furnish aspiring pilots with scholarships and flight training, and offer aviation career development programs.
ReNew has 40% women on their board and female representation in their workforce stands at nearly 14%, significantly higher than India’s industry average. ReNew will collaborate with the Alliance to scale its work re-skilling women salt pan workers as solar technicians.
With a commitment to support 1 million women with skilling and livelihood opportunities, Mahindra has curated a pan-India collaborative that has impacted 765,107 women to date. Mahindra will collaborate with the Alliance to scale this initiative with other companies.
“Each of these leading companies have championed women’ economic advancement, making foundational investments to bring more women into their industries’ talent pools. Their commitment and contributions are vital to unlocking the potential of women as the economic powerhouse of India,” said Ambassador Eric Garcetti. “We look forward to working together to create a more inclusive and equitable future for women in India.”