NASSCOM's 14th Global Inclusion Summit 2022 Comes To An End
NASSCOM in partnership with NASSCOM Foundation, concluded the 14th Edition of NASSCOM’s Global Inclusion Summit virtually last evening. The event is part of NASSCOM’s efforts to create a culture of inclusion across the industry. The theme for the summit this year was Looking Ahead – Mainstreaming Inclusion.
The 2 day thought-provoking event filled with power-packed sessions saw 4000+ registrations from 1000+ organisations, 50+ thought leaders, 20+ experts, 20+ sessions, and 14 sponsor showcases. Joining us from across industries and geographies, our attendees came from 31 different countries. The summit contained numerous insights on inclusion practices and tools that leaders should adopt to transform their organisations and thereby, mainstream inclusion.
From highlighting women empowerment to emphasizing the importance of teaching children the true meaning of equality, keynote speaker, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani, Hon’ Minister of Women & Child Development of India, shared her insights. She said that “Inclusion is not to be mainstreamed now but has been a part of our cultural ethos. It is time that corporates reflect on their organisation’s structural DNA and include 50% of the workforce to be women across board. The one lesson that the pandemic taught us is that if there is one country in the world which had embraced technology emphatically and especially in rural landscapes, that nation is India. We need to ensure that technologies are available in regional languages because the female potential in our ethnic, religious, geographical, and linguistic diversity is yet to be leveraged.”
Kick-starting the two-day virtual event, Debjani Ghosh, President, NASSCOM said, “At NASSCOM we have a dream of including inclusion as a key differentiator for India’s tech industry. The day that organisations realise that inclusion is strongly linked to their success is the day we would achieve the success of mainstreaming inclusion and making it a key agenda for other organisations to consider. Organisations need to sew in inclusion into their value system as one of their main business strategies. What we need today are leaders who truly believe in inclusivity, creating a platform for bringing in diverse ideas, and allowing people to adapt and evolve. I think the onus of this falls directly on leaders and organisations from the industry.”
Quoting words from Mahatma Gandhi on creating an inclusive world, CEO, NASSCOM Foundation, Nidhi Bhasin said, “Inclusion is not about providing certain gender with job opportunities – inclusion is a business imperative. Inclusion is about including people from the LGBTQIA+ community, neurodiversity, PwDs, marginalised and underprivileged communities, and creating a sense of belongingness in the organisational culture. Just like the UN has called this the ‘Decade of Action’, NASSCOM has named this the ‘Inclusive Techade’. We need to create inclusive environments keeping socio-economic, ethnic, and other cultural aspects in mind. The onus falls on us to create a workplace and world that celebrates diversity and inclusion. This will provide people with opportunities to harness their potential and talent, involving them in our country’s economic growth – thereby creating an inclusive India.”
The event took a step towards building a more inclusive industry by featuring a virtual job fair for PwD’s (Persons with Disabilities) during the summit.
A variety of topics by distinguished leaders were discussed on how to secure inclusion for all, touching upon how leaders can establish inclusive workplace cultures, the role of technology, and the future of inclusion.
