Empowering women, powering tech: Sindhu Gangadharan

As India marches towards its centennial in 2047, poised to become the world’s third-largest economy and a digital-first powerhouse, there’s one truth we cannot afford to ignore: our future will not just be defined by the technology we build, but also by who builds it. And increasingly, that answer must be women.

According to Nasscom, over two million women are already employed in India’s tech sector, making up nearly 36% of the total tech workforce, one of the highest in the world. Women are building artificial intelligence (AI) systems, shaping public platforms, founding deep-tech start-ups, and leading digital public infrastructure. But the true inflection point will not be when women are participating. It will be when they are leading. This isn’t just a matter of representation. It’s a matter of national competitiveness, inclusive innovation, and economic resilience.

RETURNSHIPS

Across India, thousands of experienced women have paused, not because of a lack of talent, but because the industry hasn’t designed a way back. A career break, often for caregiving, leads to outdated skills, lost networks, and lower confidence, a phenomenon dubbed the “broken rung”. According to the World Bank, nearly 50% of Indian women exit the workforce between early and mid-career, and only 27% of them return. This is not just a gender equity issue; it’s a massive loss of skilled human capital in an economy that is aiming to become the talent engine of the world by India@100.

Returnships offer a proven path forward. Structured re-entry programmes—with built-in mentorship, reskilling, and dedicated full-time conversion pathways—have been shown to significantly boost retention, loyalty, and innovation.

MENTORSHIP & SPONSORSHIP

In the conversation around gender equity in tech, we often focus on hiring targets, leadership quotas, or upskilling. But one of the most overlooked, yet most transformative, accelerators of women’s success is intentional mentorship and active sponsorship. According to the World Bank, only one in five women in India’s tech ecosystem has access to a mentor. That gap is not just unfortunate, it’s costly. A 2023 McKinsey-Women in the Workplace report highlights that women who have sponsors are 27% more likely to ask for and receive promotions. This distinction matters, especially in tech, where women are often the only ones in the room: the only engineer, the only product lead, the only founder in a pitch meeting. For women in the “messy middle”—mid-career stages where the pipeline typically starts leaking—these relationships can be the difference between exit and acceleration.

ENTRY & ELEVATION

While women make up 34% of entry-level roles in India’s tech sector (Nasscom Women in Tech Report, 2023), the number plummets to 13% at managerial levels, 7% at leadership levels, and just 8% in the C-suite. The pattern is clear: the higher the ladder, the fewer women there are. This isn’t due to a lack of ambition or ability. A McKinsey Global Survey found that 58% of women aspire to senior leadership, but systemic barriers erode that ambition over time. The reasons are layered: a lack of targeted upskilling opportunities, unconscious bias in evaluations and promotions, societal expectations surrounding caregiving and mobility, poor access to flexible work models, and the “invisible tax” of being the only woman in a room, meeting, or leadership pipeline. This broken pipeline must be addressed with a systems-level response. Governments must incentivise companies that demonstrate measurable gender diversity at senior levels through tax breaks, awards, or public rankings. Inclusion must be embedded into curriculum design, faculty representation, and R&D priorities. Representation in academia shapes what future generations believe is possible.

SKILLING WOMEN

While women make up 36% of India’s overall tech workforce, less than 12% are in AI and data science roles, and just 6% are in cybersecurity. To correct this, we need national-scale investment in next-gen skilling for women, backed by measurable outcomes. This means specialised skilling programmes in AI, cloud, cyber, green tech, and digital public infrastructure, designed specifically for women and delivered at scale through platforms like Skill India Digital, FutureSkills Prime, and Nasscom Women Wizards in Computing.

By 2047, India will have the largest pool of working-age talent in the world, over 1 billion people under the age of 60. To have a developed, digitally empowered, and inclusive India, we must ensure that this workforce is not only future-ready but equitably led.

Views are personal. The author is the MD of SAP Labs India and Chairperson of NASSCOM.