Indian Women Network (IWN)

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) feels that there needs to be a focused and an all inclusive approach to creating gender parity for women in Indian business and society. Over the years CII has come to understand that the professional women require a strongly structured mode of expanding their network, wherein they can discuss, under a circle of trust, their experience and overcome challenges at work and home. CII women empowerment initiatives country wide led to the formation of the Indian Women Network (IWN).  IWN was launched on 23rd January 2013 in Chennai, India.  Since then IWN has spread to 12 states and 7 zones nationally as follows:

STATES-12

1.      Andhra Pradesh
2.      Assam
3.      Delhi
4.      Goa
5.      Gujarat
6.      Karnataka
7.      Kerala
8.      Madhya Pradesh
9.      Maharashtra
10.    Manipur
11.    Puducherry
12.    Tamil Nadu

ZONES -7

1.     Coimbatore
2.     Madurai
3.     Trichy
4.     Trivandrum
5.     Vijayawada
6.     Vishakapatnam
7.     Pune

IWN Task Forces:
IWN has constituted 3 task forces to deliver value added and need based intervention with the members namely:

• Learning & Development – comprising of gender sensitization sessions on self defence, skills upgradation, coaching and mentoring for career progression, coaching and mentoring through the women’s bouncing board
• Health & Wellbeing – several health camps, webinars on wellness, sessions on work-life balance , parenting, health check-ups , benefits from the wellbeing partner have been conducted for the benefit of members.
• Policy & Advocacy – services include policy recommendations from the industry for womens wellbeing, provision of support facilities, awareness on women-centric laws, sharing of best practices of inclusive organizations.

Membership:
IWN has 1400 Direct Members across the nation and 1316 Online Members.

Impact:
The total no. of events conducted in IWN is 186 events impacting 13204 women.

Celebrating International Women’s Day:

On the occasion of International Women’s Day, IWN states and regions are engaging with the wellbeing partners comprising of hospitals to organise health camps for the benefit of women.
IWN Southern Region is organising a vehicle rally on women’s safety in Kerala.  Women achievers from Puducherry would be sharing their experiences which would serve as an inspiration for many other women.  IWN Southern Region would be organising a conference on Role Models – The Road Map to Success for Women Leadership on its annual day in April 2015.
IWN Western Region is organising panel discussion on best practices on women’s path to success and a mentorship session on 100 hours of change wherein senior women would be role models to students.
IWN Delhi is in the process of planning an activity.

NFAP Study on proposed Immigration Reform Bill

The National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) recently released a new policy brief, ‘Senate Bill’s H-1B and L1 Visa Provisions are Reversal of Fortune for American Competitiveness’. The document can be downloaded here: http://www.nfap.com/pdf/NFAP%20Policy%20Brief%20H-1B%20and%20L-1%20Provisions%20in%20Senate%20Bill%20April%202013.pdf

In particular, the study highlights some of the components of the proposed Senate ‘Gang of Eight’ immigration reform bill which would impede American competitiveness in the long run and be detrimental to economic growth. In particular, the study focuses on:

1) New recruitment and non-displacement attestations

2) Hindering companies’ ability to deploy requisite high skill talent at client locations

3) Giving the Department of Labor unlimited investigative authority

4) Requiring much higher wage limits for foreigners, as against Americans

In addition, the study points out that some of the provisions may even place the US in violation of its commitments under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).

The NFAP is one of the few American organizations that has rallied behind the cause of free movement of skilled labor for many years now. Indian companies in the US could use much more of such support—given that the study is by a US organization, hopefully it will be considered by US lawmakers!