Theme: Women Empowerment

“In the Indian context, women are symbols of ‘Shakthi’, the omnipotent and omniscient force. A woman represents the universe in many ways. She is the creator, nurturer and preserver, and destroyer! She is the beginning and the end. Women empowerment has assumed increasing significance today more than during other periods of the past. Civil society has been changed into a predominantly man-driven environment by the passage of time. We will get ‘Shakthi’ back!

Vandana Madhavkumar
Peelamedu
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, 641004
India

Deepthi Ravula

CEO, WE Hub

Deepthi Ravula is the CEO of WE Hub (Women Entrepreneurs Hub), A Government of Telangana initiative for promoting and fostering women entrepreneurship in Telangana and across India. An Electronics Engineer by profession and passion, she has 15 years of experience working in USA with Palm, Nokia, Qualcomm, and Teradyne among others in RF Communication roles. She joined the Government of Telangana as a Joint Director for Electronics in 2016 and has been appointed as CEO of WE Hub since inception in 2017. She is a strong proponent of Girls in STE(A)M, empowerment through economic enablement, women in leadership roles and women in decision making spaces. She is working towards creating a work environment that is gender diverse and on constructing economic independence mechanisms as a tool for women enablement.

Dr Kezevino Aram

President, Shanti Ashram

Dr. Kezevino Aram serves as the President of Shanti Ashram, an institution founded in 1986 on Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of Sarvodaya (progress for all). Shanti Ashram is an international center for learning, development and collaboration. It accompanies communities in their efforts to move out of poverty, address inequalities, build creative leaders and ensure sustained development. Today, Shanti Ashram serves over 250,000 people in urban, semi-urban and rural areas, including 70,000 vulnerable children across 100 villages in Tamil Nadu. A medical doctor and public health practitioner, Dr. Aram is deeply committed to the Gandhian spirit and convenes many initiatives that focus on public health & general healthcare, children’s development, community cohesion and active peace building. Dr. Aram received her Master of Public Health degree from the School of Public Health, Harvard University, with a double major in child health and international health.

Kalki Subramaniam

Artist, Poet, Actor and LGBTQI+ activist

Kalki is an Indian transgender activist, artist, poet, actor and inspirational speaker. She is the founder of Sahodari Foundation, an organization which works for the social, political and economic empowerment of Transgender people in India. She has spoken over to a million students across India and is known for her relentless and fierce activism for establishing social justice and equality for transgender people in India and around the world. She received numerous awards for social work, film performances and her literary contributions. In 2015, Facebook chose Kalki as one of the 12 inspiring women of the world who use Facebook as a community development platform for empowerment. In 2017, Kalki spoke at the India Conference at Harvard University. In June 2021, Kalki released her first English book ‘We Are Not The Others’ a collection of her poems, essays, art and monologue.

Rajashree Natarajan

CEO, Cognizant Foundation

Rajashree is an IT industry veteran and a social impact leader, presently serving as a Chief Executive Officer at Cognizant Foundation, where she plays a key role in evolving an overarching charter for the Foundation, defining CSR strategy & goals, managing operations, communication and relationship with a broad set of diverse stakeholders. In her 30 years of global experience, she has played diverse leadership roles driving strategic and transformational initiatives. She mentors several startups and is passionate about spending time with non-profit organizations and social enterprises, actively contributing to the field of education. She is the managing trustee of a charitable trust and co-founder for a bilingual reading and learning program that caters to the underprivileged children. Rajashree obtained her master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. She is a Six Sigma Black Belt and a certified Executive Coach.

Shobhana Kumar

Writer, Poet, Founder-Small differences

Shobhana Kumar has two collections of poetry and six works of non-fiction. Her poem, ‘JustMarried’ was selected and translated by Gulzar in his monumental work, A Poem a Day, published by HarperCollins. Her short stories have been published or are forthcoming in a few anthologies. Her first book of haibun, ‘A Sky Full of Bucket Lists’ was published by Red River in 2021 to critical acclaim. Kumar is Associate Editor of Yavanika Press, and co-curator at The Quarantine Train, a writing collective founded by Arjun Rajendran. She works in the spaces of corporate communication, branding and advertising and education. Along with a group of friends, she runs Small Differences, an NGO working with vulnerable and marginalised communities, particularly the elderly abandoned, women, children and the transgender community.