by admin | May 25, 2021 | Entrepreneurship, Women Entrepreneur
Anita Dongre
By Sugandha Rawal,
New Delhi : Anita Dongre has made a name for herself in the fashion world, but there was a time when she faced difficulty in getting a store in a mall in Mumbai. The designer says she comes from a “traditional family where the women were always homemakers” and had to overcome her family’s resistance while starting out.
The celebrated designer, who is also a successful entrepreneur courtesy her brand House of Anita Dongre, feels women entrepreneurs continue to face challenges.
“I come from a traditional family where the women… did not have professional careers outside the house. I had to overcome the family’s resistance initially, but once they showed their support, there was no looking back,” Dongre, based in Mumbai, told IANS in an email interview.
“Women entrepreneurs continue to face challenges today and I hope they find a firm support system and follow their gut as I did,” she added.
Dongre founded AND Designs India Limited in 1995, and rebranded it House of Anita Dongre (HOAD) in 2015.
She has stitched together three brands under her label with distinct identities. There is AND with its contemporary western-wear for women line; Global Desi which boasts of boho-chic ensembles; and then there is Anita Dongre label which shines with special curated looks in bridal, couture, pret and menswear.
She is a regular at fashion weeks and wedding exhibitions like the fifth edition of Vogue Wedding Show, which concluded here earlier this month.
Her label took global flight when the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, opted for her creation for a day out in India last year. There’s a Bollywood twist to her brand story as well. She has actress Kareena Kapoor Khan as a muse for her brand AND, and got Aditi Rao Hydari for the “Love Notes” campaign of her label too.
The designer has also expanded to foreign shores with two stores in New York.
Talking about foraying into New York, she said: “It has always been my dream to see Indian craftsmanship celebrated on a global platform. It was gratifying to see that happen — women from different walks of life and fashion experts would walk in and be startled at the degree of expertise that goes into every garment.”
“This is what brings me joy. Future plans remain celebrating craftsmanship in the best way we can.”
She works closely with artisans in villages, and she says the “purpose of working with the artisans is to bring these indigenous skills into mainstream fashion”.
“Our efforts have provided year-long employment to several artisans and weavers who are contributing to collections that are relevant in today’s time. Most of them use traditional skills, but we do a design intervention to modernise their output.”
“This is the strength of our partnership; I bring the marketplace and design knowledge, and my craftspeople bring in generations of skill — and we learn from each other.”
Dongre lauds the Indian government for attempting to bridge the gap between artisans and designers.
“There is a new wave of sustainability in the industry. Not only does this effort help revive these heritage crafts, they also allow Indian craftsmanship a platform in the world of design,” said the designer, pointing out that the efforts “are reviving rural India by bringing in employment”.
Work wise, Dongre is currently spending all her time focusing on her brand and her New York stores.
(Sugandha Rawal can be contacted at sugandha.r@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, News, Technology
New Delhi : Adobe India on Thursday announced its Women in Technology Scholarship Programme aimed at recognising extraordinary students in the fields of science and engineering.
The registrations for the programme commenced from Thursday.
“Adobe India’s Women in Technology Scholarship Programme is a platform for female students in the field of technology to demonstrate their exceptional skills and get a chance to contribute in an environment that thrives on innovation,” Abdul Jaleel, Vice President, People Resources India, Adobe, said.
According to Adobe India, the winners of the programme will have an opportunity to pursue an internship with the company next year.
Adobe will also sponsor tuition fees for the remainder of the award recipients’ university education across B.Tech, M. Tech or dual degrees, upto two years.
All Indian female citizen students, who are currently enrolled at an Indian university for the 2017-2018 academic year, are eligible to apply for the programme.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News
New Delhi : The Holy Prophet Mohammad (SAW) had declared divorce to be the most disliked among the lawful things in the eyes of God as it broke the marital tie which is fundamental to family life in Islam, the Supreme Court yesterday said.
Justice R F Nariman, who wrote one of the two separate majority judgements, said divorce not only disrupted the marital tie between man and woman, but had severe psychological and other repercussions on the children from such marriage.
Justice Nariman, whose views were concurred with by Justice U U Lalit, noted that marriage in Islam was a contract, and like other contracts, it could be terminated under certain circumstances.
“There is something astonishingly modern about this no public declaration is a condition precedent to the validity of a Muslim marriage, nor is any religious ceremony deemed absolutely essential though they are usually carried out,” he said.
“Apparently, before the time of Prophet Mohammad (SAW), the pagan Arab was absolutely free to repudiate his wife on a mere whim, but after the advent of Islam, divorce was permitted to a man if his wife by her indocility or bad character rendered marital life impossible,” Justice Nariman said.
In the absence of good reason, no man can justify a divorce “for he then draws upon himself the curse of God.
“Indeed, Prophet Mohammad (SAW) had declared divorce to be the most disliked of lawful things in the sight of God. The reason for this is not far to seek. Divorce breaks the marital tie which is fundamental to family life in Islam,” Justice Nariman said.
The five-judge Constitution bench, by a majority of 3:2 in which Chief Justice J S Khehar was in minority, said the practice of “‘talaq-e-biddat’ triple talaq is set aside“.
The two separate judgements, written for majority by Justices Kurian Joseph and R F Nariman, did not concur with the CJI and Justice S Abdul Nazeer that ‘triple talaq’ was a part of religious practice and the government should step and come out with a law.
—NNN-PTI
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Gandhinagar : Union Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Saturday said the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance Government treated every section of the society equally and was committed to minorities’ empowerment with dignity but “without appeasement”.
Addressing a cheque distribution programme of Gujarat Minorities Development Finance Corporation here, he said: “Minorities, Dalits, farmers, women and every other section of the country have played an equal role in nation building.”
“There is no place for any kind of discrimination against any religion, caste and community in this agenda. India’s uniqueness is its unity in diversity, ‘Sarva Dharm Sadbhav’. Secularism is in the DNA of India,” he said, adding that “some elements want to disturb this fabric”.
“We all need to come together to defeat such elements. The Modi government will not allow any destructive agenda to dominate our developmental narrative.
“Empowerment without appeasement, inclusive growth and antyodaya (commitment to take benefits of development to the last person of the society) is our agenda,” he said.
Naqvi urged people to be cautious of hostile forces trying to disturb an atmosphere of trust and development.
“We have to remain cautious against these elements. Every section/community of the country is feeling a sense of trust and development under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he said, claiming these forces were trying to disturb the atmosphere by creating a “fabricated atmosphere of insecurity”.
“Like all others, minorities are safe and secure in India,” he said, accusing certain opposition parties and their allies of trying to give a “communal colour to criminal incidents” but “fail to understand that their acts will only provide a cover for persons involved in such incidents”.
Saying that India was much ahead of other democratic countries in ensuring freedom of expression to its people, Naqvi however cautioned that in the name of such freedom, one should not do anything that helps elements inimical to national interest.
He said those unable to digest the developmental works carried out by the Modi government had become disappointed and desperate since they failed to find even a single logical issue against it.
“In their desperation, they are misusing religion as well as community and caste issues for narrow political interests. Earlier, these people raised the issue of so-called intolerance and launched ‘award wapsi’ (return of awards) campaign. Now, they are trying to disturb peace through political propaganda by raising the baseless issue of a sense of insecurity among members of a particular community,” Naqvi added.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Entrepreneurship, Women Entrepreneur
Bengaluru:(IANS) Women applicants have 50 percent higher chances of bagging an IT-Business Process Management job than men and they constitute 51 percent of the entry level hiring, a Nasscom’s report said on Tuesday.
According to the ‘Gender Diversity & Inclusivity trends in the IT-BPM Sector’ report, published by Nasscom and PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC), to assess gender diversity and inclusivity situation stated that the industry itself is increasingly turning women centric.
“At Nasscom, we believe that development is never complete unless it is across all sections through participation and inclusion of people irrespective of their gender, creed or colour,” said the industry body chairman B.V.R. Mohan Reddy at the ninth edition of Nasscom Diversity and Inclusion Summit 2016 on Tuesday.
According to the report, IT-BPM industry’s focus is shifting from inclusivity and diversity to empowerment while women are also moving away from support roles to shoulder core business operations with training and development.
Interestingly, women job applications rose by five percent from 2012 and stood at 28 percent of all job applications while job profile evolution from support role to core business role grew by two percent from the same time.
And overall women managerial roles in proportion to total women employees increased by two percent from fiscal 2012-13.
Though diversity and inclusion are showing promise, the industry still has a long way to become a completely inclusive one.
“While gender equality has been established at entry levels, women still constitute a far lower share of CXO roles; the trend of women resigning at a higher rate than men as their personal priorities change is hampering this growth,” said Nasscom in a statement.
Aimed at encouraging and celebrating diversity and inclusion, Nasscom announced corporate awards at the summit and honoured companies under six different categories for efforts to creating inclusive environment.
Goldman Sachs Services, SAP Labs India, Wipro, ANZ Bengaluru Hub, EMC India Centre of Excellence and Bhuvaneswar Naik from SAP Labs India were awarded.
