From  D. Leela Rani

Bangalore  November  17,2013: The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology  organised the fourth Grace Hopper Celebrations here last week, bringing together the best and brightest of India's women technologists as they addressed the ways in which  technology could  help address humanitarian problems across the globe.

“Together We Rise,” was the theme this year  -- and Telle Whitney, Co-founder, Grace Hopper Celebration, India, President and CEO, Anita Borg Institute of Women and Technology  led a galaxy of women  entrepreneurs in exploring it.

Aruna Jayanthi, CEO of Capgemini, India  suggested that the  key issue that needs to be tackled in the IT industry,  is leadership. Only 6-8 percent of women are represented in leadership roles, she said, yet  the ‘glass ceiling’, at least in an ICT sector, is just a myth.

Kumud M. Srinivasan, President, Intel, India added:”Advanced computing powers devices to help us to do some tasks , enabling seamless communication across devices that are integral part of our lifestyle. IT is poised to bring in inclusive growth. Connectivity boosts GDP.”  

Geetha Kannan, Managing Director, Anita Borg Institute, India said: “Promoting Women Entrepreneurship in Technology is an area of great interest to the Anita Borg Institute and we’re happy to see young people come up with great ideas and turn them into viable business ventures. Indian women have the potential to change course, take risks and achieve greater heights. We strongly believe in them and would like to contribute to their growth path in whatever possible way".

She added that the  Women-only Hackathon  organised on the occasion had attracted some best minds in the IT world . IT developers had collaborated to write code on free and open and open source software.

How to develop, build awesome customer experiences, with ‘Awesome Design’ of any prospective ICT product? Lalitha Ramani, Product Manager  at intuit, India  shared some interesting insights: "Doing consumer behaviour analysis to help gauge the consumer experience can be a good metrics to measure the viability and usability of a  product while building a prototype.  The key question is: Are you building what the  customer wants? ”

The winner of the 2013 Women Entrepreneur Quest was Mausmi Ambastha, Founder, Intellocut for her effort to help   clothing industries optimize  fabric wastage. ( Intellocut is a cutting room  software solution for sewn products)

The Anita Borg Institute is a not-for-profit charitable organization. For more information: www.anitaborg.org
Grace Hopper Institute India http://gracehopper.org.in

Do see our Picture story on  the conference here