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Women’s empowerment is not just about access but about agency, control, and decision-making. Across rural and urban India, true empowerment remains constrained by deeply rooted structural and social barriers. What if women’s empowerment is not about lifting women up rather about examining what has been holding them down? Who is being empowered? How? Under what…
India’s 2026 Census, after a 15-year gap, will count 1.4 billion people and include caste data for the first time since 1931, sparking a major debate on social equity and political implications. It is expected to shape welfare policies, representation, and data-driven governance for the next decade. After a 15-year gap, India launches its most…
India’s Transgender Amendment Act 2026 replaces self-identification with mandatory medical verification, limiting who qualifies as transgender and raising serious constitutional concerns. The law has sparked legal challenges and criticism for undermining rights guaranteed by the Supreme Court and marginalizing already vulnerable communities. A law Passed in Haste On March 25, 2026, India’s Parliament passed the…
The article highlights how older women remain overlooked in gender equality efforts, especially in ESG and CSR frameworks, despite facing compounded lifelong inequalities. It calls for inclusive policies and corporate action to address their economic security, care needs, and social protection. CSW70’s Ministerial Round Table specifically addressed older women as an emerging focus area. Women…
Unpaid care work, worth $10.8 trillion globally, remains invisible in economic systems despite sustaining the workforce and corporate productivity. Investing in care infrastructure is essential for gender equality, higher female participation, and inclusive economic growth. Unpaid care work produces $10.8 trillion in annual economic value. CSW70 called for care infrastructure investment. The corporate sector extracts…
The anti-ESG backlash is weakening accountability systems and cutting funding for gender-focused programmes globally. As ESG rollbacks and aid reductions grow, women are disproportionately bearing the impact, slowing progress on equality. Trump-era ESG rollbacks and global aid cuts are hitting gender programmes hardest. The UN has the numbers. The corporate sector is looking the other…
India Skills 2025–26 ended in Greater Noida with UP winning seven medals, but only two were women, exposing a clear gender gap in vocational training. The results highlight deeper structural inequality in Skill India, where women remain underrepresented in high-value technical trades. India’s largest skill competition closed in Greater Noida on April 2. UP won…
India’s water crisis disproportionately burdens women, who spend millions of hours daily fetching water, reinforcing gender inequality. Despite massive CSR spending, corporate efforts largely ignore this social dimension and fail to reduce women’s time poverty. The Number Nobody Quotes in a Boardroom Two hundred and fifty million hours. Every single day. That is the collective…
At CSW70, a historic 37–1 vote preserved women’s rights at the UN, but it exposed growing global divisions and coordinated challenges to gender equality. While seen as a win, the outcome reflects a shift where defending existing rights is replacing real progress. The Vote That Shouldn’t Have Happened On March 9, 2026, inside the UN…
Ruchi Kalra built OfBusiness and Oxyzo into profitable, scalable businesses by focusing on financial discipline and real industry needs. Her leadership is redefining women’s role in India’s capital-intensive startup ecosystem. In an ecosystem that often celebrates speed over substance, Ruchi Kalra built patiently. She did not chase visibility. She chased viability. As the co-founder of…
