Avtar Awards IBM Leader the 2024 Male Ally Legacy Award and Bosch Limited the Social Excellence Award at the 8th Avtar and Seramount Best of the Best DEI Conference
Avtar Group, India’s pioneers in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Consulting, announced the winners of the 2024 Avtar & Seramount Social Excellence Award and Male Ally Legacy Awards (MALA). The Awards were announced in Chennai at the eighth edition of Avtar and Seramount Best of the Best Conference 2024, India’s most respected conference on DEI.
The Best of the Best is an annual DEI conference conducted by Avtar Group, India’s leading Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) solutions firm. The Best Practices of the Best Conference (BOB) is a celebration of the winners of the 2024 Avtar & Seramount Best Companies for Women in India (BCWI) Most Inclusive Companies Index (MICI), Male Ally Legacy Award (Men championing gender inclusion) and Social Excellence Award towards enabling social inclusion
The Male Ally Legacy Award celebrates male allies who have spearheaded change in the mindsets and attitudes towards women at the workplace. Meanwhile, the Avtar & Seramount Social Excellence Award for is a recognition programme to identify and celebrate the most impactful social impact initiative amongst applicant companies. This award was conferred upon, Bosch Limited for their Employment linked Short Term Skilling Programs for the underprivileged.
Themed at #PrismOfDiversity, the eighth successive edition of The Best Practices of the Best Conference (BOB) 2024 brought forth conversations on how the convergent DEI becomes a powerful tool for fostering innovation, nurturing creativity and enhancing employee experience.
Ms Halima Holland, British Deputy High Commissioner for Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, who was present at the conference as the chief guest, said, “Equality is at the heart of everything we do as the UK government and our commitment to empowering women and girls remains steadfast. I am delighted to learn about the pioneering work of Avtar and Seramount in fostering an inclusive and diverse corporate culture and congratulate all the companies who are moving the needle with respect to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.”
Speaking at the conference, Dr Saundarya Rajesh, Founder – President, Avtar Group, said, “At the core of lasting change is the commitment to equity by all. Today, we celebrate our male allies — those who champion the voices, ambitions, and growth of women not as an obligation, but as a core belief. The Male Ally Legacy Award honors those who understand that equity benefits everyone, leaving a legacy of inclusive progress. MALA is a call to action, urging leaders across the globe to recognize their role in building a culture where allyship is more than an initiative; it is a way of being.”
“We are delighted to shine the spotlight on organizations that are committed to creating social impact and enabling social inclusion. Through comprehensive programs towards skilling and livelihood creation for the marginalized segments of the society, these organizations are role-models that foster inclusive growth.” Dr. Saundarya added.
The two-day conference had over 40 speakers from different walks of life deliberating over key challenges, solutions in the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion journey of achieving equitable workplaces.
2024 Avtar & Seramount Social Excellence Award – Winner
- Bosch Limited
2024 Avtar & Seramount Social Excellence Award – Choice of Jury Winners (Company names listed alphabetically)
- PwC in India
- Tech Mahindra Limited
2024 Male Ally Legacy Awards (MALA) – Winner
- Amit Sharma, Managing Partner – Global Delivery, IBM Consulting
2024 Male Ally Legacy Awards (MALA) – Choice of Jury Winners (Listed alphabetically as per company names)
- Jignesh Bhate, Chief Executive, Molecular Connections Private Limited
- Milind Nerurkar, Managing Director, Citibank
Appendix:
Social Excellence Award
Title Winner: Bosch Limited
Project: Employment linked Short Term Training Programs
Through BRIDGE – Bosch’s Response to India’s Development & Growth through Employability Enhancement – several young people have gained industry-relevant skills and making them employable. The program combines classroom instruction in soft skills and life skills with hands-on, on-the-job training (OJT). Focusing on promoting quality education through Teachers, the BRIDGE Foundation program aligns with the National Education Policy 2020, training educators in innovative and experiential teaching methods to improve student learning outcomes in government schools.
Choice of Jury award: PwC in India
Project: Community Inclusive Education
“Inclusive Education Project” is implemented in a rural community in the border between Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka to support children and persons with disabilities. The impact of the ‘Inclusive education’ program for disability are measured through key indicators that assess the enrollment and retention rate, accessibility and infrastructure, teacher training and support, curriculum adaptation, student participation and achievement, parent and community involvement, social inclusion and peer relationships, transition to higher education or employment, community-based inclusive health referrals, therapy services, provision of assistive devices, and accessing social security benefit programs.
Choice of Jury award: Tech Mahindra Limited
Project: SMART (Skills for Market Training) program by Tech Mahindra Foundation
Tech Mahindra Foundation works in Education, Employability and Disability with a vision to bring ‘Empowerment through Education.’ Their key focus is empowering girls/women, people with disability and corporate volunteering. Tech Mahindra Foundation’s primary employability initiative, the SMART (Skills for Market Training) program, was launched in 2012 with the vision of establishing a vocational training model in the country. In line with the Skill India Mission, SMART aims to equip youth from under-served urban communities with essential employability skills. It does this through structured training programs and facilitates their placement in respectable jobs. The program focuses on teaching foundational skills such as Spoken English, Basic IT, and Workplace Readiness. This training enhances the employability of youth by providing them with the right skills. Additionally, the SMART Academies and SMART Centres in Healthcare, Logistics and Digital offer more than 108 courses across 17 domains (from inception).
Male Ally Legacy Awards
Title Winner: Amit Sharma, Managing Partner – Global Delivery, IBM Consulting
Amit has promoted women’s growth, launching initiatives such as Step-Up, LEAD, RISE, and SURGE to encourage more women to assume People Manager and Senior Leadership roles. Early this year, Amit introduced the IBM GIC/BPOD Talent Accelerator Program, designed to cultivate future leadership skills among high-potential women. He ensured that the organization invests in development programs for these women, thereby creating a pipeline for senior roles and executive positions. Amit sponsors the IBM Shine program, which helps IBM leaders, particularly women, to enhance their external influence.
Choice of Jury Award: Jignesh Bhate Chief Executive, Molecular Connections Private Limited
Jignesh Bhate, has fueled the meteoric rise of MC, and his decision to choose two women executives as business unit heads right from the inception of the company set a precedent for gender parity in leadership roles at the organisation. The move was forward-thinking and reflected Jignesh’s belief in diversity and fairness at MC. Beyond these critical appointments at the leadership level, Jignesh has also been instrumental in introducing and developing talented women across the organisation.
Choice of Jury Award: Milind Nerurkar, Managing Director, Citibank
What gets measured, gets done’: Setting up measurable goals for initiatives, like pay equity and aspirational diverse representation to embed in leaders’ scorecards. • Aspire: A program for Officer level high-performing women to hone them into taking AVP (mid-level) roles. • Return to Work Program for women who are joining the workforce after a career break of 6 months or more. The program is a 12-month development journey to assimilate employees into the workforce after a career break. • Citi India Maternity Flex Policy allows women to work from home for a year upon their return from Maternity Leave. Women employees on maternity break retain the best of an average of the earlier two performances years or the current year rating.
About Avtar
Avtar, set up in 2000, is India’s first diversity advocate & workplace inclusion expert. Stepping into its 25th glorious year, renowned for the extensive work in the space of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) and more specifically, women’s workforce participation, Avtar is now an ISO 20700 Certified firm. Under the visionary leadership of Dr Saundarya Rajesh, Avtar has ventured into areas of gender inclusion and career creation, which are firsts to India, including:
- Creating platforms for second career women to meet potential employers,
- Developing a comprehensive set of career enablers which companies can implement in their workspaces
- Spearheading original research that has provided cutting edge insights to organization
- Creating India’s largest diversity benchmarking platform – Avtar & Seramount 100 Best Companies for women in India
- Creating India’s first diversity hiring portal myavtar.com for women, LGBTQ, PWD, Veterans and Silver Generation
- Re-Skilling, Up-skilling and Counselling of women to pursue sustainable career paths and
- Building career intentionality amongst under privileged girl children
Avtar has built its DEI offerings under Six EDs, which ensures that every organization can have a clear path towards moving forward, building and sustaining diverse, equitable and inclusive workplaces. The Six EDs – Enrich Diversity, Embed Diversity, Enable Diversity, Experience Diversity, Extend Diversity and Endow Diversity are constructed along six key implementation dimensions of Diversity – for Assessments & Advisory support, Recruitment Programs, Workshops and Training Programs, Conferences and Events, Empowering Supplier Diversity & Inclusion and supporting inclusion of under-privileged communities, respectively. For its transformational impact in the realm of DEI, Avtar Group was listed in the prestigious Steward Leadership 25 Listing by Strait Times & INSEAD at Singapore in 2022. To know more, visit www.avtarinc.com | www.myavtar.com
ABOUT SERAMOUNT
Seramount is a strategic professional services and research firm dedicated to supporting high-performing, inclusive workplaces. Over four decades, we’ve established a strong, data-driven understanding of the employee experience, which lays the groundwork for everything we do. Seramount partners with over 450 of the world’s most influential companies, large and small, to offer pragmatic solutions including best practice DEI research, workplace assessment, employee learning and development, and talent sourcing. These offerings empower companies to navigate a dynamic corporate environment and to cultivate a resilient, connected workforce that achieves extraordinary outcomes. Learn more at www.seramount.com.
