February 6, 2025 (Yes Punjab News)
The World Economic Forum 2025 saw Ms. Smriti Irani showcase her leadership for the cause of economic imperative of gender equity. She engaged with global leaders like Singaporean President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Bill Gates to discuss gender-responsive policies, digital skilling, and healthcare.
Irani’s discussions with Børge Brende, WEF President, underscored the Alliance’s significant progress, including the SAWIE agreement. The Alliance for Global Good – Gender Equity and Equality, launched at the 2024 World Economic Forum (WEF), had a transformative year.
Having reached over 12,000 industry members and more than 5,000 global delegates, the Alliance successfully launched initiatives that impacted over 1 million women. All of this wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the CII Centre for Women Leadership and the Gates Foundation.
At Davos 2025, the Alliance introduced two key partnerships: the Commonwealth Secretariat which will look after empowering women across 56 nations with digital and financial skills, and also the South Asian Women in Energy (SAWIE) initiative.
The latter will look at increasing female leadership in the energy sector. For women in the fields like healthcare and tech, the Alliance’s We-Lead Lounge was introduced. Valuable and beneficial partnerships with companies like Regeneron and Kearney were formed to advance diversity in STEM, and collaborations with GAVI and the Philanthropy Asia Alliance were initiated to focus on expanding healthcare access for women.
Ms. Irani chaired a session at WEF on women’s economic impact, where she put forth a key point – that women’s workforce participation could add $1.6–2.3 trillion to global GDP.
Through her efforts at WEF, Ms. Irani reiterated her stand on how the Alliance played a key role in creating inclusive solutions that address systemic barriers to gender equity, empowering women to drive innovation and sustainable growth across sectors.
