Tech in India has only 26% women in engineering: report
GENDER GAP For every female engineer, there are three male engineers in tech companies in India
NEW DELHI: When you Google ‘women in tech’, you are sure to stumble upon a plethora of forums and collectives clamouring for better representation of women in the technology sector. And it’s not just an empty slogan. There’s enough evidence and research that suggests that having more females in teams fosters innovation, creativity, productivity, and results in more revenue. Bengaluru-based talent acquisition firm, Belong, released statistics that offer an overview of the state of diversity in the tech ecosystem in India. Once again, confirming that the glass ceiling is after all not an illusion. The repot looked at a sample set of women graduating from Tier 1 universities from 2005-2009 and found that as many as 45% of women move out of core engineering roles after close to eight years. After quitting engineering, these women mostly move to marketing, product management or consulting Among the tech talent in India, there are more women in software testing roles (a less soughtafter skill) compared to core programming roles. This is the case even though the absolute number of jobs in software testing are significantly less than programming. It was found that for every 100 testing jobs, there were 34 women compared to 66 men. When it came to hardcore programming roles, the ratio changed to 25:75. see how they progress in their careers over the years and found that if 29% women start working in a given year, the percentage drops to a dismal 7% after 12 years. According to the report, Persistent Systems, Infosys, Accenture, Thoughtworks and IBM have the best gender diversity numbers. Most companies have a diversity mandate and run a slew of initiatives to attract female tech talent. From female hiring drives to leadership development pro- grammes to ‘bringing the women back’ initiatives to special incentives to refer female candidates, Indian IT companies are using innovative techniques to hire and retain female tech talent. Roopa Wilson, who leads the Diversity and Inclusion function for IBM India, talked about how after analysing their attrition data they found that women typically quit between the age groups of 25-32. “This is typically the time when women are either getting married or starting a family. We found that if women stay on after the age of 32, there is no stopping them,” she said.
IBM worked with the professors of IIM-B and found that if women could build a ‘career identity’ before this period, they were much more equipped to handle the demands of their personal and professional lives.
“We have started a programme to help build a strong career identity for young talent. We identify women with high potential and enrol them in a nine-month program where they get to interact with senior women in leadership roles and exchange ideas,” she said.
Adobe, which ranks among the top five companies with the best diversity numbers among the product companies in India, has worked on building an inclusive interview panel to foster a fair assessment process.
Prasad Rao, head of talent acquisition at Adobe, said their first major milestone of the year was to create an inclusive pipeline across all roles, besides hiring the company’s first female engineering manager. NEWDELHI: If your work involves frequent travelling you are better off with a notebook that is easy to carry around, can double up as a tablet when required and is powerful enough to handle your basic office work comfortably.
Here are some notebook convertibles which offer the best of both tablets and laptops and run a full-fledged Windows 10.
MICROSOFT SURFACE PRO 4
₹59,999 onwards
Microsoft Surface Pro 4 is a one of the lightest convertibles around and weighs just 766g.
It has a full-metal body and a flexible kickstand to keep it propped up while you can type away comfortably on the magnetic keyboard.
This keyboard can also be used as a cover and costs an additional ₹11,099.
The entry level version of Surface Pr 4 is powered by Intel’s Core m3 6th gen processor, with 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD and offers a 12.3-inch screen which has a resolution of 2,736x1,824p.
LENOVO YOGA BOOK ₹49,990
Lenovo Yogabook is the most compact 2-in-1 notebook you can buy right now. It comes with a 10-inch bezel-less screen and a backlit touch keyboard that can be flipped backwards up to 360 degree so you can use it as a tablet. It is immensely sleek and weighs just 690g with the keyboard. It runs Windows 10 and is powered by Intel Atom Z8850 processor with 4GB RAM and 4GB storage. You can also work on it with Lenovo’s Any Pen stylus.
SMARTRON TBOOK T1211 ₹42,999
Smartron Tbook T1211 is built on the lines of Surface Pro 4, but costs a lot less. It has a similar metal body and flexible stand. The 12-inch display packs in a resolution of 2,560x1,440p, which is unheard of at this price point.
The magnetic keyboard comes with the tablet, so you won’t have to pay extra for it. It runs Windows 10 and is powered by Intel’s Core M processor with 4GB RAM and 128GB SSD.
DELL INSPIRON 3169 ₹36,840
If you are looking for an affordable 2-in-1 notebook, Dell’s Inspiron 3169 has a lot offer without charging a premium.
It has a 360-degree hinge design, like the Lenovo Yoga Book, so one can push it back and use it as a tablet.
The 11.6-inch screen is big and sharp (1,366x768) enough for basic tasks. It runs on Intel’s 6th Gen Core M3 chipset with 4GB RAM and offers 500 GB HDD. It weighs 1.4kg.