Sustainable development depends on women. We cannot achieve the SDGs without gender equality. A big thank you to to the 60+ who joined our event. Also a big thank you to Norad, Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, who was our co-host for this event.
India now officially has more females than males. There has been a demographic shift.
According to latest data released by the Indian government, there are now 1,020 women for every 1,000 men. Women’s economic empowerment is highly connected to poverty reduction because women tend to invest their earnings into their communities and family’s development. According to World Bank estimates, India’s women in workforce contribute 17% to GDP, which is less than half the global average.
The conversation was moderated by Ritika Dhall.
Ritika Dhall is Head of Gender Equality at Norad, the Norwegian Directorate for Development Cooperation. In this function, she contributes to Norway’s international engagement and oversees the implementation of development aid investments in women, peace and security, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), LGBTQ+, gender based violence and harmful practices, gender equality for development and civil society. From 2012-2014, she worked on key programmatic interventions in social protection and social policies, contributing to cross-sectoral programme strategies and humanitarian response with UNICEF Iraq. She has worked extensively with inequalities, socio-economic deprivations through policies, programmes and services for marginalised groups. She holds a Cand. Polit. in Political Science.
Parul Soni, founder of ThinkThrough Conslutning and founder of Association of Business Women in Commerce & Industry (ABWCI)
Kari Helene Partapuoli, General Secretary, Plan Norway
A few of the questions that were addressed:
What does it mean for India, now that it has more females than males?
Norway was the first country in the world to put a 40% gender quota on boards of listed companies and public enterprises. What lessons are there for India to learn from Norway?
What roles do health care, education, protection from violence, empowerment, and participation play for women to leverage their potential in a country’s growth?
Women in Norway earn 87.5 kroner for every 100 kroner men earn. How can employers walk the walk regarding supporting women?
According to World Bank estimates, India’s women in workforce contribute 17% to GDP, which is less than half of the global average. Women’s economic empowerment is highly connected to poverty reduction because women tend to invest their earnings into their communities and family’s development. How do you see the future for the female workforce?
Norway used to be a seafaring nation. Thousands of young men (and a few women) were exposed to the outside world by serving on Norwegian ships to all continents. Does technology replace travel as a gateway to the world, or is there a risk that Norwegians miss rapid developments in Asia?
What could a richer and more powerful India, with more female leaders look like? What would it mean for India’s relationship with the world?
Businesses today are expected to have an extra layer of ethics and moral duty towards the society.
ESG is gaining traction as an important strategy for long-term value creation of businesses all over the world. The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the importance of Environmental Social Governance (ESG) framework as a key to long term business resialiace.
In 2013, India became the first country to mandate corporate social responsibility with the Companies Act of 2013. 9 years down the road. How does India view ESG?
In this podcast episode we invited EVP & CEO for Orkla Foods: Atle Vidar Nagel-Johansen.
Atle has worked 25+ years in various leadership positions in the Orkla Group; - in finance, marketing and general management. He served on the Executive Management Board of Orkla as EVP since 2012. In January 2021, Atle took on the responsibility as CEO for the merged Foods business area.
We asked him the following questions:
In 2021, for the 11th consecutive year Orkla is included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index Europe. This year’s total score of 63 out of 100 points is also an improvement on last year’s results. Congratulations! How do you feel about this?
Orkla is a Norwegian-based corporation with businesses in many consumer goods categories across many markets. And you invested in a food company in India in 2007. Could you share a few words on the background for this, and your experience so far? Why India?
Orkla is also ranked among the top five per cent when it comes to the development and use of packaging. This is a substantial improvement from last year, and reflects the company’s efforts to develop sustainable packaging solutions based on recoverable, recycled and renewable materials. Is this the case in all countries ORKLA is represented?
India has introduced new environment, social, and governance (ESG) reporting requirements. ESG is becoming a critical component in Supply Chain Management. What is ESG in supply chain? And why is it important?
How do you assess, measure and track every element in a company’s supply chain when it comes to benchmark methodologies?
You have been Chair for MTR Foods. The whole world is seeking ESG leaders, so is India; is India on track?
How do you view supply chain management in India? What are the major challenges?
The social element of ESG issues (specifically D&I) can be the most difficult for investors to assess and for companies to show continued progress. To date, a limited number of companies have disclosed D&I data, but the numbers are increasing significantly. Does Orkla operate with metrics when it comes to reporting on D, E & I?
The pandemic has exposed the vulnerability of global supply chains for companies’ worldwide. In India, the outbreak has severely impacted companies that relied heavily on global channels for procurements, thus driving business leaders to focus on sourcing locally. How do you view the future?
A big thank you to the 60+ participants of our seminar Phase out to phase down.
While many of countries have doubled-down on their commitments to reducing forest-loss and emissions, China and India sparked the last-minute intervention to water down language on phasing out coal.
China and India are the two biggest producers, consumers and importers of coal.
At COP26 - UN Climate Change Conference, countries committed to new, ambitious targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions this decade. Delivering on these promises will rely on the development, financing and scale up of green technologies. China and India, the two biggest producers, consumers and importers of coal, sparked the last-minute drama at the COP26 talks by forcing a compromise that led from "phase out" to be changed to "phase down."
What does this mean? And what about Norway and Norways role at COP26?
We invited the following for a c-suite conversation: - Stig Traavik, Director of Climate & Environment in Norad - the Norwegian Govt Agency for Development Cooperation
-Truls Gulowesen, Managing Director of Naturvernforbundet.
- As well as Surbhi Singvi, manager for energy, World Business Council For Sustainable Development (WBCSD)
and asked them:
What are the implications of the coal language in the Glasgow pact?
India drew severe criticism from the phase down approach, what’s your perspective on that?
What are the outcomes of the decisions made at COP26 and the implications on India?
A related question, Will India seek to prolong their dependence on coal for longer than they have publicly stated because of the change from "out" to "down"?
Norway’s role at COP26.
The pledge to provide $100bn annually by 2020 has not been met, and countries with less resources are demanding action. Now, The amount of money rich countries give to the developing world to help it cope with climate change was one of the big battles of the COP26 climate summit. Norway has doubled its climate finance support. Why did Norway do that? And what are Norway’s expectations from that aid ?
It is going to be hard enough for developed countries to adjust to the need to remove fossil fuels and carbon from their economies however, it is going to be far more challenging in developing nations, where there is much less money to pay for new infrastructure and technology. How do you see India in this landscape?
India is in a unique situation where it's facing some of the worst impacts of climate change. Is it time to take a more pro-active international role?
Gen Z climate warriors like Greta Thunberg have shown their disappointment with the actions in the direction of climate, what do you all think about it?
Did you miss the latest comment on COP26? You can read it below:
Two weeks ago, we received news that Posten had chosen Infosys, an Indian multinational IT consulting company, as its supplier. We invited Erik Berntzen, CIO of Posten for a live c-suite conversation.
Outsourcing has become one of the most effective tried-and-tested models for profitable business operations. To outsource is to move a business function/service/process to an external supplier. The benefits of outsourcing can be substantial - from cost savings and efficiency gains, to greater competitive advantage. Increasingly more Norwegian companies are choosing to outsource services abroad, especially to India.
We invited Arne Erik Berntzen to speak more about it and asked him the following questions:
Why did you choose to outsource when you can develop in-house?
More and more service types are being outsourced, and this trend is expected to continue in the years to come. How do you identify which services can be outsourced?
Why outsource to India? How did you proceed to choose Infosys?
How do you find the talent and competence in the Indian consulting firms?
Has it ever been challenging to measure the quality of work for the outsourced services? In other words, do you have to compromise on quality while working with firms you outsource work to?
How do you measure the supplier's work, to realize the value of the outsourcing contract?
According to PA Consulting, 28% of Norwegian companies say they want to outsource more. The main reason why companies want to outsource more is access to higher expertise and the opportunity to scale their business. What does Posten think about outsourcing in the future?
Investors have been pouring money into India’s stock market, and it could grow to more than $5 trillion to become the fifth largest in the world within three years, according to Goldman Sachs.
We invited Abhishek Thepade from DNB, Norways largest financial services group and one of the largest in the Nordic region, for a podcast conversation. Abhishek Thepade joined DNB Asset Management in 2008. He is currently the portfolio manager for Emerging market funds at DNB. He has over 12 years of experience in investing and currently is responsible for investments into Asian markets like India, China, Korea and Taiwan. He has a MSc in Financial analysis and Fund management from the University of Exeter, UK.
In this live podcast we ask him the following questions:
India could surpass the UK as the world’s 5th largest stock market by 2024, a new Goldman report says. What do you think? Why should we invest in Indian stocks?
The pipeline for future public listings is expected to remain robust over the next two years. As portofolio manager at the largers Nordic bank, DNB, what do you think?
The pipeline for future public listings is expected to remain robust over the next two years. How do you choose funds and companies in your portifolio?
Food delivery firm Zomato became the first of a slate of prominent names to be publicly listed. Others in the pipeline include payments giant Paytm, ride-hailing start-up Ola and e-commerce firm Flipkart. Can Norwegians buy stocks in these companies?
Analysts expect segments like e-commerce, internet, internet retail and media to have more weight on the indexes, through the consumer discretionary and communication services sectors. What is your take?
