11 Indians Among 25 Asians To Win Women Icons Award In Singapore

As many as 11 Indians were among 25 Asian women who were recently presented with the Women Icons Award in Singapore to recognize women in social work.

The women awardees worked towards women’s empowerment and childcare. The winners were chosen by a jury formed and organised by Business Excellence & Research Group Pte Ltd and supported by Nanyang Technological University of Singapore.

One of the Indian women who won this prestigious award was Vandana Sharma. Sharma served in the Indian Armed Forces for several years and broke the glass ceiling. She then entered the corporate sector and is currently the chief people officer at HolidayIQ.

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After receiving the award, she mentioned that she mentors young entrepreneurs and helps them build a stronger system. Sharma further said that the vision is to build a productive environment within the startup ecosystem that is filled with challenges.

She also contributed during the historic 1999 Kargil war and her achievements are noted by the Military History of Army Ordnance Corps.

Among the others who won the award are Revathi Roy (top pic) of Hey Didi. Roy runs a training centre in Mumbai where she trains and employs women drivers and hence contributes towards women's empowerment. Today many young women from Maharashtra’s slum areas and rural areas are employed in Roy’s delivery service for e-commerce companies and earn a living for their families. She also recently won the NITI Aayog Women Transforming India 2016 award.

Dr Srimathy Kesan is another awardee at the Women Icons Award. She encourages children into Aerospace and Aeronautics subjects at her Chennai-based company, Space Kidz India. It is difficult for children to develop an interest in science and so Kesan’s aim is to train a bunch of scientists in the coming years from India itself.

"I want to encourage and motivate them to do much more in science," said Dr Kesan who wants to have an aerospace research park in India, building on her working relationship with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the US and the Russian Space Agencies, reported India Today.

This is not all, her students have even invented a cube satellite which they have sent to NASA which will be launched into space through a US rocket.

Dr Aparna Hegde of ARMMAN, Deepshikha Kumar of SpeakIn, Kanika Gupta Shori of Square Global, Minal DRozario of Ideosphere, Mini Dwivedi Gopinathan of PlayStreet Specially Abled Educare Trust, Saloni Mardia Kothari of Mtlexs Online, Sonia Kulkarni of Ketchum Sampark PR, and Swati Nathani of Team Pumpkin are some of the other winners from India.