Women-led development in India also means women-led governance: Bansuri Swaraj, MP, Lok Sabha

NEW DELHI, 09 September 2026: Ms Bansuri Swaraj, Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) today while addressing the ‘BRICS WBA Women-Led Development Summit & Exhibition’, organized by FICCI, jointly with BRICS WBA, Ministry of Women and Child Development, Govt of India, said that India has moved beyond asking how women can be brought into the development story and is instead asking how development accelerates when women drive it. “The vision of Viksit Bharat is based on inclusivity and on sustainability. There is experience from each of the economies that constitute BRICS and we can learn from one another,” she added.

Highlighting the importance of women’s role in economic growth, Ms Swaraj stated that BRICS in 2025 under the Leaders Declaration explicitly recognized the vital role of women’s economic participation in sustainable growth. “Today, we stand at a very different moment in history. Our institutions are modern; economies are increasingly becoming digital and technology driven and our ambitions are global. Our diversity is not our weakness, but it is a strength that drives the BRICS family,” she emphasized.

Talking about women-led development, Ms Swaraj further stated that in India it also means women-led governance. We need women to be participants in the policy making aspect as well. “Every time you economically empower a woman, you are not initiating the story of one individual, it translates to the entire familial unit of the women. When you have empowered families, it leads to having empowered societies, empowered societies lead to empowered nations and empowered nations, leads to a peaceful world,” she added.

Ms Avarna Jain, BRICS WBA Global Chairperson, Vice Chairperson, Saregama India and Chairperson, RPSG Lifestyle Media said, “Under India’s BRICS Presidency, the emphasis has been on building for resilience, innovation, cooperation and sustainability. This vision recognises that when women can participate fully, build enterprises, create employment, innovate, invest and lead, they strengthen economic growth and contribute to more resilient, innovative, inclusive and sustainable economies.”

Ms Rajashree Birla, Chairperson, FICCI Aditya Birla CSR Centre for Excellence & Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural Development said, “India’s progress on women’s participation has never been the work of one institution. The outcome of collective shared responsibility, India set upon a fundamental program. Its founding fathers have been and continue to be the government, the captains of industry as well as large-hearted philanthropists. Each of them has made a phenomenal contribution, to ensure the rise of women in different domains.”

Ms Puja Garg, National President, FICCI-FLO said, “The next chapter of women-led development must go beyond participation. It must enable women to build enterprises, adopt technology, manufacture, access capital, enter global value chains and compete in international markets.”

Ms Naina Lal Kidwai, Past President, FICCI and Chairperson, Rothschild & Co India said, “Capital finds talent, but talent does not always find capital. Somewhere between the two sits access, access to networks, mentors, boardrooms, to the rooms where decisions are made. Our task, individually and collectively, is to close that distance.”

Dr Jyotsna Suri, Past President, FICCI and CMD, Bharat Hotels Limited said, “For any country to achieve its desired GDP, it cannot ignore the women, as it is still an untapped workforce, so we all have to ensure that this workforce gets tapped.”

Mr Anant Swarup, Secretary General, FICCI said, “Women led development is no longer a chapter in the growth story, it is increasingly the plot. In India we are seeing women move to the front of enterprise, technology, finance and public rise not as beneficiaries of growth, but as its authors.”