Women Have to Face Role Conflict as Soon as They Initiate Any Entrepreneurial Activity

Career Track
Tenure and job profile at the current company?
HealthCursor was established in 2009 and since then I am promoting this company. I am also the CEO of the company which means that I supervise and am involved in the business decisions and routine.

What made you choose a career in IT?
When I was practicing public health with large development organizations in the West, I realized that unlike developing countries they use innovative processes and technologies and hence I put that to use during my work in Bangladesh, India, and Africa. It was indeed a realization where millions of people do not have basic primary healthcare access, one
needs to harness pervasive technologies to make available healthcare.

Most important career influencer...
Volunteering was central to me since I was a kid. I was a generous girl who used to reach out to almost everybody to help and care. One of my neighbors once told my mom that I should be a doctor but at that point in time being a doctor
only meant AC offices, large hospitals, and a cool white jacket. I had no heart in becoming a doctor, though it just happened. I pursued a major in public health and that was when I started enjoying what I was doing. Backed with experience and a course in health informatics from Georgia Tech University empowered me to now play with disruptive and new-age technologies to solve bigger problems in healthcare. I think that my public health degree
and my mentors helped shape my career.

The turning point in career…
When I lost my father-in-law to brain tumor. He was a healthy and a happy man who was enthusiastic, loving,
and full of energy even at 63. In India, what we called healthcare was not anything better than a mere doctor patient
interaction. There was no continuum of care, no insurance, no preventative care, nothing. That reinforced
my decision to make India my center and I produced some innovations that are successful businesses today, others failed to take off due to lack of funding, transparency, and regulations. That is one battle I am still fighting..

Women in the workplace Most inspirational woman in India and globally…
This question need to be rephrased to “women.” There are several such inspiring women that I look up to. I
am a big fan of Sabbah Haji. In the militant insurgency prone area of Kashmir, Sabbah has set up a school in Briswana. She left her lucrative job in Bengaluru to come back to her native place and set up a school from two rooms. I equally appreciate Sunitha Krishnan, an Indian social activist and chief functionary and co-founder of Prajwala, an institution that assists trafficked women and girls in finding shelter. The organization also helps pay for the education of 5,000 children infected with HIV/AIDS in Hyderabad. She began to work in this field as she was a rape survivor herself.
Sarojini Naidu, Oprah Winfrey, Caster Semenya, Aung San Suu Kyi, Hawa Abdi are some of my idols.

In your perspective, do women leaders in IT still face a glass ceiling?
There is no glass ceiling when it comes to securing a leadership position in large IT companies. If you are talented and competitive, you will get there. Problems start erupting when women try to set up a small-scale IT business themselves. Although, women constitute about 50% of population, the percentage of small scale enterprise where women own
51% of share capital is less than 5%.  When it comes to IT, the number is even smaller. Women are often denied
credit by bankers on the ground of lack of collateral security. Therefore, women’s access to risk capital
is limited especially in India. How do you strike a work-life balance?

Work-life balance is never on my radar. I guess one gets unnecessarily tensed thinking about it all day. It is not about which numbers on the clock we work or not work, it is about the percentage of our breathing we spend on others’ goals and how much we spend on our own. For me, work and family go hand in hand and is not an isolated pockets concept.

Did you face any difficulty in coping in the male-dominated technology industry? If yes, please share anecdotes
and your experiences.
Problems related to patriarchal society exists, but the problem is not men. Women are generally more attached to family than men. The society has defined roles very clearly and a lot of frowns come up when there is an exception.  Women also have to face role conflict as soon as they initiate any entrepreneurial activity. It is an uphill
task for women to face such conflicts and cope with the twin role.

In your opinion, why only few women manage to climb the seniority ladder? What are the key barriers affecting
career progression of women?
I often explain it like this: When you open the beer bottle and pour, the drop of liquid that touches the bottom of the
mug first, effervescence faster and much earlier than the second drop. For years, women were confined to household
chores and only a few got opportunities to prove themselves. The way things are changing today, the day isn’t far where we will skew the ratio or equate it.

Advice for women aspiring to reach leadership positions…..

Focus is very important on every stage and opportunity; one has to prove oneself and stay balanced. Women
should stay away from distractions in life, especially from comparison with men.

Please suggest some initiatives to encourage more women to join IT
IT is becoming the new buzzword across industries. The amount of new tech, sensors, analytics and cognitive
scale that we are developing with these pervasive technologies is going to change the future of every industry.
Women need to come forward and learn skills to get patented with such euphoria of opportunities.

On the job
„„Top three initiatives – Focus on deliverables; investing in innovations; and building one value service in healthcare every year.

Personal
„„One person you admire most and why: My mom— she is the most generous and intelligent person.
„„Leisure activities: Nature walk, beach games, writing, and painting
„„Best book read recently: Rise of ISIS by Jay Sekulow
„„Unknown talents: Odissi dancer, sommelier, wildlife photographer
„„If I weren’t in IT, I would be: A politician or an organic farmer.