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“Empowerment comes from within” – Shivani Gupta talks to HII

In the time of COVID-19, we reassess the workplace. One vital aspect of this reassessment is the role of workers’ empowerment and gender inclusivity.

Last year, the World Economic Forum released its gender equality rankings in the Global Gender Gap Report. India slipped in said rankings, placing 112th out of 153 countries surveyed. As my colleague Nicholas Parry for Health Issues India wrote at the time

“In terms of economic participation, India’s progress has been mixed. Of the metric directly related to economic participation and opportunity, India…ranked within the bottom five, along with Pakistan, Syria, Yemen and Iraq. This again relates to the millions of women in India’s rural areas who are not part of the workforce. The lower percentage of females among the workforce will also relate to that fact that males outnumber females among the general population due to decades of sex-selective abortion. 

“While women are joining the labour market, many of these jobs will be comparatively low paid compared to the average male earnings. Illustrative of this, only 13.8 percent of the individuals on the board of directors members in India’s companies are women — underlining a lack of upward mobility for female employees.”

An environment of empowerment for all – regardless of gender – is key for workplaces. The recent exchange4media Women Achievers Awards saw SPAG Asia be named ‘Best Organisation for Women Empowerment’. Shivani Gupta, SPAG Asia’s managing director and chief happiness officer, was awarded ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’.

I interviewed Shivani Gupta for Health Issues India today. In our conversation, we discuss the necessity of empowerment and gender inclusivity; of rethinking gender-based stereotypes; and the importance of fostering a healthy working environment to enable the labour force to thrive. You can watch our interview here.

Shivani Gupta holds a dynamic and multidimensional work profile across different avenues of the communications industry and her role as co-founder and managing director at SPAG encapsulates that experience to form the founding pillars of strength behind the success of the firm. Her inspiration lies in the belief that teamwork and a positive work community play a pivotal role in achieving targets and successful results. Building a healthy culture within is lies at the core of SPAG’s philosophy and while instilling and sustaining a people-centric and people-friendly approach at the workplace, Shivani drives this culture and the workforce. That’s one of the positive forces behind a creatively charged, multidisciplinary, yet integrated communications entity.  
Shivani’s journey in PR and founding PRinIndia to focussing on people management and brand management at SPAG helps leverage her expertise in unique ways. She has worked with some of the leading PR firms and corporates and her journey across different roles in media relations, training, marketing, community relations, crisis management and internal communications has contributed immensely towards providing strategic and business direction to SPAG. An artist at heart, Shivani believes creativity is the ability to bring into existence something new when you have the willingness to play with ideas and possibilities. This approach of hers has been the catalyst for growth in terms of SPAG’s brand management. This has reflected largely during these challenging times amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Shivani’s outlook in terms of building a community of professionals tightly knit by core values of teamwork, equality and respect has driven the transition of work culture amidst crises. It is this approach that has continuously led SPAG to new heights with it becoming the preferred communications partner for clients.

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