Saundarya Rajesh

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Saundarya Rajesh
Born1968 (age 55–56)
Bangalore, India
NationalityIndian
Alma materUniversity of Madras
Pondicherry School of Management
Occupation(s)Entrepreneur, Founder-president of Avtar Group
Organization(s)Avtar Group
Bruhat Insights Global
Avtar Human Capital Trust
Project Puthri
Notable workThe 99 Day Diversity Challenge (2018)
SpouseV. Rajesh[1]
Children2

Saundarya Rajesh (born 1968) is an Entrepreneur who is the founder and president of Avtar Group.

Minister of Women and Child Development for her work.[9] She received the Women Transforming India Award from the NITI Aayog and the United Nations in 2016.[10][6]
Her debut book, The 99 Day Diversity Challenge: Creating an Inclusive Workplace (2018), was published by

Early life and education

She holds a degree in

US government for International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP).[13] Later, she completed her PhD in women's workforce participation. [13]

Career

Saundarya started her career with Citibank in 1990. She took a break from her career on becoming a mother. She later worked as a producer and compere for All India Radio and Doordarshan between 1992–95, after which she was a part-time lecturer at MOP Vaishnav College for Women in Chennai between 1996-2003.[1]

In 2000, she founded her first venture Avtar Career Creators,[14] later relaunched as Bruhat Insights Global, an AI-powered recruitment firm. In 2005, Saundarya launched Avtar I-Win to help women find a second career after a break.[13][15] In 2008, Saundarya founded Avtar Human Capital Trust, a not-for-profit organization working towards economic empowerment of women.[16] She founded Flexi Careers India in 2011.[13]

She runs an initiative called Project Puthri, which aims to create Career Intentionality among underprivileged girl students between the age group 13 to 18. Another initiative she runs is MITR (Men Impacting Trust & Respect), which educates and empowers boys from classes IX to XII to become inclusive and empathetic towards females.[17]

In 2019, she gave a TEDx talk on the topic of Second Careers for Women – Re-innervating an important resource, in which she emphasizes the importance of women’s participation in the Indian workforce through a series of anecdotes and research.[18]

Awards and recognition

She was awarded the ‘100 Women Achievers of India’ in 2016 by the

Women Transforming India award".[6] In March 2019, on the occasion of International Women's Day, Saundarya was awarded the WebWonderWomen Award by the Ministry of Women and Child Development in collaboration with Twitter India. The award was presented by Maneka Gandhi, the Union Minister of Women and Child Development.[19]

She has received many other awards such as:

Personal life

She is married to V. Rajesh, whom she met at business school. They have two children, a son and a daughter. She resides in Chennai, India.[1]

See also

References

  1. ^
    The Hindu Business Line
    . 30 June 2014.
  2. ^ "'Added Perspective': Avtar Group's Saundarya Rajesh on importance of regional diversity in the workplace". Retrieved 19 October 2022.
  3. ^ Jaffer, Askari (6 July 2020). "Restarting careers of women who took break". The Hans India.
  4. Daily Thanthi. Archived from the original
    on 6 March 2016.
  5. ^ Dey, Debjeet (25 September 2019). "Helping women take a new 'Avtar' in their career re-entry". Deccan Chronicle.
  6. ^
    Financial Express (India)
    .
  7. ^ Balaji, Kavya (16 June 2017). "'Project Puthri a step towards women's development'". The Hindu.
  8. New Indian Express
    .
  9. ^
    Times of India
    .
  10. ^ "Women Transforming India » United Nations in India". United Nations. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
  11. ^ Murdeshwar, Sachin (29 November 2018). "The 99 Day Diversity Challenge comes to Mumbai; Insights on D&I from the book discussed with an eminent panel". APN News.
  12. S2CID 249690579.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of March 2024 (link
    )
  13. ^ a b c d Warrier, Shobha (21 January 2016). "She helps women find a career after a break". Rediff.com.
  14. New Indian Express
    .
  15. ^ Venkatraman, Hemamalini (9 October 2016). "'Businesses do not run on love and fresh air'". DT Next. Archived from the original on 12 October 2022.
  16. ^ James, Merin (15 February 2017). "Awakening the girl child". The Asian Age.
  17. ^ Poorvaja, S. (18 July 2019). "Gender sensitivity and inclusion now brought into classroom". The Hindu.
  18. TEDx Talks
    . 16 November 2019.
  19. ^ Prakash, Adhunika (7 March 2019). "International Women's Day: Centre honours 'Web Wonder Women' for driving exceptional reforms via social media". WION.
  20. ^ "Dr Saundarya Rajesh first Indian to be conferred with the Prestigious "Winds of Change" Award". The Hans India. 18 January 2019.
  21. ^ "Past Diversity Award Winners". The Forum on Workplace Inclusion, Augsburg University.
  22. ^ "35 Chevening Changemakers". 35 chevening.org.
  23. ^ "Saundarya Rajesh Profile". chevening.org.
  24. ^ Rajesh, Saundarya (16 March 2019). "Achievers from Chennai honoured by Rotary Club". The Times of India.
  25. ^ Agarwal, Shilpa (7 March 2014). "A rewarding experience". The Hindu.
  26. ^ a b c d Rajesh, Dr.Saundarya. "Award". 3.wearethecity.
  27. ^ Rajesh, Dr.Saundarya (3 October 2011). "Award".
  28. ISSN 2349-0349
    .
  29. New Indian Express
    . 9 February 2011.

External links