WOMEN SPECIAL ............ Women have been the Unsung Authors of India’s Economic Growth

Women have been the Unsung Authors of India’s Economic Growth     In many ways, the story of India’s transformation over the past four decades is a story of the advancement of our women. From the young women who left their homes to work in the factories in the 1970s and 80s, to the pioneers who blazed a trail through top educational institutions. The strides made by women in all spheres have reshaped the country. Today, they are starting to reap the rewards of their hard work. Educated, empowered and employed in ways their grandmothers could only dream about, a new class of women are bending the region’s rich cultural legacy to a more egalitarian and prosperous future. More women are not only making their own money, they are keeping control of it when they marry. They are not only investing their assets, they are running financial institutions. The financial power now exercised by women is changing consumer and investment markets beyond recognition. A report from the Boston Consulting Group a few years ago estimated that the percentage of wealth controlled by women in Asia ex Japan was growing at 30 per cent a year. The growing affluence and influence of Indian women is partially a factor of India getting broadly wealthier, but that effect has been amplified by changing social attitudes, better access to education, greater social mobility and a new class of female entrepreneurs. But if India is becoming a country of more equal opportunities, it would be a mistake to think its women want exactly the same thing as men, especially when it comes to finance. Women treat wealth differently. They aspire to create wealth for different reasons than men, and they have distinctively different – and in many cases more successful -- investment patterns. For our increasingly affluent female clients, wealth is less of an end in itself than a buffer against hardship, a door to new opportunities, and a resource to support their families. We are seeing a pattern start to emerge. A young woman might start off conservatively, and already be in a position to buy an investment property in her 20s before becoming more active in the equities market in her 30s and 40s as she generates funds for education and family travel, before returning to property in her 50s and 60s for retirement income, and maybe a residence for her parents or adult children. India’s changing demographics are likely to amplify these trends. Women are beginning to earn substantial amounts earlier in their career, but they and their parents are living longer and require more substantial planning for old age. It is indicative of how the financial emancipation of Indian women is a recent phenomenon that this last stage of financial planning is perhaps the least recognised by our female clients. Our research shows that on average women are still under-prepared for retirement. Women are still not doing enough to invest in their future. It tends to surprise women -- and sometimes the financial institutions that serve them -- just how good many of us are at investing. Recent research by HSBC Private Bank into asset management fund performance across Asia over the first 11 months of last year indicates that those run by women outperformed the broader index by more than 3.6 percentage points, a data point which echoes other research across different asset classes and timescales. Far from the innocents doomed to become prey in male dominated investment markets, women are beating men at their own game. And our research shows that the traits which make them successful are transferrable into the arena of private investing. Women tend to show greater selfdiscipline in sticking to their strategies, avoiding the common problem of over-trading. Research from the University of Michigan a few years ago showed that on average men trade 56 per cent more than women, a habit which not only carries costs in and of itself, but also significantly increases the probability of so-called market timing: buying at the top of the market and selling at the bottom. HSBC’s research also says women are less prone to overconfidence and “therefore less likely to be deluded into believing they know more than they do”. They also tend to plan more effectively for an unexpected crisis. Women look out for the next storm and prepare for inevitable uncertainty. Women have been the unsung authors of India’s economic growth. Yet, I am positive that the future brings with it many more opportunities -– and will give them an even greater canvas to fulfil their potential. GOOGLE COMMITS $1MN TO BRING MORE WOMEN INTO TECHNOLOGY SECTOR Search engine giant Google has committed USD one million (over 6 crore) to 40 startup-focused organisations, including Nasscom 10,000 Startups and Jagriti Yatra from India, to promote participation of women in the technology space. The efforts, a part of ‘#40 Forward’ programme under Google for Entrepreneurs’, are aimed at finding new ways to advance female entrepreneurs, the Internet giant said ahead of International Women’s Day. Google is committing USD 1 million in aggregate to 40 startup-focused organisations, challenging them to increase the representation of women in their respective tech communities, it added. According to the National Association of Women Business Owners, women make up 30 per cent of US business owners and employ nearly 7.8 million workers. Even though women-owned enterprises operate with far less capital, in the venture-backed tech industry, they produce 12 per cent higher returns.     New Delhi|PTI