Diversity Mahotsav 2022

Venue: Virtual
Date / Timing: 01 Dec, 2022 - 23-Dec-2022

As we come close to the end of the year, we at Avtar Group are turning the voltage on Diversity!

myAvtar.com, India’s No.1 Diversity Portal presents the Second Edition of Diversity Mahotsav, a specially curated festival of sharing, learning, celebrating the uniqueness of every individual and carrying with us the promise of inclusion into the New Year! 

For this year’s #DiversityMahotsav, we invite role model organizations to devote 16 days to celebrating inclusivity and belongingness with a set of initiatives for its leaders, employees, vendors, suppliers, and the community at large. This year, we are expanding our reach to HEIs (Higher Education Institutions) to promote awareness of DEI among students who are our future corporate citizens.

What’s in it for you?

  • Listen to industry experts on topics from the comfort of your homes 
  • Attend workshops 
  • Gain insights on topics such as Mental Health, Neurodiversity, Women in Manufacturing/STEM/Sales, Allyship, Career Return and more
  • Be part of the biggest Diversity gala ever!

Various events of sharing, learning, celebrating the uniqueness of every human being and carrying with us the promise of inclusion into the new year! That is #DiversityMahotsav.

16 days of a series of activities, conversations and virtual events, absolutely with NO registration cost.

AGENDA
Time
Program Description
Dec 1, 2022 - 4 to 5 PM

Inauguration of the Diversity Mahotsav

  • Inaugural Address by Dr Saundarya Rajesh Founder President, Avtar Group

Fire side chat with Anita Bhogle, Partner, Prosearch Consultants, Author, Equal Yet Different 

Dec 2, 2022 - 4 to 5 PM

Lightning Talks: The Power of Differentness  - Zehn Kashyap, Activist, Changemaker 

Redefining Abilities  - Swarnalatha J, Founder & Managing Trustee, Swarag Foundation  

Dec 5, 2022 - 4 to 5 PM

Returning from a Break  - Cracking the Career breaks: The mother/father Code  

This panel comprising men and women professionals who have made successful comebacks to their careers. The professionals will share their personal segueing stories.  

  • Anjali Sharma
  • Javed Akhhtar   
  • Chitradevi Rathinam 
  • Amitha Yeleti 
Dec 6, 2022 - 4 to 5 PM

Skills that Win : Acing the Second Career Interview  

  • Lakshmi Jeyaraman, Divisional Manager – Consulting & Solutions, Avtar Group  
Dec 7, 2022 - 4 to 5 PM

Women in Sales: Fire-side chat : Elevate & Influence  

For women sales professionals it is no longer selling products & services, it is about challenging the status quo. Let’s listen to established women sales professionals on their challenges and how they overcame the same.  

  • Revathy Sarma, Marketing Manager S&M, Saint Gobain India Pvt Limited 
  • Priya Kadam, Business Analyst, Bayer  
  • Janani Suryanarayanan , Associate Specialist – Proposals, KBR 
Dec 8, 2022 - 4 to 5 PM

Workshop : Resume Building  

  • Rekha Manola, Talent Acquisition DE&I program manager & APJ R&D hiring Lead, Talent Evangelist Talent Acquisition, HP Inc, India  
Dec 12, 2022 - 4 to 5 PM

Building Meaningful Inclusion beyond Pride Month ~ a panel discussion 

  • Anyra Dayaseelan - VOV Communication, Project Coordinator, VMware
  • Bharathan Iyer - Senior PMO Analyst, Network Champion, Pride Charter, Allianz Technology India
  • Shreya V - Team Leader, Human Resources, World Glass Complex, Saint Gobain Glass India Pvt. Limited
Dec 13, 2022 - 4 to 5 PM

Panel Discussion : Creating Inclusive Campuses in India 

  • Dr Himanshi Tiwari, Assistant Professor, Faculty of OB, HRM, ?Diversity & Inclusion?, BIMTECH, NOIDA  
  • Dr Sajeet Pradhan, Associate Professor, ?Organizational Behaviour & Human Resource Management, IIM Trichy
  • Dr Shiji Lyndon, Assistant Professor, ?KJ Somaiya Mumbai ?
  • Moderator -  A S Girish, Professor & Dean, XIME Kochi and Former HR Head & HR Advisor at Apollo Tyres Ltd, India 
Dec 14, 2022 - 4 to 5 PM

Lightning Talks : Journey towards Building Mindful Allies

• Shreya V, Team Leader, Human Resources, World Glass Complex, Saint-Gobain Glass India Pvt. Ltd 
• N S Venkata Murugan, Team Leader, Operations & Head DTI India, Saint-Gobain India Pvt Ltd 
 

Dec 15, 2022 - 4 to 5 PM

Goal Orientedness

A workshop by Dr. Nandini Murali, PhD, Vice President – Learning & Research, Avtar Group 

Dec 16, 2022 - 4 to 5 PM

 Leveraging Transferable Skill Sets - Spotlight 

  • Praful Baweja?, Queer Neurodivergent Entrepreneur, ?Experiential Marketing & ?Inclusive Recruitment Consultant,? Awarded Storyteller
  • Savitha Singh?, Ex-Indian Air force Pilot, Helicopter Pilot?, Indopacific Aviation Pvt. Ltd 
Dec 19, 2022 - 4 to 5 PM

Workshop: Disability Awareness Orientation and Introduction to Indian Sign Language 

Shiva Jayagopal - Founder Chairman WinVinaya Foundation and Founder Director WinVinaya Infosystems

  • Introduction to Common Disability Categories   
  • Right terminology – Dos & Don'ts when interacting with PWDs 
  • Unconscious bias that we must avoid during the conversation with PWD candidates. 
  • Understand how a person with Visual impairment (VI) will work with computers – Demo by Visually Impaired employee. 
  • Understanding the work culture of deaf candidates - By deaf employee 
  • Best practices followed by inclusive companies. 
Dec 20, 2022 - 4 to 5 PM

Skilling, Upskilling and Reskilling: The Right way to advance your career  

  • Manju Bharadwaj - Chief People Officer, Straive 
  • Padmini Priyadarsini Gorthi - Head of Design,India at KONE 
  • Karthik Ekambaram, Executive Vice President, Director, Avtar Group 

Investing in oneself in the professional growth journey comes from a mindset where you want to be prepared for the unknown future. Skilling, Upskilling and Reskilling are a critical part of this equation. According to a research, by 2022, at least 54% of all employees will require significant reskilling and upskilling. The half-life of a job skill today is about five years – and falling. For all employees – gender agnostic -- around the world to thrive throughout and beyond the 2020s, will have to invest in comprehensive training programs particularly in digital and data and analytics. Women professionals often do a lot of hemming and hawing before they enroll for any training programs. This esteemed panel comprising L&D Heads will talk about the importance for skilling, upskilling and reskilling programs for women professionals and how these trainings can lead them to a successful career path.  

The speakers will dwell into the following: 

  • Why do women hold themselves back when it comes to training programs even when they are offered at no cost?  
  • What is the importance of developing a growth mindset?  
  • How do upskilling programs enable the same? 
  • One of the reasons why women professionals hold themselves back is they don’t see the return on investment?  
  • How can L&D heads show clear returns while offering training programs to women professionals? 
Dec 21, 2022: 4 - 6.30 PM

Diversathon  

Diversathon is one of the events created as part of Diversity Mahotsav, an entire month where we celebrate the diversity and uniqueness around us with immense learning & sharing done by thought leaders and role models in this area. This is a dedicated event for educational institutions where we invite them to nominate teams to present original papers on various topics in the field of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in education institutions. The theme for this year is “Towards BIG Impact – Creating Inclusive Campuses in India”. 

  • BIMTECH Noida 
  • Gitam Business School, Hyderabad 
  • KJ Somaiya, Mumbai 
  • SIES College of Management Studies, Mumbai 
  • TISS Hyderabad 
  • XLRI Jamshedpur 
Dec 22, 2022 - 4 to 5 PM

DIY Workshop - Break the Monotony: Breaking barriers and biases  

  • Priya Vaidyanathan, Program Manager – customer connect & HEAD IT, Saint Gobain India Private Limited  
Dec 23, 2022 - 4 to 5 PM

Splice Band Music  

Keynote Conversation:

  • Surekha Desai, Sr Vice President, Customer Service, Vodafone Group   
  • Umasanker Kandaswamy, Co-founder, Sr Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Avtar Group

Announcements of Diversathon Winners

Closing Address by Dr Saundarya Rajesh

SPEAKERS

Dr Saundarya Rajesh
Founder – President
Avtar Group

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Anita Bhogle
Author, Equal Yet Different
Partner - Prosearch Consultants

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Zehn Kashyap
Activist
Changemaker

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Janani Suryanarayanan
Associate Specialist – Proposals
KBR

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Priya Kadam
Business Analyst
Bayer

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Revathy Sarma
Marketing Manager S&M
Saint Gobain India Pvt Limited

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Rekha Manola
India Talent Acquisition DE&I program manager & APJ R&D hiring Lead
HP Inc

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Anyra Dayaseelan
VOV Communication, Project Coordinator
VMware

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Bharathan Iyer
Senior PMO Analyst, Network Champion, Pride Charter,
Allianz Technology India

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Shreya V
Team Leader, Human Resources, World Glass Complex
Saint Gobain Glass India Pvt. Limited

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Dr Himanshi Tiwari
Assistant Professor, Faculty of OB, HRM, ?Diversity & Inclusion?
BIMTECH, NOIDA

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Dr Sajeet Pradhan
Associate Professor, ?Organizational Behaviour & Human Resource Management
IIM Trichy

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Dr Shiji Lyndon
Assistant Professor
K J Somaiya Institute of Management (KJSIM), Mumbai

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Prof. A S Girish
Professor & Dean, XIME Kochi
Former HR Head & HR Advisor at Apollo Tyres Ltd, India

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Mr. Venkata Murugan
Team Leader Operations & Head DTI India
Saint-Gobain India Pvt Ltd

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Dr Nandini Murali
Vice President – Learning & Research
Avtar Group

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Capt Savita Singh
Ex-Indian Air force Pilot, Helicopter Pilot
Indopacific Aviation Pvt. Ltd

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Praful Baweja
Queer Neurodivergent Entrepreneur, Experiential Marketing & Inclusive Recruitment Consultant
? Awarded Storyteller?

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Shiva Jayagopal
Founder Chairman WinVinaya Foundation
Founder Director WinVinaya Infosystems

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Manju Bharadwaj
Chief people Officer
Straive

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Padmini Priyadarsini Gorthi
Head of Design
KONE Elevator India Private Limited

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Karthik Ekambaram
Executive Vice President & Director - DEI Solutions
Avtar Group

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Priya Vaidyanathan
Program Manager – Customer Connect, HEAD IT
Saint Gobain India Private Limited

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Surekha K Desai
Senior Vice President, Customer Operations? Head, India Center for Care?
Vodafone Group

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Umasanker Kandaswamy
Co-Founder, Sr Vice President – Sales & Relationships
Avtar Group

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