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MELBOURNE: Fourth India-Australia 2+2 Secretary-level Consultations - November 3, 2024
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TORONTO: India’s response to diplomatic communication from Canada - November 2, 2024
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NGERULMUD: Shri Harsh Kumar Jain concurrently accredited as the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Palau - November 1, 2024
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DHAKA: Statement on attack on Puja Mandap and desecration and damage to Hindu temples in Bangladesh - October 31, 2024
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KINGSTON: Shri Subhash Prasad Gupta concurrently accredited as the next High Commissioner of India to St.Vincent and the Grenadines - October 30, 2024
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STOCKHOLM: Dr. Neena Malhotra appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Kingdom of Sweden - October 29, 2024
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BEIRUT: Statement on recent developments in southern Lebanon - October 29, 2024
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BANGKOK: Meeting of Prime Minister with Prime Minister of Thailand - October 28, 2024
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NEW YORK: H1B Visa “Thing Of Past”: Union Minister Piyush Goyal After US Visit - October 28, 2024
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MOSCOW: Prime Minister meets with the President of the Russian Federation - October 27, 2024
HYDERABAD: Women make a mark in a field that has been a preserve of men
HYDERABAD: Diversity programmes are helping
women in India’s hardware industry. Some great role models too have emerged
The semiconductor industry has been dominated by men globally, more than most
industries. A survey by the Global Semiconductor Alliance and Accenture in 2019
showed that women represent about 20-25% of the industry workforce, falling to
under 10% in higher roles.
In India, industry-level figures are not easily available, but anecdotal
evidence suggests the numbers may be slightly better than the global ones. And
diversity and mentorship programmes are helping improve those numbers.
“How many times have we seen women being encouraged to do repair work,” asks
Jaya Singh, head of MSP (mixed signal processor) at Texas Instruments’ India
centre. I see that happening now, she says, but it was probably not done
consciously earlier. “We need to encourage girls to interact more with science
and technology right from the school level, and find ways to give them hands on
experience so that they gain an appreciation for this field,” she says.
MSP microcontroller is part of the embedded processing business which develops
system-on-chips (SoCs) that are affordable, ultra-low-power with integrated
digital and analog peripherals. These devices have applications in industrial
automotive, washing machine, blood glucometer and even drones.
Singh, an alumnus of IIT Roorkee and with Texas Instruments since 2001, leads a
team of more than 50 people in India which is responsible from architecture to
productisation – implementation, tape-out and post silicon release to market
enablement. “When you look around, electronics is everywhere. Why wouldn’t you
want to be a part of this journey. I personally wake up every day and get
excited to think that what I do matters at a broader level,” she says.
Just like her, Anasua Bhowmik of AMD too was fascinated with hardware design
ever since she studied engineering at Jadavpur University. Hardware, she feels,
deals with the fundamentals of how machines work, unlike software which can be
sometimes abstract.
This is a
continuously evolving field where you need to keep learning. At the same time,
you need role models, as a lot of the time you feel that you do not belong
there.
Bhowmik, who did her PhD from the
University of Maryland, is also the first woman engineer to become a Fellow at
AMD India and over the years, has built her expertise in microprocessor design,
performance analysis, simulation and compiler design. Fellows are among the
highest-ranking designations in the engineering stream at AMD.
Chip designing, she says, is a continuously evolving field, and applications we
were looking at a few years ago have changed. “It is the desire to learn
continuously that has kept me going. If we are focused on learning, your career
will fall in place,” she says. Her team, comprising 14 members, half of whom
are women, works on performance markers for chips.
Seema Malhotra, senior manager in the memory technology team at Western
Digital, feels one of the ways to bring more women into the hardware industry
is to build greater collaboration between the industry and schools and
colleges, which would help students understand the prospects of the course.
“The college I studied in had a partnership with Intel. Somebody needs to tell
you where you will reach and the impact you can have in this industry,” says
Malhotra, who found the motivation to join after visiting an Intel office in
Silicon Valley in the late 90’s. She and her team of 20 people currently work
on the physical design of a chip before it is sent for manufacturing.
What helped me was the belief
that I am meant to work. For me, career and lifestyle are negotiable, work and
financial independence are not. I don’t know if I overcame challenges, I
survived them.
Sumedha Limaye, general manager,
Intel India
What is more encouraging, Malhotra of Western Digital says, is that now there
are more women at the mid-level and entry level, and even at the top. “Top
managements understand how diversity is important. Creativity comes when two
different worksets come together,” she says.
However, Singh, Bhowmik and Malhotra also point out that the lack of many role
models in the industry has discouraged women. This is true, but the scenario
appears also to be changing fast. Women now lead three of the leading hardware
companies and/or their R&D operations in India. Nivruti Rai has led Intel
India for over five years now, and is also the head of Intel’s data centre
group. Supria Dhanda leads Western Digital in India, Jaya Jagadish leads AMD’s
engineering and R&D operations in India.
Texas Instruments’ Singh indicates the issue is not just about women role
models, but about hardware itself not getting the kind of attention software,
for instance, gets. But even that is now beginning to change, as the government
seeks to reduce its dependence on China and Taiwan for electronics and semiconductors.
Do not
shy away from any challenges and you do not have to be perfect. Try to do
things differently. Sometimes also blow your own trumpet to make yourself
visible.
To encourage more women to excel
in the technology career path, Texas Instruments has a programme that gives
women access to mentorship under technical leaders. “Women need holistic
support at various life stages and the most important is mentorship. This programme
deals with advising women on the kinds of assignments one needs to take up to
advance, what types of courses to do, how to approach problems differently,”
says Singh.
Sumedha Limaye, general manager
of Xeon and network engineering at Intel India, says the realities of being a
woman include dealing with work and home responsibilities, which is a constant
challenge. “There were several points in life when the going got tough. That is
when my mentors and the support system of family and friends helped me carry
on,” she says.
Employers, she says, must have
policies that enable women to build careers despite ups and downs related to
marriage, childbirth and elderly care. Her team has been at the forefront of
innovations for leadership products in the server, networking and 5G spaces.