Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that a new working group on women empowerment is being established under India’s G20 presidency. In his address at the G20 Ministerial Conference on Women Empowerment held in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, the Prime Minister lauded the focus of the conference on women's entrepreneurship, leadership and education and expressed delight at the launch of the ‘tech-equity platform’ to enhance digital and financial literacy for women.

"When women prosper, the world prospers,” the Prime Minister said maintaining that women’s economic empowerment fuels growth and their access to education drives global progress. He mentioned that female leadership fosters inclusivity and their voices inspire positive change. According to him, the most effective way to empower women is through a women-led development approach and India is making huge strides in this direction.

The PM noted that elected women representatives have been key agents of economic, environmental and social change. He informed that 46 per cent of elected representatives in rural local bodies in India are women. Underlining that the mobilization of women into self-help groups has also been a powerful force for change, PM Modi said that the self-help groups and elected women representatives were pillars of support during the pandemic. “More than 80% of nurses and midwives in India are women. They were our first line of defence during the pandemic. And, we are proud of their achievements”, he said.

The PM also highlighted that women entrepreneurs are significant contributors to the global economy, pointing out that in India, about 15 per cent of unicorn startups have at least a woman founder and the combined value of these women-led unicorns is over US $40 billion. In this direction, he emphasized working towards removing the barriers that restrict women from access to markets, global value chains, and affordable finance.