NEW DELHI: NITI Aayog’s Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) is organizing the fifth edition of the Women Transforming India Awards (WTI) on 21 March 2022. This year, as part of the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav to celebrate 75 years of India’s independence, the WTI Awards will be conferred on 75 women achievers to celebrate their contribution towards a ‘Sashakt Aur Samarth Bharat’. In a show of solidarity and alliance, the Awards will be given by an equally exceptional group of women—Kiran Bedi, former Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry; Lakshmi Puri, former Assistant Secretary-General of UN; Dr Tessy Thomas, Director-General of Aeronautical Systems, DRDO; Arundhati Bhattacharya, former Chairperson of State Bank of India; Debjani Ghosh, President of NASSCOM; Ila Arun, acclaimed singer; Salma Sultan, former news anchor at DD; Dr Sangeeta Reddy, Joint Managing Director of Apollo Hospitals; and Shivani Malik, Managing Director of Da Milano Leathers. Sports champions Shiny Wilson, Track and Field Athlete; Karnam Malleswari, first Indian woman to win a medal in weightlifting in the 2000 Olympics; Lovlina Borgohain, Tokyo Olympic medallist in boxing; Mansi Joshi, World No. 1 para-badminton singles’ player in SL3; Pranati Naik, Tokyo 2020 Olympian gymnast and 2019 Asian Championship medallist; and Simranjit Kaur, Tokyo 2020 Olympian and 2018 AIBA World Championship medallist; and women defence officers will also attend the event. NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant and Senior Adviser Anna Roy; Shombi Sharp, UN Resident Coordinator in India; and Kailash Kher, who has written, composed and lent his voice to the WEP anthem, will be present at the event as well. The Women Transforming India Awards is NITI Aayog’s annual initiative to highlight the commendable and ground-breaking endeavours of India’s women leaders and change-makers. Applications for the WTI Awards ’21 were invited from 1 October 2021 to 21 February 2022, under one or more than one of the following seven categories: 1. Public and Community Service 2. Manufacturing Sector 3. Non-manufacturing Sector 4. Financial Products enabling Economic Growth 5. Climate Action 6. Promote Art, Culture and Handicrafts 7. Digital Innovation The 75 awardees represent different regions and sectors and have been selected through an elaborate process spanning several months. The awardees have been selected on the basis of nominations received on WEP and through shortlisting by a search-and-select committee. About Women Entrepreneurship Platform: Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) is an aggregator portal that aims to catalyse the entrepreneurial ecosystem for women and address information asymmetry. To build a vibrant ecosystem for women-led enterprises, the platform works to strengthen industry linkages and increase awareness of existing programmes and services. To date, more than 900 women entrepreneurs have been benefitted through 77 programmes and events hosted on the platform. The platform played an active role during Covid-19 by conducting webinars to provide business support to women entrepreneurs and through its Masking It Up campaign, whereby women-led small businesses in India that were adversely impacted were supported. Event details: Date: 21 March 2022 Time: 7–9 pm Watch It Here: https://tinyurl.com/WTIAwards Source: PIB