Watch Sangita Reddy, President, FICCI, speak about women entrepreneurship and economic leadership at the Global Trends Festival 2020

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Sangita Reddy dons many hats — from breaking the barriers in the competitive landscape to revolutionising healthcare. When she took over as the FICCI President in December last year, Sangita Reddy was preparing to drive women’s participation in the economy as it was preparing for a $5 trillion economy. Unfortunately, the global economy went into The Great Lockdown, changing all the theories of the past.

Still, the youngest daughter of the legendary founder of Apollo Hospitals, Prathap Reddy, is not in unchartered waters. Apart from driving efforts from the healthcare perspective, she, along with FICCI, had devised a guideline called ‘Life After Lockdown’ as early as May. It included creating clusters for those going back to work, the creation of sick bays, and much more.

Fighting against adversities and working her way up the ranks is not new to her. She worked at Apollo Hospitals right out of college, leaving a hospital administration course incomplete. And in the 90s, when she came back from the US yet again to join her father’s company, it was not in the best of financial health. Their hospital was losing money, and the networth was ‘almost wiped out.’ Yet, slowly with marketing and other efforts, it repaid all the loans, and now it is amongst the top hospital chains in the country.

Reddy has since been actively involved in running many health campaigns about healthy eating and the hospital chain's many philanthropic initiatives. When the COVID pandemic gripped the nation, she spread awareness on plasma donation and sounded warning bells to governments and institutions to 'prepare for the next pandemic. She has also been worried about the effect Covid-19 has on the financial stability of women.

“The negative impact of the pandemic has been acute on women. Women-owned businesses, largely found in areas like tourism, education, beauty, designing, are amongst the hardest-hit segments,” she told Economic Times in an interview.

At the Global Trends festival, Reddy will speak on this subject of women entrepreneurs and their potential to bring about tangible change in the industry as well as society at large.


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