The World Economic Forum will be led entirely by women this year, and a trailblazing entrepreneur and advocate from India will be one of the co-chairs.
The summit in Davos, Switzerland is the world's leading organization and meeting addressing international economic issues; tackling everything from political and academic topics to opportunities and problems in industries and around the world. The summit is usually led predominantly by men, and this will be the first time in its 48-year history that it will be co-chaired entirely by women.
Chetna Sinha; founder and chair of India's Mann Deshi Foundation, which supports female entrepreneurs; will join others including International Monetary Fund Director Christine Lagarde and Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg.
Sinha has made a career supporting women entrepreneurs—especially rural women entrepreneurs—in India.
Click through to learn more about Sinha's work and the Mann Deshi Foundation, as well as the discussion she will be leading with other women at WEF about "how to create a shared future in a fractured world."
To learn more about the World Economic Forum, visit www.weforum.org.
While Narendra Modi will be the first Indian Prime Minister to attend the World Economic Forum in two decades at Davos and all eyes would be on his skills to hard-sell India Inc in the wake of recent reforms to top CEOs of the world, Indian entrepreneur Chetna Sinha will be creating history by becoming a part of ‘all-women’ co-chairs for the first time in 48 years. Chetna Sinha will join world women leaders and entrepreneurs, including IMF Director Christine Lagarde and former Norwegian PM Erna Solberg.
Chetna Sinha is a banker, activist and the president of micro-finance company Mann Deshi Mahila Sahkari Bank. Called a ‘silent crusader’ by Forbes magazine, Chetna Sinha has worked to make Maharashtra’s Mhaswad a destination for women entrepreneurship. Mann Deshi Mahila Sahkari Bank became the first bank in the country for and by rural women to get a cooperative license from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Chetna Sinha’s Mann Deshi Mahila Sahkari Bank aims to provide one million women entrepreneurs with access to knowledge and capital, enabling them to have personal and professional agency in their lives. According to Yale World Fellows, Chetna Sinha abandoned the urban lifestyle to pursue a career in farming in the drought-prone area of Maharashtra. As a result, she experienced first-hand the difficulties facing women in this region, from the lack of financial support to the fact that they were not treated as viable entrepreneurs.