Since the March 2019 issue, The Machinist magazine has been consistently featuring a story on ‘Women in Manufacturing'. A highpoint was the previous issue (October 2019), when we featured a woman leader on our Cover for the first time ever since we re-launched the magazine in January 2014. Okay, I admit, we should have done it much better. But then, we did not want to do it for the sake of it. Only when we found a leader worthy of it that we decided to put her on the Cover. I am sure there are many such worthy leaders around and going ahead we will be looking out for them more carefully and diligently.
Another remarkable milestone in this journey was the ‘Women Leaders in Manufacturing' panel discussion at the 2019 Super Shopfloor Awards in Bengaluru. We broke away from the tradition of having a CEO panel with all men and invited only women for this panel. Of course, the discussion received overwhelmingly positive response from the audience that comprised primarily of male attendees. As a publication and a media house, we have always taken a lead in espousing just causes. This initiative about promoting 'women in manufacturing' is very much in line with that legacy. And sure enough, the women in manufacturing feature will continue to grow in the issues to come. I am equally sure that the industry will also come ahead to support and encourage us in this initiative that we hope to build into a movement.