Mukesh Ambani has called on Indian businesses to work collectively on a stronger support system for working women and working mothers, arguing that corporate India still has considerable ground to cover.
Speaking in Mumbai at the launch of Aparajita, the Hindi translation of former SBI Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya’s memoir Indomitable: A Working Woman’s Notes on Life, Work and Leadership, Ambani said women should no longer be seen merely as beneficiaries of development but as people actively shaping it.
His most concrete proposal was directed at business leaders. He urged India Inc to collectively create an initiative that strengthens the ecosystem around working women and mothers, and said the Reliance Foundation would participate alongside other organisations.
The emphasis was on an ecosystem, not one policy
Here is something important to remember.
Support for working women is often discussed through individual policies:
- maternity leave;
- childcare;
- flexible work;
- returnships;
- leadership programmes;
- health support.
Ambani’s intervention suggested a broader approach in which companies work together rather than solve each issue independently. He asked Bhattacharya and other accomplished women leaders to help guide such an effort, telling them, “You take leadership, we will follow you.”
The remark shifts some of the emphasis from designing support for women to involving experienced women directly in defining what that support should look like.
India has improved women’s participation. Retention remains harder.
The timing is relevant.
Women’s labour-force participation in India has risen substantially over recent years, but participation alone does not ensure long careers.
Change in Content recently examined why helping women stay in work requires more than hiring and training, particularly when childcare, eldercare, transport, health, workplace design and unpaid domestic work continue to shape career continuity.
The maternity transition remains one of the clearest pressure points.
Our analysis of women leaving jobs after childbirth highlighted how return-to-work support, childcare, manager behaviour and shared parenting can determine whether maternity becomes a temporary pause or a permanent career exit.
That is why the word ecosystem may be more useful than another standalone programme. A woman’s ability to continue working is rarely determined by one HR benefit. It is shaped by what surrounds the job.
Ambani also linked women’s leadership with India’s growth
Ambani described India as moving from women’s development towards women-led development, and pointed to women leading across business, science, sport, the armed forces and communities. He also said corporate India still had “a very long way to go” in ensuring women receive what they deserve professionally.
The challenge now is turning that recognition into something operational.
A collective initiative would need to answer practical questions.
- What makes women leave?
- Which interventions help them stay?
- How can smaller employers participate?
- How should childcare and eldercare be addressed?
- What should companies do differently after maternity leave?
- How can men be brought more fully into caregiving?
- And what does support look like outside large white-collar workplaces?
If India Inc does eventually act collectively, those questions will matter more than another declaration of intent.
Change in Perspective
There is no shortage of corporate programmes aimed at women. The harder problem is that many operate separately from one another.
- A returnship cannot compensate for poor childcare.
- Flexible work cannot repair a stalled promotion system.
- Leadership training cannot solve a workplace that loses women after motherhood.
The more interesting part of Mukesh Ambani’s proposal is therefore not that corporate India should “support women”. It is the suggestion that companies should build the conditions around a woman’s working life together.
That is a much bigger undertaking. And potentially a more useful one.
Editorial Note & Source
This article reports remarks made by Mukesh Ambani at the Mumbai launch of Aparajita, the Hindi edition of Arundhati Bhattacharya’s memoir.
The Economic Times/PTI — Ambani calls upon India Inc to collectively launch an ecosystem that supports working women, 10 September 2026.
