BRICS 2026: Women can lead sustainable growth, says Avarna Jain; BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj calls for women-led governance

In the run-up to the BRICS summit in New Delhi later this week, the BRICS Women's Business Alliance (WBA) today emphasised that women's participation has the potential to create inclusive and sustainable growth.

Speaking at the BRICS WBA Women-Led Development Summit & Exhibition today, Avarna Jain, BRICS WBA Global Chairperson, stressed on inclusivity. BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj said BRICS’ diversity is not a weakness, but the strength that drives the BRICS family. WBA is a dedicated forum aimed at enhancing women's economic participation and entrepreneurship within BRICS nations.

“Under India’s BRICS Presidency, the emphasis has been on building for resilience, innovation, cooperation and sustainability,” said Jain, Vice Chairperson, Saregama India and Chairperson, RPSG Lifestyle.

“This vision recognises that when women can participate fully, build enterprises, create employment, innovate, invest and lead, they strengthen economic growth and contribute to more resilient, innovative, inclusive and sustainable economies,” said Jain.

Swaraj called for participation of women in policymaking as well. “We need women to be participants in the policymaking aspect as well. Every time you economically empower a woman, you are not initiating the story of one individual, it translates to the entire familial unit of the women,” Swaraj said at the summit.

“When you have empowered families, it leads to having empowered societies, empowered societies lead to empowered nations, and empowered nations leads to a peaceful world,” she added.

Women leaders called for access to capital for women and higher participation for GDP growth.

“Capital finds talent, but talent does not always find capital. Somewhere between the two sits access, access to networks, mentors, boardrooms, to the rooms where decisions are made. Our task, individually and collectively, is to close that distance,” said Naina Lal Kidwai, Past President, FICCI and Chairperson, Rothschild & Co India.

“For any country to achieve its desired GDP, it cannot ignore the women, as it is still an untapped workforce, so we all have to ensure that this workforce gets tapped,” said Jyotsna Suri, Past President, FICCI and CMD, Bharat Hotels Limited.

Ficci secretary general Anant Swarup said women-led development is no longer a chapter in the growth story; it is increasingly the plot. “In India we are seeing women move to the front of enterprise, technology, finance and public rise not as beneficiaries of growth, but as its authors,” he added.

“During the session, FICCI-BRICS WBA-EY knowledge paper on ‘Digital Public Infrastructure: Enabling Women-Led Development’ and FICCI-BRICS WBA-Women’s World Banking paper on ‘Beyond Access: Women’s Economic Empowerment & Resilience Across BRICS Nations’ were released,” a release from Ficci said.