Sitharaman urges women students to build financial literacy, embrace AI

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday urged women students to develop financial literacy, acquire new skills and learn to use artificial intelligence, saying education must translate into greater opportunities for employment, entrepreneurship and leadership.

Addressing the platinum jubilee celebrations of Seethalakshmi Ramaswami College in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, Sitharaman said women must understand how to manage their money, including savings in bank accounts, fixed deposits and investments in the stock market.

“Most importantly, women need financial literacy. We need to understand how to handle our money in the bank, in the fixed deposit, or in the stock market,” she said.

The Finance Minister also stressed the importance of digital literacy, particularly as technology and AI reshape the workplace. She urged students to learn how to use emerging technologies and develop skills that would help them contribute to society.

“We need to be in a position where we can take over artificial intelligence. What can we do with artificial intelligence? How can we use it? You have to learn that,” she said.

Women’s education must create opportunities

Sitharaman spoke about the progress made in women's education since the college was established in 1951. She recalled that fewer than one in 10 women in India could read and write at the time, while the institution had grown from a thatched building with 11 girls to a campus serving nearly 4,500 women.

Citing the All India Survey on Higher Education for 2023-24, she said the female gross enrolment ratio in higher education had exceeded that of men for the seventh consecutive year.

“Today, women excel both in number and in quality. Our responsibility now, therefore, is to ensure that progress in education opens greater opportunities for employment, for enterprise, and also for leadership,” she said.

She also referred to women's participation in entrepreneurship, saying about two-thirds of Mudra loans had gone to women. Sitharaman added that three crore rural women had become Lakhpati Didis, while the national target had been raised to six crore.

The Finance Minister urged students not to limit their ambitions and to treat learning as a lifelong process.

“You don't need anybody's permission now, to dream,” she said, encouraging students to keep acquiring skills and remain open to new opportunities.

Calls for stronger research ecosystem

Sitharaman urged the college to expand its research capabilities and collaborate with institutions in the region, including the National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli, Bharathidasan University and the ICAR-National Research Centre for Banana.

She said the college should become a centre for original research whose work could be used by scholars, industry and farmers. She also highlighted the institution's Centre for Therapeutic Music, established in 2024, and praised its potential to support the well-being of students, teachers and children with special needs.

Recalling her own years at the college, Sitharaman spoke about the institution's role in shaping generations of women and urged students to use their education responsibly.

“Women with courage to act and the wisdom to act rightly, who reach across the world while staying rooted in this soil,” she said, describing the kind of graduates the institution should nurture as it moves towards its centenary.