There is a common, mistaken perception that money is a man’s game. However, Women are not just adept at handling their individual or home’s finances, they have the ability to stretch and grow scarce resources and use them for the greater good
The Bhagavad Gita names Shree, or prosperity, as one of the attributes of an ideal woman. When a new bride enters her marital home, in the
Hindu tradition she is welcomed as a representative of Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth, who heralds prosperity. This prosperity is not meant
to be limited to herself. The implication is that it must be extended for the benefit of those around her.
Bhopal, now the capital of the state of Madhya Pradesh, was once a Princely state. Between 1819 and 1926, it was ruled by four women – Nawab Begums, as they were called. They ruled in their own right, daughters inheriting the throne from their mothers, not as regents or proxy rulers. Sultan Jahan Begum, also known as Sultan Kaikhusrau Jahan Begum, was the last of the women Begums. Sultan was her name, not her title. When she ascended the throne in 1901, she was 43 years old. What she inherited was an almost empty treasury. There was just Rs. 40,000 left in it. And a pile of debts, besides.
Not one to be fazed by adversity, Sultan Jahan Begum quickly embarked on a course of royal austerity and public reform. That meant doing away with hunting and polo, favourite pastimes of the ruling class. The time was spent instead on getting to know the problems and needs of the people, and working out solutions.
She reworked the tax structure and took steps to foster agriculture by providing irrigation facilities and other necessary public works. She undertook a widespread public health programme, including sanitation, vaccination and water supply. The efforts of the Nawab Begum and her dedicated team quickly bore fruit, and Bhopal became prosperous once more.
Sultan Jahan Begum’s other major area of focus was women’s education. She started schools for girls, understanding that educated women would usher in long-term prosperity. She donated Rs. 1 lakh, a huge amount at that time, for a university mooted at Aligarh. She also mobilized funds from rulers of other princely states for the cause. In 1920, she was named the founding Chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University, and held the post until her death in 1930. To date, she is the only woman Chancellor of the University.
At the core
A good manager is someone who nurtures available supplies and increases them so that all stakeholders benefit. Traditionally, women are good managers. They instinctively know how to stretch and grow scarce resources and use them for the greater good. These resources can be anything from firewood and grain to stocks and shares. Women add value to the decision-making echelons of companies and institutions as they bring with them this intrinsic quality of prudence with the aim of ultimate prosperity. Many of India’s top banks have women at the helm. An inclusive workplace, giving due representation to women, can only thrive. Echoes at home and elsewhere
October 2018 opened with the news that India-born Gita Gopinath is the International Monetary Fund’s new Chief Economist, the first woman to hold the post. The department she will now head is the one which brings out the World Economic Outlook, a pivotal document. What better example of a woman with the attribute of Shree, a harbinger of prosperity?
IMF’s Managing Director Christine Lagarde, announcing Gita’s appointment, said she was “exceptionally well-placed” for the position. She is only the second Indian to hold this prestigious post, the other being Raghuram Rajan, who subsequently became Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, the country’s apex bank.
Gita has gone on record to say that her desire to specialise in economics was spurred by the external funding and currency crisis that India experienced in the initial years of the 1990s.
She has held many prestigious positions, and is currently the John Zwaanstra Professor of International Studies and of Economics at Harvard. She is only the third woman and the first Indian after Nobel laureate Amartya Sen to become a tenured professor at the prestigious university’s Department of Economics.
Indra Nooyi, who has just announced that she’s laying down the reins as PepsiCo’s CEO, is another brilliant example of how a woman can embody the quality of Shree – and bring about great prosperity within her sphere of influence. Business Week says that after Indra took over as PepsiCo’s CFO in 2001, prior to her appointment as the company’s CEO, PepsiCo’s annual revenues rose 72 percent, and net profit more than doubled in just five years.
In her first letter to PepsiCo staff as CEO in 2006, she wrote: “We face an ever-more-challenging business environment … And we need to get out in front of events and shape them rather than to wait and be buffeted by them.” Recalling that first letter, she told her colleagues in her farewell note: “You have helped make this company the icon it is today.”
Forbes Magazine says Indra Nooyi is the 12th highest paid woman in the US corporate world. The magazine has listed her among the world’s 100 most powerful women. Well said!
“Investments in women are positively correlated to growth, prosperity, stability, democracy, health – and vital to our national security. We cannot write
off the talent of half the world and expect to confront our challenges.” – Melanne Verveer, former US Ambassador at large for women’s issues.
Editor’s Note
Lakshmi’s sacred name, Shree or Shri, is associated with acquiring resources and striving for prosperity. That’s encouraged in Hindu philosophy during a certain phase in every person’s life. Householders – married men and women – are referred to with the prefix ‘shri’ or ‘shrimati’. The underlying idea is that it is their responsibility to work for prosperity for themselves and those under their care. The word ‘shree’ and, by extension, ‘shriman’ and ‘shrimati’ have connotations of auspiciousness, in the sense that they attract the blessings of Goddess Lakshmi. The next stage in life is the one where active seeking of material gain is renounced in order to focus on God.
