 Let's now move on to hearing from the High Commissioner, the Honourable Barry O'Farrell, AO, and our dynamic panelists. But before we do so, I might just see if we can conduct a little poll. I've got a little poll here tonight just to start off the conversation. This will involve a set of questions that will appear on your screens. And we've got to preach out if you could respond to those questions. We should see four questions popping up now. Give everyone a couple of minutes just to respond to those. All these questions are looking at our assumptions about women in technology before we start the conversation. I hope everyone's managed to answer some of those questions. And I'm quite interested to see how people think India and Australia are tracking in terms of gender equality and pay equality. And we might bring up those results now. So the first question was, what is the percentage of women in technical roles in the corporate sector across India? Looking forward to seeing how many, what percentage people thought that was. But I'm not quite sure what you answered. But if you want the answer, it's actually 26%. There you go. So no one answered 26%. It's actually quite a mix, too, isn't it? 15% and 33%. So some of you think a lot lower. Some of you think a little bit higher. It's good to see there's a bit of diversity of views here. Now, the second question about how many years will it take to bridge the gender parity gap? The answer is 99.5. That's quite a scary number, isn't it? A lot of you thought 45. That's interesting, too. A lot of us seem to think that it'll be a lot shorter than it actually is on current trends. The third question, what is the strength of this rank in the overall gender gap index as per the World Economic Forum? This one, the answer was 44. So again, a question that was evenly divided between those who think it's a lot lower than those who were exactly on. And the final question, what is India's rank in the overall global gender gap index? Well, that's interesting. So a lot of you seem to think that India is performing a lot higher than it is. So 62 was the most popular answer. When in actual fact, unfortunately, it's 112. But hopefully, it's changing that. So as you can see from these numbers, both countries, both countries' gender equality remains quite an impediment to social and economic growth and something that we really need to be talking about and listening to those who know and experienced these issues themselves. So the topic of conversation tonight is a highly relevant and critical one. And both our panelists bring a lot of experience and knowledge that we need to listen to and celebrate. So on that note, I'd like to first hand over to the High Commissioner, the Honourable Barry O'Farrell, AO. Well, thanks very much, Tim. And good evening and welcome to you all for this latest episode where we seek to tap into the magnificent talent of our alumni. It's a privilege to hear our two guests here this evening. And I thank you all for joining in. Digital technologies, as we know, are increasingly pivotal for economies. Technology is the backbone of innovative business, productive workers, connected consumers and stronger communities. And as these technologies integrate into our daily lives more, we're finding new ways to improve our standards of living. Of course, the current pandemic has accelerated the uptake of digital work and learning much sooner than we all expected. Today, our communities rely in so many ways on digital technologies. We all work, shop, access services and stay connected as we are tonight through virtual means. I spend my day in this room interacting virtually as a diplomat. So when we talk about technology, we address something that cuts across the whole economy and every industry. And as it does so, our relationship with digital technologies moves from novelty to dependency and that trend seems irreversible. Of course, there remains room for greater collaboration, greater Australia-India technology collaborations. Collaboration in technology also helps facilitate deeper engagements across all sectors of the economy. And that's why our future prosperity will depend on building science, technology, engineering and mathematics or STEM skills of everyone in our communities. But are we really building the inclusive technology sector that harness the talents of all our workers? As you've heard from Tim, the early poll suggests we've got a long way to go. I'm sure most of us here agree that at the heart of all the challenges in Australia and India lies deeply ingrained social behaviour. While governments play a critical role, an equally important role has to be played by businesses, workers and communities. And of course, our talented women alumni, like our panellists tonight of many of you who joined us, represent that change. It's fantastic to know that in Australian education we play a role in the building the careers and realising the aspirations of our two panellists tonight. And we have to continue to celebrate these leaders in STEM and listen to their insights. Only then can we act to make the part easier for the next generation. And only then will we see, will we accelerate the narrowing workforce gaps and pay disparity that's part of our lives. That's what we hope to do tonight, not just focus on the problems facing women in technology, but look to the solution. And this includes, for example, how technology can empower women in other fields and in their daily lives. I look forward to hearing from the experts, Ruta and Disha, about how women can transform technologies, how in turn technology can transform opportunities for women, both of which have a benefit to our broader societies. Thanks very much. Thank you, High Commissioner, for outlining where women sit in the broader technology space and the challenges in how government agencies might be involved in that alongside businesses and communities. I'd now like to invite Disha Pohli to share with us her trajectory into the digital technology space in India and how as a leader in this domain, she sees herself as an enabler of change. Disha, given your experience studying and working in Australia, I'm interested to hear what you think is the common ground between India and Australia to build women's participation in the tech sector. So over to you, Disha. Thank you. Thank you so much, Tim. Thank you for having me. And it's great being here and being able to share these thoughts with all of you. Like you've pointed out as well and through the broad and many other initiatives that the governments have been taking both in India and in Australia, obviously there's a lot that the governments are trying to do to try and push us all in directions that would have enabled them in Israel to take on various roles within technology, educate them, the multiple things that the governments have done on both ends. I think my exposure to technology happened in the first week of being at the Bond University and that access to infrastructure had a lot of influence on my decision then going forward as to how I wanted to use what I had in front of me and made the most of it. I think technology just happened as part of the process of education. You had access to systems, you had access to those many things. And that access that I got to, I think helped me move to the next steps myself. I think that while we can't expect such transfer of knowledge directly, you can't just pick up a lab and put it in here and expect it to work exactly. That is where various initiatives in India will then come into play. So while we do a lot of research, we try and understand what works, bringing that information here, tailoring it, customizing it to what is required within India and how to reach those two tiered, three tiered cities where the volumes of people actually reside. I think that is where the big transition in technology will happen and transformation will come in and sort of help bring women to be a part of this big spectrum. Technology itself is a very young industry. It's not that old. It's only been around 25 years, maybe 30 at the most in terms of commercially they use everywhere in the world. And within that much of a timeframe, our dependence on it becomes so large. Also as a field, it allows you to explore so many multiple variables just like we were talking before. Digital technology, infrastructure, technology, security and technology, you can keep going. It's a function, it's an industry. Because of the way it is actually evolving and based on information it's actually evolving, it's much larger and it's going to grow into something as old together. And we know that. I think all of us see that coming. Obviously then we'll have to start educating people. We'll have to start training them and more importantly giving them access to infrastructure so we don't have a system. We don't have COVID-19. Without the touch and feel, how the women or kids who is going to be wanting to do something in there. So I think a lot of it has to do with the infrastructure in India. But I also would like to point out that the dependency within technology on formal education is not as much. You can see things online, you can pick things up online, a good mentor, a good guide. So I think all of us women who've been able to get that sort of edge and move forward within this space, it's our responsibility as well to make sure that we constantly strive to bring that message back and doing something in return. Of course, making a conscious effort actually. Great, thank you Disha. It's a passion for you to work is evident. And he made some really interesting points there about the second and third tier cities. I think that's an important one. But also your last point about bringing back. And I think this is a good segue to reach you. Who I know has done some work in this field in terms of using technology to give back and empower women in other ways. So now I'd like to move to Richard David, our next panelist for the evening. Over to you, Richard. Hi everyone, I'm so honored to be here merging all my loves in one digital space. So I look forward to the next hour or so. I'd really like to take this back, perhaps to when my parents who are here today and very supportive were taking me in a pram down an aisle at a toy store. And I went down the pink aisle. My cousin went down the blue aisle. There were trucks, there were Lego blocks and there were all these things that were fascinating. But girls are conditioned to play with dolls and to weave stories around fairies and princesses. I needed to be pretty and I needed to be charming to be valid, you know? And it's not that we are born with different skills but we build them differently. We build different skills. Women generally have stronger communication skills. If you look at HR, you look at people in comms even in Australian government, even in India in anywhere in the world, you're going to find gender skew. You're going to find a gender skew in nursing. It's because women are brought up and we adulate these qualities in women. We need to encourage the development of spatial skills of mathematical reasoning, of technological innovation in our children when they're young. So one of my mentors, I'm very lucky to have her, Debbie Sterling, she's disrupted the pink aisle with Goldie Blocks, which is a tech... Well, basically it's a book and Goldie Blocks goes on these adventures and then her truck breaks down and so the kids have to come out and then build like a lift or fix a tire and do all these things. And, you know, it started to get... Like I gave it to my goddaughter who lives in Geelong and she still plays with it. She's playing with it in lockdown. And, you know, I feel like the things that we congratulate women for from a very young age, we do get programmed and it's really difficult to reprogram. So I think it sort of starts at home. It starts very young. It starts in communities. And of course, government has a role to play and maybe that role is in early childhood education. I wish Lena Asher were here. I would love to hear what she has to say about it. But yeah, that's it for me. Right, thank you, Riju. That's fascinating and I'm so glad you've given us that recommendation for Goldie Blocks. I suspect a lot of us will be going off now. Yeah. There's also another book that's very popular in Australia at the moment about women leaders, which I, as a kid's book, and includes many inspiring women from across centuries. I know that's a very popular gift at the moment, but I'll have to check out Goldie Blocks for sure. I would now like to draw in our audience into this conversation, who have sent us some questions in advance. As I mentioned at the start, I will invite specific audience members to ask their questions to the panellists. And for those audience members, can you please stick to the question that you have sent us just in the interest of time so we can get through all the questions we have tonight. The first question comes from Sam Freeman. Sam, are you there and able to ask the question? Which case we can... No, read the question. Well, yep, we'll read the question. On behalf of Sam Freeman, given the difficulty in physically meeting right now, how can technology bridge the gap between Australia and India to enable more women in each country to connect and achieve collaborative business outcomes? So read to authority, use this one. And then maybe we'll hear from Desha. Sure. I think we're doing it right now. Australia and India collaborating, giving, you know, often when I first started working in, in step, you know, acknowledging that I am a leader in STEM, I would shun away from being called a woman leader in STEM because I'm just like, I'm a human. But then I realized that I need to speak up not because of me being me, but me being representative of something. So I think one of, one of the greatest things that has happened of the silver lining maybe of this pandemic is that we realize that connect, physical connections and physical distance is not an impediment anymore to connection. There is an enormous amount of work that's happening globally. Locally, you could be working with a mate that lives down the street, but you're all connecting online. So I think collaborations between countries and that whole concept of people needing to be physically together in the same space that it gets lifted. I'd also like to see a lot more, you know, if I may just go back to the whole the way we're programmed and the way we work sort of thing. When I catch up with my girlfriends, we talk about babies, we talk about now because we're off that age, or we talk about how are you feeling? And I've noticed my husband, they talk about business. And when he's like, or he's like, I'll just connect you to this person, this person, this most person. Within like five minutes, they've like facilitated a growth in their network and in their net worth, you know, it's just so simple. And I think that it's the nature of the way we collect. So I would like to say that I can be transactional in the way that I approach topics, in the way that I approach people. And I think that we need to be less ashamed of being transactional, of course, with a lot of respect and with a lot of empathy, but we need to not feel the need to be really close to someone before we can ask them for a favor. So ask someone to introduce you to someone they know. There's very few, like in my entire team, women seem to, they don't ask for raises, they don't ask to be connected, they don't ask for promotions. And guys who are like getting bad performance reviews walk in and say, hey, I need to buy a house. So give me a raise. You know, so I feel like we just need to drop these, the things that make us question our behavior and just go for it. And if you're aggressive, great. If you're honest, great. If someone doesn't respond to you, it's completely fine. So I think make use of the tools that we have. And hopefully the app that we're building together with support from you, which is the Australian Alumni app will facilitate connections for people who studied in Australian universities and enable women as well in tech and whatever field they're in to get business connections, work connections, mentorships and really move up the value chain and decision making both in government and in the private sector. Did you want to add anything to that? I was just waiting to quickly add to that very quickly. Just a couple of very quick things. She's absolutely right. I mean, like you were saying to talk about business when it's a group of women sitting on a big table is not the first thing that comes to your mind. But when it does, and in situations like we've been in the last few years, I think you don't realize how quickly and beautifully it works because women are much bigger network than men think they are. Because I think we know how to make names, we connect people and say, oh yeah, I know so and so, why don't you? You talk business, you talk about who goes who and I think it's just the question of someone to pick up that conversation and start saying bringing everyone in. That said, I think technology as a field itself and especially in the last three months, six months. The opportunities that they've started to present to us are also changing. What we expect after before was simply to do some tasks for us. What we expected to do for us now is meet people, collaborate, do what we were used to doing outside on a computer. Suddenly the world has become much smaller and it's all on your computer. We spend so much more time here talking to people, getting messages. I think technology is evolving giving you more opportunities and women in this space, if we're able to collaborate more across borders or whether it be across India and Australia, India and anywhere in the world, globally even, together as entrepreneurs, as people doing specialists in development, specialists in infrastructure, security of massive tasks happen. Just like any other field, I think this particular field however, we're more happy to collaborate because we use the systems, we know technology is ahead. So women within technology, I think it'll be easier to connect with each other and then together as that force and power to go out and educate. I think one of the biggest things that we bring to this table is having been there, done that, is education, telling other women that independence is quite easy to get. All you have to do is start believing that that's the direction you want to move it. So a lot of it is motivational. I think as countries and women across countries, if we start to bring the force together, a lot more can easily be achieved. Thank you both and thank you Rita for the plug of the Australian Alumni App, which you two are developing thanks to our grants program. That's exactly what we're hoping it's going to be able to do is to facilitate those networks, to tap into everyone's expertise and knowledge and to be able to build a bit more of an alumni community in of course collaboration with the Australian Alumni Association of India who are very, very good partners of the High Commission here. The next question I have is from Raj Bandler. Raj, are you there? And are you able to ask this question? Yes, yes I am. Go ahead please. Hi, I'm Raj Bandler. So this is a great exchange and thank you very much for inviting me. I work in pre-sales, I did pre-sales and I have specific questions for both Disha and Ritu. In fact, we are also a women-owned business. The company I work for is certified women-owned in the US. So in this perspective I'd like to understand which area are the biggest challenges that you face? Like is it actually solving the technical challenges or is it more like managing the technical teams? The other area that I'm interested in is the going-to-market strategy. What are the challenges that you face or rather what are the challenges that women would face in these areas? Thanks Raj and I might pass to Disha to start with that. And Disha, are you able to hold your microphone a little bit closer? Yeah, is that better? That's better, thank you. Great, thank you Raj for asking that question. What is interesting when you ask is if go-to-market, if strategy, if managing people is tougher but why would it be any different if you're a leadership and it's an organization? There is no difference in the way I would have to strategize versus a man would have to strategize if I want my business to grow. What I might face a problem with is actually on the other end where the person who I'm going to an approaching doesn't have the confidence in me because they have a preset idea of what they think I can do. So yes, when I was younger, much younger, when I just finished technology as a degree and I had to prove myself a little bit more, a few more times to a few more people. I had to say the right things. I had to make sure I did my research that was a lot stronger. I had to put a lot more on the table to get my approvals through, like in any organization and even as an entrepreneur, I have the same problems any company does. I have the same problems that go-to market has. I have costs are a big issue. Convincing clients to get things right. Like anyone working in research, anyone working in technology. One of the biggest issues you have is explaining to your clients why that's the solution you think works best for them. It's exactly the same thing at the managerial level but at a much smaller level when you have fewer years of experience and you're still building yourself up. I think that is where the biggest challenge is like. That is when you want to do more. You're curious more. You want to add those skill sets to your little bucket. So you have that much more to pitch with. But once you're past that and once you're trying to work across countries as an organization and grow and lead, I don't think there's a very specific problem that only women face and men don't. I think the general company has to grow the way it's supposed to. The bottom line is the bottom line. Just like it would for any business. Thank you. I hope that answers it. And yeah, I don't think that should be the thought at all. I think it should be simply whether the business can deliver or not. And I think that is what most companies would like to evaluate you on. Whether you've delivered in the past, is it something you can do again? Is it any different? What do you bring to the table? And that would be it. And I think our clients are tough to manage but that is the problem with men and women. That's not gender-based at all. Correct. And once you have some kind of experience that backs you and you have the confidence, there's very little that'll push you back. And if one client does it like Rithu said before as well, you just keep going and you go again. And yeah, you bring your experience back, your expertise. All right. Thanks, Dacia. And Rithu, do you have anything to add to that? Yeah, I think one of the challenges that I face perhaps and Disha's covered completely 100% agree with you Disha and what you said, I don't know what other women face. So I'll talk about a very, like my experience and how I see it may be different if I was Richard and a man. It to be taken seriously as a woman in town tech is always an issue because there is a stereotype. So if I ask you to think of a CEO in tech or a tech founder and you close your eyes and the first thing that's gonna come out at you is definitely not me. It's gonna be a man in a hoodie, sort of, you know, Steve, well, Paul O'Neill, Steve Jobs and or someone that looks like Mark Zuckerberg. So I think, you know, we create tech superheroes and the superhero arc, there's no super woman in this superhero space. There may be, but they're just not as celebrated. So Cheryl Sandberg, yes, but we've not had that many that are, you know, celebrated. Another one issue that I face is people asking me when I am going, what I'm going to do now that I'm married. And that's something that perhaps only, I don't know if it would be any different in Australia. I don't think you would be allowed to ask that question. But a lot of my clients got very nervous when I got married because they said, oh, your husband's wealthy enough that you can stay at home. So what's gonna happen to our projects? And I was just quite confused with the question itself. And I had to ensure them that, had to ensure that I had a business continuity plan in case of my death, but definitely not in case of my marriage or a baby, you know. And yeah, my BCP kicks in if I die, but not in any other case. And also, you know, I know a lot of founders, tech founders who do hang out and chill out with the boys. The boys are people who fund us effectively. So how does the tech ecosystem work? It doesn't just work on Rev, it works on Val. And how do I get a good Val? I get a great Val if I know a lot of investment bankers. I know a lot of hedge funds. I know a lot of venture capitalists. I know a lot of angel investors. And I don't know that many. And I have a lot of men in my network who didn't even really go out to raise, but their mates were like, you know what? We're just gonna park money behind your venture because we believe in you. And I think that if we had more women VCs, more women allowed to make personal financial decisions at home, investment decisions at home, where they can say, you know what, I'm gonna put half a million dollars behind a girlfriend because I believe in her. I think that would really, really help. So if I were Richard, it would be cool to get some funding and probably easier. But as Disha said, operationally, I don't face any issues. Thanks, that's really interesting. And you've certainly addressed some stereotypes. I think everyone here might have about the tech ecosystem. That's a good point about, you know, it starts at home. And I saw last week, I believe it was that one of the first big banks in the US appointed a woman CEO, you think it's taken that long, but these changes begin in the household and then work their way up to that level. The next question I have is from Shoba Mochirala. It is for a pronunciation, Shoba. Are you there? Shoba, ask this question on behalf of you. I can see you there, Shoba. So your question is, what plans do you have for making women in India feel safer using technology? Now I know this is an area, Richard, that you are working on. So I might start with you. Hi, Shoba. Thank you for asking this question. I wanna, I'm very grateful to the Australian Consulate in Mumbai. They had a IWD International Women's Day event in early March when we were allowed to meet. And I met, and it was with the British Consulate. So it was like a joint event. And I met Elsa Marie De Silva, who is the CEO and founder of Safe Cities at this event. And we collaborated and I am helping her build her text at what she does and what Safe Cities does and what now I'm involved in building, which I'm so excited about, is making, I'll talk about the physical space and then the online space. So Safe Cities is a initiative to crowdsource data about gender-based violence. It is the only database in the world of its kind. And we have clients such as the UNDP, UN, the British Consulate, Go Up Police, Mumbai Police, PM&C, or whatever, PMO, I think it's called in India. So these are our clients and it's a crowdsourced platform. Now, part of that platform, if... So any gender-based violence that someone faces, they can anonymously go and report it. It takes less than three minutes to do so. And that information is just so important in policymaking and the way we create cities, the way we craft schools, the way we craft online spaces. What we're doing in terms of making online spaces safer for women is there's also cat-calling online. There's a lot of women being thrown on the bus online for things that I think is... There's a lot of that on television today. There's a lot of harassment that happens online. There's a revenge porn that happens and all these sorts of awful things that women have to go through. These are things that if we report and we have statistics on, we can use a system to lobby for change in terms of how does police... How do you make sure that police gets funding where they can tackle online crime? How does the average police officer get trained to respond to a woman who walks in and says, my ex has posted revenge porn on? How do we, as a system, how do we not shame the woman? How do we facilitate conversations that are really hard? And I think it all starts with data. It starts with if we didn't know how many people had COVID, we wouldn't be acting with the precautions that we are. So unless you have data, you can't act. So that's something that Elsa Marie and I are working on right now. Another thing is I do this and I would hope that a lot of women do. Please put something against the camera unless you're having a video meeting. Please put something that blocks it. Make sure that you have the basics, like invest in a VPN, invest in not just to watch SBS when you're overseas, but for other things as well. Get some antivirus software, also stops phishing attacks. It stops people from being able to steal your photos. It stops people from being able to steal your identity. So invest in things that you would in your physical spaces because we're living more and more online. And imagine not having a front door. It's ridiculous. So just have the basic safety measures before you enter the online space and know that they know who to call, know whom to lobby with and be vocal about what happens so that you know you're not alone. I think also, I'll just add to what Ritu said there. What if the, as technology is growing, as more and more women entrepreneurs are starting to build apps and start to think about what is working for them and what isn't. I think women-owned companies or women-focused apps that have focused groups that are telling them and guiding them to sort of make apps safer for women to use are very important as well. And as we're seeing more and more of that happen, there's more education happening. So you have various apps nowadays that allow you to, your videos go away in a few minutes. There's some things that you can only share with a few people for X number of hours. There's a whole lot of work and new innovation and ideas that I think women are bringing to the game as well. This is what we think keeps us safe. This is how we'd like our safety to look. And I think with Ritu doing what she is, as well as other companies which are bringing in very specifically women-focused features in their apps, I think all of these things work together to keep women safe on these apps more and more as well. So yeah, do read your terms and conditions make sure you know what data you're sharing with companies. These are basic things that as soon as you download something on your Android phone, you're open to the world. That phone is now a machine that can be forced off of the world when it wants. And I think that's why it's important again for education and for women to say this is what's going wrong and this is how we should fix it. Because obviously the men are not going to see it. So we'll have to take that push and start to explain as to why it's actually so important to us and make sure that we fix those issues before they become as big as they do. And yeah, data is important. Without that, we're not going to be able to get funding into specific spaces that we want to be keeping safe for women for sure. Thanks both. And that's, I realized that point about data because I know in India it's a bit of a cliche they talk about data as the new oil and the economic potential of 1.3 billion people and their data. But it's an under-appreciated area talking about the empowerment potential of data for behalf of that group and then really lifting up women in India. I think that's a fantastic idea. The next question is from Bala Ramalingan. Bala is unable to join us this evening. Bala's question is how can we encourage and support under-privileged students, especially women from STEM backgrounds, to avail scholarships to study in Australia? And I'll go to the High Commissioner first in this one because I think this is a good one in the oil area. Well, we're joined tonight by the three consulates across India. And I want to say that the High Commission here and the consulates are very active in promoting STEM education as part of a broader effort to build Australia into your ties. The only way is under our public diplomacy activities where we've worked closely with the National Council for Science Museums, which has a good reach across India. And in Australia, Canberra, of course, our closest equivalent is Questacon, the National Science and Technology Centre. For those of you who haven't been there, I encourage you to do it. It's great for families. It's great for adults. A lot of educational fun for parents and kids alike. So Questacon, together with my old alma mater, the ANU, runs a science circus that tours remote communities in Australia promoting STEM education in a lighthearted, fun way. And with the High Commission's help in 2017, the Science Circus did a 10-city tour of India led by two Australian science communicators, Grant Walker and Dr. Stuart Colhagan in partnership with the NSCM. Next time we do it, Tim, we should make sure one of the two great science communicators is female. They returned last year as part of an Australian FES to conduct workshops with science museums, staff and teachers across India. And the aim of these workshops was to develop models for enhancing the maths and computer skills, which I'm told are going to be incorporated into the display of the science museums. So the Indian government, I understand, has several initiatives, like Niti Aog's Atoll Innovation Mission in partnership with SAP, are geared towards encouraging and supporting STEM learning across all sectors of India. And these initiatives should be applauded. Of course, given the expertise that Australia has in the space, we'd be delighted to support any knowledge exchange to support this endeavor of the Indian government. Thanks, High Commissioner. And Disha and Ritu, do you have any views on how we can perhaps build those ties between the two nations, focusing on women in STEM? There are a lot of online classes. I went to ANU for a bit as well. And they have a MOOC course online. I think, I don't know whether it's with edX or Coursera or something else. And I know that Melbourne has a few. So basically, I think it would be, it's very easy to audit those classes. It's very easy to ask for a scholarship. It would be fantastic if, like Khan Academy, I mean, there are people who are sitting all over the world and are learning things that I've learned sitting in a classroom in Australia. So I wouldn't say that the experience is the same. I wouldn't say that, you know, you get the culture of Australia in, but you definitely do get a lot of the learning. So I would love to see more and more people and more and more girls have access to the internet, which I think Geo is doing. And more and more girls have access to laptops. One thing that we can really do is start giving younger girls access to technology and hardware. I know that that's skewed in India in the sense that a lot of girls in villages don't get access to a phone until they get married. So it would be very good to have those kind of conversations with communities when I was building AgriTech. You know, we wanted young girls to have access to mobile phones to help their parents put in dairy data, like how much milk yields they got on their farm. But it was challenging to do so, and the boys always ended up doing it. So, yeah, I would really like to see more access to the internet here, both physically, infrastructurally, and culturally. And yeah, like we're having this conversation now. I think online universities is a great way. So I'll just add to what Ritu said there. I think India is a very large country. We've got a lot of people. We've got your metropolitan cities, you've got your first year, you've got your second year, you've got your third year, and then you've got rural India, you've got some villages. I think there is a big need for us to go into India and then try and address the bigger issues that are already there, which might include sending girls' children to school, then exposing them to various things they can learn. I think the Indian government's doing a great job with their Bete Fadhalo and Kalo India, and many of these things that they embarked on. And I think it's working really well. It's getting there. But while they're doing that, I think it's also large organizations like SAP and companies like IBM have a lot of their programs that are tailored towards diversity and inclusion that they do run in the two-tiered industries in India. I think opening innovation labs in these places next to universities would also encourage curiosity, would allow for a lot more exposure of technology to a lot more volume as far as people are concerned. And I think starting with, I don't know, UP is Uttar Pradesh is one of the most populated states in the whole country. The two-tiered cities in their Kanpur, Allahabad, they have some of the biggest universities in India. Innovation labs that can be set up right there that would allow for them to have access deep down into a much further India than we know as in Delhi and Bombay. And that's what I'd like to see. And I think the governments are working and I think they're doing a lot, a fair bit that, and they've started off. I think supporting these endeavors is one of the big things that we as women as well should do. And yeah, I think we're in the right, I did it the right direction. We should be positive about most of the things that we do. And I think that is the only way we're gonna be able to, you know, we have to be optimistic about it. And do everything we can, be inclusive, be conscious that we need to be inclusive and educate, and use every opportunity to make the most of it. Like the governments of India, whether in the spaces with an app, like the one that we're building, or whether in the space, which is going to be completely gender barriers at all, because it's an app. So technology pretty much kills gender barrier on its own, providing you allow it to be there, to allow it to at least get there. And I think both governments are working very hard to make this happen. And as private companies start to set up labs, start to put more effort into research, and establish real centers that allow these women to get jobs, be independent, and understand what it means to earn money, and what independence actually means to them. I think these things are drivers, both for education, bringing women into the workforce, and then allowing them to explore technology as an area of work that they wanna pick for sure. Right, great answers, thank you for that. We've got another mailing question. I think it's one that both of you really enjoy. What underappreciated qualities do women bring to tech companies, and how can company leaders help bring out some of those qualities? Ritu, do you wanna start? Sure. I think underappreciated qualities that women bring to tech companies. I could go on for the rest of my life, but you should keep it short. I'm currently training some leaders of NGOs, which I think the class is 80% are women. It's something sponsored by the Swedish government, and it's about how do we get AI to be human-centric, so that we're not scared by bots who will kill us later and turn on us. Not that that's happening, just letting you all know, that we're very far away from that, but what we're working on, and I'm seeing it really change the way AI is used across the world, is we're looking at putting the human at the center of it. We're looking at creating empathetic AI. We're looking at creating empathetic algorithms, there's, if you put an algorithm, the algorithm is only as good as the data you feed it. So we had a massive problem when LinkedIn was pushing ads for tech STEM and especially tech jobs only to men, because they were the data skewed towards men, so it would go towards men. So we're just going to keep having these sort of inequalities grow larger and larger if we depend on past data to facilitate future decisions. So I would really like to outline how important it is to have empathy, to have a networked system, and to have design with children, women, disability, people with disabilities, and people with different sexual orientations put into AI, which is effectively building the future. If we think that our minds, our thoughts are our own, we're, watch the documentary on Netflix so that I don't freak you out and you don't shoot the messenger, but basically, a lot of our thoughts are planted by systems and the more holistic these systems are, the more neutral these systems are, the better it is for us. And I think there's a lot of work to be done, but there are a lot of women working on this and it's really, really good to see, it's really good to see governments sponsoring such training and getting women who are working with NGOs to come in and help design AI. You know what I do, it's really interesting, you say AI and the messaging that's coming out of what we see and what we hear constantly and you bring in that Netflix documentary, but back in 2001 too, when I was doing my degree in communication actually, I had a professor at Bond who was doing research on where advertisements should be placed in video games so that the information that is being put into your mind is exactly at those points when that car is going to take that turn. And you know, the biggest focus group for that particular research paper was more women than there were men in that focus group that we have. And so that says a lot about how women adds to the spaces that men are probably not able to keep up with or in spaces where there is space for us to grow. But that was put aside, I think 50% of this world is women. So we bring a lot to the table. We have various qualities of ours. People have always stereotyped these qualities, whether they say it's multitasking, whether they say it's communication, whether we say, oh, we're very good with keeping projects because that's the job that you've been given to do for many years. It doesn't mean there are many things that we can't do or many things that we haven't explored as women. I think we bring a lot more EQ, we bring a lot more, you know, like you said, empathy, we bring a lot more understanding. And that's why we're able to grow so quickly in human resources, for instance, in that industry. But I also believe that because all of these industries are going to be linked in the space of technology, technology works across industries. It's not limited to anyone. And that's the beauty of it. So I think we're going to go past having to worry about men and women who are making the product and we're going to have to focus on the customer. And when the people who are going to use your products are going to be women, you're definitely going to want to bring some women on board to take their opinion on how it sells well. So I think 50% of this world already being women, we do bring exactly that much to the table that probably don't see the men. And that's why I think businesses don't grow as fast if we had more boards with women representation on them and diversity as well, that would definitely be quick growth. Spaces that have not been explored as much as they should have been yet. And I think that's the boom that we're waiting to see. And hopefully it won't take a hundred years to do that. And we are going to build a good quicker and faster and more exponentially quicker. Thank you, Deishan. I agree. I hope we can get through it faster. And I think on that note, I've got better to be respectful of your time and you're too busy entrepreneurs. Don't want to hold you up too long. But big thank you for tonight. I'm sure a lot of people walk away from this with some thought provoking ideas and conversations they can have outside of this forum to help advance that cause. And thank you also to everyone tonight who has made the time to join us. We really appreciate it. And we think it's a great way to stay connected with the alumni community. I see a thumbs up there. So thank you. Before we end today's session, I'd like to request all audience members to please put on their videos so we can get some photos with you for our social media feeds. So not just put on your videos, but I put on a big smile too. I think the High Commissioner himself wants to take a photo. Everybody's fully clothed, that's it. It goes back to Rita's point earlier about needing a front door on the technology. On these cameras, you need to also have that safety light if you like. So thank you everyone for your time tonight again. I'd also just like to flag that we'll soon be reaching out to you for your feedback on these sessions and how we can make them more interactive and more engaging. So we do want to hear your views. We do want to hear your ideas including on topics and possible panelists. So please when you get that message, take the two minutes it takes to fill it out and send us your feedback. We'd really appreciate it. So thank you again. Thank you to the High Commissioner for his time. Thank you to Outstanding Panelists for their time. That's truly been a privilege listening to you tonight. So thank you again everyone. See you next month for another episode of Stay Connected. Stay informed, shape the future and until then, stay well. It's very safe, absolutely. Thank you. Thank you so much. Disha, I loved when you said 50% of consumers are women, sir. I think more than 50% of the world is women. Can I say the last time I looked at Australia was about 53% women. It is, but we are and we're all there to work together. And my comment to Rita is that more men should meet and discuss their feelings. That'll help a few health issues in the community too. Definitely, definitely. Thanks guys, appreciate it. Thank you, bye-bye. Thank you, bye. Disha, bye.