Avtar & Seramount ‘Best Companies for Women in India’ 2026 study launched

Avtar Group, India’s leading workplace culture and inclusion consulting firm, launched the Avtar & Seramount ‘Best Companies for Women in India’ (BCWI) 2026 study at a Leadership Summit held at the Leela Ambience in Gurugram.

BCWI, an annual benchmarking study conducted by Avtar and Seramount, is among India’s largest and most rigorous inclusion-focused studies, with over 400 participating organizations and growing each year. Introduced in 2016, BCWI marked its tenth anniversary last year, completing a decade of shaping inclusive workplaces across India.

Speaking at the leadership summit, Dr Saundarya Rajesh, Managing Director of Avtar, said, “Workplaces will continue to evolve, and organisations will always debate what to prioritise.

But there is one non-negotiable truth: Strong performance and stability come only when employees are engaged and customers believe in the organisation. Neither is possible without inclusion & belonging. Gender inclusion, in particular, is a decisive performance lever.

And today, women’s participation is also a global and national priority. With the Global Gender Parity Sprint accelerating action towards 2030, and India’s 2047 goal of 70 per cent women’s participation promising a $14 trillion economic upside, inclusion is a macro-economic imperative.

This is where BCWI plays a critical role. BCWI offers a rigorous, data-backed benchmark that helps organisations build inclusion that lasts, anchored in leadership ownership, pay equity, safe workplaces, flexibility, and fair career progression. I encourage organisations of every size to benchmark with BCWI, learn from corporate India’s most effective practices and be recognised among the country’s most inclusive employers.”

Dr Saundarya Rajesh also unveiled a new benchmark – the Avtar & Seramount ‘Best Places for Workplace Wellness’, recognising the growing importance of well-being in today’s workplaces. The study will evaluate organisations across areas such as built-in work flexibility, comprehensive wellness benefits, inclusive and equitable practices, data-led decision-making and a strong focus on continuous improvement.

The event convened senior leaders and decision-makers from benchmark-setting companies, including Wipro, Sun Life Global Solutions, EY India, IBM, IHG Hotels & Resorts, CBRE, R1 RCM and Teleperformance, for high-impact conversations on what sets leading organisations apart, the future of inclusion, and the business outcomes of building equitable, high-trust workplaces.

This pivotal leadership summit also featured a path-breaking ‘Solutions Clinic’ that explored the tangible advantages of rigorous benchmarking, along with a key segment that spotlighted the principle-led articulation of the BCWI framework.

Over the last decade, BCWI has documented measurable progress in women’s workplace outcomes across participating organisations. Women’s representation in the workforce among the ‘Best’ companies has grown from 25 per cent in 2016 to 35.7 per cent in 2025, reflecting sustained efforts to strengthen hiring, retention, and advancement.

At the leadership level, the benchmark recorded a rise in women’s C-suite representation to 20 per cent, up from 13 per cent in 2016, reinforcing the increasing emphasis on building stronger, more equitable leadership pathways.

Participation in the Avtar & Seramount benchmarking studies is free. Register here: https://www.avtarcc.com/enrich/best-companies-for-women-in-india-bcwi/