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More than three-quarters of corporate boards have less than 25% female representation: Flipcarbon’s Women in Leadership Report
Mumbai: Flipcarbon, a full-stack business consulting firm today announced the release of its maiden report on “Women in Leadership – Challenges, Opportunities, and Best Practices”. The in-depth report talks about women’s participation in the workplace, the role of women in building a sustainable future and shares best practices into building a diverse workplace. The report also highlights the gender inequality in leadership roles across businesses in the country.
Key data points from the report:
1. Increasing Female Enrolment in Higher Education:
● In FY 2020, 40 million students were enrolled in higher education in India. This is expected to rise to 92 million by FY 2035.
● Female enrolment in engineering colleges, which was nine per cent in 2017, increased to 20 per cent in 2021.
● Female students now make up 58 per cent of total undergraduate enrolment in fall of 2021.
2. Women’s Representation in Leadership:
● More than three-quarters of corporate boards have less than 25 per cent female representation.
● Across most elements explored, women continue to have less than 50 per cent, if not abysmally insignificant opportunity to participate and prove themselves.
● Only 11 per cent organizations have more than 50 per cent female representation across all levels of management.
3. Organisational Initiatives:
● While organisations are making strides, only 65 per cent believe there are equal opportunities for both genders among their employees.
● Initiatives such as flexible working arrangements, leadership mentoring programs, and gender-neutral recruitment are crucial for promoting diversity.
● Across most organizations maternity leave is still largely only legally compliant and not path breaking. Less than 15 per cent policies are better than the law.
● Almost 50 per cent organizations don’t have credible practices to reduce gender pay gap or reduce glass ceiling.
● Almost 40 per cent women make career compromises or must work harder than normal to succeed.
● Almost 25 per cent women face pregnancy or motherhood discrimination.
● About a third of all women feel the need to exhibit overtly masculine traits to succeed at work.
Flipcarbon CEO Alok Ranjan stated, “This is India’s century, and as we continue to showcase strength and leadership in areas such as technology and innovation, we also need to strengthen our focus on gender equality. We have seen a surge in female enrolment in higher education – from nine per cent to 20 per cent in engineering colleges within just 2017 to 2021. Women now comprise 58 per cent of undergraduate enrolment. Yet, when it comes to leadership roles in corporations, the numbers tell a different story. Globally, less than 20 per cent of C-suite positions are held by women, and most corporate boards still lack and do very little to increase female representation. There is a need to demand transparency in hiring and promotion processes. Hold leaders accountable for achieving gender balance in leadership teams – Diversity of thought is our greatest asset, which needs to be leveraged.”
Ranjan further added, “We need to listen and acknowledge that there is a problem, we need to actively work towards creating an ecosystem of inclusivity and build programs and opportunities that enable us to bridge the gap. We need to work on grassroot level changes.”
While organisations are seeing progress, only 65 per cent believe there are equal opportunities for both genders among their employees. To overcome the barriers that persist, the report outlines several key initiatives such as including equal pay, flexible work arrangements, and mentorship programs.
The Women In Leadership report is based on a comprehensive survey of 68 per cent female, 30 per cent male, and two per cent others respondents. The respondents represented diverse management levels, including 27 per cent senior management, 29 per cent middle management, and 36 per cent junior management.
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Rakesh Menon joins Paytm as avp – lending
Fintech product leader takes on new role after building digital lending, payments and credit products across fintech ecosystem
MUMBAI: Rakesh Menon has joined Paytm as assistant vice president – lending, taking on a new role focused on strengthening the company’s lending and credit products.
Prior to this, Menon worked at Profectus Capital Pvt Ltd as chief manager – payments based financing and digital lending.
At Profectus, he designed and launched digital credit products for merchants with variable cash flows, including overdraft-linked and revenue-share lending models. He led end-to-end LOS–LMS API integrations with payment partners and aggregators, enabling real-time underwriting, disbursal and repayment workflows.
He also worked on funnel optimisation initiatives using journey analytics, improving onboarding, KYC and disbursal conversion by 35 per cent. He developed ecosystem partnerships for transaction-data-based credit assessment and automated settlement systems, and collaborated with credit and data science teams to strengthen risk models and early delinquency detection.
Menon standardised partner onboarding and API frameworks, reducing go-live timelines by 40 per cent and improving digital scalability.
Before Profectus Capital, he worked at PayU as senior manager – presales lead – enterprise business from August 2022 to August 2023. He set up a national presales function for fintech and digital commerce clients, aligning solutions such as EMI, BNPL, BBPS and offer engines to merchant requirements.
He also helped improve conversion rates by around 15 per cent through merchant persona mapping, demo frameworks and structured sales playbooks, working closely with product and go-to-market teams.
From April 2019 to July 2022, Menon served as business unit head – SMB – direct acquisitions at Worldline, where he built the SMB online payments vertical from scratch. The business scaled to Rs 2,500 crore in annual transaction volume, growing at 45 per cent year-on-year.
During this period, he introduced paperless onboarding processes including eKYC and eSign, developed partner dashboards and CRM automation systems, and integrated platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce and Tally to expand merchant adoption.
Across roles, Menon has worked across digital lending, payments and merchant financing, with experience in product development, ecosystem partnerships, API integrations and fintech-led growth strategies.
At Paytm, he will focus on scaling lending products and strengthening digital credit infrastructure within the company’s financial services ecosystem.
His appointment comes as fintech firms continue to expand their lending and embedded finance offerings in a competitive market.
