A pilot programme covering 100,000 girls and women, from school-going children to those interested in research, will be launched later this year. “We hope to be able to raise the percentage of women working in the Indian Institutes of Technology, National Institutes of Technology, Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research, and other national research labs. But the proportion of women in the science and engineering workforce was an abysmal 12%. The report reflects an urgency to improve the participation of women in the transformation of Indian science. Enrolment of women is 28% in engineering, and “very low” in the “classical streams” (mechanical, electrical, civil, chemical), it notes.

Source: The Hindu April 15, 2017 17:32 UTC