BENGALURU, India—Wipro GE Healthcare has announced that its upcoming greenfield assembly plant here will be managed entirely by women.
The company will initially employ 33 women and the number will be increased to 100 when production expands. The upcoming plant will begin rolling out products this month and run three shifts per day.
The plant will assemble machines for CT scans, catheterization, ultrasonography. It will also produce ventilators and patient monitors. The factory was built in a record time of eight months.
The plant will be GE Healthcare’s fourth manufacturing facility in India.
“This is a unique feat of GE in India, and we believe it is the right step in bridging the gender gap for our region,” says Mahesh Kapri, managing director of GE BEL and general manager for ISC in South Asia.
“For us in GE, valuing diversity and treating everyone with respect is the foundation. I do want to reiterate the importance of meritocracy, the advancement is purely based on an individual’s capability and merit,” Kapri says.
GE Healthcare employs about 2,000 people across its manufacturing sites, of which 12 percent are women.
“With the new site coming on board, the share of women employees in manufacturing will go up by 18 percent,” Kapri said. In the senior operational roles in manufacturing, women constitute 58 percent of the jobs, the company said.