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The Smart Techie was renamed Siliconindia India Edition starting Feb 2012 to continue the nearly two decade track record of excellence of our US edition.

March - 2009 - issue > Woman Achiever

No More Glass Ceilings!

Vimali Swamy
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Vimali Swamy
Over the years, women have slowly but steadily climbed up the corporate ladder and shattered the so called ceiling, proving that with passion and zeal there is nothing that cannot be conquered. On the eve of the International Women's Day on March 8, we at The Smart Techie decided to bring to you some of the top and promising women IT leaders of tomorrow. The women listed here come from an amazing variety of academic and family backgrounds and have established themselves in an equally diverse range of fields in the IT industries despite the near-crippling drag of home and hearth.
Some were lucky to have been at the right place at the right time. Others have a range of stories to tell about their exploits. One admits that she is 'quite unashamed' to say that she eased up on her career to be with her children when they needed her the most, and another decided to leave a well paid cushy job to venture out on her own only to finally be bought out by one of the largest chip manufacturing companies in the world. Read the stories of some of the amazing women IT professionals in India today, and you will discover that there are no intellectual differences between men and women. Be it at work or home, client visits or parent-teacher meets, women today are wearing many hats and juggling through various roles and despite this are in perfect harmony with themselves.
Here’s to a growing list of women achievers who have moved beyond the role of being just a homemaker and finding an identity for themselves. May their tribe grow, may the list get longer and reach to a point when the gen-next women may never have to tell the best way to deal with a glass ceiling.

Manjiri Ranade, Associate VP, Persistent Systems

After completing her B.E. in computer science from the University of Pune, Manjiri had taken up an academic career and joined an engineering college as lecturer. Six years later, in 1996, in a quest to take up more challenging roles she gave up her academic career for a professional one and joined Persistent Systems. "I was becoming very complacent in my job as a lecturer and was looking to do something more exciting and challenging. It was the time when IT was catching up in India and the prospect of being able to do all the things I had been teaching practically was too tempting. Hence I joined Persistent," she says and considers this as the turning point in her life. Recounting it Manjiri says, "In a way, I think it was a challenge for me as well as Persistent to accept me in a new role, since I was earlier in teaching." It changed the course of her career, as she had to start from scratch as a member of the technical team and also had to work with people who had once been her students at college.

With intense dedication and a will to achieve, Manjiri eventually grew up the corporate ladder and today she leads the Security Practice at Persistent Systems. In her current role she is responsible for customer relationship, team management, execution of deliverables, business development, and is championing key technology initiatives. She handles a team of 200 plus engineers who develop products for leading security and identity solution providers from the U.S. and other countries.


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