At NIIF, we are committed to advancing women’s empowerment within our organisation and across our portfolio. We actively seek to promote gender balance and create opportunities for women to thrive in the workforce. As responsible investors, we work closely with our portfolio companies to help them adopt, implement, and continuously enhance policies that support women’s professional growth and leadership, ensuring long-term impact beyond our investment horizon.
Unsold produce on farms poses a challenge from both an emissions and waste management perspective. Left unaddressed, this unused produce can generate methane—a potent greenhouse gas—while also attracting pests and disease. Project Ravikiran empowers rural women by equipping them with technology, training, and forward market linkages for dried fruits and vegetables.
As part of this project, women receive zero-energy solar dryers at no cost to dry farm unused produce and unsold fruits and vegetables. They are also trained free of charge to operate and maintain this equipment with minimal external support. The project strengthens community development by providing previously unemployed women with a sustainable, long-term income source, enhancing their status and influence within their communities. It also promotes environmental sustainability by encouraging alternative uses for fruits and vegetables, thereby reducing waste.
Pilots for Project Ravikiran are underway in Qazigund, Jammu and Kashmir, and Dichpally, Telangana. NIIF funds 100% of the capital and operating costs in the first year. From the second year, operating expenses are covered by project revenue. A portion of the profits is allocated to bank deposits, ensuring funds for operating costs beyond the fifth year, when the assets are transferred to the women’s self-help group, securing their livelihoods over the long term.
In early 2023, NIIF launched a women’s cohort initiative called “EKIKA” (meaning an “independent strong woman” in Sanskrit) to promote gender equity and women’s well-being at the workplace.
EKIKA has three primary objectives:
NIIF’s renewable energy platform Ayana Renewable Power aims to promote gender diversity within its workforce. With a steady increase in female representation, the company has made consistent progress, achieving 14% gender diversity across its entire workforce.
To actively enhance gender inclusivity, Ayana has implemented a comprehensive Gender Action Plan. In recent years, the proportion of women in Ayana’s diverse workforce has steadily risen.
One striking initiative involves employing women in field roles, such as radar monitoring. This effort has succeeded in locations like Anantapur and Pogadh, demonstrating Ayana’s commitment to breaking down gender barriers in traditionally male-dominated roles. In February 2025, NIIF agreed to sell its stake in Ayana to ONGPL, with the deal subject to necessary regulatory approvals.
Athaang’s Devanahalli tollway in Karnataka reflects its commitment to advancing gender diversity and women’s empowerment in the workforce. Here, an entire toll shift is operated entirely by women. This women-led operation not only breaks from conventional gender roles but also marks a progressive step towards inclusivity and equal representation. In February 2025, NIIF agreed to sell three of its 5 road assets, including the Devanahalli project.
At Manohar International Airport (MOPA) in Goa, GMR hired its first female fire attendant, making her India’s first woman authorised to drive a Crash Fire Tender (CFT) and the state’s first female firefighter.
Mahindra Last Mile Mobility aims to expand the participation of women in the logistics sector by actively recruiting more women drivers for their last-mile mobility fleet. This initiative promotes diversity and human capital development, helping more women enter traditionally male-dominated roles and strengthen social/financial independence.
GreenCell Mobility, a portfolio company of NIIF Private Markets Fund (PMF-I)-anchored Green Growth Equity Fund (GGEF), has launched India’s first all-female intercity electric bus coach, NueGo, operating between Delhi and Agra. Rigorous training is provided to all female drivers and staff, incorporating simulator-based practice as well as real-world experience driving empty buses. The electric buses are fitted with six onboard cameras offering live monitoring, ensuring an additional layer of security. Championing women in this traditionally male-dominated profession, the company aims to recruit more women drivers and staff going forward. Currently, the bus fleet includes a 12-member all-female crew.
Licious, a portfolio company of Multiples Fund III which is anchored by NIIF’s PMF-I, is committed to enhancing diversity and inclusion in the workplace, actively tackling gender stereotypes by supporting women in unconventional roles. More than 414 female team members are engaged in diverse functions, including production, procurement, and quality, with plans to expand empowerment initiatives in the future.
A social enterprise working to make welfare schemes more accessible to citizens by creating a multi-state, multi-lingual, cloud-based, mobile technology platform that helps citizens discover, apply for, and benefit from, various Government and private schemes that they qualify for.
We have completed two programs that have provided screening, application support and physical monitoring for 700 households in Dichpally, Telangana and 3419 households in rural Thane and Pune, Maharashtra. Both the programs have provided them with much needed relief during COVID-19.
An NSDC affiliated skill development organization with the aim to empower the unemployed youth with the knowledge and skills required by the industry.
We are currently training 135 women in the age group of 18 – 40 years in areas of New Delhi to become General Duty Assistants(GDA) in the Healthcare Sector. This program aims to cater to the high demand for hospital staff that has been created especially during the pandemic and to provide placements and a sustainable livelihood opportunity to these candidates.
A collective of subject matter experts, designers, and technologists - all tirelessly striving towards empowering people to become agents of their own health outcomes and wellbeing by equipping them with the necessary skills.
We are targeting specifically vulnerable women to provide quality training and digital support during pregnancy to mitigate gender impact of COVID-19. Through Noorahealth’s Care Companion Program, we are training more than 9000 healthcare workers and patients in rural Karnataka. This will lead to enhanced health outcomes such as reduced post-discharge complications, reduced re-hospitalization rates for mothers and improved efficiency of nurses working in the maternity centers.
The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) is an initiative supported by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India to act as a catalyst of cutting-edge research and innovation in the field of life sciences since 2009.
We are focused on developing a healthcare manual for strengthening the healthcare workers’ capacity to deliver timely vaccinations on a large-scale using Information, Education and Communication (IEC) tools in order to facilitate future routine immunization efforts pan-India. This program will play an important role in supporting information dissemination to the most vulnerable populations in the low-income districts of Karnataka and Maharashtra. It will also address post-vaccination adverse events and re-infections, by enabling the creation of a trained health workforce.
A social tech company that was incubated out of IIT Delhi with the intent of reversing the flow of information to make it bottom-up instead of top-down. Using simple technologies and social context to design tools, they have been able to impact more than 2.5 million beneficiaries across South Asia and Africa.
We aim to provide an end-to-end offering to support the ongoing community engagement for the COVID-19 vaccination drive through a suite of innovative technologies developed in-house by Gram Vaani and IIT. This will increase the availability of actionable information on vaccinations at the last mile, strengthening coverage, timeliness, quality, and equity of the immunization drive for areas with low literacy, low tech penetration and low socio-economic backgrounds.
NIIF colleagues engaged in a tree plantation drive at Bandra Kurla Complex Garden organised by Dr. Mukherjee of Green Mission on January 9, 2020. Many enthusiastic employees met in the morning and got to work on planting saplings of different sizes, after a demonstration by Dr. Mukherjee.
CIN: U74900DL2015PLC287894
3rd Floor, Hindustan Times House, 18-20, Kasturba Gandhi Marg New Delhi – 110001
UTI Tower, GN Block, 4th Floor, BKC, Mumbai – 400 051
CIN: U74900DL2015PLC287894
3rd Floor, Hindustan Times House, 18-20, Kasturba Gandhi Marg New Delhi – 110001
UTI Tower, GN Block, 4th Floor, BKC, Mumbai – 400 051
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