Singapore Tops Asia In Dell Global Women Entrepreneur Cities Index 2019. It is at 21st is number one amongst Asian cities. North America has the greatest number of cities in the year’s top 10, with a total of seven, followed by Europe, which had three. Cities in Latin America and the Middle East didn’t make it into the top half.
Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2019
In the study sponsored by Dell and conducted by London-based global information provider, IHS Markit, San Francisco Bay Area emerged the top city overtaking its Eastern seaboard rival, New York to claim first place from the second place it gained in 2017 when the survey was last conducted. It scored 63.7 points, marginally above the 62.9 set by New York in 2017. The medium score across the 50 cities in 2019 was 40.3compared with 39.3in 2017.
Karen Quintos, Dell’s executive vice president and chief customer officer told CNBC that while all cities recorded improvements since the 2017 benchmark index, she noted that all were still well below the 100 mark -the total achievable score – and showed plenty of room for progress.
The Dell Women Entrepreneur Cities Index measures a city’s ability to attract and support high potential women entrepreneurs. The 50 cities were chosen for their reputation as established or emerging hubs of innovation and entrepreneurship and their geographical diversity.
The index is constructed using five “pillars” – market, talent, capital, culture and technology – as well as 2 environments and four weighting criteria. Almost all the pillars consist of a policy sub-category to capture important policies that help level the playing field for women entrepreneurs.
Generally, the majority of the cities have made improvements in many of the ranking criteria with Delhi achieving a global rank of 26th in terms of overall improvements made. More specifically, the bottom 10 cities made progress in the market, capital and talent but slipped in culture and technology. They have also improved in terms of the increasing availability of funding to women entrepreneurs.
In addition, the bottom 10 have also improved in terms of representation of women on corporate boards. Overall, 37 cities out of the 50 surveyed have increased the representation of women on their corporate boards. That Paris performs the best in this metric with 44 per cent representation is because France mandates that all corporate boards must have 40 per cent women representation.
However, there are still lots of room for improvement in the area of women representation in the legislature. The bottom 10 cities have a relatively low representation of 19 per cent. The top ten are also not doing particularly well in this regard at 36 per cent.
A World Bank feature published on International Women’s Day this year quoted the statistic that although women make up 48 per cent of the Indian population, they have not benefitted equally from India’s rapid economic growth. Another statistic quoted is that 65 per cent of women is literate as compared to 80 per cent of men. Furthermore, India has amongst the lowest female labour force participation rates in the world. Less than a third of women – 15 years or older – are working or actively looking for a job.
One of the projects that the World Bank is involved in to help Indian women entrepreneurs is in launching a livelihood bond together with UN Women and the Small Industries Development Bank of India. This helps individual women entrepreneurs to take up small loans at reasonable interest rates in order to set up or scale-up their own enterprises.
Most certainly women entrepreneurs in India are better off today than they were in the past but much more can be done to help them achieve equality.
Ranking List
Delhi achieved the 26th rank globally and is improved in terms of the increasing availability of funding to Women Entrepreneur Cities.
In terms of representation of women on corporate boards, Paris performed better with 44% of the representation.As per the World Bank, women were not benefited equally from India’s rapid economic growth even though they make up 48% of the Indian population.
Around 65% of women are literate as compared to 80% of men
India is the lowest female labor force participation rates in the world(Less than a third of women (15 years /older) are working or actively looking for a job.
To help rural women set up, scale up their enterprises.
The World Bank together with UN Women (a United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and empowerment of women), and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) launched a five-year tenor ‘women’s livelihood bond(WLB)’ to raise Rs.300 crore.
About Singapore:
Singapore, an island city-state off southern Malaysia, is a global financial center with a tropical climate and multicultural population. Its colonial core centers on the Padang, a cricket field since the 1830s and now flanked by grand buildings such as City Hall, with its 18 Corinthian columns. In Singapore’s circa-1820 Chinatown stands the red-and-gold Buddha Tooth Relic Temple, said to house one of Buddha’s teeth.
Dialing code: +65
Currency: Singapore dollar
Recognised national languages: Malay
Official scripts: Latin script (English and Malay); Simplified Chinese; Tamil
About IHS Markit:
IHS Markit Ltd is a London-based global information provider that was formed in 2016 when IHS Inc. and Markit Ltd. merged.
Revenue: 360 crores USD (2017)
Headquarters: London, United KingdomCEO: Lance Uggla
