MMA Women Managers Convention 2026
SPEAKERS & PANELISTS
Ms Mridula Ramesh | Founder, Sundaram Climate Institute & Executive Director, Sundaram Textiles Ltd.
Dr Ranjini Manian | Moderator, Founder Chair, Global Adjustments Foundation
Ms Radhe Jaggi | Classical Bharatanatyam Artist, Daughter of Sadhguru
Ms Tanvi Shah | Grammy Award-Winning Singer & Songwriter (Jai Ho – Slumdog Millionaire)
Ms Mridula Ramesh
Thank you for having me. I have attended this convention a couple of times before, and I can tell you — you are truly in for a treat. Every time I have been here, people stayed the whole day. It is one of the most inspiring events I have ever attended.
Let me start by asking you to look at the world today. The uncertainty, the wars that seemed so far away — just last week, friends and family from Dubai were sending photographs of missiles saying, “now it has come home.” We are all wondering how much gas is left in the cylinder. The war that was very far away has entered our homes, entered our kitchens. And in moments like this, it is so easy to feel like a victim — hurt, vulnerable, at the mercy of forces far bigger than us.
My latest book is a climate thriller. In it, the villains manipulate energy markets, exploiting war to create volatility. The hero is a broken man — a recovering alcoholic trying to outrun forces far more powerful than him. But he is not led forward by money or power. He is led forward by two strong women: his daughter, and his daughter’s teacher. Halfway through writing, my own daughter came to me and said, “Aamma, why don’t you put magic in the book?” That one sentence completely upended the plot. I went down a rabbit hole looking for magic that is truly Indian. Not Harry Potter magic. The wisdom of the Siddhars. And at the heart of the book is a verse from Sattaimuni Siddhar: “Andathil ullathae pindam, pindathil ullathae andam” — as within, so without.
“No matter what happens in the world around you, we still have agency. We still have power to act.”
That phrase may sound esoteric, mystical, far removed from a management convention. But the way I understand it is this: no matter what happens in the world around you, we still have agency. We still have some power to act. The breakthroughs in my life have come every time I stopped seeing myself as a victim.
I started my climate journey about thirteen years ago when I ran out of water at home. We drilled 500 feet and found nothing. My first reaction? I cried. I blamed the government, blamed everybody. But when the bills started to pinch and it became clear that no one was going to help me, I started asking: what can I do? And it turned out there was a lot I could do. I learned to track where we were using water, installed meters, lowered tap pressure, set up drip irrigation, used compost so the garden held more moisture. Each small action added up — siruthuli peruvellam, as we say in Tamil: little drops make a mighty ocean. Within months, we stopped buying water. Three years later, Madurai experienced its worst drought in 140 years. Everyone was buying water. We never did.
That thinking took me to investments in startups incubated at IIT Madras, and today hundreds of homes and factories are more water-secure as a result. That is the magic — not supernatural power, just a shift in perspective.
And here is something very relevant today when everyone is worrying about gas cylinders. Around the same time we addressed water, we began managing food waste. It turns out that properly processed food waste generates biogas. We now have a small biogas plant at home — a little bigger than this podium — that gives us nearly one cylinder a month. India throws lakhs of tonnes of food waste into streets and landfills every day. We see it as rubbish. It is a resource. A simple shift in perspective is all it takes: instead of asking “why is this happening to me,” we ask “what can I do?”
Now let me bring this to all of you as managers. Today, the headline word is AI. They say it is frightening. Jobs will disappear. Machines will replace people. Ten years ago, we in textiles said the same about robots. The industry did not vanish. It evolved. We incorporated robots and moved on. And that evolution depends on skills machines cannot replicate: the ability to deal with difficult people, to motivate a team, to build trust, to navigate uncertainty. These are irreplaceable human capabilities. In this wonderfully uncertain world, when ChatGPT gives you a completely wrong answer, you really need a human being. But that requires the same small act of magic — moving from seeing yourself as a victim to seeing yourself as someone with agency. Next time the world feels overwhelming — and I can tell you it is feeling overwhelming right now — remember the verse: as within, so without. Each of us has the power within us to decide how we respond. When one woman changes her perspective, she changes her life. And when thousands of women change their perspective, they change the world.
Panel Discussion
Dr Ranjini Manian
What a beautiful panel we have — a dancer, a singer, and two personal brand ambassadors of their own authentic selves. MMA asked us to explore personal branding, self-care, and what wellness looks like for the professional woman. As managers, all of you are asking: what do I do for my professional success and personal happiness? This session will address both. Take away something from these stories the moment you walk out the door.
Ms Radhe Jaggi
In Khajuraho, we performed the story of Shiva and Parvati’s wedding. Shiva comes in disguise as a Brahmin while Parvati is in deep tapas. He challenges her: you are a princess, you will come as a beautiful bride, and he will arrive naked with ash smeared on him — is this really the man to marry? And Parvati says: he will come draped in the night sky full of stars. How does my silk sari compare to that? He says your flower garlands will wither; he will garland you with a snake. She says: do you even understand the beauty of a nagamani? My garlands will wither, but that beauty is eternal. He says he has no home, no servants, no marital bed. She says: all the mountains are his, all the rivers are his, everything belongs to him — so what do I have to worry about?
What is personal branding in this story? Parvati had a moment of clarity. She understood something deeply and no one — not even Shiva himself coming to dissuade her — could shake that conviction. When young managers are climbing the corporate ladder and have a certain vision of where they want to be, should they be listening to every opinion, or should they be asking: I know the brand I am building and the person I am becoming?
Personal branding begins with capability. Ask yourself honestly: is this product — meaning me — capable of everything I claim? Do I have the skills? If tomorrow I am given the opportunity I want, am I capable of handling it? If not, can I upgrade now so I am ready when it comes? Once you have that clarity, stop worrying about how someone else dresses, speaks, or climbed the ladder. Their path may not be yours. What matters is: do I understand my own capability and am I working at it?
Listening, though, is a different skill entirely. If the wisest person in your life speaks, listen. But even if a donkey is speaking, listen — because you do not know what they will say before they say it. A dancer who does not care what the audience understands has no reason to be on a stage. Performance is based on purpose, but also on connection. Ask: does what I am offering have value for others?
Ms Tanvi Shah
I was never supposed to be a singer. I am actually a designer. I could hold a note, I used to sing for fun, and someone shared a karaoke session of mine that somehow reached A R Rahman. The rest was history. He called at 2:45 in the morning. I am not a singer, and someone calls at 2:45 and says, “Hi, this is A R Rahman. I want you to sing for me.” I thought it was a prank. But there is something I have always had in me — a keera, a bug — that says, okay, let me try this. Maximum, they will throw me out of the studio. So I went. My first song was a Fanna from Yuva, and the journey kept going.
After that first song, I started western classical training. I did not want to be a one-song wonder. I wanted to see if I could go ahead in this. So I just kept at it, kept enjoying the process, kept learning. And that gumption — to stay at it, to keep enjoying the process even when I was not trained — is what I would offer as a lesson. Music was my passion, not my profession. My passion became my profession. And that, I think, is success.
At the Grammys, I was given the choice to dress completely western. I chose to wear an Indian outfit. I was representing the women of my country, and on that stage, in a saree, I stood out. That is when I understood what being authentic truly means — being comfortable in your own skin. Confidence and practice will get you there. You have to practise. I am still practising and I know I always will be. Once you build confidence and authenticity, the path opens.
Ms Radhe Jaggi
I am not Sadhguru’s daughter. I am not Sandeep Narayan’s wife. I am not a Bharatanatyam dancer. I am not a yoga teacher. I am none of these things. I have certain capabilities and certain responsibilities. The privilege of being somebody’s daughter means that wherever I go, the love people have for him overflows and spills onto me. I have great appreciation for that. But when I sit here, I am not thinking of those labels. They are not a reflection of my capabilities. I am just Radhe, and I will fulfil all of these responsibilities to the best of my abilities.
I was one of the worst dancers in my class at Kalakshetra. There were fifteen of us, and none of my teachers or classmates ever expected I would take up dance professionally. But many girls who were beautiful, naturally gifted dancers in my class are not dancing anymore. I just knew that I loved it, and if I wanted to continue, I had no choice but to become good at it. Nobody wants to watch a bad dancer. Hard work trumps talent every time.
Ms Tanvi Shah
Silence. And I learned it only after my cancer diagnosis. Until then, I was going to the gym, surfing, doing everything. I thought I was fine. When that jolt hit, I had my trials and tribulations. If you need to cry, cry it out. We are human. But within seven minutes of my doctor telling me the news, I looked up and asked: okay, what next? There were still tears, but I asked, what do we do now? And that question — what next — is what I would leave with you. At some point every day, learn to switch off. Cut the cacophony outside. Sit with yourself. That is when you can plan your day, decide what matters, and charge yourself for what comes next.
Ms Radhe Jaggi
There is a fundamental misunderstanding about what yoga is. People think it is about twisting into complex postures. As Sadhguru says, if you look like a leftover noodle, people think that is yoga. But yoga is not about what you are doing with your physical body. How are you within yourself? When you get angry, is it because you chose to be angry, or because someone else made you? Why do you give somebody else that much control over your inner experience? If there is a certain stability within yourself, you decide how you experience life. The Miracle of Mind app is a simple, guided seven-minute practice — it draws a distinction between this is my body, this is my mind, and this is who I am. Once a little distance comes, you deal with your body and your mind the way they need to be dealt with, not because somebody else provoked you. Your brand is who you are, and you are comfortable with who you are. That is what success looks like.
