Emerging Implications of India's POSH Act

CASI Seminar
Nitya Thummalachetty
CEO & Co-Founder, FortunaHLTH
Center for the Advanced Study of India
Ronald O. Perelman Center for Political Science & Economics
133 South 36th Street, Suite 230
Philadelphia PA 19104-6215

 


Listen to podcast (in conversation with Gautam Nair, CASI Visiting Dissertation Fellow)

About the Speaker:
Nitya Thummalachetty is the CEO and Co-founder of FortunaHLTH, a healthcare cybersecurity company based in New York City. She has worked in management consulting, health policy and intervention research, and behavioral and predictive analytics. She serves as an Advisor for Diversity and Inclusion for FortunaPIX, an ed-tech company focusing on the global K-12 segment, and MMTC-PAMP, a Swiss-Indian joint venture and one of Asia’s largest refineries. Nitya has published articles on topics related to gender, workplace culture and equity, and leadership, was listed in BBC 100 Women 2017, and has been interviewed by BBC about technology and gender disparities. She earned her DrPH in social science, public health, and gender from Columbia University.

About the Lecture:
The Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) Act, 2013 was the first piece of legislation to pass in India addressing sexual harassment of women in the workplace. In the subsequent years, the Act has led to a variety of unforeseen outcomes in the workplace environment and companies are responding in unanticipated ways. Nitya Thummalachetty seeks to understand the evolution of institutional decision-making that arises as a response to the changing legal landscape—how does the changing legal landscape impact the environment within which companies operate? Consequently, how do companies respond to this impact at the interpersonal and institutional levels? This exploratory research is intended to serve as a starting point for further critical academic inquiry at the intersection of workplace sexual harassment, corporate culture and governance, and law in India.

[Event Flyer]

The Nand & Jeet Khemka Distinguished Lecture Series is an endowed public program of the Center for the Advanced Study of India (CASI). Launched in the 2007-08 academic year, and made possible through the generous support of the Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation, the series brings renowned India specialists to the Penn community and serves as a critical forum for analyzing and understanding the complex economic, political, social, and cultural changes that the world’s largest democracy is experiencing, as well as the challenges that lie ahead.
The Saluja Global Fellows Program has been made possible by the generous gift from Vishal Saluja ENG’89 W’89. CASI was excited to launch the program during the 2022–23 academic year, coinciding with the Center’s 30th Anniversary. This new program enables CASI to invite eminent leaders and rising experts on contemporary India preferably from the fields of media, culture, law, and contemporary history to be in residence for one to two weeks at CASI.