{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","contentId":"0000019c-c131-dbee-a5fe-d9f9a5550001","url":"https://www.aboutamazon.in/news/workplace/elevate-her-2026-amazon-india-international-womens-day","headline":"ElevateHER 2026: Amazon India celebrates International Women’s Day through mentorship and career conversations","description":"Amazon hosts ElevateHER on March 6 for International Women's Day 2026 featuring mentorship sessions, leadership conversations, and career growth discussions.","datePublished":"2026-03-06T03:33:25.244Z","dateModified":"2026-03-09T09:15:33Z","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Amazon Staff","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/08549ff/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1125x1125+438+0/resize/84x84!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.aboutamazon.com%2F47%2F6d%2F7fe296e642859c7ba2a629eda3ba%2Famazon-logo-hero-images-2024.jpg","width":"84","height":"84"}}],"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/7c245f4/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1688x1125+156+0/resize/300x200!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.aboutamazon.com%2F4e%2Fc0%2Fd8805bba4a66b851e269f5db735e%2Felevateher-2026-kalki.jpg","width":"300","height":"200"},"articleBody":"![ElevateHer 2026-Kalki and Deepti](https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/7c245f4/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1688x1125+156+0/resize/300x200!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.aboutamazon.com%2F4e%2Fc0%2Fd8805bba4a66b851e269f5db735e%2Felevateher-2026-kalki.jpg)\n\n# ElevateHER 2026: Amazon India celebrates International Women’s Day through mentorship and career conversations\n\n*Amazon hosts ElevateHER on March 6 for International Women's Day 2026 featuring mentorship sessions, leadership conversations, and career growth discussions.*\n\n![Panel discussion at Amazon ElevateHER 2025 event](https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/9db66d3/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1280x720+0+0/resize/767x431!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.aboutamazon.com%2Fec%2Fd3%2Fe3bbfe1a434fb9877367c7075160%2Felevateher2025-sessions.jpg)\n\nAmazon India hosted the first edition of ElevateHER on International Women's Day 2025, bringing together professionals, emerging leaders, and inspiring personalities for conversations on mentorship, leadership and career growth.\n\nHosted in Bengaluru, the event included a fireside chat with actor and author Sonali Bendre and Deepti Varma, Vice President of HR/People eXperience and Technology (PXT), Amazon Stores India and Emerging Markets. Moderated by Aruna Daryanani, Director of Amazon MX Player, the discussion explored themes of personal growth, resilience, and the importance of leadership in professional spaces.\n\nThe initiative's impact extended beyond conventional networking through its structured mentoring session for over 100 participants along with a personal branding workshop.\n\nAmazon will host the second edition of ElevateHER on March 6 2026, bringing together women leaders, mentors, and aspiring professionals for a day of conversations aligned with the global International Women's Day theme: \"Give to Gain – Investing in Women, Multiplying Impact.\"\n\nThe event builds on Amazon's ongoing commitment to creating structured systems that expand opportunity at scale. The programme includes moderated mentoring conversations with women leaders, discussions on future-ready skills, and long-term growth.\n\nThrough initiatives such as Amazon Future Engineers and [Amazon WOW](https://www.aboutamazon.in/news/job-creation-investment/amazon-wow-connecting-women-in-technology), the company continues to invest in leadership pipelines and career acceleration for women within the organisation and in the communities it serves.\n\nKalki Koechlin, actor and writer, joins Deepti Varma, VP of People eXperience and Technology at Amazon Stores India and Emerging Markets, for a fireside chat on career resilience. The conversation will be moderated by Aruna Daryanani, Director at Amazon MX Player.\n\nLater, Aly Hajiani, known online as @ThatCreditCardGuy, leads a workshop on financial empowerment.\n\nThe day brings together leadership storytelling, mentorship, skills-building, and ecosystem impact.\n\n![Gitanjali Bhutani at ElevateHER](https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/a83d169/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1280x960+0+0/resize/767x575!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.aboutamazon.com%2Fef%2F1e%2F1b111d1f4bb9a92949e7ed468c4e%2Fgitanjali-bhutani.jpg)\n\nGitanjali Bhutani, Director, Software Development at Amazon, has opened ElevateHER 2026 welcoming participants joining in person and virtually from across India.\n\nBhutani introduced this year's theme — Give to Gain: Investing in women, multiplying impact — framing it as a strategic, not symbolic, commitment.\n\n\"It's a belief that when we invest intentionally in women, through opportunity, sponsorship, access, and enablement, the returns don't just stay with one person. They ripple outward, strengthening leadership pipelines, communities, and the long-term outcomes we build together as a company,\" she says.\n\nGitanjali Bhutani, Director, Software Development at Amazon, opened ElevateHER 2026 with a reminder that investing in women does not always look like a formal programme.\n\n\"It doesn't always mean a scholarship or a program — sometimes, it's a manager who says, 'You're ready for this.' A colleague who passes your name into a room you weren't in. A leader who creates a seat at the table before you even know to ask for one,\" she said.\n\nBhutani framed inclusion as an active, daily choice at Amazon, not a value statement. \"It's a choice we make every day — in who we hire, who we develop, who we sponsor, and who we bring into rooms like this one,\" she says.\n\nIn her keynote at ElevateHER 2026, Gitanjali Bhutani cited the a study to make the case for structured sponsorship pathways. Women are sponsored less often than men, she noted, and even when they have sponsors, are promoted at lower rates.\n\n\"That gap is not a reflection of potential or ambition. It reflects patterns in how opportunity flows through organisations,\" says Bhutani. \n\nShe also pointed to [Amazon Future Engineer](https://www.aboutamazon.in/news/community/amazon-future-engineer-scholarships-women-engineers) as an example of early investment — expanding access to computer science education to build the next generation of women in technology and business.\n\nAmazon Future Engineer (AFE) is a scholarship programme designed to open doors in tech for female engineering students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds across India. The programme goes beyond financial support — each scholar receives ₹2 lakh over four years, a laptop, technical training, paid internships at Amazon, and one-on-one mentorship from experienced engineers.\n\nThe results from the first cohort speak for themselves: an 80% placement rate, with graduates securing roles at Fortune 500 companies, including Amazon itself. Many are first-generation college graduates from tier-2 and tier-3 cities — places like Latur in Maharashtra and Chaibasa in Jharkhand.\n\n\"The scholarship didn't just provide financial support — it gave me confidence, mentorship, and real-world experience that transformed my career,\" said Samala Keerthi, one of the programme's scholars.\n\nWith 1,700 scholarships awarded across four cohorts and 385 scholars having completed internships, AFE's impact is growing. Amazon India has now announced 500 new scholarships for the 2025–2029 academic cycle.\n\n![Amazon Future Engineer scholarship](https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/dd99c3a/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1350x900+125+0/resize/300x200!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.aboutamazon.com%2F4f%2Fd9%2F0cc8d4344367b77f8d0ed8bf1dd0%2Fafe-hero-final.jpg)\n\n- [Amazon Future Engineer: 500 new scholarships announced for female students](https://www.aboutamazon.in/news/community/amazon-future-engineer-scholarships-women-engineers)\n\nWomen at Amazon India was founded in 2020 — not as a formal programme or corporate mandate, but out of a shared desire to bring inclusion and focus to women in the workplace, say Snigdha Ghosh, Sr. Program Manager, Amazon.\n\nWhat started with 8 employees coming together has grown into a community of 200 — and counting. Women at Amazon India has expanded beyond its founding chapter, with groups now active across multiple Amazon teams and locations.\n\nThe community runs networking and allyship events through these chapters, creating spaces for connection, support, and shared growth.\n\nBhuvaneshwari has spent most of her life behind the wheel — as a stage singer turned ambulance driver, then driving instructor. But it was commercial trucking that gave the 34-year-old single mother from Chennai the stability she had been looking for.\n\nIn 2022, she joined Amazon India's operations network through a tip from a former student. She started on an 8-foot truck and has since progressed to operating 20-foot commercial trucks on intracity routes, moving customer orders between Amazon's fulfilment centres and delivery stations — a critical part of the company's middle mile network.\n\nRead Bhuvaneshwari's story:\n\n![Bhuvneshwari](https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/a1bfff1/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1688x1125+156+0/resize/300x200!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.aboutamazon.com%2Ff3%2F50%2F29531052404fb8238601b27c6405%2Fbhuvneshwari-profile-hero.jpg)\n\n- [From driving school trainer to Amazon truck driver: How Bhuvaneshwari built a career on the road](https://www.aboutamazon.in/news/operations/amazon-woman-truck-driver-chennai)\n\n![Ali Hajiani session at ElevateHER](https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/aba6b97/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1280x960+0+0/resize/767x575!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.aboutamazon.com%2Fdd%2F24%2Fc89cd3e3405a8bd9123904ae57b2%2Fali-hajiani-session.jpg)\n\nThe workshop session at ElevateHER 2026 is now underway, with Aly Hajiani (@ThatCreditCardGuy) leading a workshop on financial empowerment through smart credit management.\n\nAs Aly Hajiani kicks off the financial empowerment workshop at ElevateHER 2026, the numbers tell a compelling story. According to the How Urban India Pays 2025 report by Kearney India in collaboration with Amazon Pay, women are among the fastest-growing adopters of digital payments in the country.\n\n89% of women prefer digital methods for online purchases, and 80% of women entrepreneurs now run their businesses using digital payment solutions. UPI leads as their preferred payment method, followed by credit cards and digital wallets. Meanwhile, 57% of women are actively taking charge of their own finances.\n\nRead more: \n\n![How Urban India Pays 2025](https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/7dd48f1/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1688x1125+156+0/resize/300x200!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.aboutamazon.com%2Fa1%2F22%2F9296252c48638aa6e1cbd94724d7%2Fhow-urban-india-pays-hero.jpg)\n\n- [India’s adoption of UPI and online payment modes jump 35% in 2025; driven by women, Gen Z](https://www.aboutamazon.in/news/retail/how-urban-india-pays)\n\nThe conversation at ElevateHER 2026 now turns to everyday wellness and what it means to perform sustainably — without burning out.\n\nPayal Gupta, Director, Software Development, Amazon's Central Shopping Experience team, will moderate a panel featuring Anuradha Aggarwal, Director of Marketing and Growth at Amazon India; Ishita Sawant, Founder and CEO of Meolaa; and Maullika Sharma, Director of Customised Learning Solutions, Workplace Options & industry wellness expert\n\n![Anuradha Aggarwal session at ElevateHER 2026](https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/3cc1d87/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1280x960+0+0/resize/767x575!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.aboutamazon.com%2F87%2F63%2F8ff202f348ffb3916f65837fdae4%2Fanuradha-session-1.jpg)\n\nAnuradha Aggarwal, Director of Marketing and Growth at Amazon India, opened the wellness panel at ElevateHER 2026 with a candid reflection on how her relationship with well-being has shifted over the years.\n\n\"Early in my career, wellness meant stamina. It meant being able to take on more, move faster, say yes to everything, and prove that I could deliver.\"\n\nToday, she said, wellness is intentional — protecting thinking time, making deliberate trade-offs, and not confusing busyness with impact.\n\nFrom the Himalayas to Jaipur, nine women-owned businesses on Amazon India are building brands rooted in purpose. Himalayan Haat creates livelihoods for mountain women. Aranya Pure Food works with tribal farmers in Gujarat. Made in Nagaland Centre platforms over 260 local entrepreneurs. Promom, Sihi Chocolaterie, and Bhaakur solve everyday parenting needs. Tarang Arts, Bhumee Creations, and Roovi connect artisans to buyers nationwide. Their collections are available on Amazon.in.\n\n![Women owned businesses on Amazon](https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/2adcad3/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1688x1125+156+0/resize/300x200!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.aboutamazon.com%2F4a%2F71%2F71391a2f4f8c9cb85fca25a3630b%2Fwomen-owned-businesses-amazon.jpg)\n\n- [9 women-owned small businesses redefining entrepreneurship on Amazon India](https://www.aboutamazon.in/news/small-business/women-owned-business-amazon-india)\n\nAnuradha Aggarwal used her time on the ElevateHER 2026 panel to outline the structured programmes Amazon has built to support women at different stages of their careers.\n\n- Rekindle is a returnship programme that helps women who have taken career breaks re-enter the workforce through structured projects, mentorship, and learning opportunities. \n- Ramp Back supports employees returning from parental leave, helping them transition back to work with flexibility and the right support systems. \n- Catapult is a leadership development programme designed to accelerate the growth of high-potential women leaders and prepare them for larger roles. \n- Women in Leadership (WIL) focuses on strengthening leadership capabilities through mentorship, sponsorship, and skill-building opportunities. \n- For early-career talent, Amazon WoW helps women students explore careers in technology, while AmazeWIT brings together women technologists and students through hackathons, workshops, and networking platforms.\n\n\"The goal is not representation for its own sake. It's about building strong, diverse leadership pipelines that strengthen the business,\" Aggarwal said.\n\nThe afternoon session at ElevateHER 2026 is about to begin — and it's a personal one. Actor and writer Kalki Koechlin joins Deepti Varma, VP of People eXperience and Technology at Amazon Stores India and Emerging Markets, for a fireside chat on resilience, lived professional journeys, and inclusive leadership.\n\nThe conversation, moderated by Aruna Daryanani, Director at Amazon MX Player, centres on a single question: what happens when someone believes in you before you believe in yourself?\n\nActor and writer Kalki Koechlin, speaking at ElevateHER 2026, opened her fireside chat with a childhood memory that stayed with her. Watching Julia Roberts play Tinker Bell — short-haired, unconventional — made her realise that femininity didn't have to look one way. \n\n\"Before this, all fairies were delicate and girly. And Tinker Bell had short hair, and it made me think that fairies could be like this as well,\" she said.\n\nDeepti Varma, VP of People eXperience and Technology at Amazon Stores India and Emerging Markets, shared a personal moment at ElevateHER 2026 that reframed how she thinks about ambition and self-care.\n\nWhen offered a new role at Amazon, Varma was ready to turn it down — her son was in his 12th year of school, and she didn't want to be distracted. It was her son who stopped her. \"Learn to love yourself before you give love to others,\" he told her.\n\nShe took the role.\n\nActor and writer Kalki Koechlin offered a counterintuitive take on sustaining creativity at ElevateHER 2026 — step away from it.\n\n\"I regularly get off social media to go back to reading, writing, connecting with people and knowing their stories,\" she said. \n\n\"We are cyclical creatures and we forget that in modern times. So we need to give time to rest, recuperate and give yourself that break.\"\n\nDeepti Varma, VP of People eXperience and Technology at Amazon Stores India and Emerging Markets, closed her remarks at ElevateHER 2026 with a simple but direct message: stop worrying about what others think.\n\n\"Be authentic to yourself and bring your authentic self to work. Do not worry about what others think about you,\" she said.\n\n![MoU signing between Amazon Saheli and AWWA](https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/42b01f0/2147483647/strip/true/crop/6000x3375+0+0/resize/767x431!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.aboutamazon.com%2F9d%2F9e%2F3ada4d1d424785f7ad5430f1c80c%2Fmou-singing-awwa-amazon-saheli-4.jpg)\n\nAt ElevateHER 2026, Deepti Varma, VP of People eXperience and Technology at Amazon Stores India and Emerging Markets, announced a new partnership between Amazon Saheli and the Army Women Welfare Association (AWWA) — formalised through a Memorandum of Understanding.\n\nThrough the collaboration, women entrepreneurs from Army families will receive structured onboarding, capability building, and access to customers across India, helping them build sustainable businesses on the Amazon marketplace.\n\nThe announcement carries personal weight for Varma, who grew up as the daughter of an Army officer. \"There are many incredibly capable and talented women whose potential often remains untapped simply because opportunity and access do not arrive at the right time,\" she said.\n\nThe partnership builds on Amazon's existing commitment to veteran inclusion. Globally, over 40,000 veterans and 11,000 military spouses build their careers with Amazon. Last year, Amazon signed an MOU with the Army Welfare Placement Organisation to enable employment pathways — this new agreement extends that commitment from employment to entrepreneurship.\n\nAt ElevateHER 2026, Amazon unveiled the [Amazon Saheli x AWWA storefront](https://www.amazon.in/b?_encoding=UTF8&node=216434684031&ref_=cct_cg_LPNewMar_1a1&pf_rd_p=1714654e-1177-4e4b-9d9e-2f17081694a7&pf_rd_r=HZY10GG79PYP6DZVMDVQ) — a dedicated digital space on Amazon.in for products crafted by women entrepreneurs from Army families, launched in partnership with the Army Women Welfare Association.\n\nThe storefront is part of Amazon Saheli, a programme launched in 2017 to help women-led businesses across India reach millions of customers through the Amazon marketplace. Beyond market access, Saheli provides onboarding support, training workshops, dedicated account managers, and guidance on cataloguing, analytics, and business reporting.\n\nThe programme has grown through partnerships with organisations including the Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship, the National Rural Livelihoods Mission, and DeAsra, among others. In 2025, Amazon Saheli launched Saheli Accelerate in collaboration with Invest India — an accelerator for high-growth women entrepreneurs. The expanded second cohort will support 50 entrepreneurs in 2026.\n\nThe AWWA storefront extends that reach into military communities, where women often navigate frequent relocations and career disruptions. Explore the storefront on Amazon.in.\n\nRead more about Amazon Saheli:\n\n![Seller flowers Amazon India](https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/c6643c4/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5184x3456+0+0/resize/300x200!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.aboutamazon.com%2F47%2F57%2F3d494ebf4fb98309b429f8a398bc%2Fphool.JPG)\n\n- [Amazon Saheli: How India's women entrepreneurs are building successful businesses online](https://www.aboutamazon.in/news/small-business/amazon-saheli-empowering-women-entrepreneurship)\n\nMajor (Retired) Neha Sighroha traded her uniform for entrepreneurship — founding ENLUSHED, a brand rooted in natural living and the belief that homes deserve better. \n\nA seller on the [Amazon Saheli x AWWA storefront](https://www.amazon.in/b?_encoding=UTF8&node=216434684031&ref_=cct_cg_LPNewMar_1a1&pf_rd_p=1714654e-1177-4e4b-9d9e-2f17081694a7&pf_rd_r=HZY10GG79PYP6DZVMDVQ), her journey from military service to building a purpose-driven business is one of the first stories to emerge from the new partnership.\n\nAmazon ElevateHER 2026 wrapped up with a vote of thanks that drew together the threads of the day — from Gitanjali Bhutani's opening keynote on strategic investment in women, to the fireside chat between Deepti Varma and Kalki Koechlin on the power of belief, to the Amazon Saheli and Army Women Welfare Association partnership announcement.\n\n\"Today wasn't just an event — it was an experience that we must continue to amplify in our roles,\" said Deepa Koka, Amazon eXperience and Upskilling Leader, APAC MEA reflecting on a day built around the theme Give to Gain.\n\nDeepa, who grew up in an Army family, called the Saheli x AWWA partnership personally meaningful. \"Opportunity should extend beyond our workplaces and into the communities we serve,\" she said, noting that Amazon's commitment to women spans the full career lifecycle — from Amazon Future Engineer for students entering STEM, to Rekindle and Ramp Back for those returning to work, to Women in Leadership for those stepping into larger roles.\n\nThe session closed with a message that echoed the day's theme: \"Someone once invested in you. Someone opened a door. Someone believed in you before you believed in yourself. The most powerful way to honour that investment is to multiply it.\"\n\nThat's a wrap on Amazon ElevateHER 2026. From Gitanjali Bhutani's opening keynote to the Amazon Saheli x AWWA storefront launch, the fireside chat with Kalki Koechlin and Deepti Varma, and the wellness panel — it has been a full day of conversations on leadership, resilience, and what it means to invest in women.","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"About Amazon","url":"https://www.aboutamazon.com","sameAs":["https://x.com/amazonnews","https://www.linkedin.com/company/amazon","https://www.instagram.com/amazonnews"],"logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://assets.aboutamazon.com/bd/8f/88e7b0314cc2bd05b9de3155a0fe/amazon-news.svg"},"parentOrganization":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Amazon","url":"https://www.amazon.com","sameAs":["https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3884","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_(company)","https://x.com/Amazon"]}}}