GE Healthcare to open all-women manufacturing plant in Bengaluru

Wipro GE Healthcare on Monday said its upcoming greenfield manufacturing facility in Bengaluru will be managed entirely by women.

The company will initially employ 33 women and the number will be increased to 100 when production expands. The upcoming plant will begin rolling out products from April and have three work shifts on all days.

The around Rs 100-crore unit is being built under the government's production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme. It will manufacture machines for CT-scans, cath labs and ultrasonography, besides ventilators and patient monitors. The factory was built in a record time of eight months.

The upcoming facility will be GE Healthcare's fourth manufacturing facility in India.

"This is a unique feat of GE in India and we believe it is the right step in bridging the gender gap for our region," said Mahesh Kapri, managing director, GE BEL and general manager, ISC, South Asia.

"For us in GE, valuing diversity and treating everyone with respect is the foundation. I do want to reiterate the importance of meritocracy, the advancement is purely based on an individual's capability and merit," Kapri said.

Kapri said GE Healthcare employs about 2,000 people across its manufacturing sites, of which 12% are women.

"With the new site coming on board, the share of women employees in manufacturing will go up by 18%," he Kapri said. In the senior operational roles in manufacturing, women constitute 58%, the company said.

"Two of our existing factories have women as plant managers," Kapri said.

Shravan Subramanyam, managing director of Wipro GE Healthcare, said having an all-women shopfloor is the "first of its kind initiative in the medtech industry".