Twitter launched its first "You Belong in Tech" event for India, bringing together influential voices to tackle the pressing issues of women in technology, leadership, and workplace bias.
Twitter has brought India its first "You Belong in Tech" event, creating a digital space for honest conversations about inclusion and diversity in the technology sector. Held online and open to anyone with an RSVP, the event featured revitalizing discussions with some of the most influential leaders in the region. The focus was clear: women in tech, leadership, and the ongoing challenge of tackling bias in the workplace.
Opening the event were two senior leaders setting the tone for the day. Jessie Link, VP of Engineering at Twitter, shared her perspective on driving initiatives that shape engineering to be more diverse, more decentralized, and more productive. She was joined by Manish Maheshwari, Managing Director of Twitter India, who drives an integrated business strategy to accelerate Twitter's audience and revenue growth across the country. Together, they framed the conversation around what it actually takes to build a technology ecosystem that reflects the diversity of its users.
The first panel, focused on "Women in Tech," brought together two voices deeply embedded in India's technology and policy landscape. Debjani Ghosh, President at NASSCOM, is a veteran of the technology industry and the fifth president of NASSCOM, as well as the first woman to lead the organization. Her presence alone spoke volumes about the progress being made, and the distance still to travel. She was joined by Mahima Kaul, Director of Public Policy for India and South Asia at Twitter. Kaul engages on internet public policy issues with government, regulators, academia, and civil society, bringing a policy lens to the challenges women face in entering and staying in the technology workforce.
The discussion then shifted to "Women in Leadership," featuring Nisaba Godrej and Maya Hari. Godrej serves as Chairperson and Managing Director of Godrej Consumer Products Limited, and also chairs Teach for India while sitting on the boards of Godrej Agrovet, Mahindra and Mahindra, and VIP Industries. Her cross-industry experience offered a grounded perspective on what leadership looks like when inclusion is a priority, not an afterthought. Maya Hari, Vice President and Managing Director of Asia Pacific at Twitter, leads Twitter's business across the region and explores commercial opportunities throughout Asia Pacific. She also serves as a board advisor to startups in Data Science and Commerce, as well as the ASX-listed ed-tech company OpenLearning.
The final segment, "Tackling Bias in the Workplace," was shared among three speakers, each bringing a distinct angle to the conversation. Francis Anthony, Trailhead CX Lead and President of Outforce India APAC at Salesforce, leads the customer-facing technical enablement team in Salesforce Industries Cloud. He also oversees strategy and new programming for all regional LGBTQ+ equity initiatives, making him a vocal advocate for intersectional inclusion in tech spaces.
Priyanka Rowthu, Inclusion Recruiting Lead for APAC at LinkedIn, partners with global and regional talent acquisition leaders to design and manage high-impact programs aligned with LinkedIn's talent strategy. In her current role, she continues to shape the Inclusion Recruiting strategy for APAC, working to create more diverse and equitable recruiting capabilities through structured approaches.
Amrita Tripathi, Head of News Partnerships at Twitter India, leads news partnerships for Twitter in the country and works on revenue opportunities across content verticals as part of the Global Content Partnerships Team. She also serves as co-lead for Twitter Women in India, tying her professional work directly to the issues discussed at the event.
Events like this matter because they move the conversation beyond statements and into strategy. The speakers represented not just leadership positions, but active efforts to change how the technology industry recruits, retains, and promotes talent. For a sector that continues to struggle with diversity at every level, the practical experiences shared here offered something more useful than optimism: a roadmap built by people actually doing the work. As Twitter continues to expand its presence in India, the real test will be whether these conversations translate into measurable shifts in who gets hired, who gets promoted, and who feels like they belong.
