On 8th October 2025, Godrej DEI Lab hosted the grand finale of India Included on Campus, a DEI case study competition, at Godrej One, Vikhroli.
The event was the culmination of a series of college roadshows in September 2025, when we visited four leading B-schools across India — Indian Institute of Management, Trichy; Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune; Indian Institute of Management, Mumbai; and Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow.
At each campus, Parmesh Shahani, head of the Godrej DEI Lab, reiterated the importance of inclusion in business, and shared the DEI Lab’s work on advocacy, and research. Through insightful questions, students interrogated what inclusion means in daily life and reflected on how DEI shows up in the choices we make, and the futures we imagine. During the campus visits, the students were presented with a real live business challenge on women’s retention and attrition in the workplace from four Godrej businesses — Godrej Properties, Godrej Agrovet, Godrej Consumer Products, and Godrej Capital. And it was not all work, and no play. We used the session to talk to students about what it means to be in a B-school, and even got some of them to join us in some impromptu dancing!
After a hectic round of shortlisting from more than 450 applications by a committee of business representatives and the Godrej DEI Lab, four teams were chosen for the grand finale — Team XYZ from IIM Lucknow, Team Bias Busters from SIBM Pune, Team Do and DEI from IIM Trichy, and Team Powerpuff Girls from IIM Mumbai. The judging criteria was originality, research, scalability, and alignment with our values.
The judging panel for the day included senior leaders from across the Godrej Industries Group — Prasanna Murli C, Darshan Gandhi, and Ankita Somani from Godrej Consumer Products; Abhay Parnerkar and Shraddha Chakravarty from Godrej Agrovet; Jyoti Mallick and Apekshit Khare from Godrej Properties; Abhishek Rathi and Anirban Pati from Godrej Capital; and Jishnu Batabyal from our Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) team.
On the day of the event, we began with our signature rainbow cupcakes from Trans Café, and a pep talk from our judging panel to calm the nerves of the finalists. Starting off the event, Parmesh Shahani reaffirmed why it was important to engage with students on DEI frameworks. He said,
“Through India Included on Campus, we wanted to bring critical conversations [on DEI] to management campuses — where the leaders of tomorrow are being shaped. Engaging with students at this stage allows us to instil awareness, empathy, and a mindset that sees inclusion not just as a moral commitment, but as a strategic enabler of innovation and sustainable business growth.”
After this, it was competition time. The rules were simple — each team had eight minutes to make their case (literally!), and then a question-and-answer session from the jury would follow.
The first team to present, Team XYZ from IIM Lucknow, designed a solution for Godrej Consumer Products that proposed mentorship frameworks to support women through career transitions. Next up, Team Bias Busters from SIBM Pune, addressed women’s attrition at Godrej Properties through a multi-layered intervention of bias audits and a digital dashboard to track DEI metrics. IIM Mumbai’s Powerpuff Girls focused on how gender, disability, and socio-economic background interact to shape workplace experiences at Godrej Capital. And finally, Team Do and DEI from IIM Trichy worked on a solution to encourage women to pursue frontline and sales roles in agribusiness for Godrej Agrovet through a video-based demonstration tool to empower farmers.
After a quick deliberation, the jury was ready with their final decision — IIM Trichy’s Mutayyib M Khan, Visvanathan A, Mahima Suresh, and Ishwarya Sree impressed the jury with their research, innovative ideas, and strong benchmarking. They took home the prize money of ₹100,000 and left the audience inspired, and buzzing with their ideas. As the teams squeezed into the buzzing cafeteria at Godrej One for lunch with other Godrejites, we reflected over cold coffees and plates of chilli chicken on the everyday processes of inclusion. As we said goodbye to students, we turned back with hope for an Indian future that’s bright, empathetic, and innovative.
Text by Pulakita Mayekar.