New Delhi, July 30 (IANS): A fortnight after the Indian stock exchanges cracked the whip on companies not having a woman director, industry stakeholders on Thursday said women must become a critical part of the top management because of business necessity rather than to fulfil a legal obligation.

Women possess a balanced view and are better at management, SpiceJet founder Ajay Singh said at an an event organised by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Women showcase higher integrity than their male counterparts and possess the ability to innovate, he added, urging women to enhance their technical capabilities and equip themselves with business acumen by imbibing new technologies to become effective contributors in a boardroom.

At SpiceJet, Singh said a conscious decision was made to increase the number of women in the cockpit.

The aviation company has almost 50 percent female customers hence engaging women employees makes a business sense, he said, There is no disparity in pay of male and female pilots.

He added that SpiceJet runs career programmes, provides secured transportation and organizes initiatives, designed specifically for women to encourage them to assume higher positions in management.

Enumerating the challenges that women face as a result of preconceived notions, Fortis Healthcare executive vice chairman Shivinder Mohan Singh said it is assumed that women are bad with numbers and women themselves admit to it. The need is for women to display confidence and project their true capability, he added.

Similarly after entering family life, women tend to feel guilty about not being able to devote sufficient time to work. One must understand that the idea should be to accomplish and deliver work on time and not about the number of hours spent in office, he stressed.

Presenting a view of the manufacturing sector, Havells India chairman and managing director Anil Gupta said the manufacturing industry is male-dominated and women are not encouraged to join it in a big way and this mindset needs a revolutionary change.

The Bombay Stock Exchange this month has cracked the whip on 530 companies that have not appointed a woman director, asking them to pay up the fine for non-compliance. Similarly, National Stock Exchange also said it has issued notice to 260 companies for not having appointed a woman director.