Harjinder has come a long way, both as a businesswoman and as an advocate of women’s empowerment.
Harjinder Kaur Talwar is now president of FICCI FLO, and founder and CEO of Comvision (India) Pvt. Ltd. And she is an IWEC Global Ambassador and host of the 2019 IWEC 12th Annual Conference
When Harjinder Kaur Talwar was a child, she was led to believe many things. For example, she thought that quiet, beautiful women had the highest chance of achieving success in life. She also believed that her purpose in life was to get married and raise children. However, as she got older, she began to discover that these were unfounded beliefs. She realized that, in fact, it was the intelligent, financially independent women who were successful. She realized that women, if they choose to, can decide their life’s purpose for themselves. This is what she did, and as a result, she is now president of FICCI FLO, and founder and CEO of Comvision (India) Pvt. Ltd.
Harjinder Kaur Talwar decided to study computer science in university. At the time, there were only four schools in the country teaching the subject, and very few women were interested in it. She was surrounded by men, some of whom mocked her, and to make matters worse, she didn’t speak the language that her courses were being taught in: English. The odds were against her, but she persevered and passed out of college with a score approximately 70% and the ability to speak, read, and write English. After college, she took a few business courses and then jumped into the world of entrepreneurship. She wanted to offer specialized computer training to corporate executives, and so she founded Comvision with a loan from the bank. However, the early days of her first company didn’t go as smoothly as she had expected them to, and her father eventually had to pay her loan back for her. This experience, while painful, was very important for Harjinder’s growth as an entrepreneur.
