Yet another Women’s Day is upon us, accompanied by shrill speeches made by successful women who promise to unite and “fight it out for our sisters”. Once the applause dies down, that promise is forgotten.

It is time this charade stopped. Women at the grassroots are far more empowered than their urban counterparts. Unlike city women, those in India’s villages are silent workers. They don’t need urbanites to teach them the ropes. Like the movement for women’s empowerment, women’s issues too have been sidelined over the years. Down the years, the fire that once ignited the women’s movement flamed out.

While the India of the 70s, 80s and 90s saw women from the grassroots make their mark and establish a definite direction for the women’s movement, in 21st century India something has changed drastically. Today the success of a woman is directly proportional to her looks, connections and lineage. Women who fit into any of these categories go miles, while those without these attributes have miles to go before they reach anywhere.

Run a list of successful women through your head, and the reasons for their being there and you will get the picture. Last year when a woman lawyer involved with the Congress Party was drawing up a list of women achievers she was specific in her request—they must not be Congress bashers. Someone else added that if the event has to be covered by the media, particularly news channels, then just anyone won’t do. Connections and looks matter.

In 21st century India, the biggest impediment to women’s empowerment is successful women. Time has proved the theory wrong that men stand in the way of a woman’s success. How many women at the helm of businesses, media, fine arts, politics or any other discipline are magnanimous enough to applaud the achievements of other women? Research indicates that few women make good bosses. Revelations by women employees in many cases indicate that many women bosses vitiate the office environment through their pettiness.

The first step towards being a successful woman today is working on your looks and network. Take a leaf out of the lobbyist Niira Radia’s book—after all, she’s the best example of where good looks and connections can take you.

The Government estimates that by 2020, India will pay more for electronics than it will for petroleum—in excess of $400 billion. A lot of the demand for electronics is going to be met by innovations, not necessarily inventions, as was on display at the innovation square in the recently held Electronics for You Expo in New Delhi. Consider the broadsheet ‘scanner’ made by Mandar Thite. Large scanners cost in excess of Rs 5 lakh, but his device costs less than Rs 20,000. Why? Because he used a cheap digital camera in place of a scanner, fixed it to a calibrated metal frame and rigged up a roller to ‘feed’ the newspaper sheets. At the press of a bell switch, up to 15 sheets can be scanned every minute. Now, if only someone will commercialise this ‘scanner’. Or consider the universal remote for those suffering from cerebral palsy. It is a wireless box worn on the wrist and can control four gadgets, which could be an AC, fan, light and of course the usual TV/home theatre. Its USP is that it has no buttons and works only by tapping the wrists and waving it in thin air.

A dog behaviour specialist and a lifelong dog-lover have opened France’s first luxury hotel for dogs, named Actuel Dogs. It provides facilities such as a heated pool, massages and ‘doggy jogging’, with cushioned couches in its luxury suites. Tiled-floor rooms, smelling fresh and adorned with framed prints of dogs, are equipped with TVs for guests to watch their choice of DVDs. The games rooms are equipped with treadmills for training dogs. Owners pay between 26 and 35 euros to leave their lucky hounds in the lap of luxury