NE BUSINESS BUREAU
MUMBAI, SEPT 28
When inclusion moves from a workplace initiative to the way a company builds its teams, products and markets, recognition follows—and Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL) has now received one of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce & Industry’s marquee honours for precisely that journey.
- Godrej Consumer Products wins Marquee Best of the Best Award for Inclusion at Bombay Chamber Inclusion Awards 2026
- Recognition honours GCPL’s diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) initiatives across its global operations
- Company also named first Runner-up in Consumer and Life Sciences Sector
- More than half of GCPL’s global workforce represents historically excluded communities, company says
- Aarambh, GOAL, Bersiap and inclusive hiring practices strengthen representation across functions
GCPL has been conferred the ‘Marquee Best of the Best Award’ for Inclusion at the Bombay Chamber Inclusion Awards 2026, recognising its achievements in diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB). The company was also named first Runner-up in the Consumer and Life Sciences Sector, adding a sector-specific distinction to its marquee recognition.
Instituted by the 190-year-old Bombay Chamber of Commerce & Industry, the awards recognise organisations working to create more inclusive workplaces and ecosystems. For GCPL, the recognition comes as the emerging-markets FMCG company seeks to embed inclusion not merely in employee policies but across leadership, talent, manufacturing, sales, product development and its wider business ecosystem.
From representation to participation
At the heart of GCPL’s approach is a push to create equitable opportunities and improve representation across its workforce.
The company has built this agenda through initiatives, including Aarambh, GOAL and Bersiap, alongside inclusive hiring practices aimed at creating more representative manufacturing, sales and corporate teams.
The company’s stated ambition goes beyond numbers. It is seeking to ensure that people from historically excluded communities participate meaningfully in the organisation’s growth, bringing different experiences and perspectives into business decision-making.
Vaibhav Ram, Global HR Head, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd (GCPL), said, “We are delighted to be listed in the Marquee category, which features organisations setting the benchmark for inclusion and belonging and charting the way forward for the corporate world.”
Ram said historically excluded groups constitute more than half of GCPL’s consumer base globally, adding that the company was proud to sustain a similar representation within its employee base.
“What makes our journey at GCPL meaningful is seeing our leaders recognise the untapped potential of diverse communities in their entirety, as colleagues, as talent and as consumers,” he said.
He added that integrating these perspectives brings “more heads, heart and hands to our work”, embedding inclusion into the way GCPL builds its business and culture.
Beyond the workforce
GCPL’s inclusion philosophy does not stop at the employee base.
The company has extended its efforts across its broader ecosystem through engagement with distributors, suppliers, hiring partners, NGOs and community organisations.
This approach reflects an increasingly expansive understanding of DEIB in the corporate sector—one in which inclusion is considered not only a human-resources responsibility but also part of the way organisations engage with consumers, partners and communities.
GCPL has also incorporated diverse perspectives into product innovation, including through its Inclusive Olfactory Panel, designed to bring varied consumer perspectives into product-development processes.
Building locally, thinking globally
GCPL operates across India, Indonesia, the Americas and GAMC, and its inclusion practices are adapted to local contexts while being aligned with the company’s broader DEIB agenda.
Sandhya Ramesh, AVP – DEI, Culture & Engagement, Godrej Consumer Products, said, “GCPL continues to be on the path of accelerating inclusion internally & across the ecosystem.”
She pointed to the company’s over-50% representation in its global workforce, saying the next objective is to expand efforts to positively influence the end-consumer experience while developing sustainable talent models representing historically excluded communities in functions such as sales and manufacturing.
“We want our work to also inspire larger collectives of organizations to move the needle on DEI, and for them to believe it is fully possible to do,” Ramesh said.
Why the award matters
The Marquee Best of the Best recognition places GCPL’s inclusion journey in the spotlight at a time when businesses are increasingly examining how diversity translates into organisational culture, talent development and consumer understanding.
For an FMCG company serving diverse emerging markets, the connection between workforce representation and consumer representation assumes particular importance.
GCPL’s stated approach is therefore built around a broader proposition: inclusion should influence not only who gets hired and promoted, but also whose perspectives shape products, partnerships and consumer experiences.
The Bombay Chamber recognition acknowledges that wider journey.
For GCPL, the award is consequently more than another addition to its corporate trophy cabinet. It underscores an ongoing attempt to make diversity a source of participation, inclusion a business practice and belonging a part of organisational culture—across employees, markets and the ecosystem in which the company operates.
