Walmart Inc., President & CEO John Furner.

Walmart has announced plans to cut back on some of its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, a spokesperson said on Monday. The move comes amid growing pressure from conservative groups.

The US retail joint will no longer consider race and gender when granting supplier contracts, according to Bloomberg. The company will also scale back racial equity training and stop participating in rankings by the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group.

A Walmart spokesperson confirmed the changes, stating, “We are willing to change alongside our associates and customers who represent all of America.”

Walmart’s decision follows a similar move by other major US companies, including Starbucks, JPMorgan Chase, and Ford. These companies have modified their DEI policies in response to pressure from conservative groups.

Conservative activist Robby Starbuck claimed credit for Walmart’s decision, stating that he had “productive conversations” with company executives. Starbuck has been a vocal critic of DEI initiatives and has targeted several companies over their employment policies.

In addition to scaling back its DEI initiatives, Walmart has also agreed to monitor its online marketplace for listings that may be deemed objectionable or what Starbuck describes as “sexual and/or transgender products marketed to children” and remove them if necessary.

The company will also review its grants for Pride events to ensure that they are not supporting “sexualised content” that may be unsuitable for children.
 

Days after an Indian-origin woman was found dead inside a walk-in oven of the Walmart store’s bakery department in Canada, an employee has said that she believes that the 19-year-old was thrown into the oven by another person.

Gursimran Kaur was found dead in one of the superstore’s appliances in Halifax on October 19. According to reports, she was found charred to death by her mother, who also worked at the store for the last two years.

Last week, the police said that the investigation has not yet reached a point where the “cause and manner” of death have been confirmed.

“The investigation is complex and involves several partner agencies. An investigation of this nature may take a significant amount of time,” the Halifax Regional Police.

However, Walmart employees have suggested that she was locked in a walk-in oven and “baked to death”.

In a video on TikTok, Chris Breezie, a co-worker, said that the oven she used while working at Walmart turned on from the outside and that the door handle was “really hard” to open, The Mirror reported on Wednesday.

Here’s a demonstration by Walmart employees showing how 19 yr old, Gursimran Kaur, COULD NOT have locked herself in the oven of a Nova Scotia Walmart store.
The media, Canadian police, & Walmart, is doing just what the media, police, & Crown Plaza did to Kenneka Jenkins. #CoverUppic.twitter.com/VYYOcBZL5s

— Cₕₑᵣₑₗₗₑ bₑ ₜₐₗₖᵢₙ ₛₕᵢₜ! (@DFiosa) October 28, 2024

“I don’t even know if I would fit in here,” Breezie, who claimed she was 5 foot 1, said while demonstrating how the oven at Walmart works. “I would have to crouch down to get in.”

She pointed out that there was an emergency latch located inside the oven and that there were no tasks that required a worker to enter the oven physically.

“I would never be in here, whether I’m cleaning it or not,” she said.

Breezie claimed that in order to lock the oven, you have to “push” the latch “with all your might”.

“There is no way possible somebody could lock themselves in there,” she said in the video.

She said she believed Gursimran Kaur had been thrown into the oven by a second person.

According to The Mirror, another employee, Mary, said it “doesn’t make any sense” as the door does not close by itself.

“It’s designed not to do that. You have to push it, hear the click,” she said.

“I’m not trying to theorize or form a conspiracy, it’s just hard to wrap my head around it when Walmart’s bakery ovens are so safe to use,” she added.

A stop-work order has been issued for the bakery and “one piece of equipment” at the Walmart store.

In a statement, Walmart Canada said the company is heartbroken and their thoughts are with the woman’s family.

Indian Institute of Technology- Madras in Chennai. File
| Photo Credit: VELANKANNI RAJ B

 The Indian Institute of Technology Madras has established a Centre for Tech Excellence to cater to the micro, small and medium enterprises with support from Walmart.

The centre aims to train MSME units in the use of artificial intelligence and internet of things technology quickly and effectively to develop their business. An agreement to this effect was signed on Wednesday. 

Institute Director V. Kamakoti said the MSMEs, which determine 30% of the Indian industry sector, required guidance to deploy technology. In the coming years, Indian companies would have to adhere strictly to Sustainable Development Goals for which the MSMEs must be equipped, he said.

The centre would use technology to help MSMEs with overall product evaluation, which in turn would improve economic growth, he said. “This is a kind of a venture that can be scaled to a 1.5 billion population whose needs are varied. There are varieties of MSME in fields such as agriculture and medicine (as well). We are introducing a common portal,” he said.

The Institute had started focusing on MSMEs since last year. It launched a centre with the financial company Kotak and many MSMEs had benefited. The institute’s study would be released as a report in a couple of months, Mr. Kamakoti added. “Similarly, we plan to empower and encourage MSMEs, through the tech centre,” he explained.

The centre would also offer solutions to many research problems as faculty from various disciplines and departments would be involved. 

Walmart’s chief technical officer and chief development officer Suresh Kumar, who is also an alumnus of the institute, said the company had been engaging with the institute since 2022. “First, we focused on students and research. This is the second collaboration between Walmart and IIT Madras,” he said.

In the next three years the Institute will take up 15-20 MSMEs who will be helped to leverage AI and IoT technology and form a case study for the institute.