Welcome to Postgres Women India monthly newsletter, December 2025.
We are excited to highlight several key initiatives and events aimed at empowering women in #Data, #AI, and #Postgres ecosystem.
The Vizag PostgreSQL User Group Meetup – 4 concluded successfully with a knowledge-packed session on “Database Migration 101” by Hari Kiran and Tirumala Dasari, held in collaboration with Postgres Women India—reinforcing our shared commitment to inclusive, community-driven learning.
Alongside PgVizag, we also wrapped up the H2 2025 Upskill Program with 11 enthusiastic learners completing the paid batch. Like our previous cohorts, this program was highly interactive, filled with thoughtful questions, engaging discussions, and consistent energy till the end.
Key sessions from the upskill program included:
Week 14: Introduction to Database Migrations — Tirumala Dasari & Hari Kiran
Week 15: DevOps Session II
Together, these initiatives made for a wonderful wrap-up of H2 2025, and we thank everyone who participated and contributed to their success.
WomenForData Summit 2026:
✨ Speaker Spotlight & Community Presence
Postgres Women India was happy to be part of the recent Hyderabad PostgreSQL User Group meetup, which featured insightful sessions on pgVector, PostgreSQL 18 features, EXPLAIN ANALYZE, and High Availability clusters—highlighting some of the most exciting developments in the PostgreSQL ecosystem.
The PWI team actively participated in the meetup, continuing our commitment to learning, collaboration, and community building. Our core team member Keerthi Seetha also delivered a lightning talk, sharing an early glimpse of what’s coming next at Women For Data Summit 2026.
We’re thankful to OpenSource DB and the PgHyd Organizing Committee — Hari Kiran, Ameen Abbas, and Rajesh Madiwale for the opportunity and support.
Postgres Woman of the Year 2025
We are proud to honor Soqra Banu (Sughra) Rumi from DXC Technology as the Postgres Woman of the Year 2025 🏆
With 14+ years of PostgreSQL experience, she has led mission-critical systems across banking, automobile, and manufacturing domains, driving automation, scalability, and zero-downtime upgrades.
A committed supporter of Postgres Women India, Soqra is a mentor, speaker, and trainer who consistently gives back to the community while inspiring more women to grow confident careers in tech.
Congratulations to Soqra Banu (Sughra) Rumi on this well-deserved recognition! 💜
Rookie of the Month:
Postgres Women India is delighted to recognize Reshma Masutha A as our Rookie of the Month – December 2025
A Computer Science Engineering graduate and Software Engineer Trainee at Udu Labs, Reshma’s journey into the data world began with curiosity and quickly turned into focused learning. From attending her first PWI–IITM meetup to exploring indexing, JSONB, and EXPLAIN ANALYZE, her growth reflects strong dedication and consistency.
She credits the Postgres Women India community and her mentors for building her confidence and guiding her path.
In one word, her journey so far: Transforming
📘 Ebooks to Be Published
We’re excited to announce the upcoming ebooks featured in this edition:
Visual PostgreSQL – by Aarti
Startup 101s – by Praveena
Aarti- Sharing PostgreSQL concepts with impactful visual content for December 2025.
Praveena- Sharing insightful articles which are essential for any company for December 2025.
OpenSource DB is participating in the Christ University SAINTS event, happening from January 7–9, 2026 in Bengaluru.
Hari Kiran will be delivering a talk titled “PostgreSQL and Open Data for the Science of Sustainability: Building Open Infrastructure as a Catalyst.”
Learn more about the event here: saints.christuniversity.in
Empowering Women in Data, AI, and Open Source
📅 30th January 2026 | Hyderabad
The Women for Data Summit 2026 is a platform to connect, collaborate, and create impact — bringing together professionals, researchers, and enthusiasts passionate about Data, AI, and Open Source.
We’re excited to announce that the Call for Papers (CFP) is now open!
The event is open to all attendees, but speaker opportunities are exclusively for women, to spotlight and celebrate their contributions in technology and innovation.
Visit: Postgres Women India for more info
Talk Title: PostgresML: Revolutionizing Machine Learning with SQL
In today’s data-driven world, organizations often struggle with complex machine learning infrastructures and data movement challenges. This talk introduces PostgresML, a game-changing PostgreSQL extension that brings machine learning capabilities directly into your database. We’ll explore how PostgresML enables developers and data teams to perform sophisticated ML operations using familiar SQL commands, eliminating the need for separate ML systems. Through live demonstrations, we’ll showcase practical implementations of model training, real-time predictions, and GPU acceleration features. Whether you’re a database engineer, ML practitioner, or technical lead, you’ll learn how to leverage PostgresML to simplify your ML pipeline, enhance security, and accelerate deployment. Join us to discover how this innovative tool is bridging the gap between traditional database operations and modern machine learning workflows.
Talk Title: Developers are decision-makers now. DevRel gets you there faster
DevRel as a role has existed since the 1990s, yet it remains one of the least understood roles in tech. Whether due to changing definitions, role titles, or evolving industries, DevRel has transformed significantly over the past few years—yet it continues to shape the devtool landscape. Since 2023, we’ve seen explosive AI growth alongside a surge in tech companies and technical talent. But who reaches these developers? Developers distrust traditional marketing. Who builds the samples, docs, tutorials, and SDKs they rely on? DevRel has become more critical than ever, especially as developers increasingly become decision-makers. In this talk, we’ll explore what DevRel is, how it drives impact, and how you can build an effective DevRel program.
Talk Title: DPDPA(Digital Personal Data Protection Act) Unleashed – Why It Matters for Women in Data
India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA) is reshaping how organisations collect, store and use personal data, with a phased, 18‑month rollout. This presentation explores what’s in policy and law, then dives into what it unlocks for careers in data, security and consulting—especially for women. As data architect ,designing database architectures, will try connect legal constructs (Data Principals, Fiduciaries, Consent Managers, the Board) to real-world data and database practices, and show how DPDPA can be a powerful career accelerator, not just a compliance requirement.
Talk Title: Where Technology Meets Customer Needs: Lessons from a Newbie Solutions Engineer
When I stepped into the world of open-source databases as a Solutions Engineer, I expected to feel overwhelmed, but I found a role that made surprising sense. In this talk, I’ll share my journey navigating PostgreSQL with the help of modern cloud platforms like Aiven and DigitalOcean, tuning tools like DBtune, and migration partners like Hexacluster. This isn’t a deep-dive into internals, it’s a practical, beginner-friendly session to reducing the friction of managing PostgreSQL in real-world environments. Along the way, I’ll highlight the often-overlooked role of a Solutions Engineer: the human bridge between customer needs and engineering solutions. If you’re a student, a DBA, a DevOps engineer or just Postgres-curious, you’ll walk away with not only tools to explore, but also a career path to consider.

Talk Title: Architecting Ethical and Responsible AI with PostgreSQL 18
Have you ever developed an Agentic AI application using an agentic framework such as langGraph and pgai extension and noticed you don’t get good results during testing or the results are biased towards a demographic. You don’t know what to do. Organizations developing Agentic AI applications using an agentic framework such as LangGraph and pgai extension often encounter issues during implementation and testing, including suboptimal performance or bias in results such as demographic bias. Identifying the root causes of these issues can be difficult without proper tools and methodologies. This session addresses these challenges by introducing Responsible AI interpretability and explainability techniques. Participants will learn how to understand and trace the model’s decision-making process, enabling them to identify why specific results are generated. These capabilities are essential for meeting compliance requirements in regulated sectors, including banking and insurance. Attendees will gain practical knowledge on building Agentic AI applications that incorporate Responsible AI principles, ensuring transparent, accountable, and fair outcomes.
Rumi ![]()
Talk Title: New features of PostgreSQL 18
PostgreSQL 18 continues the PostgreSQL project’s long-standing focus on performance, scalability, reliability, and developer productivity, building incrementally on the improvements delivered in PostgreSQL 15–17.
Rather than introducing disruptive changes, PostgreSQL 18 is expected to emphasize refinement and maturity across core subsystems such as query execution, indexing, concurrency, replication, and observability, making PostgreSQL even more suitable for enterprise-scale and cloud-native workloads.
Talk Title: Platform Engineering Unpacked: Architecture, Evolution, and Hard-Won Lessons
The way engineering teams build and deliver software has changed dramatically. We’ve moved from manual server setups to automated pipelines, from ticket-based operations to self-service workflows, and from siloed teams to platform-driven organisations. This shift gave rise to Platform Engineering, a discipline focused on creating the internal systems, golden paths, and tooling that empower developers to move faster with less friction.
In this session, I’ll walk through the evolution that brought us here and why Platform Engineering has become a strategic priority across industries. I’ll share the architecture patterns that define successful platforms, how self-service emerges as a core capability, and the practical dos and don’ts learned from building real-world internal platforms.
Attendees will gain a clear understanding of:
Why DevOps wasn’t enough, and what Platform Engineering solves
The natural evolution from scripts → automation → abstractions → platforms
What makes a good platform (and what absolutely doesn’t)
How to design developer-centered systems and golden paths
My firsthand lessons from enabling engineering teams at scale
This talk gives a foundational, experience-driven view of what Platform Engineering really means today and how teams can start their journey the right way.
Our idea explores the implementation of AI-driven query optimization in PostgreSQL, addressing the limitations of traditional optimization methods in handling modern database complexities. We present an innovative approach using reinforcement learning for automated index selection and query plan optimization. Our system leverages PostgreSQL’s pg_stat_statements for collecting query metrics and employs HypoPG for index simulation, while a neural network model learns optimal indexing strategies from historical query patterns. Through comprehensive testing on various workload scenarios, we will validate the model’s ability to adapt to dynamic query patterns and complex analytical workloads. The research also examines the scalability challenges and practical considerations of implementing AI optimization in production environments.
Our findings establish a foundation for future developments in self-tuning databases while offering immediate practical benefits for PostgreSQL deployments. This work contributes to the broader evolution of database management systems, highlighting the potential of AI in creating more efficient and adaptive query optimization solutions.
This talk provides an introductory overview of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), exploring key concepts and their application in building intelligent systems. It will highlight the essential AI/ML techniques, such as supervised and unsupervised learning, and discuss practical use cases in modern industries. The session also focuses on how PostgreSQL, with its powerful extensions like PostgresML, TimescaleDB, and PostGIS, supports the development of AI-powered applications. By leveraging PostgreSQL’s ability to handle complex datasets and integrate machine learning models, participants will learn how to build scalable, intelligent solutions directly within the database environment.
Success is a multiplier of Action, External Factors and Destiny.
Out of these three, the only controllable aspect is our action. Again, action is the result of our EQ, IQ, SQ, and WQ (Willingness Quotient) together.
We all want to be successful and keep trying to motivate ourselves with external factors. We read inspirational books, listen to great personalities, and whenever possible upgrade ourselves with more knowledge and the list goes on.
Indeed these are excellent motivators, but in this process, we forget the most important source of energy, YOU!
We read other stories to feel inspired, thinking “I am not enough!”
But, the day we start accepting ourselves, introspect, understand, and align our life purpose with our routine, we find the internal POWER. This is a continuous source of motivation and energy which we need at down moments. When we feel, lonely, stuck and seek help, our inner voice is the greatest companion.
But, how many times do we consciously think about our “Subconscious”?
“Journey to Self” is our structured coaching program where we take back focus from the outside and delve deep inside to find our inner strength. Focusing on self-acceptance and personal growth
I believe everyone has POWER within them!
Let’s be the POWERHOUSE!
Human, AI, and Personalized User Experience for DB Observability: A Composable Approach
Database users across various technical levels are frequently frustrated by the time-consuming and inefficient process of identifying the root causes of issues. This process often involves navigating multiple systems or dashboards, leading to delays in finding solutions and potential downstream impacts on operations.
The challenge is compounded by the varying levels of expertise among users. It is essential to strike the right balance between specialized and generalized experiences. Oversimplification can result in the loss of critical information, while an overwhelming amount of data can alienate certain users.
Developers and designers are constantly navigating these trade-offs to deliver optimal user experiences. The integration of AI introduces an additional layer of complexity. While AI can provide personalized experiences within databases, it is crucial to maintain user trust and transparency in the process.
The concept of personalized composable observability offers a potential solution. By combining the strengths of human expertise, information balance, and AI-driven personalization, we can create intuitive and user-friendly experiences. This approach allows users to tailor their observability tools and workflows to their specific needs and preferences.