It’s that time of the year again when premier business magazine, Forbes, releases its list of the world’s most powerful and influential people. This year, five Indian women and one woman of Indian-origin, Indra Nooyi (#11) has made it to the coveted ‘World’s 100 Most Powerful Women’. For a year that has seen economic upheaval and tug-of-war between the forces-that-be and the media, the names of entrepreneurs on this list
Quick recap for those who need it, last year’s list saw: Arundhati Bhattacharya, the former Chairman of the State Bank of India at #25, ICICI’s Chanda Kochhar #40, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, the MD of Biocon Ltd at #77 and Shobhana Bhartia, the Chairperson of HT Media at #93.
This year’s list looks *slightly* different. Take a look:
1) Chanda Kochhar – #32
Leading the pack this year is the Managing Director and CEO of ICICI Bank, Chanda Kochhar at #32. Kochhar, 55, has had a pretty fantastic year and recently became the first Indian woman to get US’ top award for a ‘global corporate’. Kochhar received the prestigious Woodrow Wilson Award for Global Corporate Citizenship in May, 2017. Just to put things in perspective, former US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice received the same award in 2010.
“Her ambitious community outreach program, ICICI Digital Village, brought vocational training to over 11,000 villagers in 17 states in India and provided financial tools to aspiring entrepreneurs. The program expects to reach 500 more villages by year’s end,” writes Forbes of her contribution to social-economic causes.
In September this year, Kochhar made headlines after she made ICICI’s insurance business go public, making it India’s first IPO of a general insurer.
2) Roshni Nadar Malhotra – #57
At the age of 27, Roshni Nadar Malhotra, the daughter of HCL’s founder Shiv Nadar, took over as the CEO of the company. She is now the Executive Director and CEO, HCL Technologies which is currently valued at $7.5 billion. She is ranked #57 on the list.
Roshni also the trustee of the Shiv Nadar Foundation, which runs several educational enterprises of which Shiv Nadar University, VidyaGyan Leadership Academies, and Shiv Nadar Schools are frontrunners. She won Vogue’s Philanthropist of the Year earlier in September, 2017.
3) Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw – #71
Entrepreneur Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw who runs Biocon Limited as its Chairperson and Managing Director is ranked #71 on this list. Biocon, Asia’s largest producer of insulin, also produces crucial medicines for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases.
Awarded the Padma Shri in 1989 and the Padma Bhushan in 2005 for her pioneering work in biotechnology, Forbes calls Shaw ‘India’s richest self-made woman’. But her commitment to ‘affordable healthcare’ isn’t the only one that makes her exemplary. She also runs the Mazumdar-Shaw Cancer Center in Bangalore which provides cost-effective services to people of all socio-economic backgrounds.
4) Shobhana Bhartia – #92
Hindustan Times Media Group Chairperson, Shobhana Bhartia, runs one of India’s largest media groups to publish both English and Hindi dailies as well as their online counterparts, a business paper – Mint, job portal Shine.com, entertainment website Desimartini and four radio stations. HT Media also runs a coaching facility, Studymate – successfully establishing the company’s stakes in both the media as well as education. The company recently made headlines for self-censorship, but the controversy remains inconclusive. Bhartia has moved up one spot on the list since last year.
5) Priyanka Chopra – #97
This is Priyanka’s debut on the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women list. In the past, she has found a spot on Forbes ’10 Highest Paid TV Actresses’ both in 2016 and 2017. Forbes’ writes that Chopra is ‘arguably the most successful Bollywood actor to cross over to Hollywood’.
Priyanka, who is UNICEF’s Goodwill Ambassador and UN Foundation Girl Up Champion, also runs her own production company Purple Pebble Pictures as well as a charitable institution, The Priyanka Chopra Foundation for Health and Education. Ranked #97, Priyanka is the only Indian actress to make it to the list this year.
