Business Today -Most Powerful Women in Indian Business-2008
India Today Group Digital
October 19, 2008 26 Pages - SKU: ITGD1936472
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Countries covered: India
"They span generations and are there in every field, From Tractors to television, from biscuits to banking, from HR to hospitals. Denied entry into a male bastion, they create another industry (as Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw of Biocon did). They love their saris and their cooking, but also frame the laws that govern the world of alpha-male stock-brokers. They are the most powerful women in the corporate world. May their tribe grow, may the list get longer and may they never have to tell our readers the best way to deal with a glass ceiling.
So, here’s to a growing list of women achievers…"
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Additional InformationExecutive Summary: Yet another edition of BT’s most powerful women in business, together with the rising stars, the start-up heroines, the micro-finance mavens and even the inheritors. The women listed here come from an amazing variety of academic and family back-grounds and have established themselves in an equally diverse range of industries despite the near-crippling drag of home and hearth. Some were lucky to have been at the right place at the right time; one admits that she is not the sort of mother who packs their child’s tiffin in the morning—and another is “quite unashamed” to say that she eased up on her career to be with her children when they needed her most. And look out for the rising star who takes her two-year-old daughter jetsetting as she shuttles between two cities in the US and her Indian headquarters, and for the lady who came back to India to be near her ailing mother-in-law—but succeeded with yet another start-up
- 1. Amrita Patel: Patel is behind a National Dairy Plan that looks at demand and supply up to 2021. According to her, hard work, commitment and caring in word and deed helps people overcome obstacles…
- 2. Ashu Suyash: “Leading a brand like Fidelity gives you the calling card and the edge. You have a point of view, you get heard. But the key is to hold on to your own views when others don’t agree with you. That’s a challenge. But if you remain firm, over a period of time you get accepted,” says the 41-year-old chartered accountant…
- 3. Chanda Kochhar: She has seen it all—from corporate and infrastructure financing to retail, but the last is very close to her heart. “It (retail banking) was new for me and for the bank and for the industry,” says Kochhar…
- 4. Chitra Ramakrishna: When you are a part of the team that created a world-class stock exchange, it’s tempting to talk about that success and bask in its glow. But Chitra Ramakrishna, Deputy Managing Director, NSE, has always shunned the spotlight, though she is used to being at the forefront of framing crucial regulations…
- 5. Ela R. Bhatt: This Padmashri, Padmabhushan and Ramon Magsaysay Award winner earns a place here not because she has come to accumulate a lot of power in trying to empower the powerless. It’s because of the worldwide impact that her work has had on not only the disadvantaged workers but also on government policies…
- 6. Indu Jain: Known to be an ardent follower of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, Jain has pushed through her unique spiritual, cultural and social sensibility into Bennett, Coleman & Company, her group’s flagship. At the same time, she is also known to have pushed through the agenda of internal audit, or, management assurance system, earlier on…
- 7. Kalpana Morparia: “I never let my gender come in the way of my career, why should age become a barrier?” she asks. Why, indeed?
- 8. Kiran Mazumdar - Shaw: She is among the largest private collectors of paintings, trained in Hindustani vocals and is all for public-private partnerships in city administration. As Biocon’s boss, she is the face of the biotech industry. But she makes time for friends and family…
- 9. Leena Nair: For the second consecutive year, she is on BT’s list of 25 most powerful women in business. As HUL itself did well, regaining the Day Zero slots at B-School placements, Nair has been given the added responsibility of being the Vice-President-HR for South Asia…
- 10. Madhabi Puri-Buch: Buch feels roles that are not glamorous but are difficult to execute create more value for a person. At present, she is busy with a social cause in her personal capacity, and will soon launch a charity website where people can sell second-hand stuff…
- 11. Mallika Srinivasan: Understand your strengths; do what you are good at doing; have a flexible approach and a set approach to work and life but go with the flow. That’s Mallika Srinivasan’s mantra for maintaining work-life balance…
- 12. Naina Lal Kidwai: Enjoy whatever you do. As responsibilities increase, hobbies like trekking have taken a back seat. But she makes it a point to go for short family vacations to wildlife sanctuaries. That’s the mantra for maintaining work-life balance for Naina Lal Kidwai…
- 13. Neelam Dhawan: HP has been proactive in retaining women, who account for 30 per cent of its workforce today. “Twenty years ago, this would have been unimaginable,” says Dhawan who moved to HP from Microsoft…
- 14. Preetha Reddy: The soft-spoken and self-effacing Managing Director of Apollo Hospitals firmly declares that she is not the first among equals among her siblings, (all are involved with the hospital), and that it is age rather than ability that has given her that commanding designation…
- 15. Radhika Roy: Tales about her principled approach are legendary and insiders still recall her calm despite the pressures that the channel faced during the Gujarat riots. Roy lets reporters do their jobs without once questioning their coverage or reporting. The group, meanwhile, has launched several new channels and media platforms…
- 16. Rama Bijapurkar: She is the most respected Indian consultant on consumer affairs and market strategies, and is on the boards of top companies like Infosys Technologies, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, Mahindra Holidays and Bharat Petroleum...
- 17. Renu Sud Karnad: Renu Karnad’s first job interview was at ICICI. The then ICICI Chairman H.T. Parekh was setting up Housing Development Finance Corporation, and offered her a job with the new organisation. Karnad has been with HDFC since then…
- 18. Renuka Ramnath: She has increased the awareness about private equity and shown the way—from management buyouts to investing in real estate and new businesses…
- 19. Shikha Sharma: She’s the start-up queen of the ICICI Bank group. Life insurance, consumer finance, equity and debt market desks… Shikha Sharma has been instrumental in scaling up these businesses from scratch.
- 20. Shobhana Bhartia: Bhartia knows what she wants and gets people to achieve results—the group has already seen key top-level exits, including that of two editors, in the last few years.
- 21. Sunita Narain: She’s the vigilant voice that India Inc. wishes was not so shrill—raising questions about pesticide content in colas, groundwater depletion and the Nano project’s impact on Singur farmers’ livelihoods.
- 22. Swati Piramal: She will be the first woman to head an apex business chamber in India. Professionally, Piramal Life Sciences, of which she is the Vice-Chairperson, is hoping to deliver the first drug developed by an Indian research company soon.
- 23. Vinita Bali: Look at work as life and vice-versa. Nearly three decades after she served as an intern at the United Nations, Vinita Bali is headed to New York, this time to be a panellist on the Clinton Global Initiative.
- 24. Zarina Mehta: Zarina Mehta is one of the founder members of United Television (UTV) and CEO of its Bindass channel. At UTV, she has produced some of the most popular shows. She was also behind Hungama, which became the top kids channel within 18 months of launch and was sold to Disney in 2006.
- 25. Zia Mody: In the last one year Zia Mody has been appointed to the World Bank Appellate Tribunal and the London Court of International Arbitration— appointments she is suitably proud of, as she is of the growth achieved by AZB & Partners, where she is a Senior Partner.
- 26. Amisha Vora: Working in an industry where women are hard to spot, this Chartered Accountant from a Gujarati family started off as an equity research analyst with JM Financials in 1988.
- 27. Anisha Motwani: Less than a year in the insurance business, Anisha Motwani, who was earlier with General Motors India, believes that “in marketing, inputs are based on science but the output is an art.”
- 28. Bharti Gupta Ramola: As a young girl, Bharti Gupta Ramola wanted to be a doctor, but changed her mind later when she realised that a doctor takes almost 10 years to become economically independent…
- 29. Deepa Misra Harris: It was a chance meeting with an Executive Director of Taj Hotels Resorts & Palaces on an assignment that landed her a job offer in the hospitality industry—a career she had never planned.
- 30. Meena Chaturvedi: As Executive Director of the Pension Fund Regulatory & Development Authority (PFRDA) now and earlier as Director of the Budget Division during the passage of the Fiscal Responsibility & Management Act, and as Director for Commercial Audit in the Comptroller & Auditor General’s office, Chaturvedi has been at the cutting edge of second generation fiscal reforms in the last few years…
- 31. Meera H. Sanyal: Meera H. Sanyal, the second woman CEO at a foreign bank, is on familiar terrain nine months into her job, having been with ABN since 1992. Sanyal is not fazed by the turmoil in the global financial markets, the domestic slowdown and the formal integration of ABN with Royal Bank of Scotland.
- 32. Pallavi Shroff: To think that she never wanted to be the legal eagle she is today! Her father P.N. Bhagwati is a former Chief Justice of India, but she opted for a degree from Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi and an MBA from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute in Mumbai with her eyes set on a corporate career.
- 33. Punitha Arumugam: She loves everything about her job— the numbers, the logic, the negotiations and the people.
- 34. Smeeta Neogi: From client services director at ad agency Ambience and working on the West Side account, Smeeta Neogi joined Trent as Manager (Communications) and Head (Research) in 2004. By April 2008, she was Head (Marketing) for West Side, the largest private label store chain in India with 32 stores.
- 35. Vuppalapati Madhavi: She was the first to pose a question to US President George W. Bush when he met a group of entrepreneurs at the Indian School of Business (ISB) in Hyderabad in 2006. Vuppalapati Madhavi wanted to know whether he had a political strategy to balance the backlash against outsourcing.
- 36. G. Padmaja Reddy: G.Padmaja Reddy almost had to wind up her first venture in 1998 but was saved at the last minute with a loan from the Friends of Women’s World Banking. Today, Spandana disburses about Rs 10 crore a day. Recently, when it wanted to raise Rs 200 crore, it got the money from PE players, through word of mouth, in 15 days.
- 37. Renana Jhabvala: The National Coordinator of SEWA has postgraduate degrees in Mathematics (Harvard University) and Economics (Yale University) and would have done her PhD had she not been hooked by SEWA’s work. Over the years, she has helped set up many cooperatives of women.
- 38. Vijayalakshmi Das: Armed with two post-graduate degrees, Das started off as a management consultant but joined FWWB India in 1989. FWWB India is now deep into issues like social responsibility of MFIs and creation of sustainable livelihoods.
- 39. Jayshree Ashwinkumar Vyas: To help poor self-employed women with financial services and guidance on building assets and businesses is the key objective of her organization.
- 40. Praseeda Kunam: One of the principal architects of SKS Microfinance, Praseeda Kunam joined after picking up an MBA and Masters in information management from the US. From SKS, she moved to ABN AMRO Foundation to work for MFIs and then pooled her savings to set up Samhita Community Development Services in end-2007, at Rewa, Madhya Pradesh.
- 41. Kalpana Sankar: A double doctorate in theoretical nuclear physics and women’s development, Kalpana Sankar laments that India has many highly qualified professionals but few in the field of development.
- 42. Anupama Arya: She and husband Puneet Vatsayan set up Mobera in Chandigarh after relocating from the US to be with her ailing mother-in-law. It was a humbling experience, not least because of her gender: people think “you are incompetent and a freeloader on your husband or a gatekeeper.”
- 43. Revathi Roy: It was her passion for driving that led her to start a pre-paid cab service for women and their families in Mumbai in early 2007. “It’s a service that is by women, for women and of women,” says Revathi Roy, Founder and Managing Director of For-She Travels & Logistics.
- 44. Shivani Chopra & Suparna Chopra: The word luxury is not enough to cover the tourist buses of The Royal Time Machine launched by Delhi sisters Shivani (28) and Suparna (26) Chopra, in May 2006. They have jazzed up the sightseeing with film screenings and cultural programmes.
- 45. Sapna Gupta: She and her husband spotted the opportunity to ride the crest of a booming service sector economy. She now intends to open centres overseas, in addition to the 20 more in India, by the end of 2009.
- 46. Shaleen Raizada: When I finished my masters in physics, I thought I knew everything there was to know in physics, and then, I started my doctorate and discovered I knew nothing at all,” Shaleen Raizada jokes…
- 47. Isher Judge Ahluwalia: Isher Judge Ahluwalia likes to keep an open mind and an empirical approach. If that was evident in her seminal work on industrial slowdown of the ’60s and the subsequent productivity decline, then the same streak is visible in her current work, too—delivery of social goods and services in states with better infrastructure.
- 48. Ila Patnaik: Ila Patnaik can spot a slowdown a few quarters ahead of anyone else. The last time she did this was in 1996 when investment euphoria prevented anyone from believing her.
- 49. Ashima Goyal: A warm and soft-spoken person, Ashima Goyal’s main focus is on using rigorous tools to understand economic situations and arrive at a solution. She is currently researching exchange rate and monetary policy institutions, fiscal and monetary policies, technology and labour markets....
- 50. Roopa Purushothaman: After she co-wrote the renowned economics paper that coined the term BRIC (short for Brazil, Russia, India and China) during her first job at Goldman Sachs, this graduate from Yale and LSE came down to India to join Kishore Biyani’s Future Group.
- 51. Anjani Kasliwal: All of 22, this chirpy girl loves filmmaking and, in fact, did her Bachelors in Media Management from Bombay University. Brandhouse Retails is involved in setting up and managing exclusive brand outlets for various brands across India with a special focus on fashion and lifestyle.
- 52. Pooja Jain: Working her way through several junior functions before taking over the reins of Luxor Group as Executive Director in 2006, she set up a B2B division, which alone has a turnover of Rs 23 crore.
- 53. Soundarya Rajinikanth: No treading the beaten path of celluloid children for Soundarya Rajinikanth, the 25-year-old younger daughter of Tamil superstar Rajinikanth.
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