Most Powerful Women in Business-2009

The recession, downturn or whatever you may call it, has dented most kinds of lists — lists of billionaires, lists of most valuable companies, list of top recruiters and so on. But there is one list that has grown when others shrank—BT’s list of the Most Powerful Women in Indian Business. As we researched for the seventh edition of our list, we were confronted with an embarrassment of riches. Successful women leaders are dotting the Indian business landscape in far greater numbers than ever. Result: our list is of 30 jewels. Many “regulars” in our list have added more to their power in the past one year. Two large and rapidly-growing private banks are headed by women today, which wasn’t the case last year. Our list captures the new faces and the new achievements of the old ones.

Additional Information

Defining power is a huge challenge. Defining powerful women is a bigger challenge. Have taken on this challenge for seven years, we have reasons to believe that we know more than others about how much women have come to influence and inspire business in India. This year, we have expanded the 'Most Powerful women in Indian Business' series since the pool of successful women is much larger today than six years ago. This rounded view of the lives of succcessful women in indian business leads us to believe that women are better at maintaining a work life balance, blending ambition with pragmatism and combining speed with stability. Women more than men, consider personal and professional growth as two sides of the same coin. These attributes are valuable to people across gender, age, geography and professions. They are also essential ingredients for modern leaderships, encouraging more women to reach leadership positions is to solve those problems.