3 Indian Women in Forbes’ List of Most Powerful

Forbes’ list of 100 most powerful women in the world in 2019 includes 3 Indian women as well. They are Nirmala Sitharaman, Roshni Nadar Malhotra and Kiran Mazumdar Shaw. In this article, we will have a look at who are women and what makes them one of the most powerful in the world. Let’s start –

NIRMALA SITHARAMAN

At number 34 on the list of Most Powerful Women in the World by Forbes is India’s own Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. She has been active in national politics since 2006 and was appointed the spokesperson of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2010. She became a member of Rajya Sabha in 2016 and also served as the Defence Minister of India from 2017 to 2019, prior to which she held the office for the Minister of Commerce and Industry for three years. Apart from being India’s first full-time female finance minister, she has also served as a member of the National Commission for Women and held roles at the U.K. based Agricultural Engineers Association and BBC World Service.

ROSHNI NADAR MALHOTRA

At rank 54 we have Roshni Nadar Malhotra, the Executive Director and the CEO of HCL Enterprise. Considered to be the richest woman in India, the now 38-year-old is the only child of HCL’s founder Shiv Nadar and has provided direction to the company for over a decade already.
She is known for her stellar leadership and philanthropic endeavors including but not limited to VidyaGyan, a leadership academy for the meritorious and economically underprivileged students from rural Uttar Pradesh and Habitats Trust, a foundation working towards protecting natural habitats.
In light of her efforts, she has been conferred with the 2014 NDTV Young Philanthropist of the Year Award and 2017 Vogue India Philanthropist of the Year Award. She was a part of Forbes’ list of Most Powerful Women back in 2017 and 2018 too.

KIRAN MAZUMDAR SHAW

Number 65 on the list is graced by Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, the Chairperson and Managing Director of Biocon Limited, India’s largest biopharmaceutical company which she founded in 1978 in Bangalore. India’s richest self-made woman, she is an exceptional leader and also a great philanthropist.

She not only invested in research infrastructure and scientific talent with the aim of building a deep R&D (Research and Development) based biotech firm but also founded ‘The Mazumdar Shaw Medical Centre’ to create a sustainable and affordable cancer care model. In 2010, she was named among TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the World and was awarded the Othmer Gold Medal for outstanding contributions to the progress of science and chemistry in 2014. She was on the Forbes’ list of 100 most powerful women in years 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 as well as many other international awards and honors. On the National level too, her efforts have been acknowledged time and again. She was conferred the Padma Shri in 1989 and Padma Bhushan in 2005 among many others.