8 Badass Indian Women Who Took the Business World by Storm

Indian women have been making waves in the business world for quite some time now. Women entrepreneurs especially play an intrinsic role in sustaining the process of economic development, attaining prosperity, and a better standard of living for the people of India. Let's look at eight incredible women who have taken the business world by storm.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is the founder and Executive Chairman of Biocon, one of India's leading biotechnology companies. She has propelled Biocon’s growth with her strong belief in "affordable innovation". Kiran, with over four decades of experience in biotechnology, has also received numerous awards for her work in healthcare.

Recognition:

  • TIME magazine's 100 most influential people in the World - 2010
  • Financial Times' top 50 women in business - 2011
  • The 92nd most powerful woman in the World by Forbes - 2014
  • Padma Shri - 1989
  • Padma Bhushan - 2005


Indra Nooyi

Indra Nooyi is an Indian-American business executive and former chairperson and chief executive officer of PepsiCo., one of the world's largest food and beverage companies. Indra is widely respected for her business acumen. She has been ranked among the most powerful women in the world by Forbes.

Recognition:

  • "Best CEOs In The World" - the CEOWORLD magazine - 2018
  • One of the "25 Greatest Global Living Legends" by NDTV - 2013
  • Padma Bhushan - 2013


Vinita Gupta

Vinita Gupta is the CEO and managing director of Lupin Limited, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in India. She began her career at Lupin in 1993 and was appointed CEO in 2013.

Under her leadership, Lupin has become one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in India, with a robust presence in both the domestic and international markets. In April 2017, Vinita was appointed a non-executive director of Intrexon.

Recognition:

  • Forbes Asia Top 50 power businesswomen for the Asia Pacific in 2014
  • Most Powerful Women in Business 2016 - Hall of Fame - Business Today
  • Outstanding Business Woman Leader of the Year - 11th CNBC India Business Leader Awards


Ghazal Alagh

Ghazal Alagh is the co-founder of Mamaearth, a natural baby and beauty care brand. She is a passionate advocate for using natural ingredients and products to improve people's health and wellbeing.

After working as a computer-coding trainer for several years, she started her own business in 2015 by founding Honasa Consumer Pvt Ltd. It gave birth to the most popular brand Mamaearth, with the mission to create safe and natural products for babies and families.

Ghazal's company has since become one of the leading brands in India's natural personal care industry.

  • Best Brand of the year - Mamaearth in 2018-2019
  • Forty under forty achievers of India - 2019
  • Super StartUps Asia Award - 2019


Falguni Nair

Falguni Nair is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of India's leading beauty retail brand, Nykaa. Falguni started her company, envisioning it to be a retail and e-commerce platform focusing on beauty and fashion. An investment banker by profession, she quit her job in 2012 to start her present empire, Nykaa.

Her multi-brand omnichannel approach made Nykaa, India's leading beauty retailer brand. Presently, Falguni heads a team of 1600+ employees and manages 2000+ brands, including the personal brand label. With approximately 100 stores across India, Nykaa's revenue exceeded 2000 crores in 2020-2021.

After the success of her beauty platform, Falguni has now ventured into a fashion platform under the name Nykaa Fashion. The company is constantly expanding under the innovative excellence of its CEO.

  • 'Women Ahead' Award by Economic Times Startup Awards - 2019
  • Businesswoman of the Year Award by Economic Times Awards for Corporate Excellence -2019
  • Asia's Power Business Woman by Forbes' Asia - 2019


Vineeta Singh

Vineeta Singh is the founder of the beauty brand SUGAR Cosmetics. Her passion and zeal to become an entrepreneur made her quit her well-paying investment bank job. She created the fast-growing Indian beauty brand- SUGAR in the year 2015.

Growing up, she was never an ardent make-up or fashion enthusiast. Yet she always wanted to create a brand for women. Her belief that the world was changing fast and for women even faster made her build her brand.

Vineeta's brand now operates in more than 130 cities with over 2500 branded outlets and overall revenue of 100 crores.

  • Forty under Forty Awards by The Economic Times - 2020
  • India's Young Business Leader by The economic Times -2020
  • 100 Mindful Women in the World
  • India's Most Powerful Women by Forbes India - 2021


Anisha Singh

Anisha Singh is a celebrated entrepreneur and the founder of India's local services marketing platform, mydala.com. Besides being an entrepreneur, Anisha has been serving the role of a speaker, inspiring women on entrepreneurship and leadership.

Born from her love for women's rights and dealing with issues at the workplace, in 2009, she founded her company. Her company serves both India and the UAE.

She has worked with more than 130,000 merchants across 210 cities approximately. Regularly, her company carries out almost 200,000 transactions, leading the local services market and almost monopolising it.

  • Zee TV Outstanding Young Entrepreneur - 2016
  • e-INC / eTales Awards for e-Commerce Entrepreneur of the Year - 2016


Shradha Sharma

Shradha Sharma is amongst the young entrepreneurs of the nation. A journalist by profession, Shradha quit her job at Times of India and CNBC TV18 to form YourStory in 2008.

For over ten years, she has been relentlessly working towards making every story matter. She has been the driving force behind the success of many startups through her stories.

Shraddha now employs over 100 people who have published more than 70,000 articles in 11 languages.

  • Journalist of the Year at Villgro Unconvention - 2010
  • Fortune 40 under 40 by Fortune India - 2016


To Conclude

In a country with over 1.3 billion people, it's no surprise that India is home to some of the most successful businesswomen. From tech moguls to fashion designers, these inspiring ladies have made their mark on the world stage. They prove that anything is possible with hard work and determination.

Empower yourself by joining the Blue Bindi Project and getting judicious financial advice to achieve your wealth goals independently.



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