Innholdsfortegnelse for 21 December 2025 i Business Today

For the first time, BT has based its Most Powerful Women in Business listing on a single measure: profitability. Just as the BT500 now ranks India’s largest companies by profit, this year’s MPW list follows the same principle and uses profit to identify women leaders who deliver returns. That is why we say: profit is power. To build the Most Powerful Women in Business 2025 list, the BT Research team relied on a universe of 5,000 listed firms. From this, we selected companies that reported a consolidated profit after tax of at least ₹100 crore in FY25. We then examined the top leadership of these companies. The outcome is a first-ever listing of 100 women business leaders at the helm of profitable enterprises across sectors. The full universe of profit-making…

FOR THOSE IN India’s power sector, it is a once-in-a-lifetime moment. The transformation from conventional power to sustainable and green power is an idea whose time has come. Occupying a pivotal position in this landscape is Parminder Chopra, Chairman and Managing Director of Power Finance Corporation (PFC), the public sector undertaking financing India’s power transition. “It requires building technical knowhow to keep up with sectoral developments, in addition to strategic resource mobilisation, to be able to lend at competitive interest rates,” says Chopra, who moved into the corner office in August 2023. In terms of numbers, in FY25, PFC reported a total income of over ₹1.06 lakh crore with a net profit of ₹30,514 crore. That performance propelled Chopra to the top of the BT Most Powerful Women in Business…

WITH HER WARM, composed demeanour and everpresent, disarming smile, Sindhu Gangadharan—one of India’s most influential tech leaders and the Managing Director of SAP Labs India—stands out as a commanding yet approachable force in the industry. For Gangadharan, technology has always been a natural extension of her curiosity. And her ascent reflects that clarity of purpose. In August 2024, she took over as the Chairperson of Nasscom, the apex body representing India’s $245-billion technology industry. Talking to BT about her journey, Gangadharan says, “Curiosity shaped my early years—I was always drawn to how systems worked and why people made certain choices. That instinct naturally led me towards problem-solving roles and, eventually, to engineering.” Under Gangadharan’s leadership, SAP Labs India opened its second campus in Bengaluru, its largest R&D hub outside Germany,…

EVEN AFTER INDIAN WOMEN won the right to vote in 1950, and then gradually started entering the formal workforce in increasing numbers, corporate leadership circles remained almost entirely male. At present, 21% of board seats are held by women, up from barely 6% in 2013, according to a report by Khaitan & Co, Aon, LML and Arise titled Presence to Influence: Advancing Women in Indian Boardrooms. This feels like overdue progress. However, when compared with th 30–40% representation in countries such as France, Norway, and Belgium that implemented mandatory gender quotas, the pace of India’s progress in terms of gender diversity in boardrooms appears more modest. The first big push for change in India was the Companies Act of 2013, which mandated the appointment of women directors on boards of…

VINITA GUPTA, CHIEF Executive Officer of Mumbai-based pharmaceutical firm Lupin Ltd, says leadership is all about the ability to anticipate change, adapt to circumstances with resilience and remain steadfast to one’s principles at the same time. “Equally vital is the capacity to build and lead diverse, high-performing teams that share trust and a unified sense of purpose,” says Gupta. “Because ultimately, even the most robust strategy depends on the collective strength and alignment of the people who bring it to life.” Gupta steered Lupin to sterling earnings growth in FY25, when many companies battled geopolitical and economic headwinds marked by ceaseless conflict in Ukraine and the Middle East, the threat and actuality of punitive US tariffs and technological changes such as the rapid advances made by artificial intelligence. She and…

FOR GENERATIONS, it has been difficult for women to break the socalled glass ceiling in finance. It’s been rarer still to spot a woman in economic governance. Even now, across the world, only a few countries have women finance ministers and central bank governors. Globally, women head the finance ministry in only a handful of countries, including Australia, Japan and the UK. The President of the European Central Bank is Christine Lagarde, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is led by Kristalina Georgieva as its Managing Director. Gita Gopinath was associated with the IMF till recently, first as its Chief Economist and later as the First Deputy Managing Director. She has now moved back to academia. Over the past few years, India, too, has seen a wave of change. The…

WHEN ENTREPRENEUR UPASANA Kamineni Konidela recently told students of IIT Hyderabad that those focused on their careers should consider freezing their eggs, the remark moved far beyond the auditorium almost immediately. Hours later, as reactions surged online, she posted on social media platform X that she was “happy to spark a healthy debate”. What followed was a sharp split. Some praised the comment as pragmatic advice for a generation balancing demanding careers, while others felt it reduced a deeply personal decision to a single suggestion. WHAT WOMEN WANT Across India’s metropolitan cities, this tension is driving an ever more visible cohort of high-achieving women into fertility clinics. According to doctors, once largely a medical necessity—before chemotherapy or after a diagnosis—has gradually transformed into a planned step in long-term career and life…

DIRECTORSHIPS RISING WOMEN’S REPRESENTATION ON THE BOARDS OF NSE-LISTED COMPANIES HAS IMPROVED STEADILY. DIRECTORSHIPS HELD BY WOMEN HAVE RISEN FROM 13.6% IN FY16 TO 21.4% IN FY25 NOTE VALUE IN % SOURCE PRIMEINFOBASE.COM PURSUING PROFIT THE PROFITABILITY OF THE TOP 20 WOMEN-LED COMPANIES HAS SURGED SHARPLY IN RECENT YEARS NOTE PAT IN ₹ '000 CRORE SOURCE ACE EQUITY POWER PACKED AMONG FIRMS LED BY WOMEN, IN FIVE YEARS, POWER FINANCE CORPORATION (PFC) RECORDED OVER 200% GROWTH IN PROFIT NOTE PAT IN ₹CRORE SOURCE ACE EQUITY 4,411 NUMBER OF WOMEN DIRECTORS AS OF OCTOBER 2025 IN 2,753 NSE LISTED FIRMS, UP FROM 1,601 IN FY16, ACCORDING TO PRIME INFOBASE ₹27.07 LAKH CRORE THE COMBINED MARKET CAPITALISATION OF THE TOP 20 MOST PROFITABLE WOMEN-LED COMPANIES AS ON NOVEMBER 19, 2025 16 NUMBER OF…

WHAT DEFINES A powerful woman? Is it perception? Is it regular appearances in media? Or is it defined by her position as a businesswoman, corporate professional, or influential policymaker? Can there be an objective metric to identify India’s most powerful women in business? At Business Today, we grappled with these questions before we decided we could rely on data to identify women who truly wield power in business. Et voilà! That’s how we compiled the Most Powerful Women in Business 2025 list. This is not the first time we have pivoted towards data in recent times. A couple of months ago, we used the profitability metric to identify top-performing listed companies in the BT500 issue. We are using the same profitability metric to identify the most powerful women in the…

IN AUGUST 2025, Priya Nair became Hindustan Unilever Ltd’s (HUL’s) Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director, one of India’s most high-profile corporate roles. She is the first woman to helm the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) major, a barometer for consumer spending, helped by a large portfolio across product categories and a strong distribution network. In FY25, its turnover was ₹60,680 crore; market capitalisation is well over ₹5.79 lakh crore. Appropriately, this was 30 years after Nair joined the company straight after MBA from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management in Pune. Through the innings, she moved across categories and countries, leading to a resume that, quite literally, ticked all the boxes for the position. THE LEARNING CURVE “If I look back, two moments really shaped the way I think,” says Nair.…

IF THE PERFORMANCE of a CEO is measured by the profitability of their company, the performance of a finance minister is reflected in the growth rate and the health of the economy they lead. India’s emergence as the fastest-growing major economy and among the top five largest economies in terms of size leaves no doubt about the crucial role that Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister, has played in crafting it to its current stature. As the longest continuously serving finance minister of the country and the first woman to hold the post since former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi way back in 1969-70, Sitharaman has already won several accolades in her long innings. She will add one more record when she presents the Union Budget 2026-27; she will…

FOR THE THIRD time in her career, avid painter Ritu Gangrade Arora is readying to create something from scratch—only now, the canvas is far bigger. A founding member of PNB MetLife Insurance and Canara HSBC Insurance, 52-year-old Arora is excited to start all over again as she returns to India as the face of Allianz, with Jio Financial Services (JFSL) as a formidable partner, part of India’s largest conglomerate. Things are already moving fast. In July, Allianz joined hands with Mukesh Ambani-led JFSL to form a 50:50 reinsurance joint venture. The duo has also entered into a non-binding agreement for setting up equally-owned joint ventures for both general and life insurance business. For Arora, as the country head, it feels less like a restart and more like a new beginning—one…

THE SIGHTS AND SOUNDS of healthcare in India—from busy nursing stations to diagnostic labs humming with machines and outpatient queues threading through hospital corridors—leave little doubt about who keeps the system running. Women are present everywhere on the floor. They staff wards, run clinics, manage quality systems, and deliver care, driving daily operations across the health system even as their representation at the top continues to grow. According to World Health Organization data published in 2024, women make up about 67% of the global healthcare workforce but hold around 25% senior leadership roles. In India, the pattern is similar. A 2023 study by Dasra, a Mumbaibased philanthropic organisation, found that women occupy roughly 18% of senior leadership positions in the health sector despite accounting for a large share of its…

INDIA’S ECONOMIC STORY is being shaped by a force that remains under-recognised: its women. They make up nearly half the population yet contribute only 18% to GDP, a gap highlighted in a March 2025 report, From Borrowers to Builders–Women’s Role in India’s Financial Growth Story, by NITI Aayog, Cibil and MSC. This mirrors global findings. The Global Gender Gap Report 2025 shows India still lagging on economic participation, with low scores for workforce parity and leadership representation. Agrees Renuka Ramnath, Founder, Managing Director, & CEO, Multiples Alternate Asset Management: “There’s sometimes a tendency to view women as less resilient or less capable of delivering on a par as their peers. This is evident in various ways, including how professionals are compensated, assumptions about career commitment, and the way talent is…

MAMATA BANERJEE CHIEF MINISTER, WEST BENGAL One cannot speak of Mamata Banerjee without mentioning her gumption, especially how she brought down 34 years of Left rule and remained the head of the state since 2011. “Didi”, as she is popularly known, can be credited for introducing many welfare schemes like Kanyashree Prakalpa and Lakhsmi Bhandar. The ‘Maa, Maati, Manush’ motto now resonates with the people of Bengal. When the former Union Minister is not delivering her fiery speeches, she can be found penning books, singing, or painting. REKHA GUPTA CHIEF MINISTER, DELHI Gupta brings decades of political and organisational experience despite being a first-time MLA. Rising from ABVP and later as DUSU President, she built her reputation through sustained grassroots work. As councillor and BJP Mahila Morcha leader, she championed…

YOU ARE A woman with a man inside watching a woman. You are your own voyeur.” Margaret Atwood immortalised these lines in her novel The Robber Bride. More than 30 years later, this line continues to haunt many working women. Despite advances in gender equity, there is a psychological tax that often women pay at their workplace. Half a centenary after the term was coined by feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey, ‘male gaze’ remains an invisible architect shaping how women move, speak, present ideas, and ultimately progress in their careers. From a lingering stare during meetings, meddling in work, suggestive messages framed as ‘jokes’, the patronising comments under the guise of “mentorship”, or the quick glance to another man for validation after a woman speaks, the male gaze pervades the…

IF THERE IS one meaningful shift in the journey of women over the past few decades, it is the growing ability to choose. Women today have far greater freedom to decide whether they want to marry, have children, work, or pursue financial independence. Yet amid this increased agency, biology remains one area where our choices can feel unexpectedly limited. For generations, women believed that motherhood would be available whenever they were ready. But modern lifestyles, environmental exposure, stress, processed foods, hormonal disruptions and urban living have changed the reproductive landscape. While women are most fertile in their twenties and early thirties, fertility begins to decline after 30 and drops more sharply beyond 35, something many women are still not fully aware of. Egg freezing is often misunderstood as a tool used…

THE HISTORIC LABOURreforms were ushered in the country with notification of the long-awaited labour codes on November 21. Covering wages, social security, industrial relations and occupational safety, health and working conditions for India’s 600 million workforce, the codes subsumed, streamlined and rationalised 29 labour laws, while introducing new provisions. Included are special provisions related to employment of women on night shifts, i.e., before 6 am and after 7 pm, subject to their consent and the employer adhering to prescribed conditions related to their safety, health, working conditions. This important provision will not only unlock the untapped potential of the female workforce but will also empower women through increased participation in the economy. For decades, Indian women were prohibited from working on night shifts under archaic provisions of The Factories Act, 1948,…

GOLD AND BANK fixed deposits were once their investments of choice, but women these days are increasingly turning to equities, mutual funds, and other goal-based financial products to generate higher returns. For Ahmedabad resident Zindagi Dholakia, investing means a mix of three elements. She does her own research to understand what she’s getting into, seeks expert advice when unsure about something and sometimes goes by old-fashioned intuition—if something feels right, she buys it; or else, she avoids it. Dholakia, 51, is part an increasing tribe of women who are more conscious than ever about the need to invest for the future and secure their financial lives rather than depend on husband or father. Once anchored to gold and fixed deposits (FDs), they are blending the safety provided by those instruments…

“WOMEN SHOULD BE DISCIPLINED WITH THEIR SAVINGS” Q What is your advice for young women managers? Stay focused and think long-term. Do not chase designations; it will be an outcome of the work you do. Your contribution should make a difference and that would enable you to establish your value as an employee. Be an advocate for yourself—find avenues to highlight your strengths. Having an ally/mentor within your organisation works well. This is not only for those who work for a big company. Nowadays, organisations are much more women-friendly, offering flexibilities—use these benefits wisely to build your career. Q How should women negotiate for a better pay? There are various factors involved when it comes to salary—qualification, experience, skill sets, and the additional value that you bring to the table.…

IN JULY 2022, seasoned ICICI Bank professional Vishakha Mulye surprised many with her career pivot. First, she moved from a commercial bank to a non-banking financial company, Aditya Birla Capital. Second, she shifted from a financial institution to a global conglomerate, Aditya Birla Group. Third, she transitioned from leading corporate and international banking to managing a far more retail-focused portfolio. But it wasn’t hard for her. She had handled complex portfolios and diverse businesses, having risen quickly through the ICICI ranks, becoming one of the youngest leaders to handle high-stake portfolios—from wholesale banking and global transaction banking to mergers, acquisitions, and stressed-asset management. Mulye, 56, has featured in BT’s Most Powerful Women list more than half a dozen times. This year, she has proved her strength on an entirely new pitch.…

SHVETA ARYA, MANAGING DIRECTOR, Cummins India Ltd, feels a woman faces gender bias even if she has been in decision-making positions for years. Despite working at the power systems maker for nine years, there are still times when the customer won’t look her in the eye or finds it hard to believe that she understands the company’s products. “Having your voice heard in the room is among the biggest challenges,” says Arya, who stepped into this role last year. “Some of us may have changed, but society at large hasn’t,” she says. Arya is quick to admit that she has been privileged to have the kind of upbringing she’s had, with her grandfather constantly questioning her about her ambitions and fostering a sense of independence by teaching her how to…

I WAS ALWAYS interested in law. There were lawyers on both sides of the family,” says Nyrika Holkar with a smile. What drew her to the field was the approach to thinking and structuring arguments. When she discussed this with her parents, they advised her to do something more broad-based. She went for an undergraduate degree in philosophy and economics from Colorado College followed by a master’s in law from University College in London. Today, she oversees a diversified set of businesses—traditional and modern—as Executive Director, Godrej Enterprises Group, which came into being this April after the Godrej family’s realignment of shareholding across group companies. To Holkar, the transformation underway is driven by a clear purpose: to stay deeply connected to customers. A core part of the strategy will be…

IN THE CULT CLASSIC 3 Idiots, Aamir Khan delivers a line that has stayed with an entire generation: “Excellence ka peecha karo, success jhak marke tumhare peeche aayegi” (Strive for excellence and success will come searching for you). For Nandita Sinha, CEO of Myntra, that wasn’t just cinematic wisdom—it became the backbone of her professional journey. Growing up in Lucknow, Sinha says ambition was stitched into her upbringing. “When I was growing up, it was with a very different kind of privilege—not material privilege, but the privilege of having parents who were very ambitious for me and who really saw the potential in me. They pushed me towards excellence,” she tells BT. Her career began in 2004 as an intern at Unilever, a stint that sparked her interest in consumer behaviour…

WHEN ARUNDHATI BHATTACHARYA was transferred to Lucknow in the mid-2000s to become the new General Manager, she considered bidding goodbye to State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest bank. Her biggest worry was finding a good school for her daughter. The decision to move from her hometown, Kolkata, was difficult. Her mentor M. S. Verma’s advice came in handy. The former chairman of SBI and TRAI encouraged her to take the opportunity saying she had come a long way and there was no question of giving up when she was so close to reaching the top. Bhattacharya took that advice—and it turned out to be the best decision she made, as years later she would shatter one of India’s oldest glass ceilings by becoming the first woman to head the…

AMISHA VORA CMD, PL CAPITAL Amisha Vora swears by trust, transparency, and clientcentricity. The Chairperson and Managing Director of financial services firm PL Capital is busy transforming the eight-decadeold brokerage into a futureready wealth and investment powerhouse. Under her, the firm has pioneered quant-led and non-discretionary PMS offerings while expanding into private credit with its first Category II alternative investment fund. Vora is steering the organisation toward an artificial intelligence (AI)-embedded, insight-driven future designed to create durable value. ANANYA BIRLA FOUNDER, CHAIRPERSON & DIRECTOR, SVATANTRA MICROFIN PVT LTD Microfinance is one of the toughest businesses to be in. Ananya Birla was aware of that when she ventured into that space at just 17. Today, her venture Svantantra occupies a pride of place in the industry through organic growth and buyouts—the…

IN CORPORATE INDIA’S ivory towers and buzzing boardrooms, a quiet tension lingers beneath the surface—one that has little to do with performance metrics or quarterly outcomes. It is the implicit expectation to “look the part.” For years, discussions around workplace equality have centred on pay gaps and leadership representation. Yet, when speaking to women across industries, another subtler question emerges: Are women still being evaluated, consciously or otherwise, on their appearance at work? Sujaya Nag, Senior Vice President—HR, Brigade Group, calls the pressure very real but often invisible. “Across my years leading HR in India and overseas, I’ve seen how women carry an extra layer of scrutiny that men might not face. We hear it in coaching conversations—women second-guessing what to wear for a client meeting, wondering if they’ll look ‘too…

BEHIND EVERY PERFORMANCE review and late-night login lies an invisible truth: women often work twice as hard just to stay in the race. They juggle caregiving, career breaks, bias, burnout, unfair expectations, all while maintaining the composure workplaces have normalised. What they want is neither special treatment nor exceptions or concessions; they’re asking for fairness, dignity, and support through predictable life stages. As Neha Bagaria, Founder and CEO of AI-powered career engagement platform for women HerKey, puts it, “Beyond generic challenges, four distinct barriers appear at different stages of a woman’s career: lack of career intentionality early on; biases during restarts; disproportionate caregiving for mid-career risers; and networking formats built by men, for men, which exclude women at senior levels.” WORK-LIFE BALANCE Flexibility has become both salvation and stigma for…

BEAUTY AND PERSONAL care products retailer Nykaa and Niramai Health Analytix, which offers early breast cancer screening, are among India’s start-up success stories of the past decade. Founded by Falguni Nayar and Geeta Manjunath, respectively, they paved the way for a generation of woman entrepreneurs in India. Their success broke the myth that start-ups were a male preserve. The days when women were listed as nominal co-founders just to unlock government benefits—although not entirely gone—no longer define the landscape. As of June 2025, of the 170,000 start-ups in the country, 76,000 were led by women, generating over 1.7 million jobs, according to Dun and Bradstreet. The momentum is building. But is it enough? Not quite. Are we moving forward? Absolutely. For start-ups led by women, the journey to success is…