Forbes has recently unveiled its 2024 list of ‘The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women’, featuring three Indian pioneers: Nirmala Sitharaman, Roshni Nadar Malhotra, and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw.
Ranked 28th, Nirmala Sitharaman is India’s Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs. She became the first woman to hold these roles full-time in 2019 and was reappointed in 2024. Managing India’s $4 trillion economy, she projects that India will soon become the third-largest economy by 2027. A champion for women’s financial empowerment, she supports entrepreneurship, credit access, and financial literacy. Before politics, she worked at the BBC World Service and served on India’s National Commission for Women.
Ranked 81st, Roshni Nadar Malhotra is the Chairperson of HCL Technologies and CEO of HCL Corporation. She leads the $12 billion company founded by her father, Shiv Nadar. Besides her corporate role, she is a trustee of the Shiv Nadar Foundation and founded The Habitats Trust to conserve natural habitats. With a journalism background and an MBA from Kellogg, she has significantly contributed to HCL’s growth and social initiatives.
Ranked 82nd, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is the founder of Biocon, a leading biopharmaceutical company. She expanded Biocon globally, including one of Asia’s largest insulin facilities. Her key achievements include Biocon Biologics’ $3.3 billion acquisition of Viatris’ biosimilars business and a successful IPO for Biocon-backed Bicara Therapeutics. Despite initially aspiring to be a doctor, she became a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist, donating $7.5 million to cancer research in 2019.
The top spots on the list were held by Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission; Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank; and, Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister of Italy.
Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen is a German politician, serving as the 13th president of the European Commission since 2019. She served in the German federal government between 2005 and 2019, holding positions in Angela Merkel’s cabinet, most recently as federal minister of defense. She was re-elected to head the Commission in July 2024. She was brought up bilingually in German and French, and moved to Germany in 1971 when her father became involved in German politics. She graduated from the London School of Economics in 1978, and in 1987, she acquired her medical license from Hanover Medical School. After marrying fellow physician Heiko von der Leyen, she lived for four years in the United States with her family in the 1990s.
Christine Lagarde (born January 1, 1956, Paris, France) is a French lawyer and politician who was the first woman to serve as France’s finance minister (2007–11); as the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) 2011–19); and, as President of the European Central Bank (2019– till date). Lagarde was educated in the United States and France.
Giorgia Meloni is an Italian politician who has been serving as the prime minister of Italy since October 2022, the first woman to hold this position. As Italy’s first female prime minister, she has created history by leading a right-wing coalition since World War II. She has also been the president of Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) since 2014.
Educationist/Administrator/Editor/Author/Speaker
Commencing teaching in his early twenties, Prof Aggarwal has diverse experience of great tenure in the top institutions not only as an educationist, administrator, editor, author but also promoting youth and its achievements through the nicest possible content framing. A revolutionary to the core, he is also keen to address the society around him for its betterment and growth on positive notes while imbibing the true team spirit the work force along with.
Comments