India's top businesswomen

  • Shahnaz Husain is chief executive officer of Shahnaz Husain Herbals. It is one of India's most successful women entrepreneurs. Her company is one of the largest manufacturers of herbal products in the world.

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  • Usha Thorat served as Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India from November 10, 2005 to November 8, 2010. Prior to this she was the executive Director of the RBI. She has also been member of many important RBI committees.

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  • Sulajja Firodia Motwani is the joint managing director of Kinetic Engineering Ltd and managing director of Kinetic Finance. She has been featured as a 'Business Face of the Millennium' by India Today and was awarded Society magazine's Young Achiever's Award for Business in 2002.

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  • Kavery Kalanithi of Sun TV Group is the country's top paid business woman. Her pay package is Rs 57 crore in 2012.

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  • Naina Lal Kidwai is currently the Group General Manager and Country Head of HSBC India. She was the President of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI Group). Kidwai is the first woman to head the operations of a foreign bank in India. 

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  • Preetha Reddy, Group Managing Director Apollo Hospitals is one of the pioneer businesswomen of India in the segment of healthcare. In September 2012, she was elected to the board as independent director of medical technology company Medtronic.

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  • Simone Tata, chairperson of Trent Ltd, was born and educated in Geneva, Switzerland. Travelling to India as a tourist in 1953, she met Naval H Tata whom she married in 1955 and settled down in Mumbai permanently. In 1996 Trent was created, under which successful department stores under the brand name, Westside has been created.

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  • Axis Bank MD and chief executive officer Shikha Sharma is a former ICICI Bank bigwig. She quit in protest after Kochhar took over as CEO. She is considered to be one of the most powerful businesswomen.

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  • Ekta Kapoor is the Joint Managing Director and Creative Director of Balaji Telefilms, her production company. She dominates Indian television, producing more than eight television soaps. At the 6th Indian Telly Awards 2006, she bagged the Hall of Fame award for her contributions.

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  • Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi is an Indian-American businesswoman. She is the current Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, the second largest food and beverage business in the world by net revenue.

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  • Kalpana Morparia serves as the Chief Executive Officer of South Asia and India Operations at JPMorgan Chase & Co. Prior to this, she served as the Joint Managing Director of ICICI Bank Ltd. since April 29, 2006 and the Deputy Managing Director from February 1, 2004 to April 29, 2006.

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  • Mallika Srinivasan is the Chief Executive Officer of Tafe Motors And Tractors Limited and has been its Chairman since January 2011. She joined TAFE as a general manager in 1986, and has since steered the company, taking its revenues from Rs 85 crore (Rs 850 million) to over Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion).

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  • Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is Chairman and Managing Director, Biocon Ltd, a biotechnology company that makes enzymes. She founded Biocon India with a capital of Rs 10,000 in her garage. Her 40 per cent stake in the company is worth about $350 million.

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  • Shobhana Bhartia is the Chairperson and Editorial Director of the Hindustan Times Group, one of India's newspaper and media houses, which she inherited from her father KK Birla.

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  • On Woman's Day we celebrate womanhood with these commendable women who have made a mark for themselves.

    Chanda Kochhar is the managing director (MD) of ICICI Bank and its chief executive officer (CEO). ICICI Bank is India's largest private bank and overall second largest bank in the country. She also heads the Corporate Centre of ICICI Bank.

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