Emerging Women Leaders in the Indian Corporates

Dr.S.Sethuram, Assistant Professor, Department of MBA, SANSAC

Indian companies are in the process of attracting more women leaders in their business. The following icons are the role models for ambitious women entrepreneurs in India.

Roshni Nadar Malhotra is the first person to head a listed Indian IT Company, by being the Chair Person of HCL Technologies. Roshni is the Chief Executive Officer of HCL Corporation which is the holding company of the group’s subsidiaries. She is passionate for protecting the natural habitats and indigenous species in India. Towards this objective she started the ‘The Habitats Trust’.

Nisaba Godrej, the Chairperson and Managing Director of Godrej Consumer Products Limited is a determined professional who took her one month old child to her office. Nisaba Godrej is also a Director of ‘Teach for India’ which provides education to low income school students. As part of the Corporate Social Responsibility project ‘’Good and Green’. Nisaba Godrej is the Head of  Operations of the Godrej Family Council.

Dipali Goenka, the Chief Executive Officer and Joint Managing Director of Welspun is a successful Industrialist besides her liking for philanthrophy. She has transformed  Welspun to make cultivation of cotton and manufacturing of fabric more sustainable.

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is the Executive Chairperson of Biocon Limited and Biocon Bilogics Limited. She is a first generation entrepreneur. She has the goal of  making medicines accessible and affordable to millions of  people around the world.

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Taking cue from the above large number of women should venture into business and emerge as business leaders. Many initiatives are being taken by the government and the Industry in this regard. For instance, Vedanta has identified 100 women leaders from its employees and appointed senior executives as mentors. The Government too is creating a space in the board for women leaders through initiatives in the corporate laws. Every listed company, every company having share capital of Rs.100 crore or more, every company having a turnover of Rs.300 crore or more should have a woman director in the board. This provision under the Companies Act, 2013 has the objective of having adequate participation of women in the Board of Directors.

Looking at the success of the self made women leaders and the initiatives of the Industry and Government, we can foresee a large number of women emerge as successful business leaders in the Indian Corporate in the near future.

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