4 Indians In Forbes’ Most Powerful Women List, Nirmala Sitharaman At 32

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has ranked 32nd in the Forbes’ list of world’s most powerful women that also featured US Vice President Kamala Harris and musician Taylor Swift.

Three other Indian women named in the list are HCL Corporation CEO Roshni Nadar Malhotra (rank 60), Steel Authority of India chairperson Soma Mondal (rank 70), and Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (rank 76).

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen topped the list, followed by European Central Bank boss Christine Lagarde at the second position and US Vice President Kamal Harris at number three.

Ms Sitharaman became India’s first full-time Finance Minister in May 2019 and also heads the Corporate Affairs ministry. She held roles at UK’s Agricultural Engineers Association and BBC World Service before joining politics, Forbes said. She has also been a member of the National Commission for Women.

Ms Malhotra is the daughter of the HCL founder and industrialist Shiv Nadar. As the chairperson of HCL Technologies, she’s responsible for all strategic decisions for the company, Forbes said. She took over the role from her father in July 2020.

Ms Mondal is the first woman chairperson of the state-run Steel Authority of India (SAIL), according to Forbes. Having assumed the role in 2021, she has led the steelmaker to record financial growth, her profile read, as the firm’s profits surged threefold in her first year of leadership.

Forbes described Ms Mazumdar-Shaw has one of India’s richest self-made women. She had founded the biopharmaceutical firm Biocon in 1978, which has Asia’s largest insulin factory in Malaysia’s Johor region.