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Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has ranked 32nd in the Forbes’ list of world’s most powerful women. Three other Indian women named in the list are HCL Corporation CEO Roshni Nadar Malhotra at rank 60, Steel Authority of India chairperson Soma Mondal with rank 70, and Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw at rank 76.
Nirmala Sitharaman was appointed as the finance minister of India in 2019. She also holds the post of Union Corporate Affairs Minister. Before this, Sitharaman served as the 28th defence minister of India, being the second woman in the country to hold both these ministries. The finance minister was ranked 36 on the Forbes most powerful women list of 2022. Meanwhile, Fortune named her as the most powerful woman in India.
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 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.
