Business Today

Over the past five years that I have been overseeing Business Today's Most Powerful Women special issue, the number of women making it to the long list has been increasing and also becoming more broad based in terms of sectors from which they hail.

1) Founders Manish and Rashi Gupta. Both did Integrated M. Tech in Mathematics and Computing from IIT Delhi while Rashi also holds a PhD in Biometrics from the University of Helsinki. Before launching their start up, Manish worked as the chief techno

Like most Mumbai office goers, Raunak Onkar, Research Head at PPFAS Mutual Fund, has to commute hours every weekday to and from work. Through the long roads and endless traffic jams, it is podcasts that keep him good company. "I don't want to read wh

YouTube CEO, Susan Wojcicki, is one of the earliest members of the Google team and it was in her garage in the US that the Google founders laid the foundation of the $136 billion technology giant. She went on to become the first marketing manager of

OLX, a consumer to consumer classifieds business and buying selling platform, is a household name in India. The global business was set up in 2006, and three years later, the company entered the country as it was one of the biggest markets. Consisten

Falguni Nayar Founder, Nykaa Every woman has to invest in herself and make herself capable for senior roles. The more you plough into yourself, the more benefits you will reap. There is no short cut to that. Our destiny should be in our bags. Abanti

During Beth Comstock's recent visit to India, she talked to Business Today's Sanghamitra Mandal about her first book Imagine It Forward (penned with Tahl Raz), what it takes to become a change maker, how organisations can survive uncertain times and

Within six months of joining the country's largest beverage maker, Coca Cola India, as its Chief Financial Officer, Sarvita Sethi faced the biggest challenge of her career demonetisation in November 2016. The cash crunch in the market that threatene

The growing distrust between local telecom equipment makers and their foreign counterparts is apparent. This writer met N.K. Goyal, Chairman of the Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association of India (TEMA) a group representing 150 odd local telec

Zoya Akhtar has given audiences a glimpse of La Tomatina festival in Spain (Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara) and a holiday cruise (Dil Dhadakne Do). But it was when she ventured into the lanes of Dharavi that she scored her biggest hit in Gully Boy. The fil

Fabulous Fusion Brand Good Earth from India is known for blending local colours and cultures with its products. Now, it has come up with Good Earth X Soneva Holiday Edit, a capsule collection inspired by the Maldives and presenting both apparels and

Q. The biggest challenge in your career A. Heading the India Leadership Team (ILT) for more than three years has been the most challenging and satisfying part. AMD India has several functional segments and the groups stationed here work for different

Smart displays seem to be taking over our homes and Google launched one in India some time ago. An upgraded version of the device is already available in the US, but the Nest Hub sold in India is a well engineered product with a host of features. Pow

For decades, the MS Office has been synonymous with work applications for handling documentation, numbers and presentations. But the office suite comes with a premium subscription attached, paving the way for free solutions. There are plenty of optio

Fatih Birol, Executive Director, International Energy Agency, who was in India recently, spoke to Anilesh S. Mahajan about the global energy market and the future of energy in big consumer markets such as India. Edited excerpts: Q. We are living in v

A slowdown may have begun hurting one sector after another. However, the legal profession remains largely unaffected. In fact, it's thriving particularly after the increasing cases of white collar crimes following the Centre's drive against black m

Are you a compulsive reader? One who would pick up anything and everything between the covers, and browse through the content almost anywhere at home, in cafes, between client meetings, during commutes. Books can be your companions 24x7 now that yo

The prolonged slump in demand for automobiles in India and slowdown in investments in the infrastructure sector have started hurting steel manufacturers. The growth in steel consumption in the country measured as apparent steel use (ASU) dropped

Radhika Gupta is the only woman CEO in a mutual fund industry with 44 fund houses. She has managed to almost double the assets under management (AUM) of Edelweiss Asset Management Ltd. to Rs 20,000 crore (including assets under alternative investment

Gazal Kalra, the founder of logistics start up Rivigo, is an odd presence in an industry that is usually associated with the brash and the rustic. She used her inquisitiveness to start a conversation with truck drivers, get their buy in for overhauli

At a time when most consumer goods companies in India are reporting lacklustre growth and the overall economy is visibly in a recession, Nadia Chauhan, Joint Managing Director, Parle Agro, claims her business has grown over 35 per cent in the past ye

At a time when almost every credit rating agency in the country received flak for giving highest ratings to companies that defaulted on repayments weeks later, CRISIL remained unscathed. It did not rate papers of IL&FS, one of the biggest debt defaul

Meghna Gulzar knows the fine art of patience and persistence. With her first two films box office failures, the daughter of renowned writer, director and poet Gulzar and acclaimed actress Raakhee would take eight years to return to the director's cha

Unlike many fashion designers whose claim to fame is to create exclusive outfits for Bollywood celebrities, Anita Dongre has taken fashion to the masses. With 125 stores across her three brands AND, Global Desi and Grassroots her company, House o

Ankiti Bose, Co founder and CEO of Zilingo, had closely followed the rise of global ecommerce players as a consultant at McKinsey and an analyst with Sequoia Capital. Finally, a trip to Thailand gave her an inspiration to enter the world of e commerc

Alisha Moopen, Deputy Managing Director of healthcare chain Aster DM Healthcare, is a new entrant in BT's Most Powerful Women list. Though the Rs 7,963 crore company has been in India for nearly two decades, it was considered as a West Asia based hea

Every number tells a story, and researchers, policymakers and enablers must understand it to jump start the social development sector. Prerna Mukharya, an MA in Economics from Boston University, is a firm believer in that vision. So, she took a leap

Neha Singh has stood by the first career decision she took after graduating in computer science from IIT Mumbai. She was a geek through and through, winning in several coding competitions. However, she realised early on that "technology in itself is

After telling innumerable stories such as Kaisi Hai Yariyan and doing reality shows such as Dancing With The Stars on Indian television for over a decade, Myleeta Aga, SVP and GM (South East Asia and South Asia), BBC Studios, says she is finally gett

Building and expanding a family run business is not like managing other companies. "You are not planning for the next five or 10 years. You will be with the company for the entire life time and will be passing this legacy to the next generation. So,

The annual general meeting (AGM) of Reliance Industries (RIL) is one of the largest shareholders' meetings held since the time of Dhirubhai Ambani. For those who attended the AGM in August, it was clear that Isha Ambani is passionately involved in th

When Ashni Biyani joined her father Kishore Biyani's business in 2007, she was just out of college. Her colleagues wondered if she was serious about the business. She often overheard chatter about whether she would be around after she got married. It

Apollo Hospitals Founder and Chairman Dr. Prathap C. Reddy likes to call finance head Suneeta Reddy as Apollo's Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth. Ask Suneeta Reddy, the Managing Director of Apollo Hospitals and one of the four daughters of Dr. Re

From Priyanka Chopra and Kareena Kapoor to Akshay Kumar and Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Rohini Iyer, Founder of Raindrop Media, is in charge of managing the reputations of several Bollywood A listers. At a time when social media minutely scrutinises every

It's been a couple of months since Monika Shergill took over as Director, International Originals, Netflix. She says she feels empowered as with Netflix there is an opportunity to tell untouched Indian stories across continents. "Everything is done t

Meena Ganesh wears many hats. She is the CEO and Managing Director of Portea Medical, a company that provides non hospital healthcare services. At least, that's the most visible of her roles. However, she also holds a number of board positions at P

This is the second year in a row that Ameera Shah, Promoter and Managing Director, Metropolis Healthcare, has made it to Business Today's Most Powerful Women list. In April 2019, Metropolis debuted on the bourses, at a 9 per cent premium. Its market

Harshbeena Sahney Zaveri believes in planning for the long term. That is why she is not unduly worried about the immediate future of the company in spite of the fact that the auto sector, its major customer, is in dire straits. "Recession also throws

Jyoti Deshpande had a meeting with India's richest man Mukesh Ambani about a year and a half back. Ambani wanted her to head the content team of Reliance's digital play. She says he gave a "powerful brief" about his content plan for mobility and broa

The coming of age of the #MeToo movement in India is as paradoxical as it is phenomenal. For the first time, many women overcame traditional mores of shame and taboo associated with victims of sexual misconduct and spoke up publicly, calling out thei