Kiran Mazumdar Shaw: Shaw And India’s BT Dream

If Bengaluru is known as the IT-BT capital of India, Biocon is known to have contributed tremendously towards the making of the BT hub that the city is known to be. It was Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw who founded Biocon in 1978, as a 25-year-old entrepreneur. One of the priorities for her then was to have a fair gender balance at the workplace.

Today, Shaw is India’s top industry leader. When she speaks, people sit up and take notice. When she tweets, even the Union Finance Minister responds.

If the city of Bengaluru has an enviable soft power, and a galaxy of industry leaders, Shaw well and truly represents the club. If Bengaluru represents what India’s future may look like, if the bio-technology (BT) industry’s rise in India marks the coming of age of innovation and R&D in industry, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw represents what today’s generation of young women and girls aspire to become – entrepreneurial, fiercely independent, and futuristic.

When she started off, neither were banks willing to lend to, nor were men ready to work with a woman boss. Today, as the Biocon Executive Chairperson, Shaw has inspired many – men and women alike. Women constitute around 18 per cent of the total workforce in Biocon, with many of them in leading R&D positions.

When not helming Biocon, Shaw’s is an important voice on policy, the economy, governance, civic issues, and gender diversity. As women work towards their rightful share in the economy and society, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw remains an inspiration and a model to follow.