“How important it is for us to recognise and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!”
― Maya Angelou
Dear Reader,
Our annual issue on Most Influential Women is a celebration of Indian women who are inspiring change and progress. The power list features achievers driving sustainable growth across India and beyond. There is always a buzz of excitement across our offices when we start on this project. Advisory board members and editorial leads send in recommendations, heated debates ensue, and finally the list is drawn up. The thing about such a list is that there is seldom space enough to acknowledge all the inspiring women leaders India has.
That said, let’s look at our list this year. Of course, we have the doyennes such as our finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, Nita Ambani, Suchitra Ella, among others who have, over the years continued to add value to business and the social fabric of India. This year, you will see several new names in the list, some of whom are young achievers who have taken on the mantle and are striding on a path of sustained growth. As a country, we are doing much better on the gender equality metric than a few years ago. At least, corporate India is. We see the numbers of women leaders in senior roles going up. There are more women leaders in boardrooms too. This is however, not true of all sectors.
The Global Gender Gap Report 2023, saw southern Asia get the second-lowest score of eight regions, with 63.4 per cent gender parity. India was ranked 127 (overall) of 146. We did well on the education attainment metric, coming in at rank 26. On political empowerment we were ranked 59. However, we were 142 on economic participation and opportunity, and also on health and survival. Not a pretty picture, right? So while we are faring better than before, we need to make gender equality a priority if we are to achieve real progress and compete on the world stage.
In this issue leaders comment on mentorship and on empowering women in rural India. Dakshita Das and Srinath Sridharan emphasise the need for an enabling environment to draw more women into the workforce, as well as into responsible positions. Spiritual leader Sister Shivani writes on mastering the art of self-love. A senior healthcare sector leader, Sanjiv Navangul, writes on equity in healthcare for women. The Last Word goes to a pathfinder among empowered women in India, Naina Lal Kidwai, who has many feathers in her cap and continues to wear many hats. Of course, we also bring to you all our regular columns and features.
I hope you enjoy reading the issue!