17

Kiran Majumdar- Shaw

Kiran Majumdar-Shaw is the Chairman and Managing Director of the biopharmaceutical company Biocon. She is a pioneering figure in the Indian biotechnology industry. As a global influencer, she is ranked among the ‘World’s 25 Most Influential People in Biopharma’ by Fierce Biotech and also features in the Forbes’ ‘100 Most Powerful Women’ and Fortune’s ‘Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Asia-Pacific’ lists.

Biocon is Asia’s largest producer of insulin and is aiming for a 10% share of the global market. Majumdar-Shaw’s family was traditionally in the brewery business and she started Biocon India in 1978, at the age of 25.

She has been recognised as the only Indian on the Forbes’ list of the ‘World’s Self-Made Women Billionaires.’ She has been conferred with the highest French distinction, the Chevalier de l’Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur. She has also been recently bestowed with the Advancing Women in Science and Medicine (AWSM) Award for Excellence 2017 by The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, USA. She has featured consecutively for three years among the top ten of the ‘Medicine Maker Power List’, which is an index of the 100 most influential people across the globe in the field of medicine.

Chanda Kochhar

Chanda Kochhar is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the ICICI Bank. She is recognised for her role in shaping retail banking in India. Under her leadership, the ICICI Bank won the “Best Retail Bank in India” award in 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2005 and The Asian Banker’s “Excellence in Retail Banking Award” in 2002.

She was also awarded the “Retail Banker of the Year 2004 (Asia-Pacific region)” by The Asian Banker, the “Business Woman of the Year 2005” by The Economic Times and the “Rising Star Award” for Global Awards 2006 by Retail Banker International.

In 2011, she featured in the “50 Most Influential People in Global Finance” list of Bloomberg Markets. She was awarded with the ASSOCHAM Ladies League Mumbai Women of the Decade Achievers Award on January 2, 2014.

Kochhar was featured in the “Power List 2013” of the 25 most powerful women in India by India Today and has featured in the Business World magazine’s ‘BW’s Most Influential Women’ list as an evergreen woman leader. She has also received the Woodrow Wilson Award for global corporate citizenship from the Woodrow Wilson Centre.

Sakshi Malik

Sakshi Malik became the first Indian female wrestler to win a medal at the Olympics and the fourth female Olympic medallist from the country after she won the bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Malik had also won the silver medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, and the bronze medal at the 2015 Asian Wrestling Championship in Doha. She received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna in 2016 and the Padma Shri in 2017.

Born on September 3, 1992, in Rohtak, Haryana, Sakshi Malik had supportive parents who encouraged her wrestling dreams. She began her training in wrestling as a 12-year-old under the guidance of Ishwar Dahiya at an akhara in the Chotu Ram stadium. Malik is currently employed with Indian Railways and has been promoted after her impressive show in the 2016 Olympics.

Mithali Raj

Mithali Raj is the captain of the Indian women’s cricket team. Mithali is the first Indian cricketing captain to lead India to an ICC ODI World Cup final twice, in 2005 and 2017 respectively. She is often regarded as one of the greatest female batsmen and she is the highest run-scorer in women’s international cricket.

She is the first player to score seven consecutive 50s in women’s one day cricket. Mithali has received the Arjuna Award in 2003, the Padma Shri in 2015 and the Youth Sports Icon of Excellence Award in 2017. Born on December 3, 1982 in a Tamil family, Mithali started playing cricket the age of 10 and at the age of 17, she was picked for the Indian team.

In February 2017, she became the second player to make 5,500 runs in international one day cricket. In addition to her ability with the bat, Mithali also bowls leg spin. After Women’s Cricket World Cup in 2017, Viacom 18 Motion Pictures has acquired the rights to make a feature film on her life.

Lalita Babar

Lalita Babar is an Indian long distance runner. She was born in a small village in the Satara district of Maharashtra. She predominantly competes in the 3000 metres steeplechase and is the current Indian national record holder and the reigning Asian champion in the same event.

Babar was named as the Sports Person of the Year by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports of India in 2015. She was honoured with the prestigious Arjuna Award in 2016.

Babar started her career in athletics as a long-distance runner at a young age. She won her first gold medal in the U-20 National Championships at Pune in 2005. At the 2015 Asian Championships, Babar won the gold medal, clocking 9:34.13 and broke her personal record along with the Indian national record and the games record. She also qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

The 28-year-old long distance runner, who is a three-time Mumbai Marathon winner, came into prominence with a bronze-winning performance in 3000 metre steeplechase at the 2014 Asian Games, where she broke the national record. She went on to break the record again at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing with a time of 9:27.86 in her qualifying heat.

Alka Saraogi

Alka Saraogi is a Hindi novelist and short story writer. She is a recipient of the 2001 Sahitya Akademi Award for Hindi for her novel ‘Kalikatha: Via Bypass’. She was born in a Marwari family in Kolkata. She studied at the  University of Calcutta, receiving a Ph.D for her thesis on the poetry of Raghuvir Sahay. Her first novel was released in 1998. It is a work of historical fiction and examines the Marwari community and their interface with Bengali culture.

She followed this up with four further novels - the latest being the Jankidas Tejpal Mansion, published in 2015.