Nita Ambani most powerful businesswoman in Asia: Forbes

Reliance Foundation Chairperson Nita Ambani has been named the most powerful businesswoman in Asia by Forbes, leading a list of 50 women leaders from the region that includes eight from India.

SBI Chairman and Managing Director Arundhati Bhattacharya has been ranked second on the 2016 'Asia's 50 Power Businesswomen' list that features trailblazing women from China, Indonesia, Australia, Vietnam, Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, the Philippines and New Zealand.

Apart from Ambani and Bhattacharya, six women from India have made to the list, including Mu Sigma CEO Ambiga Dhiraj (14), Welspun India CEO Dipali Goenka (16), Lupin CEO Vinita Gupta (18), ICICI Bank Managing Director & CEO Chanda Kochhar (22), VLCC Health Care Founder and vice chairman Vandana Luthra (26) and Biocon Founder, Chairman & Managing Director Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (28).

The list acknowledges the "inroads women are making in the business world but gender inequality persists. Women are best positioned to know what it will take to get more of them into commanding roles in the workforce and keep them there," Forbes said.

Describing her as the "first lady of Indian business", Forbes said Ambani, 52, is a "power near the throne" and makes her debut on the list because of her rising profile in Reliance Industries, led by her husband and India's richest man Mukesh Ambani.

"In a country where billionaire wives tend to remain in the shadow of their husbands, Nita's rising profile in the Reliance empire is unusual and earns her a debut spot," on the power businesswomen ranking this year, Forbes said of Ambani, who is also Director of Reliance Industries.

On Bhattacharya, 60, Forbes said she is facing her "most challenging test" yet with the State Bank of India as it grapples with mounting bad loans, which stood at USD 11 billion in December and caused net profit to plunge more than 60 per cent to USD 190 million in a recent



quarter.

Dhiraj, 40, became the first female boss of an Indian-owned tech unicorn when she took over as CEO of Mu Sigma, a provider of data-analytics services, from husband Dhiraj Rajaram, who founded the firm in 2004. 

Dipali Goenka, chief executive, Welspun India: Five years ago, when Goenka took charge of home textiles maker Welspun India, the buzz in the male-dominated industry, she recalls, was: “Welspun has lost its mind.” Goenka has doubled down to disprove that.

Vinita Gupta, chief executive, Lupin: Gupta runs India’s third-largest pharmaceutical company, with $2 billion in revenue. In the past year she has spearheaded $1.2 billion in acquisitions, the biggest of which was the $880 million purchase of Gavis Pharma, giving Lupin its first manufacturing facility in the US.

Chanda Kochhar, managing director, ICICI Bank: As boss of the country’s largest private-sector lender, Kochhar has to contend with the current bane of India’s banking system: Bad loans. In a bid to retain female staff, she launched “iWork@home”, which allows employees to work from home for a year. Executives can also take children under the age of 3 on business trips, with a caregiver, at the bank’s expense.

Vandana Luthra, vice chair, VLCC Health Care: Luthra pioneered the concept of a beauty and wellness chain in India. She opened her centre in New Delhi in 1989, offering weight management as well as hair and skin treatments, and now has 313 centres in 11 countries in Asia, the Middle East and East Africa.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chair, Biocon: Amid a volatile stock market, the founder of Biocon took its thriving research arm, Syngene International, public last August. With a recent market cap of $1.1 billion Syngene shares are up more than 52 percent. The self-made Mazumdar-Shaw has positioned Biocon as a large player in insulin. Biocon is the only Asian firm ranked among the top 20 biotech employers worldwide by Science magazine.