Most powerful women in Indian business: They span generations and are there in every field, from biscuits to banking, from HR to hospitals. Denied entry into a male bastion, they create another industry. They are the most powerful women in the corporate world

• Published in: Business today (New Delhi, India) India), 2008-10
• Main Authors: Mahalingam, T V, Monga, Rachna, Verma, Virendra, Bajaj, Kapil, Pande, Shamni, Adhikari, Anand, Sachitanand, Rahul, Subramanian, Anusha, Madhavan, N, Kushan Mitra, Varadarajan, Nitya, Layak, Suman, Dagar, Shalini S, Tejeesh N.S. Behl
• Format: Magazinearticle
• Language: English
• Subjects: Careers; Informal economy; Infrastructure; Retail banking; Self employment; Startups; Stock exchanges; Work life balance
• ISSN: 0974-3650

Striving for work-life balance? Look at Ashu Suyash, Country Head & Managing Director for India at Fidelity International. The March 2005 launch of Fidelity's mutual fund operations in India coincided with her elder daughter's board exams. Suyash planned the entire promotional exercise in such a way that she could be back home every 3-4 days.The fund was a huge success and her daughter did well. Leading a brand like Fidelity gives you the calling card and the edge. You have a point of view, you get heard. But the key is to hold on to your own views when others don't agree with you. That's a challenge. But if you remain firm, over a period of time you get accepted, says the 41-year-old chartered accountant who has a 15-year stint with Citibank behind her. Placing [Ela R. Bhatt] in any listing of India's most powerful women is on the face of it a distinctly bizarre exercise. That's because it's the powerlessness of the womenworkers in the informal economy that has shaped the life-long efforts of the founder of the Self-employed Women's Association (SEWA). This Padmashri, Padmabhushan and Ramon Magsaysay Award winner earns a place here not because she has come to accumulate a lot of power in trying to empower the powerless. It's because of the worldwide impact that her work has had on not only the disadvantaged workers but also on government policies. SEWA'S work is improving the lives of over a million direct members and about 5-6 million others in India. The SEWA family includes a trade union of selfemployed women with 1.1 million members and a cooperative bank. Her policy advocacy has also spawned the Unorganised Sector Workers' Social Security Bill and a worldwide awareness of the plight of workers in the informal economy. She's the vigilant voice that India Inc. wishes was not so shrill raising questions about pesticide content in colas, groundwater depletion and the Nano project's impact on Singur farmers' livelihoods. It's a misconception that we are against industry we want India Inc. to grow but that growth should be inclusive and benefit all sections of society, says [Sunita Narain]. Initially hurt at the personal attacks launched against her, she has learnt to shrug them off. Her own management style is consensual her organisation has 120 people on its rolls and Rs 7 crore in revenues. We want to be 'impactful' and we want to be angry and remain angry, she asserts.