Nirmala Sitharaman Among Four Indians In Forbes’ Most Powerful Women List

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New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is among the four Indians named in the Forbes’ list of the world’s most powerful women list. She ranks 32nd. The others are HCL Corporation CEO Roshni Nadar Malhotra (rank 60), Steel Authority of India chairperson Soma Mondal (rank 70), and Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (rank 76).

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen topped the list, followed by European Central Bank boss Christine Lagarde at the second position and US Vice President Kamal Harris at number three.

Nirmala Sitharaman became India’s first full-time Finance Minister in May 2019 and also heads the Corporate Affairs ministry. She held roles at UK’s Agricultural Engineers Association and BBC World Service before joining politics, Forbes said. She has also been a member of the National Commission for Women.

Roshni Nadar Malhotra is the daughter of the HCL founder and industrialist Shiv Nadar. As the chairperson of HCL Technologies, she’s responsible for all strategic decisions for the company, Forbes said. She took over the role from her father in July 2020.

Soma Mondal is the first woman chairperson of the state-run Steel Authority of India (SAIL), according to Forbes. Having assumed the role in 2021, she has led the steelmaker to record financial growth, her profile read, as the firm’s profits surged threefold in her first year of leadership.

Forbes described Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw as one of India’s richest self-made women, having founded the biopharmaceutical firm Biocon in 1978, which has Asia’s largest insulin factory in Malaysia’s Johor region.