Three Indians Among 20 Asian Women Entrepreneurs In Forbes November Issue

New Delhi: Three top Indian businesswomen have been featured in the November issue of Forbes Asia. They are among the 20 Asian women who came up with varying strategies that helped their businesses soar despite the uncertainty of the new normal and three years of COVID-19.

Soma Mondal, chairperson of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL); Namita Thapar, executive director (India business) of Emcure Pharma; and Ghazal Alagh, co-founder and chief innovation officer of Honasa Consumer, are on the list.

Forbes in a statement on Tuesday said some of these women operated in hard-hit sectors such as shipping, property, and construction, while others continue to innovate in areas such as technology, pharmaceuticals, and commodities.

The Asia-Pacific region this year has mostly moved on to a post-pandemic era where governments, people, and businesses are learning to live with COVID-19, it said. The other women on the list are from Australia, China, South Korea, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.

Soma Mandal

She is the first woman to become the chairperson of the Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL). She led SAIL to record earnings of more than Rs 1.03 trillion, an annual revenue growth of 50%, while profits surged threefold to 120 billion rupees, for the year ended March 31, 2022.

Namita Thapar

She is the Executive director of Pune-based Emcure Pharma which her father, Satish Mehta, founded over four decades ago. Since taking charge of Emcure’s India operations five years ago, she helped double its domestic revenue to Rs 25 billion in 2021.

Ghazal Alagh

She is the co-founder and chief innovation officer of Honasa Consumer. Alagh co-founded the Gurgaon-based company with her husband in 2016. Honasa Consumer houses personal care brands Mamaearth, The Derma Co., Aqualogica and Ayuga