Nirmala Sitharaman, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw And Kamala Harris Feature On Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful Women List

Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, US Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, Biocon Founder Kiran Mazumdar Shaw and HCL Enterprise CEO Roshni Nadar Malhotra, were named on the list of world’s 100 most powerful women by Forbes. German Chancellor Angela Merkel tops the list, for the tenth year in a row.

Also Read: Roshni Nadar Malhotra Of HCL Tech Named India's Wealthiest Woman

Sitharaman, India’s first full-time woman Finance Minister, ranks 41st rank on the list. While Malhotra comes in at the 55th spot, Shaw, India's richest self-made woman, is ranks 68th. Chairwoman of Landmark Group Renuka Jagtiani consolidates 98th spot. Meanwhile, Harris, who became the first woman of Indian-origin and the first woman ever to be elected as US Vice President, ranks third on the list.

After “an unprecedented trifecta of firsts" Harris’s “rapid ascension in US politics has also catapulted” her onto the Forbes list of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women for the first time, Forbes said.

“From fighting the pandemic to re-engineering American politics, these influential women, including New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (at no 32), Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and voting rights advocate Stacey Abrams, are making history,” Forbes added.

Harris was born in California to an Indian mother and Jamaican father. She is soon going to be the US’ first female vice president. She recently named her senior staff members, who are almost all women of colour, for the top three positions in the office. Read about it here.

Sitharaman, however, made her debut on the world’s 100 Most Powerful Women list by Forbes last year. In 2019, she flew in the supersonic jet, becoming the third Indian to do so, after MS Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar. She is also the first full-time woman Defence Minister to fly the sortie.

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Chairperson of the Bengaluru-headquartered biotech company, Biocon, Shaw was conferred with the IMC Ladies’ Wing Woman of the Year Award in July this year. She was recognised and awarded the World EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award for her entrepreneurial journey of over four decades.  The leader was also ranked as one of the world’s top 20 inspirational leaders in the field of biopharmaceuticals in The Medicine Maker Power List 2020.

Roshni Nadar Malhotra recently named the wealthiest woman in India, is the daughter of Shiv Nadar who co-founded HCL. Malhotra holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management, USA. She is also an alumnus of the World Economic Forum’s Forum of Young Global Leaders initiative.

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