The latest profiles stories from the Women desk.
New Delhi: Indra Nooyi stands as one of the most influential business leaders of the modern era, known for her transformative leadership and visionary approach during her tenure as Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo.
A Vision Ahead of Its Time In the late 1970s, when India’s industrial landscape was dominated by traditional sectors like manufacturing and textiles, the idea of building a biotechnology company was almost inconceivable. Scientific entrepreneurship was rare, venture capital was nearly nonexistent, and women in leadership roles were even rarer. Yet, in this unlikely environment, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw chose to build something the country had never seen before. What began as a small venture in a garage would eventually grow into Biocon — a global biopharmaceutical powerhouse that redefined India’s role in affordable healthcare and innovation.
Sarika Pathak Kulkarni left a career abroad to co-found Cresa, a biodegradable sanitary-pad startup, with her father Mohan Kulkarni, funding the company's earliest years through personal savings and a patchwork of government and CSR grants including a dedicated women-entrepreneurship scheme.
Women drive 80% of household purchases and control $15 trillion in spending power. Yet as they age, advertising feels less relevant — nearly 75% have avoided a brand because its ads ignored them. The marketing industry is bleeding its biggest customers.,
Indian athlete Shashruti Nakade has transformed a career built on swimming medals into a rising para-triathlon journey, climbing to World No. 9 as she now sets her sights on qualifying for the LA 2028 Paralympic Games.
Nidhi Pant, co-founder of S4S Technologies, has won the 17th Social Entrepreneur of the Year India Award for building solar-powered food processing technology that helps thousands of smallholder women farmers turn agricultural waste into income.
She played a pivotal role in the ICICI-ICICI Bank merger. She served as Group CFO of ICICI Bank. She led ICICI Venture. She joined Aditya Birla Capital in 2022, designed the One ABC One P&L strategy that unified a fragmented financial services conglomerate, built the ABCD omnichannel app, launched Udyog Plus for MSMEs, raised ₹4,500 crore in growth capital
"We're building Neothera on the belief that skin conditions cannot be solved through products alone." Radhika Agarwal spent nearly five years at Blume Ventures backing consumer tech founders. Now, with ₹9 crore in pre-seed funding and Blume leading the round, she is building the kind of company she once looked for as an investor.
She grew up in Nanded, Maharashtra, moving across states because of her father's transferable government job. She came second in her engineering class. She went to Syracuse for an MS and Stanford for an MBA, graduating with highest honours.