India’s most influential women today are creating their own paths rather than inheriting them, according to the second edition of the Candere Hurun India Women Leaders List released on Thursday.
The list identifies 117 women achievers across 12 categories, who together represent `39 lakh crore in enterprise value, wealth and market capitalisation.
What is significant, however, is that 84% of these women are self-made, outnumbering those who inherited their wealth by over five to one.
While in past decades, the country’s most influential women were dominated by business heirs and corporate veterans, the Hurun listing features a wide range of women achievers such as entrepreneurs, journalists, digital creators, authors and Olympic medallists.
Some of the country’s best-known names feature on the list such as Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Roshni Nadar Malhotra, Falguni Nayar, Nisaba Godrej, Sudha Murty, Anita Dongre, Masaba Gupta, PV Sindhu, Mary Kom and Manu Bhaker.
The upper end of the rankings is dominated by leaders of large businesses, though the report emphasises that readership, audience growth and sports achievements are also important parameters beyond financial metrics.
HCLTech chairperson Roshni Nadar Malhotra, with a net worth of Rs 2.84 lakh crore, leads the wealth multipliers category, while Hindustan Unilever CEO Priya Nair tops the professional CEOs category, leading a company valued at over `5 lakh crore.
Preetha Reddy and Suneeta Reddy of Apollo Hospitals take the top place in the veterans’ category with a group valuation exceeding `1.21 lakh crore.
Vaishali Nigam Sinha topped the new economy rankings with ReNew Power, valued at Rs 22,230 crore.
The single largest category features Olympic and Paralympic medallists, accounting for 20 names, 60% of which are para-athletes.
The list also reflects the role of digital and social media in building influence.
For example, Faye D’Souza leads in the independent journalists’ category with over 22,00,000 Instagram followers, while Ananya Birla tops the social media influencers’ category, recording the fastest follower growth in one year.
Other digital influencers shaping public discourse on the list include Twinkle Khanna, Namita Thapar, Barkha Dutt and Kusha Kapila.
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has earned the distinction of being the most-followed honouree on LinkedIn, with over 10,00,000 followers, while 75-year-old Sudha Murty leads the category of authors with the highest readership impact score.
86-year-old veteran entrepreneur Rajni Bector is the oldest honouree on the list, while para-archer Sheetal Devi (19) is the youngest.