A highlight of the function to celebrate the 4th edition of the Express Awards for Women Entrepreneurs, 2025 on Saturday evening was listening to the pithy pearls of wisdom shared by the members of an illustrious jury that chose the winners. Four of the six-member jury chaired by Deepak Parekh, India Inc’s finance veteran, former chairman of HDFC and a lodestar to many entrepreneurs; Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, founder and executive chairperson, Biocon; Meher Pudumjee, chairperson, Thermax; and Zia Mody, co-founder & managing partner, AZB & Partners were on stage sharing insights on women entrepreneurship in 2025.
Knowing what not to do
“I would encourage every women entrepreneur to think about what she just doesn’t have to do in life,” was a quick reminder from Zia Mody. “Just because she is a woman she does not have to do many things she is traditionally expected to do. So, if you re-evaluate your eco-system and get your eco-system to support you and love you for what you are doing and not giving up when things are down,” she said.
Reiterating the painful truth about “49 per cent of women leaving the workforce (by the time they enter middle management) often referred to as India’s leaky pipeline,” she assured the women entrepreneurs that “nothing will happen if you are determined to do what you do and you will be determined to do it if you love what you are doing.”
She nonetheless saw a welcome change in fathers today staying much more invested in their daughters. However, it is for the eco-system to say it is not differentiating between a boy and a girl because only then will the future prospects get linked only to merit.
Time To Think big
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, who has build the largest Indian biopharmaceutical company, led by a women leader, encouraged women to think big and said: “I want women to build scale and not just confine themselves to creating small companies and be content with it. You need to think big.”
Values, a nurturing ingredient
In deciding on the priorities while starting out and building a business, while profits and growth would be a focus area, to Meher Pudumjee it was important that emphasis was laid, right at the beginning, on building the right culture and the value systems that could see an organisation through its ups and downs. “It is all about grit, determination, perseverance,” she felt.
Towards Gender parity
Deepak Parekh, quoting statistics from Niti Aayog said, only 14 per cent of all entrepreneurs are women and they contribute to 17 per cent of GDP while the global average was 37 per cent of a country’s GDP. Therefore, he said, “we have a task to improve that and encourage HR managers to hire more women.”
To him, the elephant in the room was the gender parity and here again there were reports from Niti Aayog and the World Economic Forum on pay parity that pointed to a huge gap in compensation and this had to reduce. “I do not see this reduced even in the Nifty 50 companies, in the financial sector where there are many women working.”
Uncertainty not a concern
On the question of uncertainty, Parekh did not see it as a major challenge for Indian entrepreneurs. “We in India have thrived on uncertainty,” he said, adding in a lighter vein that “no country waits anxiously for the budget as we do but then we have all lived well and progressed well with uncertainty.”
Male champions of change
On what is holding back women entrepreneurs? “Men,” said Zia Mody to a huge round of applause from the audience because she underlined the point that unless men change and we have male champions of change, the ecosystem as a whole will take time to accept gender parity. It was crucial for the men to realise that women, who hold half the sky cannot be ignored any more.
To Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, the real issues were still around lack of access to risk capital and patient capital. “You need patient capital that can stay patient on returns when investing in a new sector and I do not see that in India at the moment. It is unfair to expect quick returns when money is backing innovation,” she felt.
She and the other jury members having already proved the power of perseverance and patience, each word had invaluable weight and worth. It was not just the women entrepreneurs but also to the many men seated, cupped chin assimilating and absorbing the nuggets of wisdom that could help guide their organisations in their next wave of growth.
