The year 2022 was full of hope after a particularly long and intense battle with the COVID-19 pandemic. And this year saw also saw the rise of women entrepreneurs and changemakers, brushing sceptics and smashing clichés aside.
Forbes released a list W-Power 2022 list, that featured over 20 women, across categories like business, law, sport, social impact, entertainment, academics and more, that have made a difference to society in general.
They are self-made and they made headlines this year with their work. Let’s check the list.
1. Madhabi Puri Buch
February 2022 saw the appointment of Madhabi Puri Buch to the post of Chairperson of SEBI. In a short while, she enhanced insider trading surveillance and brought a new focus to markets regulator.
2. Anju Srivastava
The founder and CEO of Wingreens Farms, raised $17 million a year back and acquired RAW Pressery, Postcard Snacks and Monsoon Harvest.
3. Anjali Bansal
51-year-old Anjali Bansal, the founding partner of Avaana Capital, was appointed as a member of the Advisory Council for the Open Network for Digital Commerce. She invested in 6 climate-based startups this year.
4. Katrina Kaif
She launched India’s first celebrity makeup brand- Kay Beauty, whose current Gross merchandise value is more than 100 crores.
5. Kainaz Karmarkar
The Chief Creative Officer of Ogilvy, Kainaz Karmarkar lead some of the outstanding campaigns like Dove #StopTheBeautyTest, Cadbury Good Luck Girls, Bournvita #ForcedPacks etc. She was also on the international jury panel of the Cannes advertising awards
6. Nikhat Zareen
India’s gift to the world in international Boxing, 26-year-old Nikhat Zareen won a gold medal at the Commonwealth games. She is touted to be a hot favourite at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
7. Radha Basu
72-year-old Radha’s achievements include a high talent retention rate, agility and quickly professionalising the workforce at IMERIT.
8. Rashi Narang
She raised $37 million in funding for her venture Heads Up for Tails’, which also has Kriti Sanon endorsing it.
9. Ritu Arora
The CEO and Chief Investment Officer of Allianz Investment Management spearheaded Allianz’s first $100 million+ green blended finance investment in India and also worked with King Charles SMI Climate Summit.
10. Sakshi Chopra
The managing director of Sequoia India’s Growth investing team, Sakshi Chopra helped many companies reach the IPO stage.
11. Smita Deorah
Educationist Smita Deorah heads the largest school edutech company and has touched the lives of over 1.2 million children.
12. Kavita Devi and Meera Devi
Co-founders of Khabar Lahariya, were honoured with IWMF Courage in Journalism Award. This year Kavita Devi has been nominated for the Reporters Without Borders press freedom Award.
13. Radhika Gupta
She is credited with getting assets under Edelweiss’ management to INR 80,000 crore this year.
14. Neena Gupta
A Statistics and mathematics professor at ISI, Neena Gupta was awarded the Ramanujan prize for her brilliant work in algebraic geometry and commutative algebra.
15. Devleena Bhattacharjee and Nandhini Karthikeyan
Co-founders of Numer8, a company that applied data science for building an end-to-end seafood ecosystem, their revenue grew from INR 6 lakhs to INR 1.5 crore in 2022 in a span of just three years.
16. Lakshmi Iyer
She was appointed to the position of CEO – Investment advisory at Kotak Investment Advisors.
17. Ashwini Deshpande
An Economics professor at Ashoka University, Ashwini Deshpande received the SKOCH Award for her proliferous work in gender economics.
18. Jacinta Kerketta
The 39-year-old journalist wrote extensively on issues related to land conflict, grassroot democracy amongst native Jharkhand and Odisha populations.
19. Kusha Kapila
She appeared as a judge in Case Toh Banta Hai, acted in Masaba Masaba: Season 2 and also hosted Comicstaan Season 3.
20. Leena Nair
She furthered the list of Indian CEOs in global companies. Leena Nair was appointed as the Global CEO of the French Fashion house Chanel.
Sources:
https://www.forbesindia.com/article/leadership/indias-selfmade-women-2022-making-of-the-list/81671/1
https://www.forbesindia.com/lists/w-power-2022/
