India's Most Powerful Businesswomen

1) Mrs. Chanda Kochhar - MD and CEO, ICICI Bank

ICICI Bank MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar has been ranked as the most powerful businesswoman in India for the third consecutive year by Fortune Magazine.

Chanda Kochchar who heads ICICI Bank, began her career as a management trainee in 1984 and successfully rose through the ranks.

She has been named a ‘Woman of Power’ by the Asian Business Leadership Forum. She was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the government for her services to the banking sector.

"Whether it's heading the Indian operations of an energy multinational or the world's largest coffee chain, women are getting more visible in India Inc," the magazine said.

In the Fortune list of 50 most powerful businesswomen, there are six new entrants -- Yasmine Hilton, Chairperson Shell India; Vanitha Naraynan, MD, IBM India; Anita Dongre, Founder, Anita Dongre; N Bhuvaneswari, Vice Chairman and MD, Heritage Foods; Ashu Suyash, CEO, L&T Investment Management and Awani Saglani Davda, CEO, Tata Starbucks India. 2) Shikha Sharma - CEO, Axis Bank

Shikha Sharma started her career with ICICI, India's largest financial service provider in 1980.

In 1998, she became the Managing Director of ICICI Personal Financial services. Shikha Sharma also served as the Director of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company till April 2009.

She is the Chief Executive Officer, Managing Director of Axis Bank Limited and Chairperson and associate Director of Axis Asset Management company Limited since June 1, 2009.

3) Aruna Jayanthi - CEO, Capgemini India

Aruna Jayanthi is the Chief Executive Officer of Capgemini India, one of the biggest business units of Capgemini group.

A person with over 2 decades experience in the IT services industry, Aruna oversees the operations across all the business units – Consulting, Technology services and outsourcing services in India.

Earlier, Aruna was the Global Delivery Officer for Capgemini Outsourcing, where she improved quality, productivity and profitability of Capgemini’s outsourcing operations worldwide. 4) Preetha Reddy - MD, Apollo Hospital Enterprises

Preetha Reddy joined Apollo Hospitals as Joint Managing Director in 1989 and five years later, she became the Managing Director of the Group.

Preetha steers the operations of the Apollo Hospitals group and works closely with the clinicians to continually raise the bar for clinical outcomes.

5) Mallika Srinivasan - CEO, TAFE

Mallika Srinivasan is known for developing TAFE into one of the three largest tractor manufacturers in the world.

Mallika Srinivasan was ranked second in last year’s list.

She is on the Board of AGCO Corporation - USA, Tata Steel and Tata Global Beverages.

6) Shobhana Bhartia - Chairperson, HT Media

Shobhana Bhartia, who has been associated with HT Media since its inception, took over as the Chairperson in September 2008. Bhartia with more than 25 years of experience in the newspaper industry is in charge of formulating and directing the editorial policies of the company.

7) Kiran Mazumdar Shaw -Chairperson and MD, Biocon

From being ranked 16th in the most powerful list last year, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw has made rapid strides to break into the top 10 league.

Under Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw's leaderhip, Biocon has transformed into a fully integrated biopharmaceutical enterprise.

Her pioneering efforts in biotechnology have drawn global recognition both for Indian Industry and Biocon.

8) Zia Mody - Co-founder, AZB Partners

Zia Mody joined as an advocate with the Bar Council of Maharashtra & Goa in 1978 after her LLM from HarvardLawSchool.

She started practice as a corporate associate with Baker & McKenzie in New York from 1979 to 1983. In 1984, she started her own practice and later entered into a partnership with the law firm called AZB & Partners, Advocates & Solicitors.

9) Vinita Bali - MD, Britannia Industries

Vinita Bali became the Managing Director of Britannia Industries on 31 May 2006. Vinita was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of the Company in January 2005. She has also worked with Coca-Cola as its worldwide Marketing Director.

In 2011, Forbes named her among ‘Asia's 50 Power Businesswomen’.

10) Naina Lal Kidwai - Country Head, HSBC India <

Naina Lal Kidwai, a chartered accountant by profession is currently the Group General Manager and Country Head of HSBC India.

From 1982-1994 she worked at ANZ Grindlays, where her assignments included Head of the Investment Bank, Head of Global NRI Services and Head of the Western India, Retail Bank.

Ekta Kapoor of Balaji Telefilms, Chitra Ramkrishna of National Stock Exchange and Renu Sood Karnad of HDFC are also listed in the most powerful businesswomen list. 11) Vanitha Narayanan, MD, IBM India Pvt. Limited

Vanitha Narayanan is the Managing Director of IBM India Private Limited, and the Regional General Manager for India/ South Asia (ISA). Appointed to this leadership position in January 2013, she is responsible for all of IBM's sales, marketing, services and global delivery operations in the India/South Asia region, including operations in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

India remains one of the fastest growing countries for IBM and has emerged as a strategic location within the company's global services delivery network.

Having joined IBM in the US in 1987, Vanitha has over 25 years of experience working with multiple client sets in several countries. Since 2009, she has been a part of the IBM ISA business, serving in roles as the Sales & Distribution Leader and recently as the Managing Partner for Global Business Services (GBS). Prior to this, she has served as the Vice President of Communications sector, Asia Pacific, and the Global Vice President for IBM's telecom solutions offerings.

She is a member of IBM's Integration & Values Team comprising senior global executives selected by the IBM Chairman. In 2012, Vanitha was inducted into the IBM Industry Academy, a select group of experts, designed to advance IBM's industry thought leadership and brand.

Vanitha also leads several leadership development & diversity initiatives for ISA and is the executive sponsor for developing the women's leadership pipeline.

Vanitha is a member of the National Council of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for 2013-14.

She has a Masters in Business Administration in Marketing from the University of Madras and a Masters in Business Administration in Information Systems from University of Houston -- Magna Cum Laude.

12) Neelam Dhawan, Managing Director, HP India

Neelam Dhawan is the Managing Director of Hewlett-Packard India. She has countrywide responsibility for revenues and profitability and ensuring the greatest leverage from HP's Services, Personal Systems and Imaging & Printing businesses.

With a portfolio that extends to offshore activities, BPO, Software Engineering, Research and IT Services, Neelam is focused on shaping the company's overall business agenda and leading its strategy and corporate development efforts to make HP the most admired company in India.

Previously, Neelam was the Managing Director of Microsoft India, a position she held from 2005 to 2008. During her tenure, she sharpened Microsoft's strategic focus and improved its operating efficiency and execution, as well as its financial performance and customer focus. Prior to this assignment, Neelam held a variety of successful leadership positions in leading Indian IT companies, including HCL and IBM.

Neelam holds a bachelor's degree in Economics from St Stephen's College, New Delhi, and a Masters in Business Administration from the Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University. 13) Kirthiga Reddy, Head Of Office, Facebook India

Kirthiga leads the Global Marketing Solutions teams in India and plays a key role in building and maintaining strategic relationships with top regional agencies and clients. Kirthiga joined as the first Facebook India employee in July 2010 and set up the India operations in Hyderabad, supporting the company's growing number of users, advertisers and developers worldwide.

Prior to Facebook, Kirthiga was VP and GM of SaaS-based Consumer Security business unit and India operations at Phoenix Technologies. She led a global team located in US, India, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Kirthiga has also held the position of Director of Product Management at Motorola, Director of Engineering at Silicon Graphics and Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton, with most of her professional career based in Silicon Valley, California.

She holds an MBA from Stanford University, where she graduated with top honours as an Arjay Miller Scholar, an MS in Computer Engineering from Syracuse University and a BE in Computer Science from Ambedkar University, India.

Kirthiga has been featured in Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business 2013, Business Today's hottest young executives, Fortune India's Top 50 Most Powerful Women in India, Impact's 100 Icons of India Digital Ecosystem among other recognitions.

Kirthiga is also the Vice Chairman of Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI). She is passionate about causes for children and about developing women leaders.

14) Kumud Srinivasan, President, Intel India

Kumud is responsible for general management of Intel's operations in India, which includes location's overall strategy, business-enabling operations, organisational development, engineering and innovation for market development, as well as managing relationships with government, industry and academia.

Previously, Kumud was vice president and general manager of IT for Silicon, Software and Services where she led the delivery of IT solutions and services for Intel's hardware and software engineers. Kumud joined Intel in 1987 and has held several business and information systems positions within Intel's manufacturing and IT organisations.

Srinivasan is a member of the Board of Advisors of the School of Information Studies in Syracuse University. She is a member of the Governing Body of the International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore. She serves on the India Council of the Anita Borg Institute. Srinivasan received her bachelor's degree in economics from Calcutta University in 1981 and her master's degree in information and library studies from Syracuse University in 1984. In addition, she has completed doctoral coursework in information science at University of California, Berkeley.

The new breed of female tech CEO is here to stay and only bound to grow in number!