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4 Indian ladies among 100 most powerful women

By Sabir Shah
June 11, 2016

In Forbes list no Pakistani woman among the most dynamic females on the planet

According to the June 6, 2016 report of the globally-acclaimed American magazine “Forbes,” the world’s 100 most powerful women are spearheaded yet again by the 61-year old German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has been ranked number one for the sixth consecutive year.

While no Pakistani woman has regrettably is part of this illustrious list, four Indian females have succeeded in getting their credentials recognised and acknowledged at international level.

These four Indian woman are Arundhati Bhattacharya at 25th rank, Chanda Kochhar at Number 40, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw at 77th position and Shobhana Bhartia at Number 93.

The 60-year old Arundhati Bhattacharya is an Indian banker and currently the Chair-Managing director of the State Bank of India. She is the first woman to be the Chairperson of State Bank of India.

The 54-year old Chanda Kochhar is the managing director and chief executive officer of ICICI Bank. She is widely recognised for her role in shaping retail banking in India.

The 63-year old Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is an Indian entrepreneur. She is the chairman and managing director of Biocon Limited, a biotechnology company based in Bengaluru.

The 59-year old Shobhana Bhartia is the Chairperson and Editorial Director of the Hindustan Times Group, one of India's newspaper and media houses, which she inherited from her father Krishna Kumar Birla.

American First Lady Michelle Obama is ranked 13th in this list, Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi is at 26th position, British Monarch Queen Elizabeth II is ranked 29th, Bangladeshi Premier Sheikh Hasina Wajid is at 36th position and Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, the first woman to become president in Mauritius is placed at 96th position.

The incumbent German Chancellor is followed by 68-year old US Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at second position, the 69-year old Federal Reserve Bank Chairperson Janet Yellen at Number 3, the 51-year old philanthropist Melinda Gates at Number 4, the 54-year old General Motors CEO Mary Barra at Number 5, the 60-year old IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde at Number 6, the 46-year old Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg at Number 7, the 47-year old You Tube Chief Executive Officer Susan Wojcicki at Number 8, the 59-year old Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman at Number 9 and the 55-year old Chairperson of a Finance and Investments form Messrs Banco Santander Ana Patricia Botin at Number 10.

Seven of the world’s 10 most powerful women are American, one is German (Angela Merkel), one is French (sitting IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde) and one is Spanish (Chairperson of Messrs Banco Santander Ana Patricia Botin).

The women placed at 11th to 20th positions, are:

Ginni Rometty (American), Park Geun-hye (South Korean), Michelle Obama, Indra Noovi (American), Angela Ahrendts (American), Abigail Johnson (American), Tsai Ing-wen (Taiwan), Michelle Bachelet (Chile), Federica Mogherini (Italy) and Safra Catz (American).

The remaining 80 most powerful international women, placed at 21st to 100th positions, are:

Oprah Winfrey, Helen Clarke, US Supreme Court Justices, Marillyn Hewson, Arundhati Bhattacharya, Aung San Suu Kyi, Ruth Porat, Anna Wintour, Queen Elizabeth II, Ho Ching, Adena Friedman, Irene Rosenfeld, Loretta Lynch, Ursula Burns, Lucy Peng, Sheikh Hasina Wajid, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Margaret Chan, Drew Gilpin Faust, Chanda Kochhar, Samantha Power, Pollyanna Chu, Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi, Amy Hood, Beth Comstock, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovi?, Bonnie Hammer, Ertharin Cousin, Laurene Powell Jobs, Nicola Sturgeon, Gina Rinehart,  Bidya Devi Bhandari, Dana Walden, Phebe Novakovic, Marissa Mayer, Elvira Nabiullina, Rosalind Brewer, Peng Liyuan, Nemat (Minouche) Shafik, Mary Callahan Erdoes, Zhou Qunfei, Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, Dong Mingzhu, Guler Sabanci, Lubna Olayan, Susan Cameron, Donna Langley, Katharine Viner, Feng Ying Wang, Arianna Huffington, Diane von Furstenberg, Dalia Grybauskait?, Tory Burch,  Mary Jo White, Kaci Kullmann Five, Gwynne Shotwell, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Zanny Minton Beddoes,  Miuccia Prada, Folorunsho Alakija, Solina Chau, Judy Faulkner, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Fabiola Gianotti, Lynn Good, Mary Meeker, Patricia Harris, Eliza Manningham-Buller, Irina Bokova, Sara Blakely, Raja Easa Al Gurg, Debra Cafaro, Shobhana Bhartia, Greta Van Susteren, Heather Bresch, Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, Lee Boo-Jin, Beth Brooke-Marciniak and Jenny Lee.

At 41, Marissa Mayer of the United States is the youngest women to be part of this list. She is followed by the 42-year old Italian politician Federica Mogherini and the two 44-year olds, Katharine Viner of United Kingdom and Jenny Lee of Singapore.

The Forbes website, which was viewed about 73,000 times till the filing of this story, states: “Newcomers joining this year’s list include seven world leaders, two philanthropists, five CEOs, two billionaires, one editor-in-chief, two company chairpersons, and three United States Supreme Court justices (who together share No. 23 spot on the list).”

The website adds: “Two of the women from this group are building their own fortunes (Zhou Qunfei at Number 61 and Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao at Number 62), and are reaping the rewards. Zhou, who boasts a net worth of $8.3 billion, became the world’s richest female tech founder after the March 2015 IPO of her company, Lens Technology, which manufactures glass covers for phones and tablets. If all goes well, the IPO of Thao’s airline, VietJet, which features bikini-clad stewardesses on some flights, will make her a billionaire. They are the smartest and toughest female business leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, scientists, philanthropists and CEOs making their mark in the world today. They’re women who are building billion-dollar brands, calling the shots in the financial markets, and crisscrossing the globe to broker international agreements and provide aid.”

The Forbes maintains: “Their accomplishments are formidable on their own, and even more so given how hard it can be to establish inroads into industries and job titles traditionally dominated by men. Statistics on women in positions of power remain bleak. According to the latest survey by Catalyst, a nonprofit that tracks gender parity in the workplace, women occupy a measly 4% of corner offices at S&P 500 companies.  And they hold only 25% of executive or senior-level jobs in those same firms. Amidst sobering numbers like these, one offers new promise. Since 2005, the number of women who are world leaders—presidents or heads of state—had more than doubled by last year, according to the Pew Research Center. Evidence of this trend is visible. In the past year alone, Taiwan, Myanmar, Nepal, Croatia, Mauritius, and Lithuania have elected or reelected female leaders to office. And of course, there is U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who as of press time continues to hold the lead in the primaries.”

The magazine has gone on to state: “As with every year, four metrics were used: money (either net worth, company revenues, or GDP); media presence; spheres of influence; and impact, analysed both within the context of each woman’s field (media, technology, business, philanthropy, politics, and finance) and outside of it. With the advent of more women behind the presidential desk, we had to make some tough decisions—most notably, cutting the Celebrities category to make room. And so new leaders replace icons, with a spate of new countries joining the list.”