Business Today's Most Powerful Women awards: Best moments from the event

The 18th edition of Business Today's Most Powerful Women (MPW) event was held in Mumbai and celebrated the role of women in leadership, strategic skills, and influence during the period from October 2020 to September 2021.

The awards were given to 52 iconic women, including 46 from India and six female champions from overseas, who are of Indian origin, in their respective fields. This year’s India list has 17 debutants, the most in any year since the list was launched. It has broken the earlier record of 16 debutants in 2013.

The panellists handling the awards were: Aroon Purie, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief, India Today Group; Uday Kotak, Managing Director & CEO, Kotak Mahindra Bank; and Aaditya Thackeray, Cabinet Minister of Tourism and Environment, Government of Maharashtra.

Business Today, in 2003, was the first publication to identify India’s Most Powerful Women highlighting the achievements in the areas of business, economy and policy. Over the years, it has become the most coveted recognition for women leaders in the country.

The BT-MPW awards are aimed at honouring remarkable Indian women who made outstanding contributions in their organisations and set new standards of performance across the nation. The event felicitates the most powerful women in Indian business and salutes the spirit of their success with a special issue on 'Most Powerful Women' in Indian Business.

Here are some of the best moments from the event:

Veteran banker KV Kamath, who's hailed for nurturing women leaders during his stint at ICICI Bank, joined Sourav Majumdar, Editor, Business Today for a fireside chat BT's Most Powerful Women awards.

"There is no job that a woman cannot do," Kamath said.

Kotak Mahindra Bank Chief Uday Kotak joined Siddharth Zarabi, Managing Editor, Business Today Television, for a fireside chat at BT's Most Powerful Women awards, and spoke about how women are breaking stereotypes in BFSI and proving to be more efficient than men in many tasks.

In a panel with Aabha Bakaya, Senior Editor & Anchor, Business Today TV - Welspun MD-CEO Dipali Goenka; Avaana Capital Founder Anjali Bansal; Viacom 18 CEO Jyoti Deshpande; and LXME Founder Priti Rathi Gupta - spoke about the need for including men in conversations on workplace equality.

In another panel, Ashima Goyal, Member, RBI MPC; Suparna Mitra, CEO - Watches & Wearables, Titan Company; Vibha Padalkar, MD-CEO, HDFC Life; and Parizad Sirwalla, Partner, KPMG weighed in on the need for female mentors & flexible policies for women in the workforce.

In a chat with Rahul Kanwal, Maharashtra Cabinet Minister Aaditya Thackeray acknowledged the contribution of women in his govt. "Shiv Sena has given tickets to 67% women in BMC elections," Thackeray said.

Minister Aaditya Thackeray also gave away the awards and spent some candid moments with Uday Kotak and India Today Group Chairperson Aroon Purie.

"In the early 2000s, women were not as spread out across multiple industries, even male-dominated ones such as core manufacturing, as they are today. So, our listing was initially dominated by women bankers and promoters, with a sprinkling of executives from the media and entertainment industry and sundry other sectors making up the rest... Having attended most of Business Today’s MPW awards, I can safely say that I have literally seen the evolution of India’s women leadership before my eyes,” Purie said in his closing note.

The list of winners are-

DEBUTANTS

• Ashima Goyal, Member, RBI MPC
• Deepika Padukone, Actor, Entrepreneur
• Dipali Goenka, CEO & Joint Managing Director, Welspun India Limited
• Harsha Bangari, Managing Director, India Exim Bank
• Hina Nagarajan, MD & CEO, Diageo India
• Isha Ambani, Director, Reliance Jio and Reliance Retail
• Mahima Datla, Managing Director & CEO, Biological E
• Mahua Acharya, CEO, CESL
• Suchitra Ella, JMD, Bharat Biotech International
• Dr Priya Abraham, Director, ICMR-National Institute of Virology
• Namita Thapar, Executive Director, Emcure India
• Sindhu Gangadharan, SVP & MD, SAP Labs India
• Soma Mondal, Chairperson, SAIL
• Suparna Mitra, CEO, Watches and Wearables Division, Titan Company
• Upasana Taku, Co-founder, MobiKwik
• Vinati Saraf Mutreja, MD & CEO, Vinati Organics
• Vineeta Singh, Co-founder & CEO, Sugar Cosmetics

RETURNEES

• Ameera Shah, Promoter & Managing Director, Metropolis Healthcare
• Anjali Bansal, Founder, Avaana Capital
• Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairperson and CEO, Salesforce
• Divya Gokulnath, Co-founder, BYJU'S
• Falguni Nayar, Founder & CEO, Nykaa
• Harshbeena Zaveri, Vice Chairman & MD, NRB Bearings
• Jyoti Deshpande, CEO, Viacom18
• Kaku Nakhate, President & Country Head, Bank of America
• Nisaba Godrej, Executive Chairperson, Godrej Consumer Products Limited
• Radhika Gupta, MD & CEO, Edelweiss AMC
• Vishakha RM, MD & CEO, IndiaFirst Life Insurance Company
• Shobana Kamineni, Executive Vice Chairperson, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise

REPEATS FROM 2020

• Aarthi Subramanian, Chief Digital Officer, Tata Sons
• Aparna Purohit, Head of India Originals, Amazon Prime Video
• Daisy Chittilapilly, President, Cisco India and SAARC
• Gargi B Dasgupta, Director, IBM Research India; CTO, IBM India and South Asia
• Meena Ganesh, CEO and MD, Portea Medical
• Monika Shergill, Vice President, Content, Netflix India
• Nandini Piramal, Executive Director, Piramal Enterprises
• Neerja Birla, Founder and Chairperson, MPower
• Nita Ambani, Founder and Chairperson, Reliance Foundation
• Nivruti Rai, Country Head, Intel India; Vice President, Foundry Services Intel Corporation
• Priya Nair, Executive Director, Beauty and Personal Care, HUL
• Roshni Nadar Malhotra, CEO, HCL Corporation; Chairperson, HCL Technologies
• Samina Hamied, Executive Vice-Chairman, Cipla
• Smita Jatia, Managing Director, Hardcastle Restaurants
• Sonali Kulkarni, President and CEO, FANUC India
• Vibha Padalkar, MD & CEO, HDFC Life

GLOBAL LIST

• Anjali Bansal, Founder, Avaana Capital
• Aparna Bawa, Zoom
• Bela Bajaria, Netflix
• Gita Gopinath, IMF
• Priyanka Chopra, Actor, Entrepreneur
• Soumya Swaminathan, WHO