MPW 2022: Soma Mondal, the first woman Chairperson of SAIL

When Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) Chairperson Soma Mondal entered the metals industry nearly 40 years ago after passing out from Regional Engineering College, Rourkela (now National Institute of Technology), with a degree in electrical engineering, there were not many women around.

“About four decades ago, there were so few girls taking up engineering… even less worked in difficult areas in manufacturing—especially metallurgical, mining, etc.,” she says, adding that things are changing now. “For the women planning to enter the industry of metals in general and steel specifically, I would like to say that the glass ceilings have started to break and there are so many women on the shop floor.”

Mondal has the distinction of being the first female Chairperson of SAIL—she was appointed in January 2021.

Prior to that, she was also the first female functional director of SAIL when she assumed the role of Director (Commercial) in March 2017.

With Mondal at the helm, the steel manufacturer saw its net profit jump to Rs 12,015 crore in 2021-22 from Rs 3,850 crore in 2020-21. Further, its revenues also breached the Rs 1 lakh-crore mark for the first time ever in 2021-22 when the government-owned listed steel major clocked revenues of nearly Rs 1.04 lakh crore.