The 30 most powerful women

Food without spice. A garden without flowers. An economy without entrepreneurs. A sky without stars. A bird with one wing… If you are wondering what these colourful figures of speech denote, well, they are some of the reactions from India's most powerful women in business on what a workplace without women would be like.

Life without women would indeed be - as another power woman put it - a dull, grey winter morning. And, along with our seventh listing of India's power businesswomen we also take a look at how corporate India is attempting to bring more women into positions that matter. One way to do that: Give India Inc's women leaders their place in the sun so that they become icons for others to follow.

1. Schauna Chauhan 2. Zarin Daruwala 3. Lynn de Souza 4. Tanya Dubash 5. Shyamala Gopinath 6. Vinita Gupta 7. Kaku Nakhate 8. Vedika Bhandarkar 9. Manisha Girotra 10. Lalita Gupte 11. Usha Narayanan 12. Akhila Srinivasan 13. Leena Nair 14. Vinita Bali 15. Chanda Kochhar 16. Roopa Kudva 17. Naina Lal Kidwai 18. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw 19. Zarina Mehta 20. Zia Mody 21. Kalpana Morparia 22. Vishakha Mulye 23. Swati Piramal 24. Meher Pudumjee 25. Madhabi Puri Buch 26. Chitra Ramkrishna 27. Preetha Reddy 28. Shikha Sharma 29. Mallika Srinivasan 30. Sangeeta Talwar