From the Editor

Women or Wall Street? For the whole of the past two weeks, we, at Business Today, lived this recurring dilemma. We were scheduled to go with the cover package on The Most Powerful Women in Indian Business-an annual feature that we are very proud of and for which we begin our research and reporting weeks in advance. As we delved deeper into the fascinating profiles of some of the most successful women in Indian business, we were being continually "distracted" by the unfolding saga on the Wall Street-a saga that is ever-changing and immense in size and implications. It is a story that sets business journalists' adrenaline racing. The question was not which one of the two stories to cover; the dilemma was over the size and shape of each.

The relative size of the two packages in the magazine is no reflection of what we think of the relevance of each. Wall Street's woes are undoubtedly the biggest event of the fortnight, and, perhaps, the year. And our coverage reflects that. The relevance of the profiles of successful women, on the other hand, is timeless-our coverage should prove this as well.

The stories of the 50-odd women we finally selected to profile under different sections will inspire and educate people of all ages, genders, professions and geographies. The two questions uppermost in people's mind concerning the US financial crisis are: how bad is it? And, to what extent will it impact India? We have attempted to answer these. Unmindful of the panic in the US, though, a number of companies are busy launching financial products and services in the country. This is an indicator of the investors' faith in the future of Indian markets. For many of you who think bankruptcy is the last stage of a company's life, a surprise awaits. Two more posers: how wide is the gap between cricketers' performance and their pay?

And which Indian company is on the verge of capturing attention and market share in the world's toughest and biggest auto market?