Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has been ranked 32nd in Forbes’ list of the world’s most influential women, alongside notable women such as US Vice President Kamala Harris and musician Taylor Swift.
The list also includes three other accomplished Indian women: Roshni Nadar Malhotra, CEO of HCL Corporation (ranked 60), Soma Mondal, Chairperson of Steel Authority of India (ranked 70), and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, founder of Biocon (ranked 76).
Ursula von der Leyen, Chief of the European Commission, claimed the top spot, with Christine Lagarde, Head of the European Central Bank, securing the second position, and US Vice President Kamala Harris coming in third.
Sitharaman became India’s Finance Minister in May 2019 and also holds the portfolio of Corporate Affairs.
Before entering politics, she held positions at the UK’s Agricultural Engineers Association and BBC World Service, and she has also served as a member of the National Commission for Women, according to Forbes.
Malhotra, the daughter of HCL founder Shiv Nadar, holds the position of Chairperson at HCL Technologies.
Forbes notes that she is entrusted with making all strategic decisions for the company, having assumed the role from her father in July 2020.
As the first female Chairperson of the state-run Steel Authority of India (SAIL), Mondal, according to Forbes, has steered the company to unprecedented financial growth since taking on the role in 2021.
In her first year of leadership, the firm’s profits surged threefold, as highlighted in her profile.
Forbes describes Mazumdar-Shaw as one of India’s wealthiest self-made women.
She founded the biopharmaceutical firm Biocon in 1978, and the company operates Asia’s largest insulin factory in Malaysia’s Johor region.