Forbes magazine has named Nita Ambani, Director of Reliance Industries, as the most powerful business woman in Asia.
Other prominent women to feature in the magazine’s ‘Asia’s 50 Power Businesswomen’ list include Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairperson, SBI (ranked 2); Ambiga Dhiraj, CEO, Mu Sigma (14); Dipali Goenka, CEO, Welspun India (16); Vinita Gupta, CEO, Lupin (18); Chanda Kochhar, Managing Director, ICICI Bank (22); Vandana Luthra, Vice-Chairman, VLCC Health Care (26) and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairperson, Biocon (28).
The list also features women from China, Indonesia, Australia, Vietnam, Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, the Philippines and New Zealand.
The magazine has taken note of the role played by Nita Ambani in society, sports venture and telecom venture Reliance Jio Infocomm.
“In a country where billionaire wives tend to remain in the shadow of their husbands, Nita’s rising profile in the Reliance empire is unusual and earns her a debut spot in the power businesswomen ranking this year,” said Forbes.
Similarly, under the leadership of Dipali, Welspun has become the largest exporter of home fashion products, supplying to 14 of the top 30 global retailers in the world.
According to Forbes, “Five years ago, when Goenka took charge of home textiles maker Welspun, the buzz in the male-dominated industry was Welspun has lost its mind.”
Today, revenue and earnings of Welspun has grown several fold, with a net profit of $81 million on a revenue of $790 million in the year ended March 2015. Welspun India’s market cap soared to $1.6 billion and helped propel the Goenkas back into the ranks of India’s richest, it said.