Smitha V Crishna of the Godrej Group, with wealth worth ₹37,570 crore, is the richest Indian woman, according to the Kotak Wealth Hurun - Leading Wealthy Women 2018 report.
Crishna is on the board of Godrej Industries and owns one fifth of the Godrej Group alongside her brothers.
Roshni Nadar of HCL (₹30,200 crore) is the second richest woman in the country, followed by Indu Jain of Bennett Coleman (₹26,240 crore) and Kiran Majumdar-Shaw of Biocon (₹24,790 crore).
The list, which comprises the country’s 100 richest women, has a wealth threshold of about ₹1,000 crore. It was compiled by Kotak Wealth Management and Hurun Report India based on the net worth of the women as on June 30, 2018.
The threshold for the top 10 richest women this year was over ₹8,000 crore, while the average wealth of each of these 100 women was about ₹4,000 crore.
“The women in the Hurun India Rich List have increased from 4 per cent in 2012 to 9 per cent in 2017. With India’s thriving consumer spending and a maturing tech ecosystem, we expect more women to lead the entrepreneurship story in India,” said Anas Rahman Junaid, MD and Chief Researcher, Hurun Report India.
Mazumdar-Shaw has the distinction of being the wealthiest self-made woman entrepreneur on the list. Shradha Agarwal of Outcome Health, who ranks 10th with an estimated wealth of ₹8,200 crore, is the youngest on the list.
Eight Padma awardees are also on the list. Many, such as Anu Agha of the Thermax family (₹8,550 crore), Mallika Srinivasan of the Amalgamation Group (₹5,240 crore) and PepsiCo’s India-born CEO Indra Nooyi (₹2,590) are also actively involved in philanthropic and CSR activities.
The report also found that the pharmaceuticals sector led the list with 22 women, followed by the software and services sector with 12 and food & beverages with eight.
Mumbai and Delhi each host 25 super-rich women, followed by Bengaluru with 14.