Cover Story

Most powerful women in Indian business
They span generations and are there in every field, from biscuits to banking, from HR to hospitals. Denied entry into a male bastion, they create another industry. They are the most powerful women in the corporate world.

Papa don't preach
These daughters have struck out on their own-some following in their father's footsteps and some doing different things. But all have given business ideas a new twist, and not one is content to stay in the family's shadow.
For women, by women
BT picks out six outstanding women who are at the top of their organisations. Almost all of them are highly qualified and could have ended up as whitecollar professionals, but were drawn into microfinance.
The thought leaders
The ideas and work of these top-notch women thinkers have given Indian economists global respectability. But the rise to the top has not been easy for these women economists-all of them had to fight to gain credibility in a male-dominated world.
Nothing is impossible: On the power track
The 25 most powerful women had better watch out—they have some serious competition snapping at their heels. The Rising Stars range from the CEO of a foreign bank to legal eagles and marketing whiz-kids.
Doing their own thing
The six start-up women chosen by BT this year are beacons of hope for thousands of women- and men?-who have similar dreams but lack a role model or simply need a prod to get going.
The power list in retrospect
A list of women who figured in Business Today's list of powerful business women in 2007 and 2006. We also compile a list of business women who figured in every list since 2003.
The establishment
A list of women who have featured in every list since 2003.

2008-10-19

Digital

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Editors note

From the Editor

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.

Top Mind

What does he mean? You judge

What Does He Mean? You Judge “Developing new drugs is not out of my sight. Beyond 2012, I want to see Ranbaxy emerge as a strong hybrid player with substantial revenue flows from proprietary drugs”

Enter the android

G1 is the first device to feature Google’s brand new mobile operating system Android.

Will we all fly soon?

Fusionman—real name Yves Rossy—a Swiss commercial pilot, flew across the English Channel.

Deal Watch

Deal tracker

Every month, we bring you a listing of the biggest deals struck by Indian companies in India and abroad. Our partner: global professional services firm Ernst & Young. Here are the deals that were struck in September 2008.

Treadmill

Better than Wurst

You may not have considered Düsseldorf a top destination for a foodie. But think again.

The I-hate-the-gym workout

As editor of Men’s Health, i am often faced with queries from guys who complain they just don’t have the time to go to the gym. Then, I am expected to offer instant solutions.

BT More

Say chin-chin to Chinese

Do not listen to a sommelier (wine waiter, in plain English) who says a Gewurtztraminer, a sweetish wine with spicy notes from Alsace, France, goes best with Chinese cuisine.

The incredible shrinking computer

Don’t believe your spam. Size isn’t everything.

Game for life

Fast not Furious Born to a former rally champion, the quiet Narain Karthikeyan has speed in his blood. We catch up with him to find out what it’s like to be “the world’s fastest Indian”.

Southern sirens

Golf in India is divided into pockets and the southern part of the country hasn't produced top quality players for various reasons. The Southern Sirens¡ª Rahul Ganapathy and Sandeep Syal have defied the odds to be where they are.

The ultimate gift guide for Diwali

Bewildered by the sheer number of gift options this festival season? Don’t be. Our gift guide has the answers you’re looking for.

Second coming

When a legend makes a comeback, the question is always “how does it compare to the earlier work?”We find two cases where the answer is “quite well actually”.

Office power

She’s the tough, new corporate climber out to outperform the men. and her sartorial style tells you all you need to know. we profile four looks, which are power personified.

Nirula's MD Samir Kuckreja on work, workouts and hot chocolate fudge

A "terrible eater"when young, he now runs India's oldest fast food chain, best known for its ice cream parlours. Samir Kuckreja, the MD of Nirula's, tells us about work, workouts and the famous hot chocolate fudge.

Matters of the heart

Two novels set in different milieu, united by a common thread of love, infidelity and terror. Sit back and read these romantic thrillers this fortnight.

Up in flames

The innocuous aniseed that makes Hyderabadi Biryani and Hunan Chicken taste so much better is also a key ingredient in one of the world’s most potent and inflammable liqueurs—Sambuca.

A giant of cinema

To Scorsese he was a giant. And now there’s a new Akira Kurosawa box-set in the shops. Five legendary films from the Fifties and Sixties. A feast.

Divine cuisine

There’s nothing quite as delicious as Bengali food.This festive season, dip into some of the best dishes from the eastern coast of India.

Low flying luxury craft

There are few better cars to impress, and be impressed with, than the BMW 650i convertible.

Scents and sensibilities

This Fall, take your pick from these alluring scents that promise to stay with you all day long.

The BT 50 Index

Market nosedives

Trends

The Rupee conundrum

Is India Inc. prepared to deal with the volatility in the Indian currency?

Instan tip

The fortnight’s burning question Should RBI signal an easier interest rate regime in the next credit policy?

More millionaires in India

The number of high net worth individuals (hnwiS) in india grew to 167,000 in 2007, a growth of 23.09 per cent over the previous year, according to the Asia Pacific Wealth Report 2008 authored by Capgemini and Merill Lynch.

Notebooks go personal

The notebook market is following the lead of mobile phones. “There is a focus on colour and finish,” says Rajiev Grover, Director, HP India.

Numbers of note

$5 billion (Rs 23,000 crore): Amount of money Warren Buffett’s company Berkshire Hathaway will invest in Goldman Sachs

The rain Gods have delivered

Here’s some good news.

Economy watch

Foreign and other scheduled commercial banks score higher than national banks and SBI and its associates on most parameters but the government-owned banks are improving faster.

Talebearer

We hear that the finance ministry wants the auction base price for 3G to be raised from Rs 2,240 crore. It makes its case by pointing out how the Mumbai-based Swan Telecom, which received spectrum in Delhi, was valued at Rs 9,000 crore by an Abu Dhabi-based operator without even an active subscriber base.

Just wondering...

What Abhay Oswal is up to these days. There was a time in the ’80s and early ’90s, when he was regarded as the rising star of India Inc.

&#2013265922;We provide the best office spaces&#2013265922;?

One of the leading providers of high quality serviced office space in the UK, Avanta, has now entered India.

To be precise

“Our financial reforms are carefully calibrated. We do not take decisions without considering the pros and cons”P. Chidambaram, Finance Minister, to Agencies

The retail rush

According to a recent McKinsey study on modem retail, 'The Great Indian Bazaar: Organized Retail Comes of Age in India', the size of retail market in India will zoom 10 times in seven years and the share of organized retail will rise by 10 percentage points from the current 4-5 per cent.

Money

Fine-tune your portfolio

The downturn in the stock market is a good time to review your portfolio. Here's how to do it.

Glitter is back

High gold prices might be a dampener for festive season shoppers, but for gold investors, it brings plenty of cheer. As investors hedge against the greenback, the outlook for gold is good.

No more cover

Mutual funds will not bundle insurance with their schemes any more.

MF scoreboard

The top performers category-wise.

A shot of cash

Mutual funds are holding a larger part of their corpus in cash, waiting for the volatility to subside, and the strategy has worked.

What's your survival strategy?

Market confidence has been hit by worldwide financial uncertainty. A beaten-down market and falling asset prices are hurting investors. How should you ride out the storm?

The bond of gains

Invest in capital gains bonds only if you want the stability of a fixed income, but you can get better returns on other instruments.

Leadership Spotlight

Mr adaptable

Masahiro Takedegawa is not your typical east-asian expat executive; his relaxed demeanour and excellent command over English makes him more accessible than most.

Features

Mahindra's new growth engines

From two-wheelers to trucks, Mahindra is eyeing every slice of the automobiles pie. It is branching out into virtually every conceivable auto-segment, either with international partners or via takeovers.

Cricket's poor cousins

Olympic medals don't impress advertisers.

The Chinese invasion

Just as Chinese silk invaded the Indian market in the 1990s, China's power equipment manufacturers, leveraging their lower costs and shorter delivery periods, have begun hitting Indian majors where it hurts most—and are walking away with orders worth thousands of crores of rupees. K.R. Balasubramanyam says that they are making hay while the sun shines.

Jobs

A prescription for growth

The healthcare sector is growing, fuelling demand for IT jobs.

Time to switch sectors?

Shortage of talent and demand for new skills is driving people to switch jobs across sectors.

Event

On farm footing

The Business Today-DuPont Sustainability Forum brainstorms some of the key issues and challenges involved in efforts to steer farming away from unsustainable practices and its consequences.

Special

Changing skyline

The US financial services sector may have been brought down to its knees, but back home, there’s a mad scramble by a host of players to get a piece of the action in high-growth segments that range from mutual funds to private equity.

From bankruptcy to laughing all the way to the bank

The news last fornight was dominated by this 10-letter word—bankruptcy. But all’s not lost even for the bankrupt—the economically bankrupt ones, at least. As these legends proved, bankruptcies may not be the end of the road, but the beginning of a new journey.

Here comes the pain!

With a little over 40 per cent, or some $12.5 billion, of software exports coming from the BFSI sector, the debacle on Wall Street will hit Indian IT services where it hurts.

Hello Dalal Street

The Wall Street bug has spread far and wide, taking its toll on markets all over the globe. Back home, however, many of the US investment banks are in no mood to call it a day.

Saving Wall Street

After the turmoil, the US financial services sector waits for a bail-out. Whatever happens from here, it’s the death of blueblooded investment banking as we knew it.

Book

The decline and rise of India

Economist Sanjeev Sanyal’s book should serve to sell the reforms agenda well, says Bibek Debroy, but the author ought to write another on ‘India Whining’.

In This Issue

Vote of defiance

It is the first-of-its-kind referendum in India. The villagers in the Raigad district of Maharashtra decide through a poll whether they want their land to be included in the Mumbai Special Economic Zone (SEZ) proposed by Mukesh Ambani and Jai Corp. A first-hand account by Virendra Verma.

Change agents

The new dynamics of the life insurance industry is forcing life insurance agents to re-invent themselves. The story is unfolding across India.

Europe will be difficult for Indian IT companies: Andy Green

Andy Green, CEO, Logica, speaks to BT on the road ahead and his plans for Logica at a time the market is in turmoil.

The game changers?

Who were IPL’s most, and least, valuable players? A BT-Vertebrand study answers this vexed question for the first time.

Printed Circuit

Going flat

Here’s all you need to know about flat screen televisions 40-inch television is perfect. before you hit the electronics mall this festive season, and buy yourself this season’s must-have wall accessory.

Editorial

Let&#2013265922;s draw the right lessons

It’s a question that’s taxing millions of people in this country: how will the meltdown on Wall Street impact India?

Current

Indian IT's big deal

HCL sees a potential acquisition of Axon as transformational, but its finances may be stretched if a bidding war breaks out. For HCL it’s an attempt to further leverage its Blue Ocean strategy of focusing on untapped or uncluttered markets.

Under the scanner

Ranbaxy gets on the wrong side of regulatory bodies.

Designs on India

Gensler has big plans for India, and it’s in it for the long haul.

PEs, lights, camera, action

PE activity in media and entertainment has picked up speed this year.

Tata's options

Where Tata’s small car project is headed is still unclear, but what looks certain is that it won’t start rolling out until 2009.

Mukesh Ambani unplugged

The RIL boss voices a desire to be allowed to fuel millions of Indian homes without the fetters of court cases and government controls.

People

Sarah Palin&#2013265922;s Indian technocrat

This Indian-American trio holds a unique distinction. Each one is the toplevel technocrat or CIO of his state: Anand Dubey in Alaska, Vivek Kundra in Washington D.C. and Aneesh Chopra in Virginia. Dubey.

Policy Watch

Widening the net

A bird's eye view of what's hot and what's not on the goverment's policy radar.

FDI in retail back on agenda

It’s a move that could run into stiff political opposition. The government is considering a proposal to allow Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in multi-brand retailing.

How times have changed

Noted

Approved: By the board of approvals chaired by Commerce Secretary G.K. Pillai, 27 proposals for special economic zones (SEZs), including those by Larsen & Toubro, JSW Bengal Steel, Ansal Properties & Infrastructure and Bharat Forge. It also gave in-principle approvals to 10 tax-free zones.

Letters

Turning crisis into opportunity

The current economic slowdown is a stern reminder that India is no longer insulated from the rest of the world. (BT cover, Managing the Slowdown, October 5). Reading your in-depth analysis brought about a clearer understanding of how leading Indian companies are pursuing new growth engines in times of stress.

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