From the olden days, men have continued to dominate society. However, in contemporary times, women are now breaking this trend. The female gender is now coming out of these shadows in a very powerful avatar. Currently, you cannot overlook the role that women entrepreneurs in India play in the economy.

Women from all over the world are overcoming these negative notions that society holds about them. The changing winds have also shown their effects in the corporate world of India. A few of them have risen to become the most successful women entrepreneurs in India. Some of them are the leading top ideas & ventures. It makes the nation to feel proud of these women as they are influential to other women in India and globally.

10 Most Famous Women Entrepreneurs in India

Confidence & positive belief alone are enough to lead you to a remarkable journey. In India, women have come a long way from being homemakers to leading new ideas, inventions, & business. The Indian Government has been taking forward-thinking initiatives to support women entrepreneurs. Time will tell the number of women that will follow these footsteps that influential women entrepreneurs in India are taking. It is a good thing to see more & more women join this league of successful women entrepreneurs in India. 

A few decades back, there has been a drastic change in the place of the female gender in India. Currently, women have a vital role to play in the growth of the Indian economy. These are people who are making a significant impact and succeeding in almost all sectors.  

In this article, we are going to look at the 10 most famous women entrepreneurs in India. These people have at least done a different thing to boost the economy of India. It is an excellent way of inspiring other women to greater heights. 

1. Indra Nooyi: Former PepsiCo Chairperson and Amazon Board Member 

Indra Nooyi is the former CEO of PepsiCo who also joined the board of directors of Amazon. Even at the age of 63 years, Indra Nooyi is still growing strong. She is currently serving on the board of directors of Amazon as a member. 

This woman completed her master’s degree from the Yale School of Management. From here, she became the project manager at Johnson and Johnson. Indra later joined Boston Consulting Group in the position of a strategy consultant. 

She started working at PepsiCo in 1994. Later on, she became the company CEO from 2006 to 2018. In February 2019, Indra was elected to join the board of directors of Amazon as a member. In 2017, Forbes gave her the award of the 11th most powerful woman. 

This woman is well known for the role she played while serving as the CEO and chairwoman of PepsiCo India Holdings Pvt. Ltd. In addition to the Master’s degree that she owns, she also did a marketing and finance course at Kolkata’s IIM. 

The other brands that she was associated with before joining PepsiCo include Motorola and Asea Brown. She is a true inspiration to so many women and she will continue to inspire so many generations to come. She has consistently remained to rank among the most popular women in the world. It explains why she comes top on our list of top women entrepreneurs in India.

2. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw: Founder of Biocon Limited 

Second on our list of the top 10 women entrepreneurs in India comes Kiran Mazumdar. She completed her school at Bishop Cotton Girls High School in Bangalore. She, later on, attended Mount Carme College in Bangalore where she pursued training in biology and zoology.

Kiran Mazumdar is the chairperson and Managing Director of Biocon Limited. It is a leading biopharmaceutical company that is based in Bangalore. She started this company in 1978 after graduating in 1973. 

In the initial years, the company was an industrial enzyme manufacturer. However, under the leadership of Kiran Mazumdar, it is currently a fully-fledged bio-pharmaceutical company.  The primary focus of this company is coming up with cures for various diseases such as cancer and diabetes that plague the republic of India. 

This woman is renowned as the wealthiest self-made woman in India. She is among the few women who have successfully started a pharmaceutical company. Biocon Limited, as a company has joined the biosimilars market of the United States, and hence it is getting a lot of attention from the investors. 

According to Forbes, Biocon Limited is the first establishment to get approval from USFDA. She has put in a big fortune in building deep R&D that is based on the biotech firm. Kiran held the title of the 54th richest person in India and the 65th most powerful woman in the world in 2019. 

It means that Kiran is still trending as a popular woman in India. She did her bachelor’s degree from Bangalore University and her master’s degree at Melbourne University. Therefore, she has the right professional qualifications to work as a business leader. 

3. Vandana Luthra: Founder of VLCC

You cannot evaluate the role of women entrepreneurs in India and leave out the name of Vandana Luthra. She remains to be one of the most influential women in India, especially when looking at the subject of entrepreneurship. 

Vandana was born in the year 1959 in New Delhi. She managed to complete her graduation from the women’s polytechnic of New Delhi. From here, she ventured into countries such as Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. It helped her to get the necessary insights on beauty, fitness, food, and nutrition. 

Vandana launched the beauty and wellness giant (VLCC) way back in 1989 at a time when her daughter was still a toddler. Initially, she was a homemaker who did not want to stay in the shackles of domestic life. Her diligence and determination made her get the Padma Shri award back in 2013. 

Later on, Fortune India later identified here as the 33rd most powerful woman entrepreneur in India. She is a serious contributor to the growth of women entrepreneurs in India.

Apart from being a serious businesswoman in India, Vandana is also the chairwoman of the B&WSSC (Beauty and Wellness Sector Skill Council). VLCC basically started as a slimming and beauty service center. Later on, the entrepreneur added more services like Dermat services, grooming, full-body laser, and hair build. She got a Shree award in April 2013 by Pranab Mukherjee, the then Indian President. 

Vandana has been operating an NGO that is called Khushi that offers a free education scholarship for people who are physically challenged and underprivileged. 

4. Priya Paul: Chairperson of parks Hotels 

Priya Paul is a leading woman entrepreneur who completed her Bachelor’s in Economics at the Wellesley College of the United States. At the tender age of 51 years, we can consider her as a great inspiration for other women in India. You can use her as an example of carving your own path to success.  She became one of the most influential women in India at this age. 

Priya Paul is currently serving as the chairperson of Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels. In 2012, the Indian government honored her with the Padma Shri award. After completing her college studies, she began to work as a marketing manager under her father. 

In 2020, she got into the record of women entrepreneurs in India Wikipedia. According to Wikipedia, Priya revised the most honorable award in India award: Padma Shree. It was an award by the former Indian president: Pratibha Shing.

5. Ritu Kumar: Famous Fashion Designer 

Ritu Kumar is a famous fashion designer in the global market. The leading woman entrepreneur was born in Amritsar in 1944. Later on, she shifted to Shimla to be able to complete her schooling at the Loreto Convent. 

After getting back into the country, Ritu Kumar went ahead to enroll herself at the Asutosh Museum in Indian Art where she studied Museology. She remains one of the most influential and popular women in the fashion industry of India. 

She succeeded to create a niche market for her company that comprises traditional wear, swimwear, evening formals, and designer ethnic wear. The designs of Ritu Kumar created a great history 3 times in a row in Miss India pageants. 

The contributions that she made in the industry did not go unnoticed because she got the Padma Shri award in 2013 by the GOI. She is a true icon in India and beyond. You cannot discuss the female entrepreneurs in India and leave out her name.

Ritu Kumar started her career as a fashion designer in Kolkata. In the initial days, Ritu was running in evening clothes and bridal wear. After a few decades, she joined the international market.  She began to run her business in many various forging cities New York and France. 

The Indian government gave her the Padma Shree award in 2013. With regard to education, Ritu Kumar finished her schooling at the Loreto Convent and college at Lady Irwin College. She, later on, got a scholarship at the Briarcliffe College in New York to pursue Art History. 

6. Suchi Mukherjee: The Founder & CEO of Limeroad 

Suchi is the CEO and founder of Limeroad. Before finding this company, she was associated with other brands like Skype, eBay, and Gumtree. Currently, most people in the region associate this name with Limeroad. 

She is a graduate of economics who later on pursued a master’s in finance and economics from the London School of Economics. She launched the Limeroad company in 2012 together with Ankush Mehra, Manish Saksena, Prashant Malik. 

Limeroad is basically an online lifestyle and clothing accessories marketplace. Currently, the brand is renowned as the most stylish online shopping website in India for both men and women. After graduating in economics, she joined the London school of economics to pursue a Masters’s degree in Finance. Talking about her achievements, she has received several awards e.g. Business Today gave her the Coolest Start-Up of the year. Infocom gave her the woman of the year – Digital Business and NDTV (Unicorn Startup Award). She is among the best Indian women entrepreneurs that you can learn from.

Read Also: How to Become a Solopreneur

7. Aditi Gupta: Co-Founder of Menstrupedia

 Aditi Gupta is the author, managing partner, and co-founder at Menstrupedia. As a society, India suffers from so many taboos one of them being menstruation. So many people came forward to spearhead this matter to help people talk about the issue openly. 

One of the people who came up with the issue was Aditi Gupta. It is a crowd-funded initiative with assistance from Tuhin Paul. This initiative gives women the right information on how they can practice cleanliness and stay healthy during their menstruation cycles.  

Aditi Gupta and her husband created a comic to educate and illustrate to girls about the topic of menstruation. Recently, they developed a website that is referred to as menstrupedia.com. Menstrupedia started to partner with Whisper India in their school contact program in 2014 and presented “Touch the Pickle.” It is a movement that took place in four different cities. 

She launched her comic book in 2014 and it got a high level of success. Since then, the book has been translated in Nepali and Spanish. Some of the schools that use Metromedia comics include GIS Primary school, Ecole Mondiale World School, and Bright English School Ahmedabad among others.  

8. Falguni Nayar: Founder of Nykaa 

Falguni worked as an investment banker at Kotak Mahindra for 20 years before leaving the job to pursue her dreams. She started the company Nykaa in 2012 and it sells wellness and cosmetic products. The come has recently become famous especially among Indian Women.

The brand has introduced 35 physical stores and offers over 850 brands. In 2017, Business Today gave Falguni Nayar the title of the ‘most powerful business.’ The other award she received came from Economic Times entitled ‘Woman Ahead.’ The company has been partnering with Femina since 2014. She is a great icon that we cannot leave out of the top 10 female entrepreneurs in India.

9. Vani Kola: Founder of Kalaari Capital

Vani Kola is the managing director and founder of Kalaari Capital and a venture capitalist. She pursued her master of science degree at Arizona State University. She was in Silicon Valley for 22 years and founded two companies namely Certus Software and Rightwrok. Vani Kola is a perfect example of young women entrepreneurs in India.

She returned to India in 2006 and started her career as a Venture capitalist by partnering with New Enterprise Associates (NEA). Kalaari started operation in September 2012 with a 150-million-dollar fund.  She was the winner of the TiE Delhi-NCR fifth Edition of the women Entrepreneurship Summit Aware in 2018.

Also, she got the NDTV Women Worth award in entrepreneurship. She is a person we cannot leave out of our list of famous female entrepreneurs in India.

10. Radhika Ghai Aggarwal: The Co-Founder and CMO, Shopclues.com 

Radhika Ghai comes last on our list of the top women entrepreneurs in India. She has marketing experience of more than 15 years in several industries like advertising and public relations, fashion and lifestyle, and many more. Radhika is an MBA graduate from Washington University. Her achievement has made her an innovative tech female entrepreneur in India.

Radhika Ghai became the co-founder at Shopclues.com. The company was founded in 2011 in Silicon Valley. It is an eCommerce business that has become the largest fully managed marketplace in India. The website attracts more than 7 million visitors every month. The company also serves customers from more than 9,000 cities.

These women come on our list of women entrepreneurs in India for a good reason. They have set an example that other women can emulate and move to the next level. It is good to use them as a role model in our daily lives.

Read Also: How to Write Top Selling Amazon Product Description