Nirmala Sitharaman has made it to the list for the fourth time in a row.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Biocon Executive Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and Nykaa founder Falguni Nayar are among six Indians who have made it to the Forbes’ annual list of The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women.

Ranked at number 36, Ms. Sitharaman has made it to the list for the fourth time in a row. In 2021, the 63-year-old minister was ranked at number 37 on the list, while she was in the 41st spot in 2020 and 34th in 2019.

The other Indians to feature on the list are HCLTech Chairperson Roshni Nadar Malhotra (rank: 53), Securities And Exchange Board Of India (SEBI) Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch (rank: 54), and Steel Authority Of India Chairperson Soma Mondal (rank: 67).

Ms. Malhotra, Ms. Mazumdar-Shaw and Ms. Nayar made it to the prestigious list last year also at 52nd, 72nd and 88th spots respectively.

This year Ms. Mazumdar-Shaw is ranked 72, while Ms. Nayar is at 89th spot, according to the list released by Forbes on Tuesday.

The list includes 39 CEOs; 10 heads of state; and 11 billionaires worth a combined $115 billion.

The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women

FORBES 2022

Highlighting Ms. Nayar’s profile, the Forbes list noted that the 59-year-old businessman “worked as an investment banker for two decades, leading IPOs and helping other entrepreneurs achieve their dreams. In 2012, she decided to work for herself, investing $2 million of her own savings to launch the beauty and retail company Nykaa. She took it public in 2021 and became India’s richest self-made woman”.

According to the Forbes website, 41-year-old Ms. Malhotra is responsible for all strategic decisions for the $12 billion technology company.

“Founded by her father, Shiv Nadar, in 1976, HCL became a central player in India’s rise as an IT hub,” it noted.

On March 1, 56-year-old Ms. Buch became the first female chair of the SEBI, which oversees India’s more-than $3 trillion stock market ecosystem.

Ms. Mondal, 59, who became the first woman to chair the state-run Steel Authority of India (SAIL) in January 2021, has led the company to record financial growth since taking over. The company’s profits surged threefold to 120 billion rupees in her first year at the helm, according to the Forbes website.

It described 69-year-old Ms. Mazumdar-Shaw as one of India’s richest self-made women. She founded India’s largest listed biopharmaceutical firm by revenue, in 1978. The firm has successfully forayed into the lucrative U.S. market. The company has Asia’s largest insulin factory in Malaysia’s Johor region, it noted.

“The list was determined by four main metrics: money, media, impact and spheres of influence. For political leaders, we weighed gross domestic products and populations; for corporate leaders, revenues and employee counts; and media mentions and reach of all. The result is a collection of women who are fighting the status quo,” according to the website.

For her leadership during the Ukraine war, as well as her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen sits atop the 19th annual Forbes list of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women.

“Her influence is unique — no one else on the list formulates policy on behalf of 450 million people — but her commitment to a free and democratic society is not. Von der Leyen is just one face of the biggest storyline of 2022: women acting as stalwarts for democracy,” the website underlined.

While European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde is placed in 2nd position, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris ranked 3rd in the list.

At rank 100, Iran’s Jina “Mahsa” Amini has posthumously made it to the influential list. Her death in September sparked an unprecedented women-led revolution for their rights in the Islamic nation.

thehindu.com

The Chipko Movement: A People’s History by historian Shekhar Pathak has bagged the prestigious award.

The Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize 2022 has been awarded to The Chipko Movement: A People’s Movement by historian and activist Shekhar Pathak, translated from Hindi by Manisha Chaudhry. 

The award, now in its fifth edition, is given for non-fiction on contemporary India by writers of any nationality, and carries a cash award of 15 lakhs, a trophy and a citation. 

The prize citation calls Mr. Pathak’s book “the definitive history of the Chipko movement by a scholar who has practically lived it.” 

“It is fitting that a book that tells the story of a movement through the eyes of the local communities, especially women, should be as readable as this one is. Translated from the Hindi by Manisha Chaudhry, Shekhar Pathak’s book is a salutary reminder of the transformative power of collective action, and not just an important work of history but one that speaks to the contemporary moment and its twin crises of ecology and democracy,” it reads. 

This year’s shortlist of five included Accidental Feminism: Gender Parity and Selective Mobility Among India’s Professional Elite by Swethaa S. Ballakrishnen and Whole Numbers and Half Truths: What Data Can and Cannot Tell Us About Modern India by Rukmini S. Midnight’s Borders: A People’s History of Modern India by Suchitra Vijayan and Born a Muslim: Some Truths about Islam in India by Ghazala Wahab round off the list. 

The jury for the award consisted of political scientist and author Niraja Gopal Jayal, entrepreneur Manish Sabharwal, historian Srinath Raghavan, historian Nayanjot Lahiri, former diplomat Navtej Sarna, and attorney Rahul Matthan.

Historian and Padma Shri-awardee Shekhar Pathak has lived in the Himalayan region for years and conducted extensive research into the Chipko Movement, engaging with local communities and leaders. He established the People’s Association for Himalaya Area Research (PAHAR) in 1983 and also penned Asia ki Peeth Per (On Asia’s Back), a biography of the Himalayan explorer Pandit Nain Singh Rawat, along with Uma Bhatt. 

The 1973 Chipko movement is regarded as the harbinger of modern environmentalism in India. A non-violent protest, the movement curbed the felling of trees and spurred debate about Indian forest policy, sustainable development, and the need for ecological balance between forests and local communities.

While several works have focused on Chandi Prasad Bhatt and Sunderlal Bahugana, the movement’s major leaders, Mr. Pathak’s book covers the ordinary people of the movement, such as Gaura Devi, and shows that it was “diverse in leadership and ideology and was never a singular Gandhian movement,” according to a press release announcing the award.  

The Kamaladevi NIF Book Prize was named for Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, an eminent freedom fighter who also championed the cause of women’s rights, refugee rehabilitation and local handicrafts. 

Past awardees of the prize have included Milan Vaishnav for When Crime Pays: Money and Muscle in Indian Politics, Ornit Shani for How India Became Democratic, and Jairam Ramesh for A Chequered Brilliance, a biography of VK Krishna Menon. Last year’s prize went to Dinyar Patel for the biography Naoroji: Pioneer of Indian Nationalism. 

thehindu.com