Who are India’s Richest Women of 2020?

A list of the top 100 richest women in India has been compiled in the Kotak Wealth Hurun India List 2020.

The report was released on December 3, 2020, and it lists the top 100 richest women in India.

Thirty-one of the women in the list are self-made. Six of the 31 self-made women are professional managers, and 25 are entrepreneurs.

Fifteen per cent of the women on the list hail from non-metro cities of India.

The listing is based on the net worth of women as of September 30, 2020.

Take a look at some of the richest Indian women of 2020.

Roshni Nadar Malhotra

Roshni Nadar Malhotra has been named the wealthiest woman in India and is the Chairperson of HCL Technologies.

Roshni was appointed as the chairperson after her father, Shiv Nadar, stepped down.

It is estimated that Roshni’s wealth is around Rs. 54,000 Crore (£5.4 billion).

Prior to HCL, Roshni at Sky News and CNN as a producer.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

Second is Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw. She amassed her fortune in the biotechnology sector when she founded Biocon, a biopharmaceutical company based in Bangalore, India.

The company was founded in 1978. Since then, the company has grown under the leadership of Kiran and is India’s largest company in the sector.

With an estimated net wealth of Rs. 36,000 (£3.6 billion), Kiran is the richest self-made woman on the list.

Leena Gandhi Tewari

The chairperson of the privately-held pharma company USV, Leena Gandhi Tewari, bagged third place.

Tewari’s estimated wealth amounts to Rs, 21,000 Crore (£2.1 billion).

Her company USV is focused on the development of small-molecule active pharmaceutical ingredients along with custom research services for drug development.

It makes 80% of its revenue from the domestic market.

Nilima Motaparti

Nilima Motaparti is fourth on the list and is the Director (Commercial) of Divi’s Laboratories.

The report estimates her wealth to be Rs. 18,600 Crore (£1.8 billion).

With over five years of international experience in material requirement, planning and financing, Nilima joined Divi’s as a chief controller in 2012.

Divi’s is an Indian producer of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and intermediates. It is based in Hyderabad, Telangana.

Radha Vembu

Radha Vembu takes the fifth spot and is the sister of Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu.

The business was founded in 1996 and Radha joined Zoho after graduating from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras.

As the majority owner, she has a net wealth of Rs. 11,500 Crore (£1.1 billion).

Jayshree Ullal

Jayshree Ullal ranked sixth and is the CEO of Arista Networks, an American computer networking company based in California.

The company designs and sells multilayer network switches to deliver software-defined networking (SDN) solutions for large datacentre, cloud computing, high-performance computing, and high-frequency trading environments.

Jayshree has an estimated net worth of Rs. 10,000 (£1 billion).

Renu Munjal

Renu Munjal is the Managing Director of Hero FinCorp. She also serves as a director on the Board of Easy Bill. She is the former Executive Director of Hero MotoCorp

She is the wife of the late Raman Munjal and her net worth is estimated at Rs. 8,600 (£860 million).

In addition to the business, Renu has an active interest in projects concerning women’s empowerment.

The report also released some numbers which suggest that 19% of the women on the list are below the age of 40.

Data from the report also revealed that the top three sectors where women contribute the most are pharmaceuticals, textiles and apparel and accessories.

Oisharya Das, CEO of Wealth Management business at Kotak Mahindra Bank said:

“There has been an inspiring trend of trailblazing women scripting success across industries.”

She also added that the richest women will play an important role in contributing to India’s growth story.

Anas Rahman Junaid, MD and Chief Researcher of Hurun India exclaimed:

“The National Institute of Transforming India states that in India, only 24% of women are in the workforce, compared to a global standard of 48%.

“It is rather obvious that only if gender parity is achieved, can India timely cross the $5 trillion GDP mark.”

The list has been curated after conducting in-depth research to understand the trends and direction of wealth creation.

Additionally, factors such as the source of wealth creation, the industries they belong to and where they live have also influenced the selection of women leaders on the list.