Nita Ambani most powerful bizwoman in Asia: Forbes

New York, April 7 

Reliance Foundation chairperson Nita Ambani has been named the most powerful businesswoman in Asia by Forbes, leading a list of 50 women leaders from the region that includes eight from India.

SBI chairman and managing director Arundhati Bhattacharya has been ranked second on the 2016 ‘Asia’s 50 Power Businesswomen’ list that features trailblazing women from China, Indonesia, Australia, Vietnam, Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, the Philippines and New Zealand.

Apart from Ambani and Bhattacharya, six women from India have made to the list, including Mu Sigma CEO Ambiga Dhiraj (14), Welspun India CEO Dipali Goenka (16), Lupin CEO Vinita Gupta (18), ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar (22), VLCC Health Care Founder and vice-chairman Vandana Luthra (26) and Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (28).

The list acknowledges the “inroads women are making in the business world but gender inequality persists. Women are best positioned to know what it will take to get more of them into commanding roles in the workforce and keep them there,” Forbes said.

Describing her as the “first lady of Indian business”, Forbes said Ambani, 52, is a “power near the throne” and makes her debut on the list because of her rising profile in Reliance Industries, led by her husband and India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani.

“In a country where billionaire wives tend to remain in the shadow of their husbands, Nita’s rising profile in the Reliance empire is unusual and earns her a debut spot,” on the power businesswomen ranking this year, Forbes said of Ambani, who is also Director of Reliance Industries. — PTI