Here Are India’as Wealthiest Women

“Leading Wealthy Women 2018,” Kotak Mahindra releases the list of top 100 wealthiest women in India.

Indu Jain, chairperson of Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. 

(Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

India’s richest women included a third-generation heir of the Godrej empire, the chief of a top software services company and the chairperson of the country's leading news and media group.

These three women, Smith V Crishna of Godrej, Roshini Nadar of HCL Technologies Ltd., and Indu Jain of Bennett Coleman that owns Times of India newspaper, collectively have a wealth of over Rs 94,000 crore. This is more than the GDP of at least 68 countries in the world.

India is home to more such wealthy women. According to the Kotak Wealth Hurun–Leading Wealthy Women 2018 report that estimated the top 100 wealthiest women in India have an average of approximately Rs 4,000 crore of wealth.

The report, which included both inherited and self-made wealth, calculates the net worth of these women based on industry multiples such as price-to-earnings, price-to-sales, and other methodologies of their businesses.

“The ranking recognises India’s leading women – entrepreneurs, businesswomen, investors and inheritors,” Jaideep Hansraj, Chief Executive of Wealth Management and Priority Banking at Kotak Mahindra Bank said in a statement.

We are seeing a significant change with more and more women taking advantage of increasing opportunities to become active participants in business.

Jaideep Hansraj, Chief Executive of Wealth Management and Priority Banking at Kotak Mahindra Bank

The report acknowledged the Indian woman’s role in creating wealth in one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

Here are the key findings of the report:

• Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, the founder and managing director of Biocon Ltd. was the richest self-made women on the list.
• The pharmaceutical sector leads with 22 percent of the women on the list, followed by software services (18 percent) and food and beverages (8 percent).
• Eight women on the list were Padma awardees.
• Shradha Agarwal, who co-founded Outcome Health, was the youngest-self made wealthiest women.
• Half of the top 100 wealthiest women stay in Mumbai or New Delhi.
• Infosys and Avenue Supermarts were two companies that have produced the highest number of wealthy women on the list at 5 each.

(This story was originally published on BloombergQuint)