Three Indians on Forbes powerful women list

Three Indian women — all from the corporate sector — find a spot on the Forbes list of 100 most powerful women in the world, topped by US First Lady Michelle Obama. Chennai-born PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi came in at No 6, while Axis Bank CEO Shikha Sharma and ICICI Bank Managing Director & CEO Chanda Kochhar were ran-ked 89th and 92nd, respectively.

Surprisingly missing from this year’s list is Congress President Sonia Gandhi. She came in at No 13 in 2009. Last year, Forbes said she “continues to wield unequalled influence in India”.

For the 2010 exercise, Forbes magazine also divided the candidates under four heads: politics, business, media and lifestyle. It ranked the women in each group separately, apart from the overall ranking. Nooyi, Sharma and Kochhar fell in the business category, where they were ranked No 2, 33 and 35, respectively.

Interestingly, Sharma is ranked above Kochhar, although Axis Bank is exactly half the size of ICICI Bank in terms of assets. As of June 30, Axis Bank’s asset base was Rs 1.81 lakh crore, while ICICI Bank had an asset base of Rs 3.64 lakh crore.

However, while ICICI Bank is in a consolidation phase after booking large losses on unsecured retail loans, Axis Bank has been growing at a frenetic pace. Over the past five years, it has grown its assets by almost 30 per cent every year. Sharma had to fight very public opposition to her getting the job from outgoing Axis chairman P J Nayak. “Every job comes with its tough decisions, and this has not been any different,” she told Forbes.

Kochhar is the first woman to run a large Indian bank. She’s expanded her role as chief with the recent acquisition of old private sector lender Bank of Rajasthan, which has 463 branches and 4,000 employees.

The 100 most powerful women list was topped by US First Lady Michelle Obama, followed by Irene Rosenfeld, CEO of the $40-billion snack food company Kraft. TV show host Oprah Winfrey and German Chancellor Angela Merkel also figured among the top 10.