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There are women in all fields who have achieved successes that can be termed exceptional.
These were mostly achieved despite their status as women. Here, Nazim Khan profiles eight
achievers who, in their own way and their own fields, are inspirations to all women.

Indra Nooyi

Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi can tell you a thing or two about breaking glass ceilings. She let
nothing stand in her way to becoming the head of PepsiCo, the fourth-largest food and
beverage company in the world. Nooyi is indeed an inspiration to all Indian women, indeed,
to all women worldwide.

But her list of achievements doesn?t end at being head of PepsiCo. In 2006, Fortune
magazine ranked Nooyi No. 1 in its list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business. The
same year, Forbes magazine ranked her the fourth most powerful woman on earth, after
Angela Merkel (Chancellor of Germany), Condoleezza Rice (US Secretary of State) and Wu
Yi (Vice-Premier of China).

Nooyi certainly wasn?t born with a silver spoon in her mouth. After graduating from
Chennai, she went on to acquire degrees from IIM Calcutta and the Yale School of
Management. She began her career at Boston Consulting Group, a management consulting
firm, and went on to hold senior positions in companies such as Motorola and Asea Brown
Boveri. She later joined PepsiCo and swiftly rose through the ranks to become its CEO in
August last year.

At PepsiCo, Nooyi was instrumental in spinning off fast-food restaurants KFC and Pizza Hut
in 1997 to create a separate company called Yum Brands. She has been also been responsible
for charting the way for PepsiCo?s acquisition of Tropicana.

Nooyi has never lost sight of her Indian roots and values. She learnt the hard way that it?s
best not to hide what you are when she went for her first interview in an ill-fitting business
suit and was turned down for the job. She wore a sari for the next interview and was selected.
Today, Nooyi is seen at most Pepsi functions in a sari.

Sania Mirza
Sania Mirza has ventured where no Indian woman had gone before. She planted herself firmly
in the annals of Indian sporting history when she became the first Indian woman to win a
WTA singles title at the Hyderabad Open in 2005. The same year, she also became the first
Indian woman to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam Tournament at the US Open. Today,
Sania is among the Top 50 woman tennis players in the world - yet another first for an Indian
woman.

Sania had an early start in competitive tennis, picking up a tennis racquet at the age of six.
She turned pro at the tender age of 13, and hasn?t looked back since.

Sania is the ultimate poster girl of the Indian media. She is admired for daring to be different,
wearing her attitude on her sleeve. She?s often seen in T-shirts with lines that say ?I?m cute,
no ****?, ?Well-behaved women rarely make history?, and ?You either agree with me or
you?re wrong?.

Of course, like most people in the public eye, Sania has also been in the middle of
controversies; her remarks on pre-marital sex created a bit of a stir, and she found herself at
the receiving end of a fatwa by Islamic cleric for her `skimpy? tennis attire.

Critics have raised question marks about her fitness, which they say has triggered her current
slump in form. And some say her aggressive attitude borders on arrogance. But it?s perhaps
her aggressiveness that has played an important role in her success, and as for her slump in
form, it should not be long before she proves her critics wrong.

Her greatest inspiration, she says, is when a girl comes to her and says ?I picked up a tennis
racquet because of you?. She?s certainly an inspiration for any Indian girl.

Saina Nehwal

First came Sania, then there was Saina. Apart from her name, the teenage sensation has much
in common with Sania, including a huge appetite for success and the belief that she can beat
the best in business. While Sania made Indian tennis history, Saina Nehwal has taken the
badminton world by storm.

The 16-year-old made an appearance at the Philippines Open in May 2006 as an unseeded
player and a world ranking of 86, and went on to beat everyone in sight to take the women?s
singles title. With the victory, Saina became the first Indian woman to win a four-star
badminton event, and it took her world ranking to 45. Since then, she has managed a career-
best world ranking of 22.

Regarded as the best thing to have happened to the world of Indian badminton after Aparna
Popat, Saina was trained by Dronacharya Award winner S M Arif and later by all-England
winner Pulella Gopichand, The teenager hopes to win an Olympic Gold some day. And the
way she?s been going, her dream may not remain just a dream.

Shilpa Shetty

It was a blessing in disguise! Shilpa Shetty?s Bollywood career was in the doldrums when
she got an invitation to participate in the UK reality show Celebrity Big Brother. Little did
she realise that she would land herself in the middle of a raging controversy, be at the centre
of international attention, and emerge a winner.

The trouble began when Shilpa became the target of what were perceived as racial attacks
and barbs by some of the other participants on the show, particularly Jade Goody. It wasn?t
long before the press got on to the act and it became a Shilpa show all the way ? in the
newspapers, the tabloids and TV. So heated did the debate become that it was even thought
fit to be discussed in the House of Commons and the Indian Parliament.

Shilpa not only weathered the storm well, but went on to ride the wave of public sentiment in
her favour to win the show hands down. She?s been invited to dinner with Queen Elizabeth
and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. And there are reports of her having bagging several
lucrative deals, including one for a perfume named after her, and a role in a James Bond
movie!

Kiran Desai

Following in your mother?s footsteps is a difficult task, especially when your mother is the
acclaimed novelist Anita Desai. But Kiran Desai took that route and managed go a step
further when she won the Man Booker prize in 2006, something her mother could never do,
even though she was nominated three times for the award.

Kiran Desai won the Booker for her second novel The Inheritance of Loss, becoming the
youngest-ever woman writer to have won it (at the age of 35), and the second Indian author
after Arundhati Roy.
Desai?s came out with her first novel, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, in 1998 for which
she earned plaudits from many, including Salman Rushdie.

The Inheritance of Loss is based on a character who has to face a drastic change of cultures
when he migrates from Kalimpong in Northeastern India to the US. Kiran herself was
brought up in India and left at the age of 14. The plot is partly reminiscent of her own story,
and beautifully describes the struggles of such cross-cultural journeys.

Ekta Kapoor

Love her or hate her, but you cannot ignore Ekta Kapoor. While the feminists hate her for
producing soaps that they claim degrades the status of women, this doesn?t cut much ice with
most Indian families, who are absolutely lapping up her productions. So popular are her
serials (all of which start with the letter K) that Ekta is now known as the Soap Queen of
India.

And she deserves that title. She has produced over 50 soap operas that air across major Indian
networks. Her influence in the Indian media is undeniable. She was named among the 40
Young Global Leaders 2006 by the Forum of Young Global Leaders, an affiliate of the World
Economic Forum. In 2001, Asiaweek magazine named her among the 50 most influential
communicators in Asia. In the same year, she won the E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year award,
the first woman to receive the honour.

The daughter of yesteryear actor Jeetendra, films run in Ekta?s veins. She?s also a film
producer, and has released five films to date, of which Kya Kool Hai Hum was the most
successful. A sequel to it is being planned.

Ekta has often been the target of criticism for tackling themes like infidelity and divorce,
using rehashed and repetitive plots and stories that seem to drag on and on. But the channel
heads don?t seem to mind, for her serials still manage to keep the audiences tuned in and the
TRPs going.

Deepa Mehta

She?s in the news for varied reasons, right or wrong, depending on which way you look at it.
Some people feel she is someone who deliberately makes films that show India in a bad light
and makes money from it. Others laud her for tackling subjects that were not touched upon
hitherto.

The subjects of Deepa Mehta?s films are certainly controversial. In Fire, she took on the issue
of women involved in a ******* relationship, and 1947: Earth dealt with the carnage in the
wake of India?s partition. Her latest movie in the trilogy, Water, depicts the plight of Indian
widows a few decades ago. Water was short-listed for Oscars in the Best Foreign Film
Category but eventually lost out to The Lives of Others.

Mehta showed true grit when she was forced to abandon shooting for Water in India after
Hindu fundamentalists ransacked the sets and threatened her. Refusing to abandon her
project, she then shot the film again in Sri Lanka with a new cast.

Deepa Mehta was born in Amritsar and has worn many filmmaking hats (she started off with
doing sound, then editing, and later moved to writing and direction). She is currently making
a film on the plight of Indian immigrants in Canada in the early 20th century. In the book
Women Filmmakers: Refocusing, film-maker Jacqueline Levitin described her as “Canada’s
most internationally renowned woman film-maker”.

Sunita Williams

Sunita Williams made history when she became the second woman of Indian origin after
Kalpana Chawla to walk in space.

It was the culmination of a long journey for Sunita after being selected by NASA in June
1998 for a space mission as a flight engineer on the International Space Station. After six
years of training, Sunita took off on the space shuttle Discovery on December 9, 2006 and is
scheduled to be in space for about 6 months.

Sunita started off her career as a helicopters and aeroplane pilot, and applied to NASA after
logging in 2,770 hours in the cockpits of as many as 30 different aircraft.

Born to a Gujarati father, Dr Deepak Pandya (a famous Neuroanatomist) and Bonnie, of

Yugoslavian descent, Sunita is proud of her Indian roots. She took along with her an idol of
Ganesha, a copy of the Bhagavad Gita and samosas to eat in space. An animal lover, Sunita
says she would have been a veterinarian if she hadn?t become an astronaut.

Source: yahoo.com
http://www.proud2bindian.in/showthread.php?p=4889

women achievers of post-independent India

It goes without saying that Indian women have been achievers since the pre-independence
era. Take the example of Rani of Jhansi, who fought bravely in the first mutiny of 1857
against colonial rule. And women also participated subsequently in the struggle against the
British. For instance Subhash Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army had a women’s
battalion.

Post-independence, the role of women has evolved with the evolution of the society and a
change of thought process. The result being that today it is no big deal if a woman is an
engineer, a politician or an Army Major which were all male-dominated professions at one
point of time.

Here is an abridged list of women who either broke erstwhile largely male bastions or created
a dent in their chosen fields.

Durga Khote

Indian cinema entered a new phase with the entry of this fiery young actress in 1931 when
she made her debut in a silent film. The first woman from a ‘good’ family who entered films,
Durga Khote broke the notion that movies were a taboo profession for Indian women. A
leading Indian magazine, rated her among 100 people Who Shaped India, as it noted that
"Durga Khote marks the pioneering phase for woman in Indian cinema”

Homai Vyarawalla

India’s first woman photojournalist, Homai Vyarawalla took the first picture of her career at
the age of 26 in 1938. She has worked for the Illustrated Weekly of India and by clicking
some historical pictures herself became a historical figure.

Sarojini Naidu

The governor of erstwhile United Provinces, Sarojini Naidu became the first Indian woman to
be made the Governor of a state when Indian attained independence from British rule on
August 15, 1947. Sadly she breathed her last barely two years after that. She was also the first
Indian woman to become the president of the Indian National Congress in pre-independent
India.

Vijay Lakshmi Pandit

She was not only the first Indian but also the first woman president of the United Nations
General Assembly in 1953. Besides, Pandit had served as envoy to the USSR before her
appointment to this coveted post. Vijay Lakshmi was the younger sister of ex-Prime Minister
Jawaharlal Nehru.
I B Joshi

The first woman IAS officer of independent India, Isha Basant Joshi was posted as
Magistrate and then as Assistant Commissioner in Delhi, followed by her appointment as
Commissioner-cum-State Editor of District Gazette. She retired in 1966. The sad part of her
life is that at the ripe age of 96, the lady is spending her last days in the dingy servant quarter
of her already sold out ancestral house.

Sucheta Kriplani

First woman Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in independent India in 1963, Sucheta was a
freedom fighter as also one of the few women who were elected to the Constituent Assembly
and was part of the subcommittee that drafted the Constitution of free India.

Reita Faria

The first Indian woman to win the Miss World title in 1966, she serves as a role model for
women who aspire for glamour. Reita Faria gave up modeling after her tenure as Miss World
ended. She took up medical studies after that and became a doctor.

Indira Gandhi

First woman Prime Minister of independent India in 1966, Indira was the daughter of the
country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. She was PM for three consecutive terms
from 1966 to 1977 and for a fourth term from 1980 until her assassination in 1984. With the
Green Revolution that made India a food exporter to the White Revolution that aimed at
combating malnutrition, Indira’s tenure was also tainted by her clamping of Emergency due
to which her career suffered a serious setback.

Maharani Gayatri Devi

The Rajmata of Jaipur was born as Princess Gayatri Devi of Cooch Behar. She was the third
Maharani of Jaipur from 1939 to 1970 through her marriage to Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II.
Following India's independence, she became an extremely successful politician and was a 15-
time MP. Known for her beauty, she championed the cause of women’s education and uplift.
She was also the first to step out of Purdah in her state, paving the way for other women’s
freedom.

Kiran Bedi

Breaking the shackles of the male-dominated Indian Police Service, Kiran Bedi became the
first woman IPS officer of India in the year 1972. She has worked with the United Nations as
the Police Advisor to the Secretary General. Bedi has also received the Ramon Magsaysay
Award when she was the IG of Tihar jail. Prior to joining the civil services, Kiran was an
Asian tennis champion.

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Bachendri Pal

This bold Indian from the North-East braved the onslaught of an injury to become famous as
the first Indian woman who successfully surmounted the highest mountain peak Mt Everest
in 1984. She was also the fifth woman of the world to have achieved this remarkable feat.

Kalpana Chawla

First India-born woman to enter space in 1997, Kalpana Chawla’s life ended tragically when
while returning from her second mission for 16-days, her space shuttle Columbia
disintegrated and killed the 41 year old astronaut

Mary Kom

our-time world champion M C Mary Kom is the first woman boxer to be honoured with the
Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, She is also the first boxer alongwith Vijender Singh to be
awarded the same. The Manipuri girl also won the Arjuna award in 2004 before being
conferred with the Padma Shri a couple of years later in 2006. She is also the International
Boxing Association's Ambassador for women's boxing.

Sania Mirza

She became the first Indian to have won a Grand Slam title when she triumphed in the girls'
doubles event at Wimbledon in 2003. She is the country’s highest ranked WTA player also.

Fathima Beevi

The first woman judge of the Supreme Court, Fathima Beevi was also the first one to be
appointed as a judge of the apex court in the whole of Asia. It is an achievement for an
Indian woman and a feat indeed for a Muslim woman during 1989. Her accomplishment lay
in the fact that she facilitated the entry of other women in the apex court.

Priya Jhingan

Erstwhile male bastion the Indian Army was broken by Priya Jhingan-Army’s first
woman. In fact she even wrote to the then Chief of Army Staff, General Sunith Francis
Rodrigues requesting him to open doors of the Army to the Indian woman. And in the
year 1992, the bright young law graduate joined the ‘hard’ profession. Before she
retired she said, “It's a dream I have lived every day for the last 10 years”.

Padmavathy Bandopadhyay

With a list of accomplishments to her credit, Padma Bandopadhyay- an IAF officer who rose
to be India’s first woman Air Vice Marshal in 2002, Bandopadhyay also served as the first
woman Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Society of India and the first Indian woman to have
conducted scientific research at the North Pole as also the first woman officer to have
completed the Defence Service Staff College course - in 1978 - and to command the IAF's
Central Medical Establishment (CME).

Pratibha Patil

In 2007, Pratibha Patil became the country’s first woman President. Prior to this she was also
the first woman governor of Rajasthan from 2004-2007. What is noteworthy is that she has
never lost an election that she has contested.

Meira Kumar

In 2009, Meira Kumar became the country’s first woman and also the first Dalit Speaker of
the Lok Sabha and was elected unopposed. An IFS officer by profession, Meira was a
Cabinet Minister in the Ministry for Social Justice and Empowerment in 2004-2009. Meira is
a five-time Lok Sabha MP.

Sushmita Sen

In 1994, for the first time, an Indian beauty won the Miss Universe crown. The answer to the
question of the final round made her immensely popular among people. When asked “What
was the essence of being a woman?”, the charming 18-year-old replied, “The origin of a
child was a woman…. a woman teaches a man what …..caring….is all about…”. This won
her the much sought after crown.
http://timesfoundation.indiatimes.com/Initiatives-
Events/articleshow/4453550.cms

Women Achiever Awards 2009

Times Foundation in partnership with FICCI YFLO organised ‘ Women Achiever Awards - 2009’ an event to
felicitate unknown un-acknowledged women social entrepreneurs.

In order to ensure participation from the entire country, necessary information was circulated through various
channels and 41 nominations were received from all parts of the country. These received nominations were then
presented to the panel of Jury (constituting of prominent people from the development field) for deliberation,
discussion and final decision.

After a rigorous screening and discussion by the Jury members, following six women have been selected for the
Women Achiever Award 2009 –

In Self Help Groups - Smt. Shiela, Society for All Round Development, Rajasthan
In Vocational Training - Smt. Vijaya Rani, BAIF Institute for Rural Development, Andhra Pradesh
In Panchayat System - Kumari. P. Tirupathamma, Sri Ram Charitable Trust, Andhra Pradesh
In Community Volunteering - Smt. Rangu Souriya, Kanchenjunga Udhaar Kendra, West Bengal
In Skill Development - Smt. Shaheena Khatoon, Institute of Rural Research and Development, Haryana
In Skill Development - Smt. Sujatha Burla, Confederation of Women Entrepreneurs, Andhra Pradesh,

These socially inclined positively motivated women have never been brought to public eye though their efforts
have been adding value to the system consistently. In view of the genuine efforts and selfless service to the
society its now time that they should also be given their due acknowledgement and respect.

Thus these awardees were felicitated in the Awards Ceremony on Monday, 20th April ’09 at FICCI House ,
New Delhi along with nine other women achievers from the fields of politics, fashion, visual arts, media, sports,
business and acting.
The event was sponsored by TATA Power.