Entrepreneurship has not always been famous in India, particularly among women. However, the world is changing. With the few opportunities available, the country’s female population has chosen entrepreneurship as a career path. The fortitude that Indian women have shown especially in recent years to walk the rough path to entrepreneurship is truly admirable.
On this International Women’s Day, let’s take a look at some of the truly inspirational women entrepreneurs in India who have turned their dreams into professions despite adversity.
Tage Rita
Tage Rita, an entrepreneur from Arunachal Pradesh, has been chosen for the renowned Nari Shakti Puraskar for the year 2021. She, along with 28 other women who have demonstrated outstanding ways of inspiring society and empowering women, will be honoured by India’s President, Ram Nath Kovind, on International Women’s Day.
Rita has been working on expanding the winery and establish a cutting-edge world-class winery, as well as a wine academy to teach locals the craft and empower them. She has hired local high school and college dropout boys and girls who have learned how to make wine and operate wine machines. Approximately 25 people are employed on a regular basis, with the number increasing as the fruits ripen.
Khushboo Jain
In 2014, Khushboo Jain entered the Indian crowdfunding startup scene. She is the Co-Founder and COO of ImpactGuru, where she oversees the marketing, operations, communications, design, and public relations teams. ImpactGuru’s reach has grown as a result of her active participation in community-building activities, its work with non-profits, and the ImpactGuru.com product users’ experience journey.
Khushboo was inspired to start ImpactGuru.com, a fintech company focused on making healthcare accessible and affordable in India, by her strong desire to make a difference and save lives.
Khushboo attended Sydenham College in Mumbai, where she majored in Business Management, and WE Business School – Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research, where she earned an MBA with a focus in Marketing. She continued her education at the London College of Fashion and the Parsons School of Design in New York.
Sheela Kochouseph Chittilapally
Sheela Kochouseph Chittilappilly is from the Kattor-based Alappat Palathingal family.
In 1995, she gathered all of her resources and decided to begin making clothes. She gathered a team of designers, embroiderers, and a cutter (ten people in all). She began producing salwar kameezes under the brand V-Star. They have 16 units in and around Kochi, where we employ 50-60 women from charitable institutions run by nuns. They have other factories in Tirupur that make panties, camisoles, and leggings.
In a number of interviews, she cited her husband, Kochouseph Chittilappilly, as an inspiration. His time management abilities, simplicity, and humanitarian nature are some of the characteristics she admires and strives to emulate.
Radhika Ghai Agarwal
Radhika Ghai Aggarwal is ShopClues’ co-founder and presiding Business Officer. ShopClues is an online platform that sells products ranging from technology and footwear to fashion and jewellery. The company empowers small-town merchants and turns them into national enterprises. Aggarwal is the first Indian woman to become a member of the Unicorn club. She was named CEO of the Year at the CEO India Awards in 2016. Her tale has inspired thousands of female entrepreneurs across the country.
ShopClues was founded in 2011 by Radhika Aggarwal, Sandeep Aggarwal, and Sanjay Sethi. Prior to that, she ran FashionClues, a content platform for NRI women. In four years, the company was valued at $1.1 billion, and Radhika became the first Indian woman to join the Unicorn club. It had half a million sellers on the website in 2016, making it the most in the Indian e-commerce industry.  The company assists tier 2 and tier 3 merchants in selling their products and building their brands.
Vani Kola
Vani Kola is a well-known Indian entrepreneur and venture capitalist. She is the founder and CEO of Kalaari Capital, a Bangalore-based venture capital firm. Vani has previously been a successful entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, California, USA. She is a firm believer in assisting entrepreneurs to thrive and launch their own businesses.
She also mentors aspiring entrepreneurs and primarily works with technology companies in India. Kola’s firm, Kalaari Capital, has invested in over 50 companies in India’s E-commerce, Mobile Services, and Healthcare sectors. She has raised approximately $650 million and has investments in over 60 start-ups, including Flipkart Online Services Pvt. and Jasper Infotech Pvt’s Snapdeal. Myntra, VIA, Apps Daily, Zivame, Power2SME, Bluestone, and Urban Ladder are among her major investments. She is also an excellent public speaker, having given motivational speeches at TED Talks, TIE, and INK.
Aditi Gupta
Aditi Gupta was born in the Indian state of Jharkhand in Garhwa. Aditi had the idea for her business at a very young age. While growing up in Jharkhand, she was confronted with similar situations. Aditi and her husband Tuhin Patel collaborated on a Hindi comic book that demonstrated and humanised menstruation in girls.
Aditi and Tuhin’s business has grown to include a full website called Menstrupedia.com. In conjunction with a comic book part to make menstruation easier for the reader.
The comic, as well as the website, contain instructions on sanitation, wellbeing, and ways to stay active during periods, as well as answers to frequently asked questions. She is one of the most forward-thinking and inventive female entrepreneurs in the country.
Vandana Luthra
Vandana Luthra introduced the concept of self-care and beauty to a market that considered it a luxury in the 1980s. She has been dubbed the “Queen of Wellness” because she has withstood the test of time, competition, and criticism to reach where she is today. For those who learn about Luthra’s entrepreneurial journey, it is nothing short of inspiring. Starting with just one local ‘parlour’ in New Delhi, she broke even in her business in the first month thanks to her belief in her own vision and tireless effort. She has always been a celebrity favourite, and her devoted following has grown exponentially over the last four decades.
Luthra has opened VLCC centres in over 153 cities across India and 13 countries around the world since her foray into the industry. In recognition of her contributions to the industry, Luthra was awarded the Padma Shri – India’s fourth-highest civilian honour – in 2013.
Shahnaz Hussain
Founder Shahnaz Husain’s vision was always to endorse Indian herbal heritage to every corner of the globe, not just beauty and skincare. Shahnaz Husain’s products are now available in South-East Asia, Japan, Australia, the Middle East, Africa, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe via a network of franchise ventures and direct product distributors. The products can also be purchased in the Netherlands, Norway, the Czech Republic, Belarus, and Russia.
In 2006, the entrepreneur was awarded the Padma Shri for her contributions to trade and industry. In 2010, the entrepreneur was invited to represent India at Former US President Barack Obama’s World Summit for Entrepreneurs. She had previously won the World’s Greatest Women Entrepreneur award from Success Magazine in 1996.
Falguni Nair
Falguni Nair’s company, Nykaa, was the first woman-led company in India to be listed on the stock exchange, and she has proven her worth by becoming one of the richest women in the country when compared to men in any achievement.
Falguni, 58, owns nearly half of Nyka’s shares, and her net worth has risen to $6.5 billion as a result of the stock exchange listing. This name, which was once known only among women, is now heard all over the world. Across the country, his company operates 70 stores and represents over 1500 brands.
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw
Mazumdar-Shaw, India’s richest self-made woman, founded India’s largest publicly traded biopharmaceutical company in terms of revenue in 1978. The company has successfully entered the lucrative biosimilars market in the United States, attracting the attention of investors. To date, the company has sold 3 billion insulin doses and operates Asia’s largest insulin factory in Malaysia’s Johor region.
Biocon is collaborating with Adagio Therapeutics in the United States to develop ADG20, an antibody therapy for the prevention and treatment of coronavirus and its variants. Vaccine billionaire Cyrus Poonawalla’s Serum Institute of India agreed to buy a 15% stake in Biocon Biologics, a Biocon subsidiary, in September 2021.
