Vidya Chhabria retains place in Fortune's list

Jumbo Group chairperson Vidya Manohar Chhabria is the only Indian to make it to Fortune's annual list of the 50 most powerful women in international business this year.

Chabbria retains her position at number 38, while Naina Lal Kidwai, the vice-chairman and managing director, HSBC Securities and Capital Markets (India) who was ranked 47th last year, has dropped out.

Besides Chhabria, the only other woman from the sub-continent to make the grade in this year's listing is Musharaf Hai, the chairperson of Unilever Pakistan, who has been ranked 46th.

The listings are a part of the International Power 50 feature in the latest issue of the magazine. "The International Power 50 is composed of women who have an operating role in for-profit businesses outside the US (including women based in the US who run overseas divisions)," the magazine said.

The Fortune ranking takes into account the performance of women who are vested with operating responsibilities and not those who merely exercise shareholding power.

The journal measured the attribute of 'power' not so much by position or pay but by the yard sticks of revenues and profits controlled, influence within a company, the importance of business in the global economy and its contribution to culture and society at large.

The magazine credits the 56-year-old Chhabria for having successfully resolved a 20-year long business dispute with arch rival and India's largest brewer, UB group.

In a statement issued here today, Chhabria said, "The challenge for Jumbo lies in constant reorientation of the group strategy so as to remain ever-contemporary. I see this recognition as a vindication of our strategy to meet the challenge. This will embolden us to strive further and reach higher."

The $2 billion Jumbo group manages a number of clutch of companies in India including Shaw Wallace, Hindustan Dorr-Oliver, Mather & Platt and Gordon Woodroffe with total asset value of $600 million.

In Southeast Asia, the group has operations in Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan and Singapore, where its activities include manufacturing, sourcing and marketing. Chhabria also presides over Jumbo Group Corporate Management Board.

Flagship company, Jumbo Electronics Company Ltd, was founded in the United Arab Emirates in 1974 by her late husband Manohar Chhabria. The company distributes consumer electronics, IT and telecom products in the Middle-East and is the largest distributor of Sony products in the world.