Nita Ambani, SBI chief on Forbes powerful businesswomen list

Six other Indians figure in the list of top 50 in Asia

Nita Ambani, described by Forbes Asia magazine as  the  “power near the throne” at Reliance Industries Ltd and Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairman of State Bank  of India, have been  named among the most powerful businesswomen in Asia.

The other six Indians to figure on Forbes’s Asia’s 50 Power Businesswomen 2016 list, compiled in  alphabetical order, were Mu Sigma’s chief executive officer (CEO) Ambiga Dhiraj, Welspun India CEO Dipali Goenka, Lupin CEO Vinita Gupta, ICICI Bank managing director Chanda Kochhar, VLCC Health Care founder Vandana Luthra and Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw.

The list that features women leaders from China, Indonesia, Australia, Vietnam, Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, the Philippines and New Zealand.

Describing Nita Ambani as the “first lady of Indian business”, Forbes said Ambani, 52, is a “power near the throne” and makes her debut on the list because of her rising profile in Reliance Industries, led by her husband and India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani.

 

Nita Ambani is also director on the board of Reliance Industries.

On Bhattacharya, 60, Forbes said she is facing her “most challenging test” yet with the State Bank of India as it grapples with mounting bad loans, which stood at $11 billion in December and caused net profit to plunge more than 60 per cent to $190 million in a recent quarter.