Geetha Pradeep

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw - Biocon Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is a renowned Indian tycoon. She is the managing director of Biocon Ltd and chairperson of IIM Bangalore. She was listed by Forbes as 92nd most powerful lady in the world. She has also topped the business list of ‘Financial Times’. Her company’s role in science and chemistry, and in the Indian economy is tremendous. Even she has received ‘Othmer Gold Medal’ for her contribution. She is well-known the world over for her strategies and their implementations. Kiran started her career at Carlton & United Beverages in 1974 as trainee brewer. She worked for 4 years in the same company; later in 1978, she tied as a trainee manager in Biocon biochemical at Ireland. In 1978, itself she started Biocon India in association with Biocon bio-chemicals. She had only Rs. 10,000/- to invest in it. She faced many problems to arrange the funds from banks. Most the banks were uncertain of her talent. At that time, women entrepreneurs were very few and it made her job a lot more complicated! With a lot of hard work, she managed to overcome this phase and prove her point to the world. Now her company is known as the pioneer in the biotech industry. She has 40% of stake in the company and is known as one of the richest women tycoons in India. Richa Kar – Zivame Richa Kar is the one of the founders and the CEO of the Indian Lingerie e-retailer called Zivame. She started the company in 2011 with one other founder named Kapil Karekar, who later left the company in 2012. They received the first order within 5 hours of launch and by now they have raised around $9 million in 2 rounds. Their investors include IDG Ventures, Kalaari Capital, and Unilazer Ventures. Zivame has grown from a small office to a 200-member company. This is India’s most popular lingerie shop online. They have 50 brands and 5000 styles in 100 sizes.  Richa Kar is a very young lady of 34, born in Jamshedpur. She did her Engineering graduation from BITS Pilani. Initially, she worked for some IT companies. Later she joined for management studies and completed her masters in 2007. She did some research on Indian lingerie industry for a job, where she came to know the problems faced by the ladies when they buy innerwear. Most of the shops don’t keep all sizes and small shops will have salesman looking at you and saying that a specific size will suit you which really embarrassing! Thus, she had a thought of doing something which could solve the problems of all ladies. She thought that if it is an online retail shop, anyone can browse without any hesitation. They can check the style, size, and brands whatever they want. They select and pay and the product will be delivered to their doorsteps. That made the launch of Zivame! Lijjat Papad – An all women initiative! Lijjat papad or Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad was started in 1959 in Mumbai. It was started by 7 amazing women - Jaswantiben Jamnadas Popat, Ujamben Narandas Kundalia, Banuben N Tanna, Jayaben V Vithalani, Parvatiben Ramdas Thodani, Laguben Amritlar Gokani, and one more whose name is not known - who wanted to help the less privileged women in the society by providing them a small job which they can do at home. We basically had implemented the work-from-home concept way back in 1959! Although they started with papads, they came out with many interesting products which are fast-moving. Now this co-operative society has a turnover of Rs.6.50 billion. 43,000 people are working for Lijjat. They have an export of Rs. 290 million as of now. They have 81 branches and 27 divisions in India. It all started with Rs. 80 being borrowed from Chhaganlal Karamsi Parekh, a social worker. The women who wanted to monetize their skill had not even this meager amount to buy the raw materials to start making the papads. Way back in 1959, this was a decent amount and only the wealthy could spare 100 rupees! With this amount, the women took over a papad company which was in loss. The women gathered in a terrace and started working. They initially started with four packets and sold them to a known merchant in Bhuleswar. They had made up their mind that they will never ask for donations from anyone, even if the business flopped. Mr. Parekh became their guide and asked them to never compromise on quality. When the business started making money, he asked the ladies to maintain proper accounts and books. That helped them to make the co-operative society later. To dry the papad in the rainy season, they brought stove and cot. In 1962, they named their venture Lijjat which means ‘tasty’ in Guajarati. The name was chosen through a contest. As the sale increased, they got more women involved in the venture.