Women Making Impact - India

Disha Shah, a second-generation jeweler, grew up immersed in the world of jewelry in Hong Kong, spending countless hours at her father's natural diamond business. Despite her upbringing surrounded by the craftsmanship and beauty of jewelry making, Disha initially pursued a different path, working in corporate roles. She never felt drawn to follow in her family's footsteps, especially as she found traditional jewelry designs to be too bulky and old-fashioned for her taste.

Kitchens are smaller now, and families are looking for variety in meals. Simultaneously, there is a growing awareness among the working population about healthy choices, including natural and preservative-free options. Additionally, the drawbacks of ordering food in are evident – it can be expensive, less hygienic, and might compromise the freshness and authenticity of the taste.

In response to these challenges, a culinary revolution has unfolded with the rise of ready-to-cook products. This trend provides a practical middle ground for families striving to balance the demands of work and home life without compromising the quality of their meals. Innovative brands in this segment are addressing these concerns by offering preservative-free and authentic-tasting RTC products. This not only caters to the desire for convenient cooking but also allows households to indulge in guilt-free home-cooked meals.

Aanchal Saini is a seasoned entrepreneur with a wealth of Knowledge and experience in the rental fashion industry.

Flyrobe understands this need and has come up with an innovative solution. They offer a wide range of designer outfits, including ethnic wear, premium apparel, and accessories, all available for rent at a reasonable price. The brand has the biggest flagship store in New Delhi and franchise stores in 10+ prominent Indian cities. The company operates on an Omnichannel model with an online presence in 30+ cities via its website. The Flyrobe website’s monthly traffic is 2.5L users with 6L page views in a month. Flyrobe in its 8 years of existence has saved 4.8 Billion litres of water, turned 2L+ buyers into renters, and delayed Millions of outfits from ending up in the landfills.

Devyani Pawar, a distinguished social entrepreneur and accomplished graduate from the London School of Economics (LSE), founded DP House of Media at 22. As a dynamic young entrepreneur, she has reshaped design and marketing landscapes with a unique vision, boasting over 500 successful projects across India, the UK, and Europe. Notably, Devyani made history as the sole female representative at the World Economic Forum at the age of 22. Beyond business, she serves as the Curator and Impact Officer at Global Shapers Community Baramati Hub, actively promoting sustainability. Devyani also launched ForSapio, an innovative platform breaking conventional boundaries, and empowering individuals and businesses globally. Her multifaceted profile includes hosting the "Unfiltered Conversations" podcast and receiving the Times Power Women West India Award in 2020 for her excellence.

Chaitali brings over a decade of experience spanning technical product development, manufacturing optimization, and quality assurance for medical devices. Her last stint was with a major pharma corporation making non-invasive diagnostic tools. This exposed her first-hand to how better design and efficiency could improve patient access. Chaitali channeled those learnings into co-founding EzeRx in 2018 - with the vision to make reliable, non-invasive screening reach every household.

Under Chaitali’s leadership, EzeRx delivered on that vision within months of inception. Their pioneering product EzeCheck, the world’s first non-invasive anemia screener, secured crucial verifications from ICMR- RMRCB and CDSCO. She considers that her biggest achievement yet - a testament to her meticulous approach and appetite for translating dreams into reality.

Mansi Poddar, an esteemed psychologist and psychotherapist in India, brings over 13 years of invaluable experience to her practice. She operates a private practice and is the dedicated founder of the Heal.Grow.Thrive Foundation, a global psychotherapy private practice headquartered in Kolkata. At the helm of the Foundation, Mansi's unique blend of professional expertise and personal empathy, drawn from her own experiences with C-PTSD, eating disorders, and suicidal ideation, allows her to guide clients through trauma therapy using somatic and narrative approaches.

Mansi'seducational journey is anchored by a foundational Master's degree in Counseling for Mental Health and Wellness from New York University, establishing a solid expertise in her field. This foundation is further enriched by various specialized certifications, training, and apprenticeships, including Queer Affirmative Counseling Practices, Narrative Therapy, the Gottman Method of Marital Therapy, Anger Management, Trauma Focused Psychotherapy, Psychospiritual Psychotherapy, Compassionate Inquiry, and a Professional Training Program in Compassionate Inquiry.

TekUncorked is a start-up company that is making waves across the globe with its award winning LVIoT platform that makes the electricity distribution grid Smart, Connected and Predictive to eliminate grid losses and help decarbonize the grid. LVIoT forecasts and mitigates risks and threats to the electricity distribution network, provides accurate insights about power quality, load management, demand forecasts and grid losses and health of the grid assets.              Tekuncorked is one of the early providers of integrated and comprehensive solutions for eliminating grid losses and reducing the carbon footprint of the electricity distribution grid. There are other providers however, their solutions are fragmented and partial.   The company is committed to reducing grid losses and enhancing efficiencies, safety and protection in the grid operations through the AI, IoT-based LVIoT platform. In India, trillions of units of electricity are generated. However, a significant percentage of it never reaches the intended customers, owing to losses in distribution.   

Neha Juneja is a seasoned entrepreneur having previously co-founded & scaled Greenway - India’s largest clean cooking enterprise with ops across rural India and sub-Saharan Africa where she developed multiple credit partnerships focused on women as borrowers. Her work has been featured across the covers of Forbes, Businessworld etc.

Sunanda Tai Pawar is a philanthropist and women's rights activist who has dedicated over two decades to various initiatives to uplift rural communities. By providing multiple employment and earning opportunities, she stands as a beacon of hope to smaller communities in rural India. Along with her remarkable work done for the community, her heartfelt engagement with the younger generation and addressing critical topics like good touch and bad touch amongst children, period hygiene, and offering invaluable guidance against sexual harassment is admirable. Through her various initiatives, she seeks to empower many with resources and opportunities to better life and future.

GloWorld Energy, an ISO 9000:2015 certified start-up, is engaged in designing, manufacturing and selling Solar lamps. We are working at reducing carbon footprint and bringing world class solar powered light to millions living in electricity deficit / off-grid regions. Solar lamps are transformative products which enhance livelihood, reduce health risk, and increase productivity & safety of rural and urban consumers.
GloWorld Energy is a Made in India start-up in the renewable energy space. We manufacture high quality off grid solar lighting solutions, across various price segments.
In three years, over 125,000 rural households on the fringe of the economy, have been illuminated across 7 states.
As Co-Founder and Director, my responsibilities are not limited to :
· Business development with MFIs, Corporates and Institutions
· Set up and management of distribution channels
· Managing the marketing collateral and digital assets for awareness generation
· Oversee the manufacturing scale up for the operation

Share India provides access to formal credit to the unserved sections of Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. This not only enables women in Rural areas to start their own business but also instills confidence and self respect in them.The company currently operates with 46 branches spread across 4 states UP Bihar Haryana and Punjab.

VOBBLE is on a mission - to engage young kids meaningfully and imaginatively. It provides a unique, immersive audio platform/device for kids to listen content from around the world! We are in the course of building Vobble and encourage parents and others who feel this need strongly to join the cause!

Harshita Khanna was appointed as the Chief People Officer at Home Credit India in June 2021. She has been with Home Credit India since 2015 and was heading the compensation & benefits and Rewards vertical. In her current role, she is responsible for people strategy including talent acquisition and management, employee lifecycle management, HR digitalization, Reward Strategy, performance management and internal communication.

A seasoned HR professional, Harshita brings 15 years of rich experience, driving various facets of Performance Excellence in India and International markets across diverse industries. Her core expertise includes Rewards and Performance management, Merger & Acquisition, Succession Planning, Business Partnering, Talent Management and development and HR digitalization.

Prior to Home Credit, Harshita has worked with large multinational corporations such as Computer Science Corporation, Schneider Electric India Pvt Ltd and AON Hewitt, serving diverse national and international HR mandates for these brands.

Harshita has many certifications and accolades to her credit namely Certified AON Hewitt Performance Management expert, Certified CIPD Organizational Design Professional, MEHR’S-Certified OD Analyst, MEHR's Certified Psychometric Test Professional. She has been awarded ‘Knowledge Builder of the Year Award - 2010’ in AON Hewitt, nominated as TCC Strategic Lead for Asia-Pacific Region by Regional and Global Leaders in AON Hewitt, nominated for CIPD training on successful completion of European Regulatory In-Home Credit India Finance Pvt to name a few. 

Harshita holds a Master’s degree in Operational Research and has completed Bachelors in Mathematics Honors from University of Delhi. She is an avid traveler and is determined to build on her strengths of being analytical & self-driven, continuously drive for accurate process improvement with a focus on training and knowledge-sharing.

Poorvi is a techie at heart. Having spent several years helping organizations optimize their operations and scale up their business, data analytics and technology comes naturally to her. She was born and brought up in Agra, and from her young age, had a keen interest in technology, software and start-ups. She completed her B. Tech in Information Technology from Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad, and went ahead to work in Kronos Solutions as Software Developer for 2+ years where she gained hands-on experience in Big Data, Hadoop development and Workforce Management. Armed with her industry experience, she went on to do MBA from Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi in 2018.

Anjali Raghuvanshi is the Chief People Officer for Randstad India. An MBA from ICFAI Business School Hyderabad, she also has flair for finance, having earned an honors in finance from the reputed Banaras Hindu University. Anjali is a Strategic Business Partner who facilitates, supports and challenges business leaders along with anticipating the much-needed focus and change in workplace dynamics with the ever-evolving business landscape. Her experience ranges from industries like IT, Automotive to Consulting. Anjali is an expert in driving strategic resource optimization and rationalization initiatives through the organization. She has been instrumental in business continuity through developing a talent management framework which brings in all elements of talent together - like attract, retain, develop and engage. She has also been instrumental in driving a performance based culture in the organization and moving away from traditional performance management approach. She is passionate about protecting our environment for the future generations and an inclusive workplace. She also associates with campuses and B-schools in shaping the young minds and building talent for tomorrow.

Yashna Garg is a young and dynamic Indian entrepreneur who has made a name for herself in the business world through her innovative ideas and outcome driven leadership. She is currently serving as the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Zeon Lifesciences Ltd, a leading nutraceutical company headquartered in Noida, Uttar Pradesh.

Seasoned and vibrant professional with almost 14 years of experience in the communication sector, Neha Bajaj, founded Scroll Mantra in 2014 with a vision to provide a holistic marketing strategy for upcoming and established brands.

She graduated from Delhi University in Bachelor of Commerce and worked for almost eight years before taking the plunge to start her own agency. She started her career with an MNC in Delhi where she had a long stint of six years. Post that, she moved to head the northern region for a Bangalore based PR agency for two years. She has strong inclination towards achieving operational excellence, media intelligence, and designing strategic campaigns for brands to realize communication objectives. She has worked with many leading brands like PVR, Airbus, AITA, Huawei, Bentley, Lamborghini, Bugatti, Myntra.com, Jabong.com, Zivame.com, LAP, DKNY, MINISO, Marks & Spencer, Carlton London, ViewSonic, HCL, ASICS, Sunglass Hut, DKNY, Claire’s, Mothercare, Allen Solly, Van Heusen, Louis Phillippe, bluO, W for Woman, AHS, Asian Roots Spa, Sportsfit and more.

Her areas of focus include designing creative brand campaigns, team leadership, counselling and mentorship to deliver desired results. In her career of 14 years she has headed marketing communications for national and global companies and has a strong expertise in sectors across Entertainment, Consumer Lifestyle, Legal, Infrastructure, FMCG, Hospitality, F&B, Personalities, Corporate and Finance.

She always strives for new opportunities to achieve a high standard in whatever is undertaken and has successfully built a complete marketing communication agency catering to verticals like Public Relations, Digital Media Marketing, and Social Media Marketing apart from Graphic Designing and Corporate Branding.

Archhana Agarwaal is a woman entrepreneur and educationist, renowned for her passion and dedication to transforming the educational landscape for young learners. As the Founder and CEO of Joonify and Aark Learnings, she has emerged as a leading figure in the field of child development and personalized education.

An all-rounder with a diverse skill set, Archhana possesses a deep-diving and patient nature, coupled with assertiveness and strong leadership qualities. Her self-motivated approach and exceptional managerial skills have been instrumental in driving the success of her ventures. 

Archhana holds a postgraduate degree in International Management from the prestigious University of Strathclyde, Scotland. Her academic prowess was evident during her school days when she was a prominent member of the council team for three successive years during her Higher Secondary Education. She has also achieved remarkable milestones in sports, winning State Championships and participating in National-level competitions.

As a mother herself, Archhana strongly believes in the significance of holistic education and experiential learning for today's generation. She understands that these aspects play a vital role in a child's growth and overall development, forming the foundation for crucial life decisions.

During the early phase of her entrepreneurship journey, Archhana, along with her Co-Founder, recognized the challenges faced by parents in selecting the right courses and learning paths for their children. Witnessing the struggle parents experienced due to the abundance of choices and the fear of missing out (FOMO), they realized the need for a revolutionary solution.

Coming from the family of educationists, having been part of running K-12 schools and colleges from more than 2 decades Archhana has closely seen and witnessed the challenges faced by children due to the lack of personalized learning, killing their creativity and uniqueness which could have helped them to be ahead and different in this competitive world. By the time these children reach college level, they are often stressed as the stream that they have chosen is not aligned with their talents and interest, hence the learning process becomes stressful for them and they tend to make wrong career choices and face challenges and failure in their future life.

Driven by the belief that every child possesses unique talents and skills that require identification and nurturing, they conceptualized India's first intelligent assessment platform for children - Joonify. This platform empowers parents to uncover their child's unique strengths, interests, and talents through the Talent Discovery Program. It allows parents to craft personalized learning plans, leading to overall growth and development and inspiring a lifelong journey of joyful learning.

Archhana's vision goes beyond merely providing a platform. She leads a dedicated team of expert counselors who provide guidance and unwavering support to parents throughout their child's learning journey. Their aim is to help parents navigate this crucial phase with confidence, ensuring every child receives a tailor-made education that maximizes their potential.

Archhana invites parents and educators to join her on this transformative journey of unlocking every child's unique potential and creating a better future for them. 

Sangeeta, is a digital growth specialist by profession & an entrepreneur from heart. She is the founder, director at digiDZN - a digital marketing agency & digiCART India - an Ecommerce company & one of the top sellers on Amazon & FlipkartAfter completing her MBA (International Marketing) from SIBM, Pune, she worked with Standard Chartered Bank for a brief period & then moved on to start her own venture.She drove a personal finance consulting firm in Mumbai for six years before relocating to Delhi, where life ensued & she was blessed to become a mother. Always the one to believe in the multi-tasking abilities of women, she re-launched herself into business in 2014.She felt there was a gap in the digital space where the consumers are being conned by agencies in the name of deliverables and decided to tap into the previously unventured digital space for Indian SMEs.She started small by catering to clients looking for social media marketing & digital branding. The firm, digiDZN, received an overwhelming response. The next leap was from the Social Media space to search engine marketing & then on to influencer marketing.eCommerce happened in 2018 where again she started small along with her husband - from selling 1 unit in Sep ‘2018 to selling over 22000 units in Jan ‘2023.

Nalini Saligram, Ph.D, is the Founder & CEO of Arogya World, a global health non-profit committed to changing the course of chronic disease. She is an Ashoka Fellow.

Under Nalini’s leadership, Arogya World designs and implements scalable, science-based diabetes prevention programs in Indian schools, workplaces, and the community. As a tireless advocate for NCD prevention, Nalini leverages public-private partnerships and global platforms to improve the world we live in. Arogya World has made three Clinton Global Initiative Commitments (one in 2011, and two in 2013), a United Nations Every Woman Every Child Commitment (2014), was active with MIT’s SOLVE effort (2017), and was named a finalist for the Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation (2014).  Her story and that of Arogya World has also been highlighted in a book – The Healthcare Gamechangers.  In 2021, on her watch, Arogya World was chosen to be part of the Google AI for Social Good effort.

Nalini has lived and worked in many parts of the world, including Merck in Philadelphia, Merial in Atlanta, Glaxo Wellcome in London, and Hill & Knowlton in Hong Kong.

Mugdha Pradhan CEO & Founder of iThrive, TedX speaker, Healer & Spiritual Coach
In 2017 despite having a Master's in Nutrition she struggled with her own personal health issues, learning the nuances of Functional Medicine transformed her health- from losing 37 kg's to reversing an autoimmune condition, healed herself.
She moved from Canada to introduce Functional Nutrition for the first time in India through iThrive - Healing & Beyond 2019. Her vision is to create healthier, happier, lifestyle disease-free communities across the world every single day.
With her expertise in Functional Nutrition, her ability to build strong teams and beautiful cultures, and her passion for scientific research and evidence-based work, iThrive has raised two rounds of funding so far.

Samara Mahindra is the Founder and CEO of CARER – India’s first personalised integrative oncology company that provides customised nutrition-based cancer therapies for cancer patients. Her rule to success lies in understanding the goal, agreeing on the outcome, and committing to make it happen.

Samara decided to launch CARER because of her personal experience of losing her mother to cancer. During the cancer care journey of her mother, Samara realized that cancer care is not just focused on medication alone, but the recovery journey that involves changes in lifestyle also plays a crucial role that could drastically improve quality of life. Thus, aiming to address this gap in cancer care, Samara started CARER.

Anushree is an entrepreneur helping brands with Strategy led Influencer marketing campaigns by bridging the gap between brands and influencers through her agency, SocialTAG.
Working in the creator economy space for 2+ years, she has experience in delivering stellar influencer campaigns from onboarding influencers to creatively directing influencer campaigns and ensuring a smooth journey of the influencer-brand relation.

Gunjan Goel is a Director in Goel Ganga Developments. Goel Ganga Developments is one of the most trusted real estate developer in Pune. It is also a multi-faceted business conglomerate with business ventures across myriad sectors like education, logistics and energy. We are known for our time-tested commitment to details, innovation, reliability and value. Be it any sector we deal in; a customer-first approach is the crux of our business operations.

Malvika is the COO at LadiesWhoLead, a members-only platform empowering, engaging, and enabling leaders to grow. Malvika is passionate about diversity, and would like to see more leaders, who are women, gather influence and affluence, and positively impact important decisions shaping our economy, society, industries, and policies. She started her journey with Aabha & Ladies Who Lead as a Strategy advisor in Oct 2020.
An alumni of MICA, she began her career as an Analyst with the Leadership Council at CEB (now Gartner) and contributed to several disruptive tools & studies solving for organizational & leadership effectiveness. After CEB, she embraced her passion for entrepreneurship & started Ikinaki - a social commerce app for beauty and wellness shoppers, and built a community of 30,000 shoppers on the app. Since then she has consulted multiple brands on finding the path from 0 to 1, and taking business from idea to revenue stage. From 2020-2022, she headed the consumer marketing function at Sunstone, as the Edtech company scaled 10x from series A to C.

The Vivekalaya Group of Institutions is a world class educational centre that promotes inclusivity, equality and empowerment, and was founded by the incomparable, Mrs. Prema Rao, the mother of the current Director Academics and Administration, Ms. Aishwarya Rao. Aishwarya is also the Managing Trustee of the PremAnand Foundation.

She’s from Coimbatore and had a comprehensive and progressive upbringing surrounded around inclusivity and innovation in modern Indian educational practices. She has a Bachelor’s in Business Management and a Master’s in Education from University of Nottingham, United Kingdom.

Shreya Sharma is an ambitious young entrepreneur and tedx speaker, who studied International relations at the prestigious Harvard university, Cambridge, Massachusetts and recently graduated from the Cardiff University, Wales with llb hons.

Although Ms. Sharma came from an affluent family of the city, she always knew that she was to make her own mark in this competitive world. After a lot of pondering,introspection and hard work she successfully built a legal aggregator platform, Rest The Case, that strives to make legal information and services approachable to the nation.By the people and for the people, Rest the case offers infinite opportunities for lawyers and clients and makes the law accessible to everyone in just a few clicks. In just the first year of its inception her company Rest The Case has been recognised as the best startup of 2021 by India 500. This award winning company Is an online platform that gives a smart and convenient edge to bridge the gap between the courts and the people. From starting her own company at the age of 21 to being a recipient of India 5000 women achiever award 2021 she left no stone unturned to rise triumphant.

Tanya started her entrepreneurship journey in her 20s and founded her venture SolarArise, a solar power producer with projects in several Indian states (SolarArise has recently been acquired by Thomas Llyod Energy Impact Trust which is listed on the London Stock Exchange). She has worked with the Indian Government (Ministry of Renewable Energy) to shape India’s renewable energy policy. Over the years,she has been recognized as Asia’s Most Influential Women in Renewable Energy, Woman of the Year in Solar and was also featured in  Business World 40 under 40.

Her goal is to move the world towards carbon neutrality, towards an emission-free lifestyle, and bring more women into this journey. She is also on the board of Milaan, an NGO supporting underprivileged adolescent girls who aspire to excel professionally.She started her career as a strategy consultant at the Boston Consulting Group and holds a Bachelor in Technology degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden.Tanya speaks effortlessly and with expertise on various topics such as policies, regulation, the renewable energy sector, climate technology and infrastructure, and entrepreneurship, especially in a largely male-dominated energy industry and her role in supporting and empowering girls through Milaan.

Rimjhim Ray is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, author, technologist and digital strategist. She holds the position of Vice-President (Marketing) at MyOperator, a cloud-based omni-channel business communication platform. She has also joined hands with the founders of MyOperator, Ankit and Pratik Jain, to build and launch Heyo Phone, India’s first digital phone line for SMBs. As part of the founding team, Rimjhim is building Heyo into the next gen communication tech for India's start-ups and small businesses to help them deliver customer experience that is at par with MNCs. Thriving in India's techade, Heyo is levelling the playing field for the 65 million SMBs that constitute the economic backbone of Bharat.

Shilpa Mehta, a CA with polio, who has recently been awarded under the Category, ‘CA Special Recognition (for specially-abled members)’ for her exceptional level of professional achievement.

On account of receiving the recognition, and being given the ICAI Award 2022, Ms Mehta has pledged to pay it forward by supporting 100 people with disabilities to pursue their CA in the next 10 years through her foundation, dJED Foundation

Every person has a different background and culture, but to enhance their happiness & of those around them, each one needs to shift their focus from "doing" to "being".

Using her knowledge of NLP #HappinessCoach Farheen helps in reframing perspectives so you can better appreciate what you have while you acquire skills and work towards what you desire. With nearly two decades of experience in HR, teaching and entrepreneurship, Farheen is now actively delivering Workplace Happiness Coaching sessions to foster collaborative thinking to further drive workplace productivity and innovation.

Farheen has been a leading force in Happiness Coaching and helping in-grain a mindset that is positive and stepping towards embracing happiness. Through her activities and interventions, she encourages the participants to look for happiness within. One of her most popular modules is ‘Chasing Smiles’ which has got a tremendous response from both the corporate world and individuals.

She is a trained Statistician, Educator, Happiness & NLP Coach. When not teaching or coaching, she can be found gardening or hiking in the hills!

Minal Anand is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer at GuruQ, a unique and integrated digital tutoring platform that promises to bring high quality standards and new age methodologies to the way education is imparted in India. A graduate in Business Administration from the School of Management at Boston University, Minal had worked at companies like Franklin Templeton, Citigroup to gain relevant experience in business planning, fund raising, enterprise design and structuring, and talent management.

She returned to India to join Delhi-based HPL Additives as Manager - Corporate Development. However, the glaring difference between the education sector at home versus overseas drove Minal to explore the ed-tech sector – one of India’s most prolific segments and want to improve it.She had previously taught several under-privileged school students and it is this very experience that armed her with the required knowledge to pursue her idea.Education in our country centers around bookish knowledge and traditional learning that is a disadvantage to students when they compete with international peers.A fresh perspective on education and innovative ways of teachingvia certified,qualified tutors,must be infused into the education sector, to give our students a winning edge.

With Minal at the helm, GuruQ is off to a promising start andbound to make a positive change in the education sector.

Dr. Isha is a Sensory Integration Therapy Certified and Licensed Occupational Therapist with over 13 years experience as a Pediatric Occupational Therapist.Additionally led multidisciplinary teams and set up Therapy and Child Development Centres. Love to play with children, give Parent Training and provide complete transparency in the therapeutic journey of a child. Strongly practising the Secret - Ask ,Believe and Receive

Akanksha Sharma is a young entrepreneur who has dressed her family business lineage with a dash of innovation, all rooted in sound business ethics and technology. As a youthful leader with strong self-belief, she established the unique business of all natural baby products at the young age of 22 years.

With an education in Apparel Industry Management from Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, Los Angeles United States of America, Akanksha continues to approach business through her multidimensional understanding of concepts and ideas.

At the young age of 24 years, this TEDx speaker is already an inspiration to many young women who wish to live and thrive on their own terms. As a person of sound business ethics and leadership, Akanksha is known to be a dynamic risk taker who is humble and determined to make things happen. She remains goal driven but extremely flexible as well. This is one reason for the grand success of her growing business of baby personal care products that goes under the name of CITTA.

As a completely homegrown brand, CITTA epitomizes the clear ethos of conscious business practices, with products that uphold the highest standards of manufacturing practices too. The brand is unique in the ways it is a perfect amalgamation of Indian traditions and new age scientific technology.

Having had travelled and educated abroad, Akanksha brings with her sound business knowledge, qualities of strategizing and inspiring likes of her age. She is known to be a calm team player, an empathetic introspective individual and an intuitive listener. Her mantra of entrepreneurship is deeply inspired from her father’s personal challenges and growth curve as a successful businessman.

As someone who oversees her brand’s growth story, she is carefully involved in the R&D of each product.

Akanksha envisions CITTA to be an Indian household name for skincare products for children. She launched the brand along with her mother, Monisha Sharma (Director of The Lexicon Group & Co-Founder of CITTA) inspired from learnings from old age recipes that work wonders on growing babies and children.

Nishtha was appointed as the Head of Office for Timor-Leste in UN Women, the entity of the United Nations that is dedicated to working towards Gender Equality and Woman's Empowerment in September 2021. She was the former Deputy Country Representative for UN Women in India and served as the Officer in Charge starting January 2018. As the youngest woman to head a country office for UN Women amongst 193 countries, Nishtha Satyam is an unapologetic feminist, a trained economist with a keen interest in applied macroeconomic and fiscal policy. In her long-standing career in the United Nations, she has managed the UN Women Office for a geo-politically diverse group of countries including India, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka. 

She has also served as the Private Sector Partnerships Specialist with the Office of the Resident Coordinator of the United Nations and UNDP. Prior to her career with the UN, Nishtha worked with leading firms such as KPMG and American Express as an Economist. As a futurist and feminist, she is a loud advocate of the urgency to mainstream women across the marketplace, workplace and community. Nishtha serves on several national and international committees including the national committee to review CEDAW, the advisory board on programming on Artificial Intelligence of Global Policy Insights, the national committee to review Gender Budgeting, amongst many others. As a policy expert to Goverments.

Her interest lies in the intersection of policy, politics and people to foster lasting change for the most marginalized. She is well known columnist with leading dailies in India and is currently working on a book that captures the 25 landmark judgements that changed the course of gender equality in India. Nishtha holds a Master's Degree in International Business from the University of Nottingham, UK and a Bachelors in Economics from Delhi University.

A seasoned entrepreneur, designer, mentor, and mother of two, Khushei Aggarwal is a woman of many hats. Hailing from a small town in Haryana, Khushei is breaking the glass ceiling with her private label manufacturing company, Casa Joya.

Khushei, who juggles multiple duties, is a role model for many women because she has shown her mettle in the face of many obstacles. Women still struggle to make a name for themselves in the business world and hold back because of numerous social constraints and responsibilities. She has skilfully carved out a niche for herself in the fashion world by working with many labels in both the domestic and international markets.

Khushei has the full support of her husband, Himangshu Aggarwal who is playing an equal role in realising her ambition. The duo brings to the company their shared values, trust, and professional acumen. Their familiarity with each other’s work styles, passions, and unique skills fuelled the success of Casa Joya. 

Himangshu is an IT professional by training. He left his full-time IT job and took on the responsibility of managing operations in 2014, as Casa Joya started growing significantly. They started the business in 2012, just after getting married.

Khushei has years of management experience in the corporate industry and a teenage passion for apparel design and making. Having managed, created, and launched online fashion brands for both domestic and foreign markets, Khushei has a strong and well-established track record. With extensive experience in retail sales and distribution, Khushei assures profitability by maximising the use of available resources through smart distribution planning. She has excellent communication skills and a strong reputation for motivating teams to achieve corporate objectives.

Nehal Mota, Co-founder of Finnovate, is a successful financial services professional with close to 20 years of industry experience under her belt. She is known among her peers for her passion, non conformist attitude & resilience.

She is a B.Com, MBA and has completed her MDP from IIM Indore.

Finnovate is India’s first end-to-end ecosystem to manage your financial life and reach Life Goals. In a way of explanation- Finnovate is a wealth tech platform which offers unbiased holistic personalised financial planning and investment solutions to working professionals, high-networth individuals and families.

· Finnovate is a Financial Fitness Management company that uses a hybrid tech+advisory model to enable busy professionals reach their financial fitness goals by focussing on all aspects of their financial health - Budgeting, Risk and Investments

· Our expertise lies in helping clients build a holistic perspective of their financial fitness needs throughout their lifetime, and thereafter partnering with them to

· Build their personal FinnFit plan that would help them achieve their lifelong financial fitness.

· Choose research backed investments across diverse asset classes, suited to their personalised plan

· Implement the plan seamlessly using our dedicated service team

· Monitor Portfolio real time on FinnTrak

· Review and Rebalance portfolio based on changing life circumstances & dynamic Financial Markets and therefore

· Funding: A round of approximately $1 million in 2022.

Dr. Meraj Farheen Ansari is an Artificial Intelligence researcher and work as a Cybersecurity Engineer for a Fortune 500 financial firm in Chicago, IL. She received her Ph.D. in Information Technology, Master of Information Security Systems from University of the Cumberlands, and MBA (Management in Information Systems – Human Resource Management) from Concordia University Mequon, WI. Her research interests include emerging technologies such as Cybersecurity, AI, big data, blockchain, Internet of things and cloud computing.

FLEDGE INSTITUTE OF AVIATION & HOSPITALITY, a unit of MYFLEDGE PRIVATE LIMITED is known as the fastest-growing brand in the field of Vocational Training in India, spanning industries such as Aviation and Hospitality. Over the years it has consequently transformed countless careers and has inspired many to join us in our efforts to provide vocational skills to the youth of India.

The brand FLEDGE is known for its core expertise in Cabin Crew Training and Commercial Pilot License programs with International & National Accreditations and process-based Operations and Placement support. FLEDGE INSTITUTE OF AVIATION & HOSPITALITY offers well researched and customized courses that help one prepare for the Industry. FLEDGE offers courses in the field of Aviation and Hospitality, Pilot Training, Aircraft Maintenance Engineering, Hotel Management and Event Management.

The Courses offered by the Fledge institute are industry recognized and job-oriented as it covers not only communication skills and personality development but also in-depth knowledge about aircraft and flight safety protocols.

ReachIvy.com was founded when Vibha, while applying for overseas education, was barraged with a range of choices and faced a fundamental lack of access to high-quality expert guidance. This is what drove Vibha towards building a consultancy that believes in providing students with intensive guidance on studying abroad and careers.  With her team of experts who have first-hand knowledge of what it means to earn a degree from a top school and lead initiatives at prestigious companies/organizations, Vibha aims to guide students with an end-to-end consultation about all things higher education.

With a vision to bring cutting-edge consulting expertise to family-managed businesses in India, Swetha quit her job in McKinsey & Company, where she advised CEOs of conglomerates such as Mahindra Finance, SBI, Ashok Leyland on growth strategies and productivity enhancement and setup PKC Consulting. Over the years, the company provides growth advisory and consulting services to help companies multiple growth. Today, PKC works with over 1500 clients globally including renowned names such as Microsoft, Sundaram Composites, Renault Nissan with a team of 100+ professionals of CAs and MBAs. 

Their work is focused on 3 broad areas – process consulting & automation, audit & tax advisory. They were the subject-matter experts to the Government of India's Income Tax Portal revamped in 2021. Swetha has won several National Awards including the Entrepreneur of the Year, National Fund Raising Award from HDFC Bank. She was recognized by the Governor of Tamil Nadu as the Inspiring Business Woman of the Year. Swetha is not only a partner of PKC, but also an investor and member of the Chennai Angels, an angel investment group in India. 

Furthermore, she has delivered keynote addresses at numerous forums, including Madras Chamber of Commerce and Retailers Association of India. Swetha’s key objective lies in empowering women in making their own choices.

CCO & Assistant Director at Rizzle, has always strived to make organizations successful by translating her knowledge of business practices and experiences into pragmatic solutions with lasting impact.

She has a mixture of skills. And some of her key strengths include project management, content marketing, product management, social media strategy, community building, start-up consultation, legal liaisoning & public speaking. She has also been a consultant to start-ups since 2016.

She has an engineering graduate with a business administration and a law degree. Yeah, she is the jack of all trades the storybooks warned you about!

Amandeep Kaur is the Founder of Phoenix TalentX Branding, India’s Out of the Bulb Digital employer branding agency with clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to several start-ups, and products companies from India, Middle East, UK, and the US. She has 20+ years of experience in identifying talent insights, strategically manoeuvring and impacting employer brands in India. She specializes in developing brand’s India entry strategy and crafting employer value propositions (EVP) that resonate with Indian and global talent. 

Over the years, her company has developed its own unique model of crafting EVP which channelises the exponential potential of a company’s Business Brand X Employer Brand X Employees Personal Brands.

Mira Jhala a serial entrepreneur and over the last decade has been involved in various food startups. Mira is the Founder CEO of FroGo - she aims to build India's first and largest online frozen food product and distribution company. Mira is an Operating Partner at ScaleX Partners and in this role she provides strategic and operational expertise to startups in the food and FMCG domain.

Prior to ScaleX, she founded Purist, a new age contract food manufacturing company, which was acquired by Cure.Fit - India's largest health and fitness tech company. While at Cure.Fit, Mira was heading the food business for the North and East regions.

Founded and ran Purist, a new-age contract food manufacturing company, now part of Eat.Fit. A serial entrepreneur, previously co-founded and ran two successful food businesses: The Urban Kitchen (2009), and Curry-in-a-Hurry (2013).

Have been recognized by NDTV Food as one of six inspiring women food entrepreneurs across India.