HOW WE DID IT
It seems to be getting tougher by the year. As women are climbing up the corporate ladder and impacting their business and society like never before, selecting them is getting even tougher. But we are getting better every year at living up to the benchmark we had set forth with our annual exercise in 2003, when Business-Today was the first publication in India to put out a power list of women. There’s more than what meets the eye. An exercise that begins in May, with BT’s editors and beat experts suggesting the who’s who, drawing up an initial list of 150-odd women, and goes to the second stage when a team evaluates them on hard-core performance matrix — backed by our Principal Researcher Avneet Kaur — and finally the senior editors shortlisting the 50-odd names to be presented to the jury in June. Like every year, BT gets the best in class to choose The Most Powerful Women in Indian Business. This year, too, we had a power-packed jury. After hours of deliberation, 30 made the cut — from firstgeneration entrepreneurs, marquee deal makers, meticulous litigators, marketing wizards, to PSU heads. The list boasts achievers who have reached the pinnacle in traditionally maledominated bastions. This year, besides the new entrants, we have three women winning the award the seventh time, entering the 'Hall of Fame', and, of course, the consistent performers.