The Power Women

As women continue to scale newer heights in every field, we write an ode to 20 great women in the Indian financial sector.

- Nirmala Konjengbam, Aparajita Gupta And Deepika Asthana

USHA SANGWAN

MD, LIC of India

Sangwan is the first ever woman Managing Director of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC). A Post Graduate in Economics, Post Graduate Diploma holder in Human Resource Management and licentiate from Insurance Institute of India, she joined the company as Direct Recruit Officer in 1981. Since then, Sangwan has worked in all core areas of life insurance and her expertise lies in analytics, strategy, execution, people skill, customer centricity, use of technology (particularly in marketing and servicing) and setting up of systems. At LIC, she is instrumental in starting direct marketing channel, SMS-based helpline, online sales of policies, app-based services and social media promotions. Further, she has institutionalised many corporate communication activities and taken several initiatives in marketing, to create role model agents in every branch.

VANI KOLA

Managing Director (MD), Kalaari Capital

Vani Kola is a renowned investor and a visionary known for identifying emerging markets. Under her leadership, Kalaari Capitals is committed to promote Indian entrepreneurs with the conviction that Indian companies are poised to become global players. Having been a successful entrepreneur in the Silicon Valley for 22 years, she now works with first-time entrepreneurs to build strong global companies. She focuses on technology companies, leveraging domestic growth to create high-growth enterprises. Kola has successfully led investments in sectors like e-commerce, telecom, education and healthcare. She said, “The notable successes in the venture capital space in last 20 years were MakeMyTrip, Flipkart, Myntra and Freecharge. Healthtech, consumer brands, mobile content and entertainment, agritech and fintech are the sectors that are likely to grow in the near future.”

ROOPA KUDVA,

MD, Omidyar Network India