From entering Forbes to holding top positions: 2021, a year of women achievers

The year 2021 is coming to an end and with this we wait with bated breath to receive the new year. The year 2021 saw many turmoils, the biggest being the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic which took away many precious lives.

The year also witnessed the advent of the Omicron variant and the devastating IAF chopper crash in Coonoor, Tamil Nadu which took the lives of 12 brave IAF personnel along with CDS Bipin Rawat and his wife Madhulika Rawat.

However, the year 2021 also witnessed some whirlwind changes. 2021 has largely been a year for women achievers who took charge of important roles in different fields and became business leaders, a profession long dominated by the males.

From Gita Gopinath to six of the 15 districts in Delhi getting women as Deputy Commissioners of Police, women this year have showed the way forward by breaking traditional norms. Here we talk of some of the great women achievers who are inspiring the next generations to bring in positive changes.

Gita Gopinath

(Image Source: Reuters)

Indian-American Gita Gopinath became International Monetary Fund's first Deputy Managing Director replacing Geoffrey Okamoto. Gopinath, who was scheduled to return to her academic position at Harvard University in January 2022, has served as the IMF's chief economist for three years. Gita Gopinath was the first female chief economist in IMF's history.

Delhi gets six women IPS officers

(Image Source: Twitter)

In a first, six of the 15 districts in the national capital of Delhi got women as Deputy Commissioners of Police. Benita Mary Jaiker, a 2010 IPS batch officer, has been serving in the Delhi Police for more than 10 years now.  She was posted as DCP at the 7th Battalion before this.

Esha Pandey took charge as DCP Southeast district while Shweta Chauhan is leading the Central district. 2010 batch IPS officer Esha Pandey was previously DCP PCR before being transferred to DCP South East Delhi. IPS officers Usha Rangnani, Urvija Goel and Priyanka Kashyap are posted as DCPs in Northwest, West and East districts respectively.

Falguni Nayar

Falguni Nayar, the billionaire founder of online beauty products retailer Nykaa became India's first woman-led unicorn which made a debut on the stock exchange with its market valuation crossing the Rs 1 lakh crore (USD 13.47 billion) mark in November.

Earlier, she was the Managing Director at Kotak Mahindra Capital Company when she quitted her high-profile job in 2012 and started her own business.

Leena Nair

(Image Source: Twitter@LeenaNairHR)

Leena Nair, 52, who previously served as Unilever's top HR executive was named French luxury fashion house, Chanel's new global CEO. Nair will be joining the company at the end of January and will be based in London. 

With this, Leena Nair joined a growing list of Indian-origin executives who have taken up top roles in some of the world's biggest companies in recent past which includes Indian origin Parag Agarwal becoming the new Twitter CEO.

Nair, started her career as a management trainee at Unilever in 1992. She steadily rose through the ranks to become the first female, first Asian, youngest ever Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) at Unilever in 2016. 

Divya Gokulnath

Divya Gokulnath, 35, co-founder of India's largest education technology company Byju's Think and Learn this year turned her company into a unicorn. With this she managed to find a place for herself in the Forbe's rich list with a net worth of USD 4.05 billion.

Divya Gokulnath studied at Frank Anthony Public School, and later went to RV College of Engineering to pursue her B Tech in Biotechnology.