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New York: Forbes has put an Indian woman right on top of its coveted Power Businesswomen ranking 2016 - Nita Ambani, director on the board of Reliance Industries and founder-chairperson, Reliance Foundation. Eight Indian women find a place in the 50 stars of Asian business. Forbes has just released its list of 50 powerful women in Asia which appears in the April 2016 issue of Forbes Asia.

Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairman and managing director of SBI comes in at second place. Other Indians who figure are Ambiga Dhiraj of Mu Sigma at #14, Dipali Goenka of Welspun India at #16, Vinita Gupta, CEO of Lupin at # 18, Chanda Kochhar, Managing director and CEO of ICICI Bank at # 22, Vandana Luthra of VLCC Health Care at # 26 and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Founder-Chairman of Biocon at # 28.
"In a country where billionaire wives tend to remain in the shadow of their husbands, Nita's rising profile in the Reliance empire is unusual and earns her a debut spot on our Power Businesswomen ranking this year," says Naazreen Karmali of Forbes in the lead article on the debut topper.
Forbes is synonymous for its lists and rankings, including the richest Americans (Forbes 400), rankings of world's top companies (the Forbes Global 2000) and The World's Billionaires list.

Headlined "Meet Nita Ambani, the first lady of Indian business", Forbes quotes Bollywood star Aamir Khan speaking of Nita Ambani's "grace" and Shobhaa De underlining Ambani's "native intelligence".

Naazneen Karmali quotes leaders of industry and popular commentators on stardom and sport to construct a mosaic of impressions that make Nita Ambani "the first lady of Indian business."

Forbes quotes veteran sports journalist Ayaz Memon saying "the Ambanis aren't afraid to spend money for the right talent. For them it's a matter of prestige not just to own a team but to win."

"Nita provides the 'software' to Reliance's hardware culture to create a capability that works. As Reliance becomes more consumer-facing, her soft touch assumes importance," says Adil Zainulbhai, a former chairman of McKinsey in India.

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