The Devis

Anvita Dutt

Jagi Panda

Jagi Panda has always been a high flier. She started out with Indian Airlines, moved to modelling and now runs Ortel Communications, an infrastructure company, and OTV, Odisha’s first private broadcasting company. Panda didn’t start out to be a media mogul. After her marriage to MP Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda, she moved to Bhubaneswar and was looking “to work on something meaningful”. The family’s main line of business was mining (which was not really her cup of tea) but the company had a Communications plan in the ‘New Projects’ department that Panda liked the sound of, and decided to make her own. “I moved it out of the head office and began running it as an independent project with five persons working out of a small rented house,” says Panda. Today, Jagi employs over 2,500 people and Ortel has a presence in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and West Bengal. She has also pioneered several concepts that were firsts in that part of the world, such as granting widespread employee stock ownership, accessing venture funding, not to mention building a successful technology-related business in a state that’s more comfortable with mineral and manufacturing companies. The journey’s not always been smooth. “Fundraising was a major issue,” Panda reminisces. “At one point, we were demotivated to the level of quitting. It felt like we could never sell the company’s vision and raise the required capital, and Ortel is a very capital-intensive business.” Happily, the issues got sorted and Ortel took off. Panda then focused on building a capable management team with equity stakes in the company. She handed over the day-to-day management of the company to the team and began devoting her time to long-term growth plans. Panda’s life is not all business though. Hugely interested in societal issues, she has initiated Ortel Dayitwa, a CSR project providing scholarships for higher education for girls, as well as an awareness campaign of “Say No To Plastic Bags” that keeps an eye on the environment.

Laila Tyabji

Laila Tyabji has dedicated her life to reviving India’s craft heritage, working at multiple levels. Born in Delhi, she studied arts at the MS University, Baroda and, later, print-making at the Toshi Yoshida Studio in Japan. She started out as a freelance designer for textiles, graphics and theatre. But, things took an interesting turn in the year 1976 when the Gujarat State Handloom and Handicrafts Development Corporation asked her to document, revive and redesign the traditional handicrafts of Kutch. Tyabji spent six months in the region, working with the crafts and craftspeople in the area—block printing, weaving, bandini, woodwork, pottery, and the many different traditions of embroidery and appliqué. In 1981, she and five others brainstormed an organisation for crafts and craftspeople. That was Dastkar. “It all started very informally. I had no idea that we would still be at it 35 years later, and that it would become an all-India movement!” says Tyabji. The organisation that started with just 15 nervous groups of craftspeople today works with over 700 such groups all over India. Dastkar provides support services such as entrepreneurship training, access to credit, product and skills development, design and marketing to traditional artisans, in an attempt to make handicrafts (which is India’s second-largest employment sector) regain its place in the economic mainstream. She has edited a book entitled Threads & Voices: Behind the Indian Textile Tradition, which tells the stories of artisan communities and the practice of different textile crafts. She has also served as a member of numerous national committees and advisory boards for handicrafts, the small-scale industries, khadi and design. She’s worked in 29 states, with over one lakh artisans across the country, but feels that there is still a long way to go.“In the micro sense, a lot has changed since we began. Artisans are going places, and today they have the confidence to innovate and make sense of what works and what does not work in the mainstream market. But in the macro sense, this is just a drop in the ocean. We at Dastkar work with thousands of artisans, but there are still many million others who are struggling, and need the same assistance and investment,” she says. In 2003, Tyabji got the Aid to Artisans Preservation of Craft Award in New York, the first Asian to receive the honour. In 2012, she received the Padma Shri.

Mallika Srinivasan

Preetha Reddy

Her father Dr. Prathap C. Reddy pioneered private healthcare in India and created the country’s first corporate hospital. As Vice-Chairperson of Apollo Hospitals Group, which she joined in 1989, Preetha Reddy has not only taken forward her father’s mission to “make healthcare accessible to all” but has also substantially raised the bar for healthcare standards in the country. It was with her guidance and support that the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals (NABH) was introduced by the Government of India. She spearheads Apollo’s focus on data-driven decision-making and champions the strategic deployment of analytics. In fact, it’s her focus on driving innovation through technology that saw Apollo being honoured with the 2016 Microsoft innovation award for using analytics to manage and control infectious diseases. Under Reddy’s leadership, Apollo has witnessed immense growth, both in the number of hospital beds and the Group’s annual turnover. She also oversees the planning, designing and funding of new projects, with a view to directing the Group towards best use of resources and funds. Across the country, whenever any need has arisen, be it a manmade disaster or natural calamity, Reddy has facilitated prompt medical assistance to provide relief and rehabilitation. Committed to service, she plays a key role in Apollo’s corporate social responsibility initiatives and has helmed several projects like SACHi (Save a Child’s Heart Initiative), that supports diagnostics and treatment of underprivileged children ailing from congenital heart diseases. Reddy graduated in science from Stella Maris College in Chennai and got her Masters’s degree in Public Administration from Madras University. She was conferred the degree of Doctor of Science by the Dr. MGR Medical University, Tamil Nadu in recognition of her outstanding work in the field of healthcare.

Radha Kapoor

Ritu Kumar

For over forty years, Ritu Kumar has been working to put India’s print and textile traditions centrestage. For that she has worked with craftspeople in villages as well as the rich and famous, in India and out of it. The Mumbai-born Kumar did not set out as a designer. She studied Art History at Briarcliff College in New York, after finishing her college in Delhi. It was while studying museology at the Asutosh Museum of Indian Art in Calcutta University that Kumar got interested in block-printing. She set up a unit with four hand-block printers and two tables in a small village near Kolkata; their work found its way into Ritu’s Boutique, the first such store of its kind in India. From the beginning, Kumar’s creations were distinctive in their use of colour, the quality of the fabric, intricate print/embroidery and a gloriously rich Indian aesthetic that had a very contemporary feel. Working with craftspeople, Kumar made significant impact in creating employment in underdeveloped areas. Within a decade, Brand Ritu Kumar was retailing in Europe: the products a mix of couture and prêt. In 2002, Kumar launched a sub-brand called Label, featuring Western silhouettes with traditional Indian embellishments. The two brands are now sold in 27 stores across India. And yet Kumar keeps visiting small towns and villages looking for authentic textiles. “In the last three decades, I have seen our textile heritage being reduced to a shadow of its glorious past. I can’t stand it. I will do every bit I can to revive our handlooms and reinstate the lost glory of our crafts,” she says. Her book Costumes and Textiles of Royal India, published by Christie’s, chronicles the history of textiles and art design in India. Kumar’s work as a textile revivalist has won her many honours including the Padma Shri in 2013 and the French Knighthood, Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, in 2008.

Sanjukta Parasor

Seema Rao

She set out to be a doctor and ended up as India’s only woman commando trainer with an MBA degree in crisis management, and has a seventh-degree black belt in military martial arts. Meet Seema Rao, an approved resource of the Home Ministry for anti-terror CQB (close quarter battle) training. For the uninitiated, CQB is combat at 0-30 metres, using bullets, bayonets, daggers, grenades or just bare hands. “It also requires strong shooting skills, where you have to beat the enemy by firing first; where you have to kill to survive,” explains the 47-year-old Rao, who, along with her husband Deepak, has patented a new method of shooting at close quarters. The ‘Rao System of Reflex Fire’ has been incorporated into Indian Army commands with due credits, gaining three Army Chief citations for the Raos. It’s been over 18 years now that Seema and Deepak have been training special forces, that too without compensation. “We have trained about 15,000 soldiers from every elite Indian force there is, from Navy Marcos to NSG Black Cats to the Air Force Garud, Paramilitary and Police forces” she says. She has also written the world’s first Encyclopedia of Close Combat Ops Training. Seema says it was her freedom-fighter father’s tales that gave her a strong sense of patriotism. “They made me want to do my bit for the country too, especially to repay the armed forces for the sacrifices they make for us.” Today, Rao believes there is nothing that women can’t accomplish. “As a woman in the combat world, which is dominated by men, I’ve proven that women can do anything that men can. Life only demands from you the strength that you already possess,” she adds. Life hasn’t always been easy, of course. Rao has suffered several injuries over the years, including a vertebral fracture. She has also been shot at. Yet she never gave up.