THIS IS THE 15TH EDITION of Fortune India’s Most Powerful Women in Business (MPW). While other publications just come out with a list, Fortune India is the only one that ranks the most powerful women. The process to identify the final list takes close to three months of time.

While earlier editions of the list ranked the Top 50, this time round we have raised the bar to include 100 powerful women. The idea behind expanding the list to 100 was to acknowledge and celebrate the achievements of many more women who are doing extraordinary work in their fields and are consequently inspiring many others across the country with their talent, grit and determination.

The process begins with Fortune India’s editorial team talking to industry experts, domain leaders, consultants and analysts for suggestions on the women who have made an impact in their sectors over the past year. This year’s study spanned four quarters — from April 2024 to March 2025. The list includes leaders who came into prominence through their initiatives during the year, past winners and their achievements during the year.

We seek information on multiple achievements during the year — external/and or internal challenges faced during the course of these achievements; technical and behavioural attributes or past training that helped them overcome these challenges; actions that led to enhanced business performance in specific areas of business not visible in overall financial statements; their role in overall business expansion and what they are doing differently.

This helps us identify a master list of over 150 women leaders. The list is then narrowed down to 100 names after extensive deliberations among Fortune India’s senior editorial team and industry experts. The criteria is to identify women who stood out for their leadership, social responsibility and influence in their respective sectors during the year.

We then build a detailed docket on the Top 100 women leaders. We consider six parameters here — their educational background, arc of their career till now, size and importance of their business in the global economy, health and direction of their business, their social and cultural influence and how the individual wields power.

Once the broad docket is prepared, the tough job of finalising the rankings begins in earnest. A team of senior editors deliberates and the process is then completed.

What we try to do is identify a broad cross-section of women leaders across sectors such as manufacturing, healthcare, information technology, law, media and entertainment and others. Another set includes achievers in the government, women of Indian origin who have made it big globally, first-generation entrepreneurs, bankers and dealmakers.

This process enables Fortune India to come up with a diverse list of women achievers in the country and of Indian origin.