Ireena Vittal, 

As the clamour for more women on boards increases, watch out for Vittal. A former consultant, Vittal was at McKinsey for more than 16 years before she quit in 2012. She now sits on the boards of several top companies, including Tata Global Beverages, Indian Hotels, Wipro, Axis Bank, Godrej Consumer Products, Titan, and the online restaurant listing business Zomato. The rest of her time is spent in projects that focus on urban development and rural growth. “For me, the challenge is to learn ... and unlearn what I know,” says Vittal, “about how we will build and manage our cities, and how we will take the markets to millions of small farmers.” She loves reading and running, which she calls her “favourite waste of time”.