Proud Moment! Nirmala Sitharaman In Forbes's World's 100 Most Powerful Women's List For 2019

Last week, the Congress leader in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had to apologize to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman after he called her 'Nirbala Sitharaman’.

While participating in the discussion on the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill on Monday, Chowdhury took a swipe at Sitharaman and suggested that the finance minister has become weak and called her Nirbala Sitharaman’.?

During her reply, Sitharaman did not directly refer to Chowdhury’s comment but concluded her speech by saying she is still Nirmala and sabla (empowered).

Chowdhury later apologized and said if his remarks have hurt the finance minister, he expresses regret. He said the minister is like a sister to him, he considers himself as her brother.

Chowdhury's remark was undoubtedly unwarranted and discredited the achievements of Sitaraman who was the first woman minister to hold independent charges of the Defence and Finance Ministries.

Now, she has made it to the Forbes 2019 list of ‘The World's 100 Most Powerful Women’.

Sitharaman was ranked 34th in the list which is topped by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, followed by President of the European Central Bank Christine Lagarde in the second spot and Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi in the third position.

Other Indians who made it to the top 100 list are HCL Corporation CEO and Executive Director Roshni Nadar Malhotra and Biocon Founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw.

Nadar Malhotra is ranked 54th on the list. As CEO of HCL Corporation, she is responsible for all strategic decisions for the USD 8.9 billion technology company.

Malhotra is also the chairperson of the company's CSR Committee and is a trustee of the Shiv Nadar Foundation, which is focused on education and has established some of India's top colleges and schools, Forbes said.

Mazumdar-Shaw, ranked 65 on the list, is India's richest self-made woman and founder of the country's largest biopharmaceutical firm Biocon in 1978.

Biocon has “successfully forayed into the lucrative US biosimilars market, catching the attention of investors" and it also became the first company to gain approval from the US FDA for two different biosimilars of drugs used in certain cancer treatments.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina?also made it to the list of powerful women and was ranked 29th.

Another interesting entry in the list is environmental activist Greta Thunberg. The 16-year-old Swedish girl who has become the face of the global youth movement calling for action against climate change was ranked 100th on the Forbes list. Recently Greta was named as the Time Person of the year 2019.