15 Most Famous Indian Women

15 Most Famous Indian Women

*Originally published by Cyndi K on June 2022 and Updated by Vanessa R on May 2023

1. Mother Teresa(1910- 1997)

Mother Teresa- Author; Kingkongphoto & www.celebrity-photos.com- Wikimedia

Mother Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu was born on August 26th 1910 and passed away on September 5th 1997. Honoured in the Catholic Church as Saint Teresa of Calcutta, Mother Teresa was an Albanian-Indian Roman Catholic nun and missionary.

She was born in Skopje (then known as Üsküp, now the capital of North Macedonia), then part of the Kosovo Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire. After living in Skopje for eighteen years, she moved to Ireland and then to India, where she lived for most of her life.

Mother Teresa received a number of honours, including the 1962 Ramon Magsaysay Peace Prize and the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize.

She was canonised on 4 September 2016, and the anniversary of her death (5 September) is her feast day.

A controversial figure during her life and after her death, Mother Teresa was admired by many for her charitable work.

She was praised and criticized on various counts, such as for her views on abortion and contraception, and was criticized for poor conditions in her houses for the dying.

Her authorized biography was written by Navin Chawla and published in 1992, and she has been the subject of films and other books.

On 6 September 2017, Mother Teresa and St. Francis Xavier were named co-patrons of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Calcutta.

2. Indira Gandhi (1917- 1984)

Indira in 1977- Author; Unknown- Wikimedia

Born as Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi on 19th November 1917, Indira Gandhi was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress.

She was the 3rd prime minister of India and the first up to date, the only female prime minister of India.

Gandhi was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the 1st prime minister of India and served as prime minister from January 1966 to March 1977 then again from January 1980 until her assassination in October 1984. This made her the second longest-serving Indian prime minister after her father.

As prime minister, Gandhi was known for her political intransigency and unprecedented centralization of power.

She once went to war with Pakistan in support of the independence movement and war of independence in East Pakistan, which resulted in an Indian victory and the creation of Bangladesh, as well as increasing India’s influence to the point where it became the sole regional power of South Asia.

In response to a call for revolution, Gandhi instituted a state of emergency from 1975 to 1977 where basic civil liberties were suspended and the press was censored.

Widespread atrocities were carried out during the emergency. In 1980, she returned to power after free and fair elections.

After Gandhi ordered military action in the Golden Temple in Operation Blue Star, her own bodyguards and Sikh nationalists assassinated her on 31 October 1984.

3. P. V Sindhu

P. V Sindhu- Author; Prashant123japla- Wikimedia

Born on 5th July, 1995, Pusarla Venkata Sindhu is an Indian badminton player. She is considered one of India’s most successful sportspersons.

Sindhu has won medals at various tournaments such as the Olympics and on the BWF circuit, a gold at the 2019 BWF World Championships.

She is the first and only Indian to become the badminton world champion and only the second individual athlete from India to win two consecutive medals at the Olympic Games.

Sindhu broke into the top 20 of the BWF World Rankings in September 2012, at the age of 17. She has won a total of five medals at the BWF World Championships and is just the second woman after China’s Zhang Ning ever to win five or more singles medals in the competition.

She represented India at the 2016 Summer Olympics (Rio), where she became the first Indian badminton player to reach the Olympic final. 

Sindhu won her first superseries title at the 2016 China Open and followed it up with four more finals in 2017, winning the titles in South Korea and India.

In addition to that, she has won a silver medal each at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and 2018 Asian Games, and two bronze medals at the Uber Cup.

4. Rani Lakshmibai (1828- 1858)

Rani Lakshmibai drawing- Source;The Indian War Of Independence 1857 (1947 Ed.) by Vinayak Damodar Sawarkar- Wikimedia

Lakshmibai, also known as the Rani of Jhansi was born on 19th November 1828  and passed away on 18th June 1858. She was an Indian queen, the Maharani consort of the Maratha princely state of Jhansi from 1843 to 1853 as the wife of Maharaja Gangadhar Rao.

She was one of the leading figures of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and became a symbol of resistance to the British Raj for Indian nationalists.

On 10 May 1857, the Indian Rebellion started in Meerut. When news of the rebellion reached Jhansi, the Rani asked the British political officer, Captain Alexander Skene, for permission to raise a body of armed men for her own protection; Skene agreed to this.

The city was relatively calm in the midst of the regional unrest in the summer of 1857, but  Rani conducted a Haldi Kumkum ceremony with pomp in front of all the women of Jhansi so as to provide assurance to her subjects, and to convince them that the British were cowards and not to be afraid of them.

Until this point, Lakshmi Bai was reluctant to rebel against the British. In June 1857, rebels of the 12th Bengal Native Infantry seized the Star Fort of Jhansi, containing the treasure and magazine, and after persuading the British to lay down their arms by promising them no harm, broke their word and massacred 40 to 60 European officers of the garrison along with their wives and children.

The Rani’s involvement in this massacre is still a subject of debate. An army doctor, Thomas Lowe, wrote after the rebellion characterizing her as the “Jezebel of India … the young rani upon whose head rested the blood of the slain”.

5. Anushka Sharma

Anushka Sharma- Author; http://www.bollywoodhungama.com- Wikimedia

Anushka Sharma  is an Indian actress and film producer who works in Hindi films (Bollywood). She was born on 1st May, 1988.

She has received several awards, which is inclusive of a Filmfare Award. As One of the highest-paid actresses in India, she has appeared in Forbes India‘s Celebrity 100 since 2012 and was featured by Forbes Asia in their 30 Under 30 list of 2018.

Sharma is the co-founder of the production company Clean Slate Filmz, under which she has produced several films, including ‘NH10.’

She is the ambassador for multiple brands and products, has designed her own line of clothing for women, named Nush, and supports various charities and causes, including gender equality and animal rights. 

6. Kareena Kapoor

Kareena Kapoor- Author; Bollywood Hungama- Wikimedia

Kareena Kapoor Khan was born on 21st September 1980. She is an Indian actress who appears in Hindi Bollywood films.

Noted for playing a variety of characters in a range of film genres, from romantic comedies to crime dramas, Kapoor is the recipient of several awards, including six Filmfare Awards, and is also  one of Bollywood’s highest-paid actresses.

Kapoor participates in stage shows, hosts a radio show and has contributed as a co-writer to two autobiographical memoirs and two books of nutrition guides.

She has started her own line of clothing and cosmetics for women, and has worked with UNICEF since 2014 to advocate for the education of girls and to increase  quality based education in India.

7. Sania Mirza

Sania Mirza- Author; Andrew Campbell- Wikimedia

Sania Mirza  is an Indian professional tennis player. A former doubles world No. 1, she has won six Grand Slam titles in her career. She was born on 15th November, 1986.

From 2003 until her retirement from singles in 2013, she was ranked by the Women’s Tennis Association as India’s No. 1 player.

She is the highest-ranked female player ever from India, peaking at world No. 27 in mid-2007. However, a major wrist injury forced her to give up her singles career and focus on the doubles circuit.

She has achieved a number of firsts for women’s tennis in her native country, including surpassing $1 million in career earnings, winning a singles WTA title, and winning a Grand Slam title, as well as qualifying for (and eventually winning) the WTA Finals in 2014 alongside Cara Black, defending the title the following year partnering with Martina Hingis.

8. Saina Nehwal

Saina Nehwal- Author;
Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports- Wikimedia

Saina Nehwal who was born on 17th March 1990, is an Indian professional badminton player.

As a former world no. 1, she has won 24 international titles, which includes ten Superseries titles.

Although she reached the world’s 2nd in 2009, it was only in 2015 that she was able to attain the world no. 1 ranking, thereby becoming the only female player from India and overall the second Indian player – after Prakash Padukone – to achieve this feat.

She has represented India three times in the Olympics, winning a bronze medal in her second appearance at the London 2012.

Nehwal has achieved several milestones in badminton for India. as she is the only Indian to have won at least one medal in every BWF major individual event, namely the Olympics, the BWF World Championships, and the BWF World Junior Championships.

She is the first Indian badminton player to have won an Olympic medal, the first Indian to have reached the final of the BWF World Championships, along with being the only Indian to have won the BWF World Junior Championships.

 In 2006, Nehwal became the first Indian female and the youngest Asian to win a 4-star tournament.

In the 2010 and 2018 Commonwealth Games, Nehwal became the first Indian to win two singles gold medals 

9. Sarojini Naidu(1879- 1949)

Sarojini Naidu- Author; Paper Jewels- Wikimedia

Sarojini Naidu was an Indian political activist and poet. She was born on 13th February 1879 and passed on of a cardiac arrest on 2nd March, 1949.

As a proponent of civil rights, women’s emancipation, and anti-imperialistic ideas, she was an important figure in India’s struggle for independence from colonial rule.

Naidu’s work as a poet earned her the sobriquet ‘the Nightingale of India’, or ‘Bharat Kokila’ by Mahatma Gandhi because of colour, imagery and lyrical quality of her poetry.

Naidu’s poetry includes both children’s poems and others written on more serious themes including patriotism, and tragedy.

Published in 1912, “In the Bazaars of Hyderabad” remains one of her most popular poems. 

10. Mary Kom

Mary Kom- Author;British High Commission, India- Wikimedia

Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom popularly known as simply Mary Kom was born on 24th November 1982. She is an Indian amateur boxer, politician, and incumbent Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha.

She is the only woman to win the World Amateur Boxing Championship six times, the only female boxer to have won a medal in each one of the first seven World Championships, and the only boxer (male or female) to win eight World Championship medals.

Nicknamed Magnificent Mary, she is the only Indian female boxer to have qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics, competing in the flyweight category and winning a bronze medal.

 She became the first Indian female boxer to win a gold medal in the Asian Games in 2014 at Incheon, South Korea and is the first Indian female boxer to win gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

On 25 April 2016, the President of India nominated Kom as a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament.

In March 2017, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India, appointed Mary Kom along with Akhil Kumar as national observers for boxing.

11. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw 

Biocon was founded in 1978 by Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw. She is currently India’s richest self-made billionaire and is listed as number 60 on Forbes’ list of the world’s most powerful women.

She now holds the positions of chair and managing director of Biocon Ltd, one of India’s major biotechnology and biopharmaceutical firms, as well as chair of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.

The Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan awards were offered to her by the Indian Government in appreciation of her accomplishments. She is also a member of the Board of Governors of the Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad.

12. Indra Nooyi

JeffBedford from Arlington, Virginia, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Former CEO of PepsiCo and business executive Indra Nooyi. She has often been listed as one of the 100 most powerful women in the world. Being the second-most powerful woman in the world in 2015, she was also included on the Fortune List.

As one of the “Best CEOs in the World” in 2018, Nooyi also received the Padma Bhushan and the CNN-IBM Indian of the Year-Global Indian award in 2019. She is currently the second woman to sit on the Amazon board of directors and serves in that capacity.

13. Richa Kar

The well-known knickers company Zivame was founded by Richa Kar. Richa Kar’s route to success was an arduous ascent, despite the brand’s current notoriety and accolades. Kar, who was raised in a traditional household and was raised in Jamshedpur, did her undergraduate studies at the prestigious BITS Pilani and then went on to obtain her master’s degree at the Narsee Monji School of Management Studies before finding employment in the IT industry.

Her parents did not support her plans to launch a lingerie business because they believed that it would be embarrassing for their daughter to sell clothing, bras and knickers online and that people would make fun of her job.

Nonetheless, in spite of all the obstacles, she started Zivame in 2011 with the help of all of her money and a loan of INR 35 lakhs from her friends. Her idea received $3 million in funding in 2012, $6 million in 2013, and $40 million in 2015 after impressing investors with her tenacity and resolve.

14. Vandana Luthra

Anand Swarup, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A company that had a modest start in New Delhi has grown to be well-known in 13 countries in South Asia, Southeast Asia, the GCC Region, and most recently East Africa. VLCC, a well-known health and wellness conglomerate and a pioneer in the Indian beauty and wellness industries, was founded by Vandana Luthra.

It also manages the VLCC Institute of Beauty & Nutrition, which has grown into India’s largest chain of vocational education academies for the training of those interested in beauty and nutrition.

15. Falguni Nayar

Falguni Nayar, an IIM, Ahmedabad alumna, worked with the Kotak Mahindra Group for nearly two decades as an investment banker and broker.

She was successful in leading the company to become India’s top IPO banker and concluding several successful M&As after she was appointed Managing Director of the investment banking division in 2005. (Mergers and Acquisitions). But her entrepreneurial spirit prevailed, and her years of expertise and fruitful relationships gave her the courage to launch her own health and beauty company, Nykaa, which is now well-known.

Millions of Indians may now get a large selection of cosmetics at their doorstep thanks to Nykaa. The selection of products for the store was made after seeking out a lot of suggestions. Also, it has taken the lead in introducing premium brands from abroad to India, providing Indian consumers with a wide range of options for goods and services. The current value of Nykaa is $750 million.