How these Successful Indian Women Entrepreneurs Have Embarked on their Journey into Manufacturing Industry
New Delhi : Housewives, mothers, and homemakers are traditional roles for Indian women. Women entrepreneurship may be frowned upon in a country where tradition runs deep. Several Indian women, on the other hand, have defied the odds and become successful businesswomen. For several decades, not just in modern times. With the continued growth of the Indian manufacturing ecosystem, an increasing number of women are pursuing their dream and succeeding in their businesses. Other Indian women, who are still bound to the conventional homemaker role, are being empowered to think for themselves as a result of this.
The most successful women in manufacturing are honored in this article. Considering the expansion of all of these businesses, these role models have reached to the next level of success.
Ms. Pallavi Singh, Vice President, Super Plastronics Pvt. Ltd.
Pallavi Singh is a source of inspiration for Indian women entrepreneurs. She is a mother to a young toddler, and her journey into the industrial sector and building a name for herself has been incredible. Pallavi is the VP of SPPL, India's largest TV manufacturing firm, where she is responsible for not only guiding the company's growth but also developing worldwide brands such as Westinghouse TV and White Westinghouse in India under the 'Atma Nirbhar Bharat' Mission. She joined SPPL in 2015 after working as a tax and regulatory consultant at KPMG and built the company's e-commerce market from the scratch, and is successfully leading the e-commerce, finance, and after-sales divisions.
Under her leadership, SPPL launched Westinghouse TV in India, a US-based brand with a 130-year history, before the festive season of 2021, when market attitudes were not so good. The brand went out of stock on Amazon just a few months after its debut. Pallavi devised a sound plan for launching Westinghouse in India, and the brand has since established itself as one of the most affordable television brands in the country.
With her chartered accounting talents, this woman entrepreneur has worked with several international clients. She was also named in the Entrepreneur India magazine as a 'She-preneur to watch in 2020,' alongside other entrepreneurs from diverse fields. SPPL’s current revenue is 500 crores and her mission is to achieve projected growth of Rs. 800 crores in the next five years. SPPL is in charge of Kodak, Thomson, Blaupunkt, and White Westinghouse branding, production, and design in India.
Mallika Srinivasan, CEO and Chairperson, TAFE
Mallika Srinivasan is the CEO and Chairperson of Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited (TAFE), an Indian tractor manufacturer founded in 1960. She is also the Chairperson of the Government of India's Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB). She is also a member of the United States-India Business Council's (USIBC) Global Board, as well as the AGCO Corporation and Tata Steel Limited Boards. She earned an MA in Econometrics before pursuing an MBA and entering the family company.
She assumed responsible for increasing the company's turnover. TAFE has built a place for itself as a major tractor producer and has grown into other industries such as agricultural implements, engineering plastics, and hydraulics under her excellent leadership.
She is the mother of Lakshmi Venu and Sudarshan Venu.
Sulajja Firodia Motwani, Vice-chairman, Kinetic Engineering & founder-CEO, Kinetic Green
Born on 26 August 1970, Sulajja Firodia Motwani is an Indian entrepreneur and mother to a son. She spent four years with BARRA International, a California-based investment analytics firm, prior to joining Kinetic Motor Company. She was instrumental in establishing the Kinetic Motor Company's operations in India. She believes when it comes to manufacturing, India still appears to be experimenting with women. Women make up more than a quarter of the workforce on factory floors in wealthy countries like the United States and China. More than 80% of the workers in two of her companies — Kinetic Communication, which develops electronic components for the automobile industry, and Kinetic Taigene Electrical, which creates starters — are women. This percentage was 20% five years ago. Motwani began her work on a group company's shop floor and is passionate about it. When women manage the shop floor, productivity is higher and absenteeism is lower.
Women are better suited to careers requiring plastics and electronics, which do not need considerable physical labour.
Hemalatha Annamalai, Founder-CEO, Ampere
Despite the fact that India's electric vehicle (EV) market is still in its infancy, Hemalatha Annamalai has managed to carve out a position for her company. She enlisted the assistance of my husband, who stood beside her on the shop floor.
He handled the process, research, and development while she focused on the commercial side of things. Men often lead businesses in non-metro areas like Coimbatore, while women provide back-end support. It was the opposite way around in her instance, and it was a deliberate decision based on the founding team's skills.
She wanted to develop a completely new manufacturing sector and wanted a lot of women to join it, despite her non-manufacturing background. Ampere employs four people, one of whom is a woman.
