Women Making Impact - India

Chinu’s journey started at the age of 15 when her first job ever was to work as a Door to Door salesperson. This was one of the most challenging jobs but at that age, this was the best that she could get. Along the way she faced many challenges and for many years she did multiple part-time jobs thus working almost 16 hours every day.

She recounts that during her struggle period having 3 meals a day was a luxury for her and today she is the owner of Fashion Jewellery Brand RUBANS. It’s been a dream journey but success has not come easy, she says.  Rubans in some ways is the result of her 15 years of hardships and never give up attitude. From her childhood, she was always fascinated by the prospect of being an entrepreneur. She began her entrepreneurial journey with Fonte Corporate Solutions – a company that specialised in corporate merchandising. Within 5 years of operations, Fonte Corporate Solutions soon became the gifting partner of choice for UB, Sab Miller, ITC, Set Max, ESPN etc.

Currently, Chinu is focusing on expanding her product portfolio and entering the Luxury Fashion Jewellery market. The brand is also planning to get into strategic partnerships with other national brands to increase the reach.

Chinu’s journey started at the age of 15 when her first job ever was to work as a Door to Door salesperson. This was one of the most challenging jobs but at that age, this was the best that she could get. Along the way she faced many challenges and for many years she did multiple part-time jobs thus working almost 16 hours every day.

She recounts that during her struggle period having 3 meals a day was a luxury for her and today she is the owner of Fashion Jewellery Brand RUBANS. It’s been a dream journey but success has not come easy, she says.  Rubans in some ways is the result of her 15 years of hardships and never give up attitude. From her childhood, she was always fascinated by the prospect of being an entrepreneur. She began her entrepreneurial journey with Fonte Corporate Solutions – a company that specialised in corporate merchandising. Within 5 years of operations, Fonte Corporate Solutions soon became the gifting partner of choice for UB, Sab Miller, ITC, Set Max, ESPN etc.

Currently, Chinu is focusing on expanding her product portfolio and entering the Luxury Fashion Jewellery market. The brand is also planning to get into strategic partnerships with other national brands to increase the reach.

Paramita is a certified Sports Nutritionist cum Entrepreneur with diverse experience in the field of Nutrition Science. She has been practising yoga for more than 15 years now as a disciple of Sadhguru. Prior to focusing on nutrition science, she was a business analyst for nearly 12 years. Shifting from corporate to being a certified nutritionist and fitness coach, the journey was emotional and transformational from being an individual to becoming a mother.

Struggling from post-pregnancy weight gain yet was inspired as a mother which led her to be full- time nutritionist specializing in macro and micronutrient diets. There are many roles that she has had to don ever since she put on the shoes of becoming a certified nutritionist and fitness coach. Most of her clients have come to her and expressed the pressure of the societal glare that has pushed them to take a look at their bodies. She consults each of her clients personally with mental support and guides them to lead a healthy lifestyle.

Manjula Nairr is the Founder of A Buzz Company and has an overall 25 years of experience in the field of Marketing and Communications.

Manjula is an active startup mentor for over 400 startups and has interviewed around 800 startups. She is an official mentor for ‘Google Startup Weekend’ and official sponsor for ‘Google Startup Grind’ & ‘Founder Institute’. She founded A Buzz Company to help Start-Ups and SMEs with effective Marketing & Communication strategies and a Go-To-Market Approach.

Mrs Mansi Gupta is a woman with a strong aura to her name, with determination and talent being a few remarkable traits. The co-founder of the lifestyle brand ‘Tjori’ founded in January 2013 in India. She created this brand with the idea of promoting the traditional Indian handicrafts with the touch of modernism to get global recognition. A plan built on the whiteboard in a room of the Wharton university housing has now become a global e-commerce website with ever-expanding future plans.

Isha Bhandari is an International Social Scientist, Chairperson DSB Foundation, India, Global Goodwill Ambassador India, Advisor to National & International Charities, A Campaigner, Speaker, Panelist &Moderator. She has to her credit National and International Campaigns on Women Health. She has voiced many forums in India and abroad at House of Commons and House of Lords, UK and she has also been a TEDx Speaker, Madagascar.

A recipient of Women Leaders in Community Service Award by Indian Council for UN Relations 2019, Inspirational Social Scientist Award 2019 under Women Legendary Awards, Exemplary Contribution Award as Social Activist & Self Help Group by MSME Govt of India and Foundation for MSDG’s 2019 &Outstanding Women Health Campaign (Women Health Awards 2019)by ASSOCHAM, Iconic Women Award by Women Economic Forum 2019  and International Women Achievers Award 2012.

Dr Kruti Khemani, a specialist in sports physiotherapy has many accolades to her name having extended this specialisation into her own physiotherapy clinic Continuum. Kruti has completed her Masters in Sports Physiotherapy from the University of Sydney and has been working in the field as an expert for the last 14 years.

In this podcast, we talk about her fascinating journey in physiotherapy from Australia to India and ethos behind Continuum. 

Aishwarya Ganji is the Founder and CEO of Mahila Saksham Foundation. A firm believer in education as a driver of social and economic change, Aishwarya has worked towards this cause with pioneering NGOs such as Pratham Education Foundation, Ann Foundation Inc. and AIESEC. A graduate from Mumbai's prestigious Dhirubhai Ambani International School, she holds a Masters Degree in English Literature. With Mahila Saksham, she intends to eradicate opacity in the way CSR in India functions, while also creating awareness and intentional action towards Financial Independence and Employability for all Indian women.

Stuti is an award-winning entrepreneur, young achiever, internationally recognized as an emerging woman leader –founded Crosshairs Communication when she was 23 years old.

She recently founded WIN - Women Inspiring Network (https://since1700.com/stimulus) that is powering up women with information and builds networks and creates ecosystems for women to thrive lead & create.

In this podcast, I speak with Rashi Menda who is the CEO of IS.U. Rashi has had an illustrious career with E&Y prior to starting up on her own. She discovered that women are bombarded with choices when it comes to online shopping and thus built a technology platform which adjusted itself as per the browsing history of the shopper and only showed relevant options.

Her next big move was launching an independent clothing brand especially suited for Indian Woman in the form of IS.U. IS.U recently launched a clothing line with Radhika Apte.