The BBC on Wednesday, September 27, revealed Mithali Raj as one of the most influential women in India. Additionally, Ira Trivedi and Tulika Kiran from Delhi along with Aditi Avasthi from Bangalore and Mehroonisa Siddiqui are among the inspirational individuals who have been included on the BBC 100 Women list 2017.
Taken from across all spheres of modern life – from engineering to the creative industries, from sport to business – they represent the global wealth of female talent. But in a new twist the list launched today is only part of the story.
The list has been inspired by the BBC 100 Women Challenge. New for 2017, this is a unique celebration of female talent which sees four teams of women tasked with finding solutions to everyday problems currently blighting female lives across the globe.
The challenge will be coming to Delhi from October 9th -13th where a team will be are looking at female illiteracy.
Other places hosting the 100 Women Challenge are: Silicon Valley from October 2nd – 6th where a group will tackle the glass ceiling; safety on public transport will be the focus for the London and Nairobi team from October 16th -20th; and finally from October 23rd -27th, women in Rio will consider sexism in sport.
The Indian women named today are part of the list of 60 women from around the world who are working or campaigning in these fields or who have inspired others through their actions.
The remaining 40 places will then be decided as the challenge progresses, drawn from those who have supported, inspired and helped the teams on the ground over the course of the weeks. They might be someone working on a solution on the other side of the world; the woman who suggested the piece of code; the woman who named the campaign; or the woman who, by courageously sharing her story, inspired the solution.
India includes
· Mithali Raj - Indian cricketer and captain of Indian women's cricket team.
· Ira Trivedi- Ira Trivedi is a writer, yoga teacher and activist. Through her writing, her teaching and her not for profit work, she hopes to sensitise minds, bodies and spirits to feel the oneness that we are all part of.
· Aditi Avasthi - Aditi Avasthi is the founder and CEO at Embibe - an edtech platform leveraging deep tech and data science to revolutionise education as a sector. In her quest to maximise learning outcomes for every student, Aditi has spearheaded the company's evolution into the world's leading artificial intelligence platform for education with numerous inventions and patents to create tangible impact on student learning.
· Tulika Kiran - Tulika has been teaching kids in the Tihar prison for the last 8 years. Apart from teaching kids at the prison, she is a part of an organisation India Vision Foundation (founded by Kiran Bedi) that facilitates secondary education for kids in the prison. In the past Tulika has been a journalist and has worked for a Hindi publication Sunday Observer.
· Mehroonisa Siddiqui is 65 years old and is the proud mother of Indian actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
· Urvashi Sahni- Dr. Urvashi Sahni is a social entrepreneur, women's rights activist and educationist of 34 years standing. She is an Asoka Fellow, a non-resident fellow at the Centre of Universal Education at Brookings, Washington DC and an advisor to the Government of Rajasthan for education.
· Nitya Thummalachetty - She is currently a business analyst at CareCentra, a health care analytics company based out of New York City that has developed a proprietary tech platform for improving health outcomes for patients. After her doctoral studies, she became the Director of Diversity Policy at FortunaPIX. In this role, she is involved in building strategic partnerships (for example, with UN Women and various Ministries of Education and/or Health) and leading initiatives for gender and diversity.
Other women on the list include
· Astronaut Peggy Whitson (57) - Having made three trips to the International Space Station, Peggy has spent more time in space than any other United States astronaut.
· President of Chile Michelle Bachelet (65) – The first female to hold office in the history of her country.
· President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (78) - the 24th and current President of Liberia since 2006 and the first elected female head of state in Africa.
· Dancer, TV star and business owner Jin Xing (50) - Known as China's answer to Oprah Winfrey, Jin Xing was the first transgender woman in China to receive government approval for gender reassignment.
· Footballer Steph Houghton (29) - Captain of Manchester City FC and the England women's football team.
· Harvard social psychologist and bestselling author Amy Cuddy (45) - known for her research on body language. She delivered the second most-viewed TED talk of all time.
· Politician and entrepreneur Susi Pudjiastuti (52) - A successful entrepreneur, Susi is also Indonesia's Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries.
