Droupadi Murmu, Madhabi Puri Buch, Samantha Ruth Prabhu and more: Five women newsmakers of 2022

• As Indian cricket achieved gender parity this year, Jhulan Goswami has been in the news for both the right and the wrong reasons.
  
• Falguni Nayar’s meteoric rise and quick fall took a dramatic turn this year.
  
• Madhabi Puri Buch – the IIM-A graduate and former banker – took over as SEBI chief when retail participation touched unprecedented levels.

The year of 2022 had many female newsmakers – starting from India’s President to path-breaking entrepreneurs. Many women shattered glass ceilings and broke into territories that were hitherto dominated by men.

This was a fairly good year for female inclusion – the number of women CEOs saw a meteoric rise. Women on company Boards, however, continue to remain few and far between – even when large Navratna companies like SAIL and ONGC appointed women chairpersons, albeit on an interim basis for the latter. In a major landmark, women’s cricket achieved pay parity.

It was a year when women created a lot of wealth and gained more power – the tribe of female billionaires rose. India’s finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman improved her ranking on the Forbes list of most powerful women. Business Insider India profiles five of these powerful women across different fields who ruled the news cycle in 2022.