From Kiran Bedi to Divya Gokulnath -- these are the top voices of India in 2019 on Linkedin

​Kiran Bedi, Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry

Kiran Bedi is the first woman to ever join the Indian Police Service (IPS). Even though she retired back in 2007 — after 35 years in the service — she continues to inspire young women to join the force. She was also instrumental in introducing prison reform in India -- which counts as one of her top achievements.

Bedi’s one of the one most outspoken people on LinkedIn as she shares insights into her day-to-day life — like how waking up early is the key to having a productive day — but also continues to advocate as a social activist.

Some of her most popular posts include how rights and responsibilities are two sides of the same coin and the ‘6 Ps’ of controlling crimes against women.

​Ritu Anand, Chief Leadership & Diversity Officer, TCS

Ritu Anand has her own weekly series on LinkedIn called #ThursdayRITual, where she shares her lessons from three decades in the corporate world. A strong advocate of technology, Anand believes it brings ‘human focus back into our lives.’

She’s not big on planning anything more than six months in advance — not only because it’s a risk but also because it gives leaves room for good things to happen.

Anand is also not a believer in work-life ‘balance’ but ‘integration. “I integrate work with life. The end result is work-life integration,” she said in one of her posts.

​Harish Bhat, Brand Custodian, Tata Group

Harish Bhat mostly shares posts on consumer behaviour, branding and marketing. When he’s not doing that — he’s sharing insights on office life like an analysis on sharing lunch with colleagues or dealing with digital distraction.

According to him, the best writing comes when you minimise the distractions. “Keep your mobile phone very far away, and do not get up from your chair until you written 1,000 words,” he says.

​Rekha M Menon, Chairman and Senior Managing Director, Accenture India

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Rekha M Menon is one of India’s most powerful leaders and a sought after name for inspiration. Most of her LinkedIn posts revolve around ideating — from disruptive thinking to innovative problem-solving.

She’s also big on reskilling and upskilling. She also shares insights into which skills are required and how one can go about retraining themselves.

Satyarth Priyedarshi, Head of Digital, Tata AIA Life Insurance

Satyarth Priyedarshi, a former executive with Jio, Flipkart and Infibeam, is currently at the helm of digital operations at Tata AIA Life Insurance. He covers everything from business, technology to startups on his LinkedIn page.

One of his recent posts, which questions the divergence in tax rates, amassed a total of 220 comments. While some critiqued his point of view, others chimed in agreement.

Not only is he active on LinkedIn but he’s also an avid Tedx speaker having spoken on topics like digital privacy but also, on a lighter tone, what keeps people from being happy.

Last year, he was also on LinkedIn’s Power Profile list.

​Adhil Shetty, CEO, BankBazaar.com

Adhil Shetty, founder and CEO of BankBazaar.com, has been with the company for eight years since inception. His vision was to make banking entirely paperless. Today, BankBazaar is a multi-million dollar enterprise that is expanding internationally.

Shetty shares the lessons of his journey as an entrepreneur on LinkedIn -- that is when he isn’t busy demystifying the world of big data in fintech.

Mubeena Azeez, Talent Advisor - Global Talent Solutions, Boeing

Mubeena Azeez might deal with talent but her most fascinating story this year was Google’s AI efforts to predict cardiovascular problems. She also thinks that Google buying FitBit might be another Orkut moment in the making.

As a talent advisor at Boeing, she shares possible job opportunities of the company. But she also posts hacks on how to communicate better and the job market at large.

​Tapan Singhel, Managing Director and CEO, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance

Tapan Singhel has always been an avid blogger and active on social networks. A LinkedIn veteran, Singhel has appeared on the LinkedIn Power Profiles list four times.

Now, he has his own video series on the platform — called StreetMBA — where he interacts with street vendors to gain insights on how to be successful in business.

In addition to being a business mogul, Singhel is also a scientist at heart who followed the events Chandrayaan 2 as they unfolded this year. “This was the first time I saw acceptance of failure and its celebration at such a large in a country like India which is so obsessed with winning,” he said.

Rahul Subramanian, Stand-up comedian

You have seen him in AIB’s viral honest engineering videos and Rahul is not too far from there. An engineer with a management degree, Rahul left his corporate job to take his place on the stage as a stand up comedian. He posts his satires on LinkedIn, and his followers enjoy the laughs he provides.

One of his most popular posts is 21 Corporate Jargons Decoded, where he explains what’s the real meaning behind some of the most commonly used terms in an office.

​Kunal Shah, Founder & CEO, CRED

The founder of Freecharge, recently made a comeback into the startup world with his new credit company CRED -- which he founded after selling Freecharge to Snapdeal. Through CRED, users can pay their credit card bills and get their hands on several rewards.

A serial entrepreneur, Shah is famous for doling out startup gyaan on LinkedIn. One of his most popular posts is where he turned to LinkedIn to ask consumers feedback about his own company.

​Divya Gokulnath, Co-founder, Byju's

The first edutech unicorn of India Byju’s has caught the fancy of Indian – right from parents to kids to investors. A teacher, Divya founded Byju’s along with her husband Byju Raveendran in 2011. Today the company has a whopping $5.4 billion valuation.

The teacher in her finds her way into her Linkedin posts where she talks about the future of education.

​Amit Somani, Managing Partner, Prime Venture Partners

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Serial entrepreneur Amit Somani founded Prime Venture Partners along with Sanjay Swamy and Shripati Acharya. The fund invests in early stage startups and bet on companies like Ezetap, mfine and Tracxn. Somani earlier worked at Google and MakeMyTrip.

So taking cues from his life experiences, Somani talks about startups and leadership. Being a product guy, one of Somani’s most popular posts is on how a startup can get the right product market fit.

Dr. Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director, Apollo Group of Hospitals

One of the most known names in healthcare, Dr Sangita Reddy is the Joint Managing Director of the Apollo group of hospitals and the daughter of the founder of Apollo Prathap Chandra Reddy. She is also the Senior Vice President of FICCI.

Using her knowledge about healthcare and also being at the forefront of innovation in the sector, Dr Reddy often talks about technology in healthcare and wellness.

Sadhguru, Founder, Isha Foundation

Yogi and philosopher Sadhguru has many followers from the business as well as the entertainment world too. The founder of Isha Foundation, and his words of wisdom enthrall everyone. His LinkedIn bio calls him a “spiritual master with a difference.”

His posts range from spirituality, to dealing with anxiety and also about scaling up businesses, and maintaining a work life balance.

​Sandeep Kochhar, Founder, BlewMinds - Believe. Be. Beyond

Kochhar’s bio on his company website describes him as a storyteller and then as Founder CEO. A graduate from IIM Bangalore, Kochhar is also a poet, who has worked in companies like British Council, Honeywell, IBM, & HCL Technologies, before starting his own consulting firm.

Given his writing skills, Kochhar often writes about how one can transform a brand, while penning down a few philosophical pieces like 5 simple things that stopped me all my life.

​Nathan SV, Partner, Chief Talent Officer, Deloitte India

Addressing concerns over work-life balance and workplace stress, he formulated a programme dedicated to employees dealing with depression and anxiety.

With over 200,000 followers, Nathan catches up with his network from time to time, initiating a series of talks under the hashtag #OfficeTruths. “Work-life balance is not an either-or situation.” The HR leader firmly believes that there is no alternative to either of the two.

​Shruti Chaturvedi, Founder & Editor, Chaaipani

Shruti Chaturvedi started her entrepreneurship journey at the age of 22 and believes that working long hours is not a measure of high productivity.

Chaturvedi founded Chaaipani to ‘move the society’ with inspiring stories of people who have lessons to share and calls herself a rebel. “When your why is clear and strong enough, your how will figure its way out,” he said at a TEDtalk.

Her idea is to build a community of startups, innovators and artists, and bring micro communities together

Anamika Sirohi, Vice President & Head of Marketing, Hindware

An engineer-turned-marketer with a “voracious appetite for all things digital”, Anamika is vocal about her productivity hacks. She believes, “E-mail is the enemy and multitasking is a trap. Focus and flow need to be protected.”

Prior to Hindware, Anamika worked with Nestle and Reckitt Benckiser. She was also featured in the 100 most influential marketers list of 2018. She writes on topics around businesses and marketing.

​Himanshu Rai, Director, Indian Institute of Management

Himanshu is a yoga teacher and an arbiter of music. As an educationist, he talks about how proper communication is pivotal to success and leadership practices of the modern era. Well versed in Sanskrit, Himanshu enjoys philosophy, Vedic texts and scriptures including the Mahabharata.

Himanshu swears by the mantra of ‘doing things right’ and not ‘doing the right thing’ at workplace.

​Sayema Rahman, Radio Jockey, Radio Mirchi

Sayema Rahman has been the RJ for Radio Mirchi for the past 16 years now. Spilling beans on Saadat Hassan Manto’s Urdu literature, Sayema shares her knowledge of Urdu through ‘Urdu Ki Paathshala’ and ‘Suno Zindagi with Sayema’ on LinkedIn.

“His writings have imbued me with raw courage to speak up. I feel like speaking up when I should not,” Sayema told The Quint. She has spoken on sensitive issues such as feminism and discrimination based on religion.

Vandana Sharma, Career Services, Welham Boys School, Founder of StartupPeopleConsulting

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A veterinarian entrepreneur, Vandana motivates and inspires professionals on self development, workplace culture and managing tough bosses. Passionate about travel, Vandana urges people to address the need to have work-life balance.

She terms Greta Thunberg’s fight against climate change a call for action for governments and its natives.

​Smriti Handa, Regional HR Director South Asia, RB (Reckitt Benckiser)

With 14 years of experience in Human Resources, Smriti resonates her personal experiences with the corporate sphere. She actively writes about diversity and inclusion, leadership and other people skills.

She has worked with Philips and Airtel before joining Reckitt Benckiser. She inclines with posts shared by women leaders like Indra Nooyi, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw and Leena Nair.

​Poonam Barua, CEO, Forum for Women in Leadership - WILL Forum India

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Poonam Barua preaches gender parity at workplace. She talks about how companies approach women leaders. She highlights that change in mindset across hierarchies will lead to diversity in boardrooms. She’s also the author of the book ‘leadership by Proxy’ — which talks about the women in corporate India.

She co-founded the “Rise & Lead Women’s Summit” in Netherlands and joined the advisory board of the “Global Women Connect” in Hong Kong.

Tamal Bandyopadhyay, Consulting Editor, Business Standard

Tamal Bandyopadhyay is a veteran Indian business journalist who is known for his breakthrough insights in banking. He was also one of the founding editors of Mint newspaper where he started his banking column. He now writes for Business Standard.

He also authored many popular books called ‘A Bank for the Buck’, ‘Sahara: The Untold Story’ and ‘From Lehman to Demonetization’.

He posts about various issues plaguing the sector. One of his most recent posts is about about how a scheduled bank’s aggressive growth without proper governance and risk management that ended in disaster.