A ROAD LESS TRAVELLED

Despite leading different segments, women's representation in healthcare is few and far between.

- Joe C. Mathew & P.B. Jayakumar

IN 1978, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw began her entrepreneurial journey with three employees in a rented shed in Koramangala, suburban Bengaluru, to build what is almost half a century later, India's leading biotechnology firm Biocon Ltd with annual revenues worth ₹15,621 crore, 16,300 employees and a presence in over 100 countries, including the U.S., Europe and emerging markets.

In 1989, when Suneeta Reddy started working with Apollo Hospitals, the corporate hospital group founded by her father Dr Prathap C. Reddy was a fledgling enterprise, which had started off as a 150-bed hospital in Chennai six years ago. Today, Apollo is India's largest private healthcare provider with a cumulative bed strength of over 10,000 across 73 hospitals and runs over 6,000 pharmacies, 2,500 clinics and diagnostic centres and over 500 telemedicine centres.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is the founder and executive chairperson of Biocon Ltd; Suneeta Reddy the managing director of Apollo Hospitals. Both are shining examples of women in leadership positions in India's healthcare sector.

Dozens of women leaders such as Shaw and Reddy are spearheading Indian healthcare enterprises across segments such as pharmaceuticals and biotech manufacturing, hospitals, diagnostic services, healthtech startups, etc. However, there is a glaring gender gap if one takes a closer look at the workforce of 9.3 million employed in various capacities—from leadership to unskilled jobs—across private and public sectors in the country's healthcare ecosystem. Women are well-represented in some areas, but not everywhere. Undoubtedly, India needs more women leaders and professionals to make the country's healthcare sector more gender balanced.

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