Mazumdar-Shaw, India's richest woman, is Chairman and Managing Director, Biocon Ltd, a biotechnology company that makes enzymes.

Born in 1953, she studied in Bangalore and at the Ballarat University in Melbourne, Australia. She qualified as a master brewer in 1975 to become India's first woman brew master. Her father too was a master brewer. She joined Carlton & United Beverages as trainee brewer in 1974 and worked there till 1977.

In 1978, she joined Biocon Biochemicals Limited in Ireland as a trainee manager. Collaborating with the same Irish company, she founded Biocon India with a capital of Rs 10,000 in her garage.

Mazumdar-Shaw turned a small enzyme manufacturer into one of India's premier tech companies. Her 40 per cent stake in the company is worth about $350 million.

In 1998, she married Scotsman John Shaw, then managing director, Madura Coats. He quit Madura to join Biocon as its director for international business and vice chairman.

The Economist and Fortune have hailed her as India's Biotech Queen; The New York Times has called her India's mother of invention. Among the many awards that she has won are the Padma Bhushan (2005); the Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award (2006); The Economic Times Businesswoman of the Year Award (2004); the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in Healthcare & Life Sciences Category (2002); Woman of the Year from the International Women's Association, Chennai (1998-1999); and the Padma Shri (1989).

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Photograph: Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP/Getty Images

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