Husain, chief executive officer, Shahnaz Husain Herbals, is one of India's most successful women entrepreneurs.

Known for herbal cosmetics, particularly skin care products, her company is one of the largest manufacturers of herbal products in the world. It manufactures more than 400 beauty and health care products, and markets them in 138 countries through 400 franchise clinics.

She married when she was 15 and by 16, was a mother.

It was in Teheran, Iran, where her husband had been posted that she developed an interest in beauty treatments and decided to study cosmetology, turning her attention to Ayurveda.

She studied cosmetic therapy for a decade in London, Paris, New York and Copenhagen, before returning to India in 1977 to set up her own salon at her home in Delhi. And that is where the story of her huge success began.

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She was awarded the Padma Shri last year. In 1996, Success magazine named her the Woman of the Year.

Photograph: John Macdougall/AFP/Getty Images

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