Hurun India Women Leaders List 2026: Meena Bindra Tops Rankings, Avani Lekhara Becomes Youngest in Top 10

The 2026 Candere Hurun India Women Leaders List recognizes some notable women achievers in multiple sectors such as business, economic entrepreneurship, and sports. The publication provides information on how women have contributed in a major way through various types of leadership and excellent innovations.

This year, the list comprises of 117 women from 12 sectors, with the owner of BIBA, Meena Bindra, coming first in the list. The youngest female Paralympic medal winner Avani Lekhara made an impression among the top ten winners of the list, which showcases the growing number of talented young personalities among the leaders of India.

What is the Candere Hurun India Women Leaders List?

The Candere Hurun India Women Leaders List serves as an annual compilation prepared by Hurun India that is meant to honour exceptional female leaders from different sectors.

In preparing the ranking, several objective criteria are used. This entails assessing the companies’ performance based on the following criteria,

• Valuation of the company
• The yearly revenue of the company
• The successes of the businesswoman
• The successes in the field of sport
• The extent of influence in the digital world
• The effect on society of their work

The number of women leaders included in the list of 2026 is 117, while they cover 12 fields and the majority of them work in New Delhi or Mumbai.

Meena Bindra Secures First Place in the Rankings

Seasoned businesswoman Meena Bindra, an entrepreneur and founder of BIBA, has taken the top spot in the rankings.

She has been recognized for creating one of the most popular ethnic wear brands in the country and is a role model in women’s entrepreneurship and business leadership.

Avani Lekhara the Youngest Woman in the Rankings

Young paralympic gold medalist Avani Lekhara has bagged the 6th position in the rankings, making her the youngest girl in the top 10 at the age of just 24 years.

She has been included in the rankings because this reflects the growing recognition of sporting excellence along with performances in the business arena.

Top 10 Women Leaders in the 2026 Candere Hurun India Women Leaders List

Rank	Name	Organization/Association	Age
1	Meena Bindra	BIBA	83
2	Tushara Shankar	Lupin	46
3	Rajni Bector Bectors	Food Specialities	86
4	Vaishali Nigam Sinha	ReNew Power	56
5	Suneeta Reddy & Preetha Reddy	Apollo Hospitals Enterprise	67 & 68
6	Avani Lekhara	Paralympic Medallist	24
7	Sudha Murthy	Author	75
8	Ananya Birla	Entrepreneur & Social Media Influencer	32
9	Faye D’Souza	Journalist Independent	44
10	Kanika Gupta Shori	Square Yards	—

Youngest Women Leaders List 2026

Rank	Name	Organization/Association
1	Sheetal Devi	Paralympian
2	Noureen Aysha	Femi Safe
3	Parul Gulati	Entrepreneur & Influencer
4	Priyanka Sharma	Independent Journalist
5	Rithika Mohan	Garuda Aerospace
6	Savi Sharma	Author
7	Masaba Gupta	House of Masaba
8	Shreya Mishra	Solar Square
9	Nishtha Gupta	Suzlon
10	Roshni Nadar Malhotra	HCL Technologies

Oldest Women Leaders Across Categories

Rank	Name	Organization/Association
1	Rajni Bector Bectors	Food Specialities
2	Meena Bindra	BIBA
3	Manju D. Gupta	Lupin
4	Bina Modi Godfrey	Phillips India
5	Banu Mushtaq	Author
6	Arundhati Bhattacharya	Salesforce India
7	Madhulika Sharma	ITC
8	Vaishali Nigam Sinha	ReNew Power
9	Deepa Malik	Paralympian
10	Barkha Dutt	Mojo Story

Key Highlights in the 2026 Rankings

The Candere Hurun India Women Leaders List reveals exemplary leadership in a variety of domains like health sector, renewable energy, literature, journalism, sports, and business.

Some of the major highlights are,

• Meena Bindra got top spot in the list.
• The youngest one to get a place in overall top 10 was Avani Lekhara.
• As many as 117 women leaders were awarded in 12 sectors.
• Major sectors included–business, healthcare, media, literature, sports and clean energy.
• More women honourees were from Mumbai and New Delhi as compared to other places.