female leadership pipelines in comparison to sectors such as industrial, energy & infrastructure.”
In FY25, Nilima Prasad Divi, promoter, Divi’s Labs, topped the list of top-paid women executives, followed by United Spirits MD & CEO Hina Nagarajan and Vinita Gupta, CEO of Lupin. The same year Yashish Dahiya, co-founder, chairman & group CEO, PB Fintech (PolicyBazaar), emerged as the country’s highest paid CXO, taking home Rs 641 crore (largely driven by exercised ESOPs).
Explaining the trend of domestic companies outpacing MNCs, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, executive chairperson of Biocon, said the shift is structural as domestic firms build global-scale businesses and increasingly compete for leadership talent at international benchmarks.
“Many Indian firms are more performance-driven than MNC subsidiaries when it comes to recognising women leaders. Also, a higher compensation reflects a stronger leadership pipeline, with more women moving into P&L, digital and strategic leadership roles. But the trend is still concentrated among larger companies and select sectors. Women leaders still have to fight for their positions,” she said.
Industry experts say the shift reflects a wider change in corporate India’s strategy, with companies placing a higher premium on professional talent and increasingly favouring merit-driven leadership and specialised managerial expertise at the top.
Over the last few years, financial services and consumer-facing sectors have emerged as those with the strongest representation among top-paid women CXOs. This is because these sectors have historically offered stronger pathways for women into leadership, Shaw added. A decade ago, most banks in India had women at the helm, with some of them drawing the highest remuneration packages.
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