Sandeep Kaur Riat

#29/100 in #100extraordinarywomen

Born and brought up in the family of a hardworking and successful entrepreneur and faced with hardships and insults, Sandeep Riat alias Minnie who, with her sheer grit and determination, emerged as a winner against all odds. After completing her Master's degree in Business Management from Delhi Business School, Sandeep Kaur Riat, had to abandon the plan of joining a corporate. Instead she joined Akal Springs; now a famous name in Ludhiana industry for auto parts but at that time, a close to dead industrial unit.

She remembers the day her father died in 2004. The bank official had told her “Take 15 days to mourn and then clear your debt”, when 22-year-old Sandeep was sobbing near her father’s body. Second among four siblings, Sandeep had just completed her master’s in business management, when she had to take over her father’s sick unit as managing director. It took her four years to clear the debt after which she started working on the unit. But those years were very tough for her, as she faced the daunting task of dealing with umpteen court cases, bank recovery agents, and over 250 employees, who would ask for their salaries almost every day.

She managed to transform the sick unit, which manufactured truck suspensions, into a profit making venture, and today, her company receives orders from major vehicle manufacturers, including Tata Motors and Mahindra and Mahindra, in Jamshedpur, Lucknow for spare parts of trucks, and is also into exporting auto parts. Sandeep took up the challenge with single-minded devotion managed to turn around the company within a few years. With her continued efforts and negotiation skills, she not only made a re-entry in to the suppliers list of prestigious OEM, Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors but also obtained defence contracts and contracts for State Road Transport Undertakings.

Recalling everything, she says, “There were more than 45 court cases against us, including many cheque bounce cases. I used to come to the plant and there used to be about 20 people waiting for me, asking for their money. One day there was a court case at Delhi, another at Chandigarh and the third at Ludhiana court and I was wondering which one to attend. People used to advise me to run away, saying ‘nothing is going to happen’. Many a times, banks requested the DC to send police to our plant for taking it into possession. My mother had undergone a heart surgery and we were completely shattered. But, I told myself that I am not going to run away from all of this,” she says.

Picking up the pieces, Sandeep took one thing at a time and what followed was ardent hard work. “I requested the staff comprising a large number of migrant workers to have faith and continue for some time without wages. They agreed. Then I took a major decision and sold off four-acre land of the plant and shifted entire machinery to the remaining two acres, that helped in getting rid of some debt,” she added.

For starting the work again, she needed money but seven nationalised banks refused to give her loan at that time. “Nobody trusted us, banks used to say I am a woman, and how will I run an industrial unit? Only one bank showed faith and finally we managed to some loan and started the work all over again,” she said. Using business tactics and opening another entity helped developed her business again. “From a period of 2006 to 2008, I worked day and night and do not remember how these years flew by. I don’t even remember celebrating my birthday during these years,” she said. The unit, managed single-handedly by Sandeep, is now raking in huge profits today.

Sandeep was conferred with the LMA - Young Innovative Entrepreneur of the year 2008 and awarded with Parman Patra award by Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal in 2011. She has the ability to create a vision and influence others to contribute to its achievement. Challenge and result oriented, picked up the threads and not only enthusiased the workforce, once again but also regained the confidence of the Distributors / Dealers, thus transforming a sick unit into a profitable company. Despite of the fact that her family has always been a support system to Sandeep, especially her younger brother Amritpal Riat (Director of the Akal Spring Ltd) who is working as a pillar of strength and sharing responsibilities of the company with Sandeep Minnie Riat. Soon the sale zoomed to new heights. The company has achieved excellent growth since 2004 and increased network of customers worldwide. Customer and Service focused strategy; Akal Spring Ltd has once again become the market leader.

“I wish my father was alive to see this day,” she signs off, with moist eyes.

Source: “IDOL- Inspiring Daughters of Ludhiana” Facebook page featuring Sandeep and an article in Hindustan Times about the story.

Bachendri Pal

#28/100 in #100extraordinarywomen

Bachendri Pal earned a coveted place for herself in Indian history by becoming the first Indian woman to summit the Mount Everest, the highest mountain peak in the world. A free-willing, fearless, and adventure-loving girl, Bachendri always dreamt of being a mountaineer. By dint of her hard work and sheer determination, Bachendri Pal created history when she successfully summited the Everest, thereby becoming the first Indian woman to achieve the big feat. An exemplary public figure and a noted mountaineer, Bachendri Pal is revered as an icon for all aspiring mountain climbers. By her extraordinary fete, Bachendri Pal proved that a woman could foray into any field and become successful given she has enough sensibility and determination to work towards it. 

Bachendri Pal was born in May 24, 1954 in a village called Nakuri in Garhwal to parents - Shri Kishan Singh Pal and Smt. Hansa Devi. Her father was a border tradesman who supplied groceries from India to Tibet. From her early childhood, Bachendri Pal was a strong-spirited child and excelled in both academics and sports. It was at the initiation of her school principal that she was sent to college for higher studies. There she actively participated in sports and even bagged a gold medal in rifle shooting. Bachendri Pal went on to become the first girl to graduate from her village. Later on, she completed her M.A. in Sanskrit and then went on to complete her B. Ed. Driven by her passion for adventure, she enrolled in the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, which opened a whole slew of avenues for her. She encountered stiff opposition from her family and relatives when she decided to opt for a career as a professional mountaineer rather than as a schoolteacher.

Bachendri Pal got her first taste of mountaineering thrill while still at school, at the age of 12 when she along with her friends scaled a 13,123 ft. high peak and during a school picnic. In 1982, during her course at Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, she got the chance to mount Gangotri I (21,900 ft.) and Rudugaria (19,091 ft.). It was during this time, she got the job of an instructor at the National Adventure Foundation, an adventure school for women mountaineers. Soon after the completion of her mountaineering course, she got the chance to join the fourth expedition team headed for India's Mount Everest Mission, the Everest-84. After summitting a number of smaller peaks, she was selected to join India’s first mixed-gender team to attempt an expedition to Mount Everest. She along with her team members commenced their climb on May 1984. However, a sudden landslide at Lhotse glacier left her and her team members injured. However, Bachendri Pal remained undeterred and continued her climb until she reached the peak of the Everest on 23 May 1984 at 1:07 p.m., thereby becoming the first Indian woman and the 5th women in the world to climb the Mt. Everest. It was the team of 6 Indian women and 11 men when they started who were selected to attempt the mountaineering to the Mount Everest. She was the only woman in that group who continued the climbing and reached the summit. 

Pal achieved immediate fame, and in 1985 she returned to Mount Everest to successfully lead an Indo-Nepalese Everest Expedition women's team to the summit. This expedition made seven world records and created a benchmark in Indian mountaineering. She had represented her country as a first Indian woman mountaineer in the France during the “world eminent women mountaineering meet” of 1986. She participated to the summit of Mt. Gangotri for 6672 meter, Mt. Rudugaira for 5819 meter, Mt. Kedarnath dome expedition for 6380 meter in 1986, Mt. Blanc, europe for 15,782 ft in 1986, expedition to the Mt. Mana for 23000 ft in 1983, Mt. Srikailash expedition for 22,744 ft in 1988, Mt. Kamet and Mt. Abi-gamin expedition for 7756 meter and 7735 meter respectively in 1989, Mt. Ruapehu, Mt. Ernslow and Mt. Agrius expedition of New Zealand in 1990 and 1991 etc. She also led the women’s 2nd pre-Everest expedition in 1992 to the Mt. Mamostang Kangri for 24,686 ft and Tata’s Mt. Shivling expedition. In 1993, she organized the Indo-Nepalese Women Everest Expedition and she led an all-woman rafting expedition (18 women in 3 rafts) down the Ganges River from Haridwar to Kolkata in 1994, covering over 1,500 miles (2,500 km). They achieved this feat in 39 days. In 1997 she led an eight member all-woman team on a successful 2,500-mile (4,000-km) transit of the Himalayas, beginning in Arunachal Pradesh and concluding at the Siachen Glacier. She had also participated to the “first women’s international climbing seminar and study tour” of UK in the year 1998. She was leader of the “Vijay rally to kargil” in the year 1999. A rally, which was organized as a journey on the motorbikes by the women mountaineers in order to express the solidarity among Indian as well as a tribute to the brave Indian soldiers.

She has become the member at many organizations such as explorer’s club of New York, Royal geographical society UK, Himalayan mountaineering institute of Darjeeling, India International Centre of New Delhi, Himalayan club at Mumbai, Nehru Institute of mountaineering at Uttarkashi, Indian Mountaineering Foundation at New Delhi and various other government and mountaineering organizations. She is the author of book “Everest – My Journey to the Top”, an autobiography of her published by the national book trust, Delhi.

Bachendri Pal had bagged several awards and recognitions during her mountaineering career. In 1984, she received the first CSR Gold Medal closely followed by a Padmashree in 1984. She got the Calcutta Sports Journalist’s Association Award as well as the National Youth Award in the year 1985 and the Arjuna Award in the year 1986. She also got the Calcutta Ladies Study Group Award in the year 1986 and the FIE Foundation’s National Award in the year 1990. In 1990, her name was also listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the first Indian women to summit the Mt. Everest. She received the National Adventure Award in 1994 and a prestigious Yash Bharati Award from the Uttar Pradesh Government in 1995. In 1997, she received the honorary D.Litt. from the University of Garhwal and was also honored with the prestigious Mahila Shiromani Award. It was in this year that her name entered the Limca Book of Records. In 2013, she has been awarded as a first recipient of the Virangana Lakshmibai Rashtriya Samman for 2013-14 by the Ministry of Culture, MP Government for her big achievements in the adventure sports.

Contribution Apart from training corporate and scaling great heights, Bachendri Pal has made significant contribution in training women in mountaineering and river rafting. Bachendri Pal has played a great role towards the society through her big social services. Currently, she runs a big social service in Uttarkashi in association with her colleague Premlata Agarwal and a group of world-class mountain climbers (Mount Everest summiteers). They jointly carried out a relief and rescue operations for the people of villages located at farthest high altitude of Himalayas. Houses of the people living in those villages were destroyed because of the North India floods in 2013. She also has started a training schedule to train the most willing women in mountaineering and river rafting. It was as part of this initiative that she had organized the First Indian Women Trans-Himalayan Expedition, Indo-Nepalese Everest Expedition in 1985 (women’s team), Indo-Nepalese Women Everest Expedition in 1993 and supported in River Ganga Rafting Expedition (Haridwar to Kolkata) in 1994.

Currently, she is working as the Chief of Adventure Programs of Tata Steel Adventure Foundation of Tata Group where she conducts high-altitude training workshops for the corporate workforce. There she gives training to the management teams to bolster up their team spirit by teaching them skills to survive in challenging situations. Apart from this, Bachendri Pal also works as an active guide, training women in mountaineering and river rafting. 

Source: Google search and Wikipedia.

Leda Braga

#27/100 in #100extraordinarywomen

Leda Braga is the first woman ever to have made the cut to Institutional Investor's annual list o f richest hedge fund managers. As the head of Geneva-based Systematica Investments, Braga earned about $60 million last year and snagged the 44th spot on the ranking published recently. That puts her on par with two New York-based managers, Scott Ferguson of Sachem Head Capital Management and Mark Kingdon of Kingdon Capital Management.

Leda Braga, 49, is considered the most powerful female hedge fund manager in the world. In January 2015, she launched her fund, Systematica Investments, a computer-driven fund. Systematica is a computer-driven firm spun out from BlueCrest Capital. Her BlueTrend Fund was up 6.4% this year through April 8, nearly doubling the 3.4% return that it had last year, according to Institutional Investor, which cited the HSBC hedge fund database. Under Braga's helm, Systematica's assets have grown to $10.2 billion as of March 1. She manages more money than any other woman in the hedge fund industry. If this kind of perfomance goes on, Braga may soon land herself a spot on the top 25 list.

Before heading out on her own, Braga spent 14 years managing BlueCrest's biggest fund - computer-driven BlueTrend fund. Before that, she worked with BlueCrest's founders at JPMorgan as a quantitative analyst on the firm's derivatives research team. Going it alone is working out for Leda Braga, the Brazilian-born hedge fund manager who left Michael Platt’s BlueCrest Capital Management in January 2015. Her standalone firm now oversees more than his for the first time, according to a person familiar with the matter. The Brazilian-born portfolio manager, who holds a PhD from Imperial College, joined BlueCrest when she was 34-weeks pregnant. In the male-dominated world of Wall Street, Braga said she hasn't experienced difficulties.

"What can I say? Me, personally, I've always liked to work," she said at the CNBC Delivering Alpha Conference held at the Pierre Hotel in Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday. The "queen of the quants," as Braga is sometimes known, told the room that in the next ten years, the systematic approach the trading - the one she deploys - will prevail. When it comes to making trades, there are two contrasting approaches -discretionary and systematic. Discretionary trading relies on the fund manager's own decision-making. Systematic trading uses computer models, research firm Preqin explained. "I think in a world where there's regulatory pressures, investor pressure for lower fees... I think the systematic approach will prevail in the long run. I think the next ten years for sure," Braga said. During her talk, Braga shared an anecdote from a previous conference where an audience member questioned the merits of algorithmic trading. A man sitting in the front row challenged her method, saying: "All you've got to forecast to the future is the data." Braga rebuked him, saying, "You think the discretionary guy has what? A crystal ball? At the end of the day, the business of investment management is the business of information management. I think the algorithmic approach is very good approach to do it." Braga conceded that systematic trading does face a "stumbling block" - something called "algorithmic aversion." "She's so impressive," one attendee was overheard saying.

Research from UPenn's Wharton has found that even if an algorithm consistently outperforms a human forecaster, people are more likely to lose confidence in the algorithm than the human after they both make the same mistake. The reason, according to an HBS paper on the research, is that there's a belief the human forecaster can make improvements and learn from the mistake. But Braga says algorithms can improve too. "[We] know these things work and yet we shy away from them," Braga said. "We scrutinize the algos with a lot less tolerance than we scrutinize human action." Braga thinks that over time people will become more "amiable" toward algorithms - especially since we live in a world full of them, from Apple to Uber. 

Source: Google search.

Savitribai Phule

#26/100 in #100extraordinarywomen

Savitribai Jyotirao Phule was an Indian social reformer and poet. She is described as "one of the first-generation modern Indian feminists" and the “Mother Of Modern Girls’ Education In India”. She may not be as famous as Mahatma Gandhi or Swami Vivekananda. But her impact on the liberation of the Indian woman has been no less spectacular or significant. One of the earliest crusaders of education for girls, and dignity for the most vulnerable sections of society – dalits, women and widows, Savitribai broke all the traditional shackles of 19th century India to herald a new age of thinking. She can be legitimately hailed as the mother of Indian Feminism. 

Savitribai Phule was born on 3 January 1831 in Naigaon, Maharashtra. Her family were farmers. At the age of nine, she was married to twelve-year-old Jyotirao Phule in 1840. As a new bride at the age of nine, when Savitribai moved to her marital home in Pune in 1840, her most prized possession was a book that had been given to her by some Christian missionary. Impressed by her thirst for learning, her husband, then all of 13, taught her to read and write, little knowing that this would lay the foundation for a whole new chapter in Indian history. In times when women were treated no better than the cattle at home, Savitribai Phule earned the distinction of being the first Indian woman to become a teacher. She worked as both an educational reformer and social reformer, especially for women. 

Along with her husband, Jyotirao Phule, she played an important role in improving women's rights in India during British rule. The couple founded the first women's school at Bhide Wada in Pune in 1848 and Savitri served there as India’s first female teacher. She was taught and trained by her husband. Her father-in-law, when he learnt about his son preparing his wife to be a teacher, threatened to drive him away from his house, fearing attach by orthodox elements. But Savitri stood determined by her husband’s side. Thereafter, Jyotirao sent her to a training school, first Ms. Farar’s Institution at Ahmednagar and then to Ms. Mitchell’s school in Pune. She passed out with flying colours and went on to open and run the first ever only girls’ school for backward classes and condemned widows. Long believed to be the preserve of the Brahmins, children from other castes and communities were denied the right to an education. Savitribai and her husband broke the rules and established the first school for girls in 1848 in Bhide Wada, Narayan Peth, Pune. Eight girls, belonging to different castes, enrolled as students on the first day. When she started her unique school, Savitribai also overcame another hurdle – of women not being allowed to step outside the home to work. Of course, the young woman had to contend with a lot of opposition. She carried a change of sari with her every day as men pelted her with stones, mud and even dung as she made her way to the school. But undeterred by all the opposition, Savitribai opened another school for adults the same year. By 1851, she was running three schools with around 150 girl students. Today, government programmes like the ‘Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’, the Right to Education Act and the midday meal scheme that incentivize education, may seem like modern concepts, but even 150 years back Savitribai had set a precedent – she gave stipends to prevent children from dropping out of school. She was the teacher who inspired a young student to ask for a library for the school at an award ceremony instead of gifts for herself. A poet and writer, Savitribai had motivated another young girl, Mukta, to write an essay that became the cornerstone of ‘Dalit literature’. She even conducted the equivalent of a parent-teacher meeting to involve the parents so they would understand the importance of education and support their children. Her schools imparted vocational training as well. At a time when people hardly identified the grievances of women in India, Savitri and her husband stood up to fight the injustice against women. 

She also worked to abolish discrimination and unfair treatment of people based on caste and gender. During the 19th century, arranged marriages before the age of maturity was the norm in the Hindu society of Maharashtra. Since mortality rates were high, many young girls often became widows even before attaining maturity. Due to social and cultural practices of the times, widow remarriage was out of question and therefore prospects for the young widows were poor. The 1881 Kolhapur gazetteer records that widows at that time used to shave their heads, and wear simple red saris and had to lead a very austere life with little joy. Savitribai and Jyotirao were moved by the plight of these girls. They organized a strike against the barbers to persuade them to stop shaving the heads of widows. Also, these helpless women, with no way to refuse this treatment, were easy prey for rape, often by male members of the extended family. A poster from 1863 reads something like this: “Women who conceive out of wedlock should go to the home of Jyotirao Govindrao Phule for their confinement. Their names will be kept confidential”. Pained by the plight of young Kashibai, a widow sentenced to ‘Kalapani’ rigorous imprisonment in the Andamans for killing her newborn, the Phules had opened up their home as a shelter for young widows. Raped by family members and then disowned when pregnant, these women often resorted to suicide or killed their babies for fear of being ostracized by the society. The couple even adopted one child as their own. Once, Jyotirao stopped a pregnant lady from committing suicide, promising her to give her child his name after it was born. Savitribai accepted the lady in her house and helped her deliver the child. Savitribai and Jyotirao later adopted this child and named him Yashavantrao. He grew up to become a doctor. Savitribai and her husband established a center for caring for pregnant rape victims and delivering their children. The care center was called “Balhatya Pratibandhak Griha” (Infanticide prohibition house). Savitri ran the home and considered all the children born in the home her own.

Moved by the treatment of the untouchables, who were refused drinking water meant for the upper caste, the Phule couple opened the well in their own house in 1868 for these communities. Savitribai and Jyotirao were always there for the community. In 1877, their region was hit by a severe drought. The couple launched the “Victoria Balashram” and aided by friends and funds collected by going from village to village, they fed over a thousand people every day. Tiffany Wayne has described Phule as "one of the first-generation modern Indian feminists, and an important contributor to world feminism in general, as she was both addressing and challenging not simply the question of gender in isolation but also issues related to caste and casteist patriarchy."

Savitribai broke yet another taboo when she led the funeral procession of her husband. Even today, the Hindu last rites are considered to be the sacred privilege of men alone. When Jyotiba passed away in 1890, warring relatives tried to wrest the rights of performing the last rites away from Yeshwant, faulting his parentage. Savitribai took the ‘titve’, or the funeral mud-pot, herself and led the procession. She then took charge of the “Satya Shodhak Samaj” as a legacy her husband had left behind for her.

Yashwant, their adopted son, trained as a doctor and eventually joined his mother in all the good work she did. Setting an example for others, she conducted his wedding under the “Satya shodhak samaj”, or the truth-seekers society, with no priests, no dowry and at very little expense. She even brought her son’s fiancée for a home stay before the wedding, so she could get familiar with her soon-to-be home and family. Moreover, she took on the household chores so the young woman had time to study. Savitribai Phule and her adopted son, Yashwant, opened a clinic to treat those affected by the worldwide Third Pandemic of the bubonic plague when it appeared in the area around Pune in 1897. The clinic was established at Sasane Mala, Hadapsar, near Pune, but out of the city in an area free of infection. Savitribai personally took patients to the clinic where her son treated them. Even the fear of death did not deter this brave woman from doing what she felt was right. She even carried young Pandurang Babaji Gaikwad, a 10-year-old boy, from Mundhwa to the clinic strapped to her back. Ironically, he beat the infection but Savitribai caught it and on 10 March 1897, she breathed her last.

Savitribai Phule wrote many Marathi poems against discrimination and advised to get educated. Two books of her poems were published posthumously, Kavya Phule (1934) and Bavan Kashi Subodh Ratnakar (1982). The Government of Maharashtra has instituted an award in her name to recognize women social reformers. In 2015, the University of Pune was renamed as Savitribai Phule Pune University in her honour. On 10 March 1998 – her 101st death anniversary – a stamp was released by India Post in honour of Phule.

If you are an Indian woman who reads, you owe her. If you are an educated Indian woman, you owe her. If you are an Indian schoolgirl going to school each day, you owe her. If you are an educated international desi woman, you owe her. Today, every educated Indian woman owes a debt of gratitude to Savitribai Phule. 

Source: Google search.