Australian Chaiwali
Two Chaiwala made the headlines this year. Where Arshad Khan, a chaiwala from Pakistan became popular for his looks, the other side, an Indian CHAIWALI in Australia- Upma Virdi, spread the spicy aroma of her tea around the world by winning Australia’s Businesswomen of the year 2016 award. An Indian migrant to Australia in 1990, learnt fluent Punjabi, undertook all the annual Indian traditions and started blending grandfather's chai blends in her mum's kitchen for family and friends to celebrate every occasion. A visionary, she saw a huge opportunity for tea business in Australia and began writing the success story in a desi flavour.
Maneka Gandhi
Maneka Gandhi, Union Cabinet Minister for Women & Child Development continued to complete her work silently this year. She launched several new initiatives for the welfare of women and children in 2016. Some of the important steps taken by her are Framing of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children), the online passport application form, which now gives an option to the applicant to choose mother as the legal guardian; supreme court ruled “father’s name not mandatory for issuing passport.” She also got the maternity leave revised from 12 weeks to 26 weeks!
Sushma Swaraj
As the Minister of External Affairs of India, Sushma Swaraj won many hearts across the globe.
She and her team have been using Twitter since a year now, to truly extend the scope of their reach. Apart from dealing with major international crisis, she has also been sorting out problems of many individuals online, without any fuss or fanfare. Where she helped rescuing and evacuating a woman being held in South Africa, her Ministry rescued 168 Indians being held hostage in Iraq. Her ministry pulled off a massive coordinated effort to rescue people during the Yemen crisis and she also evacuated three Pakistani nationals from Hodeida.
INFLUENCIAL WOMEN
24