International Women’s Day, celebrated on March 8, is just around the corner, and this year’s theme is ‘Accelerate Action.’
The first-ever women’s day was celebrated on March 19, 1911, in the US as well as some European countries. It originally came as an idea from the labour movement in 1908.
The March 8 day was then adopted from 1975 onwards by the United Nations.
For the occasion, the following are four inspirational figures
1) Shruti Mahajan: From banking to Bollywood
Shruti Mahajan was the casting director for Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s acclaimed Netflix series, Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar. Before embarking on her Bollywood journey, she started off in the human resources department of a bank.
However, her repertoire now includes Bajirao Mastani, Gangubai Kathiawadi, Mary Kom, Padman, Lipstick Under My Burkha, Satyagraha, The Big Bull, Ghoomer, and Lust Stories 2, among others.
She was also awarded by Femina India as Women Achiever 2025.
2) IndiQube’s Meghna Agarwal
Meghna Agarwal is the Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of IndiQube, a flexible workspace provider for businesses and startups.
She emerges as a successful figure in the world of commercial real estate largely dominated by men.
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She has scaled IndiQube, developing a portfolio of over a hundred properties across 13 cities, managing more than 7.7 million sq. ft. of office space, and also driving ₹867.6 crore in total income during the financial year 2023-24.
Agarwal has been recognized across platforms, including Femina’s ‘100 Emerging Women Leaders,’ Entrepreneur Media’s ‘Shepreneurs to Watch,’ and Economic Times’ ‘Power Icons.’
She is also an angel investor in startups such as Third Wave Coffee Roasters and is an active member of YPO (Young Presidents’ Organization).
3) Sneha Desai, the writer of Oscar-nominated film Laapata Ladies
Sneha Desai is an acclaimed writer, playwright, and lyricist, known for her work across theatre, television, and films which spans over two decades.
One of her most significant pieces of work is the Oscar-nominated Laapataa Ladies, produced by Aamir Khan Productions and Kindling, which received widespread acclaim, winning Best Film (Critics’ Choice) at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne and Best Dialogues at the FOI Online Awards.
She has also written for Maharaj, the much-anticipated Yash Raj Films project starring Junaid Khan, which received multiple nominations, including Best Dialogues at the Filmfare OTT Awards.
Other examples of her work include the dialogues for hit television series such as Pushpa Impossible (SAB TV), Wagle Ki Duniya (SAB TV), and Yeh Teri Galliyan (ZEE TV), which earned her multiple ITA and SWA nominations.
For theatre, she has written and performed in several award-winning plays, including Code Mantra, Safarchand, and Lagori, with adaptations in multiple languages.
4) Rituu B. Jhaveri – Carrying forward a 90-year old legacy in jewellery
Rituu B. Jhaveri is the founder of Rowa’s Jewels, a Mumbai-based brand which is dedicated to carrying forward her family’s legacy in precious stones and diamonds, established over ninety years ago.
This was when Rituu’s husband’s grandfather, Motichand Hirachand Jhaveri began trading large diamonds in 1931, with a reputation for quality reaching across Europe and the Middle East.
Since then, her father-in-law, Hemchand Jhaveri and her husband Bhavesh Jhaveri, had expanded the business further into international markets, focusing on rare, fancy-colored diamonds, specialising in unique diamond cuts like rose-cut diamonds, briolettes, and diamond beads to elite Swiss and New York jewelers.
