Roshni Nadar Malhotra, chairperson of HCLTech, has secured eighth place on Fortune’s 2026 Most Powerful Women Asia list, making her the highest-ranked Indian on the annual ranking.
DBS Group chief executive Tan Su Shan topped the ranking. She also serves as a trustee of the Shiv Nadar Foundation and founded The Habitats Trust, which works on wildlife conservation. The list recognises 100 women from 14 markets across the Asia-Pacific region, according to Fortune . Malhotra, who occupied seventh place in 2025, also features at No. 33 on Fortune’s separate global Most Powerful Women list. In February 2026, a joint venture between HCL Group and Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn began construction of a $440 million semiconductor assembly and testing facility in Uttar Pradesh, according to Fortune and an official company statement . Born in Tamil Nadu in 1945, Shiv Nadar studied electrical engineering at PSG College of Technology in Coimbatore. In March 2025, he transferred 47 per cent stakes in each of two HCL promoter companies, HCL Corporation and Vama Sundari Investments (Delhi), to his daughter as part of the family’s succession planning, according to an HCLTech exchange filing reported by The Economic Times .
She studied communications at Northwestern University and later earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, according to HCLTech’s official website . He began his career as a management trainee at DCM, where he met several future HCL co-founders, according to the Shiv Nadar Foundation .
