Women have traditionally been underrepresented in science, know-how, engineering and arithmetic, but right this moment the tides have turned and the way! Empowered by the growing workforce participation, upskilling initiatives, mentorship programmes and inclusive office insurance policies, ladies have claimed their rightful area in AI, sciences and different innovative fields. India is a rising hub of STEM expertise, producing unprecedented alternatives for innovators.
This article celebrates Indian ladies who’re fearlessly breaking boundaries and galvanizing the following technology. Their work is a strong reminder that with entry and alternative, ladies in STEM are shaping the long run.
1. Dr Rajula Srivastava
Dr Rajula Srivastava, an Assistant Professor on the University of Wisconsin-Madison, received the 2025 Maryam Mirzakhani New Frontiers in Mathematics Prize, a prize awarded to distinctive Doctoral ladies mathematicians. It contains a financial award of $50,000. She shared her want to donate a part of her prize cash to Indian organisations supporting kids’s schooling.
Dr Srivastava served as a Hirzebruch Research Instructor, working throughout the Mathematical Institute Bonn and the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics (MPIM). Her analysis sits on the intersection of harmonic evaluation and quantity idea, together with notable outcomes on estimating lattice factors close to clean surfaces, a topic that has implications for Diophantine approximation in increased dimensions, i.e. the approximation of factors with actual coordinates by rational factors.
2. Dr Divya Karnad
Dr Divya Karnad is a marine conservationist and Associate Professor at Ashoka University, India. She was honoured because the 2025 WINGS Woman of Discovery for her interdisciplinary work in advancing sustainable fisheries, safety of marine biodiversity and neighborhood centred conservation. Her work is rooted in the confluence of science, coverage and indigenous data to deal with the human dimension of ocean stewardship. With an intensive document of publications Dr Karnad is a longtime knowledgeable who contributes to public discourses round marine sustainability in India. As the co-founder of InSeason, the nation’s first sustainable seafood initiative, which hyperlinks small-scale fisheries to cheap markets, she helps cut back bycatch and fostering client consciousness on making ecologically accountable seafood decisions.
3. Amrita Krishnamoorthy
Amrita Krishnamoorthy was honoured with the Unlock Her Future Prize 2025 in the United Kingdom, awarded to innovators main social change to deal with South Asia’s most urgent challenges. Her organisation Stepping Stones Center, promotes the observe of Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) to assist kids with Autism Spectrum Disorder and different developmental disabilities. Her evidence-based interventions method is grounded in the idea that each youngster is able to exceeding their potential with the proper educational assist. Positing ABA as their scientific basis, the Centre advances growing communication abilities, tutorial talents, life abilities and lowering difficult behaviours by modifying environmental components. The workforce of behaviour analysts and educated practitioners design systematic, bespoke programmes that concentrate on constructive transformation for youngsters and their households.
4. Jhillika Trisal
Jhillika Trisal, additionally a recipient of the Unlock Her Future Prize 2025, has redesigned studying along with her startup Cognitii; a cell first, AI powered ecosystem that helps faculties in figuring out studying wants early and personalise assist for youngsters with improvement and studying disabilities whereas mitigating workload on educators. Her platform bolsters data-driven determination making and scalable inclusive schooling by means of unifying private studying, assessments and affords actual time progress insights. Built with neurodivergent engineers, educators, and medical consultants, Cognitii hosts AI-powered IEPs, gamified studying, and institution-wide monitoring of inclusion. The initiative is offering a lot wanted infrastructure to Indian faculties to display early, assist successfully and meaningfully have interaction neurodivergent learners throughout schooling methods.
5. Rashi Jain and Yogesh Wadadekar
Researchers Rashi Jain and Yogesh Wadadekar from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, utilizing NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) recognized ‘Alaknanda’, a galaxy strongly akin to the Milky Way however which apparently fashioned when the universe was 1.5 billion years previous. Alaknanda, a disk with two well-defined spiral arms and a vivid central bulge, contests lengthy standing theories that such structured spirals took billions of years to kind. The two astronomers noticed JWST pictures of the galaxy by means of 21 diverse filters to find out Alaknanda’s distance, stellar mass and star-formation charge. This discovery compels astrophysicists to rethink timelines for galaxy formation.
6. Lakshmi Kalyani Chinthala
A researcher at Golden Gate University, Chinthala developed Smart DaaS, an AI pushed diagnostic answer constructed across the wearable platform HIVSense Econ. It is a sport altering health-tech innovation that merges deep learning and edge-AI biosensing to detect HIV biomarkers akin to viral RNA and p24 antigen, accelerating early analysis and care particularly in under-resourced areas. Providing check outcomes in half-hour with a 94.6% accuracy the system combines medical diagnostics with financial modelling. Smart DaaS leverages predictive evaluation to determine high-risk circumstances, optimising therapy and assets whereas minimising the prices. So far, simulations have proven vital progress in early detection and therapy adherence. Chinthala’s innovation affords a scalable public well being software that has the potential for reworking HIV analysis worldwide.
7. Hardika Shah
As the Founder and CEO of Kinara Capital, a fintech accelerating monetary inclusion for India’s small and medium entrepreneurs, Hardika Shah is bridging the MSME credit score hole by offering swift, collateral free loans enabled by digital infrastructure. Through AI/ML powered credit score decisioning and the multilingual myKinara app, entrepreneurs are capable of full eligibility checks and mortgage processing in simply 24 hours. Kinara Capital exemplifies gender inclusivity with its women-majority administration workforce and organisational tradition rooted in fairness. Shah’s initiatives like HerVikas and emphasis on CSR programmes are making great strides in direction of supporting and empowering ladies micro entrepreneurs in India, making financial engagement extra accessible for marginalised communities.
8. Dr Ruchi Gupta
Dr Ruchi Gupta acquired the 2025 Women in Tech Academic Award and was a finalist of Cancer Research Horizon’s Entrepreneurial Group Leader Award 2025. Dr Gupta is an Associate Professor of Analytical Science on the University of Birmingham and has carried out groundbreaking analysis on the event of novel biosensors for utility in medical diagnostics (notably most cancers detection), meals safety and environmental monitoring. Dr Gupta and her workforce acquired a £350,000 grant for his or her mission on growing a hydrogel primarily based lollipop that may extra swiftly detect mouth most cancers from saliva. This innovation may very well be a a lot much less invasive various to the present biopsies which require anaesthesia and stitches. It has the potential to assist medical doctors diagnose oral most cancers earlier, making therapy extra probably to achieve success.
9. Dr Purnima Devi Burman
Dr Purnima Devi Barman, a wildlife biologist from Assam was conferred as one of many TIME Magazine’s Women of the Year 2025. Dr Barman has reinvented the panorama of conservation efforts by leveraging grassroots activism and empowering communities to take a stand. As the founding father of Hargila Army, she led an all ladies motion of over 20,000 rural ladies combating to guard the endangered Greater Adjunct Stork (Hargila). Her workforce ensures that nesting habitats are protected, fallen chicks are rescued and the wetland ecosystems are restored. Her endeavours helped usher a rebound in the stork inhabitants in Assam – resulting in reclassification of Hargila from ‘endangered’ to close ‘threatened’. Her work lies on the intersection of sciences, social fairness, cultural mobilisation to guard and protect the indigenous.
Conclusion
We reside by means of a major second in historical past the place ladies are making excellent contributions globally. At the identical time we should acknowledge that younger ladies proceed to face a number of boundaries in accessing STEM schooling and the options should handle these realities. In order to deal with these intersectional challenges we should proceed to create inclusive, context particular, localised methods which can be grounded in dismantling gender stereotypes and outdated beliefs methods that had been designed to carry ladies again. Integrating scientific curiosity on the core of schooling methods, selling equitable increased participation and alternatives designed for ladies and ladies would guarantee extra future prepared economics and sustainable progress.
This is on no account an exhaustive or consultant listing. Suggestions so as to add to this listicle are welcome in the feedback part.
Simran Dhingra is a latest graduate from Geneva Graduate Institute. Her analysis pursuits lie on the intersections of gender, peace, and migration. Her work examines how digital infrastructures reproduce energy hierarchies, form vulnerabilities, and affect coverage responses at multilateral and institutional ranges.