If you don’t know her, you’re oblivious of one of India’s richest women and that too a self-made millionairre.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, who owns the $800million biotech giant, Biocon (one of India’s leading drug companies) didn’t make it to the Forbes Magazine’s 100 ‘Most Powerful Women’ in the world list just like that. But, it took her a lot of her sweat and blood to attain the unprecedented success that she has.

Interestingly, many won’t know that the businesswoman started her humble journey out of a garage in 1978 and that too in less than $200. Well, that’s what a report on CNN has divulged about the entreprenuer.

“I had a lot of foolish courage because when I started up the company I found I had huge credibility challenges to overcome. I was a 25-year-old woman with no business experience, I was trying to pioneer a sector called biotechnology which nobody had heard of. I therefore had huge challenges from getting financial backing to even getting people to work in the organization,” CNN quoted Kiran as saying.

“I was finding it very difficult to get a job as a brew master,” she said.

“It was a chance encounter with a biotech entrepreneur from Ireland that got me started as an entrepreneur in India, because I partnered this Irish company in setting up India’s first biotech company. It has taken me over 30 years to get from a garage to the huge campus that we have today. And it’s been a long journey — it’s been a very exciting journey,” she added.

Interestingly, Kiran was India’s first qualified master brewer, but she turned to setting up her own business after failing to find a job in the brewing sector.

Being a woman, the lady has ensured that she helps fellow women, in fact, she employs around 5,000 scientists, 40 percent are women.

“One of my objectives when I started Biocon was to make sure that I create a company for women scientists to pursue a vocation,” said Mazumdar-Shaw.

Photo courtesy: blog.shankbone.org

source: http://www.DailyBhaskar.com / Home> New Woman / November 16th, 2012