Leading from the front

A selection from the last 15 years of the Forbes India Leadership Awards captures the flavour of what it takes to stay at the top

Mar 27, 2026, 13:37 IST2 min

1/25

2011
Manish Sabharwal, co-founder and chairman, Team Lease, won the Entrepreneur with Social Impact award. Photo by Forbes India Photo Team

2/25

2011
(Left to right) Rajiv Bajaj of Bajaj Auto, who won the award for Best CEO - Private Sector, with actor Shah Rukh Khan and Vinita Bali of Britannia Industries, who won the award for Woman Leader of the Year. Photo by Forbes India Photo Team

3/25

2012
N Chandrasekaran of TCS, who won the Best CEO - Private Sector award, with Entrepreneur for the Year Kumar Mangalam Birla of the Aditya Birla Group. Photo by Forbes India Photo Team

4/25

2012 HUL’s Nitin Paranjpe, who won the award for Best CEO - MNC, with Sharmila Paranjpe. Photo by Forbes India Photo Team

5/25

2013
Entrepreneur for the Year Anand Mahindra of Mahindra Group. Photo by Forbes India Photo Team

6/25

2014
Top: Shikha Sharma of Axis Bank, who won the award for Best CEO - Private Sector, with PRS Oberoi of the Oberoi Group (right) and Zia Mody of AZB & Partners. Photo by Forbes India Photo Team

7/25

2014
Above: PRS Oberoi with Sun Pharmaceutical’s Dilip Shanghvi, who won the award for Entrepreneur for the Year. Photo by Forbes India Photo Team

8/25

2015
Uday Kotak, founder of Kotak Mahindra Bank, who won the Entrepreneur for the Year award, with Arundhati Bhattacharya, who won the Best CEO - Public Sector award for leading SBI. Photo by Forbes India Photo Team

9/25

2016
Entrepreneurs for the Year Vinita (left) & Nilesh Gupta (right) of Lupin with Shefali Gupta (centre). Photo by Forbes India Photo Team

10/25

2016
Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma, who won the award for Outstanding Startup of the Year. Photo by Forbes India Photo Team