Presenting Shepreneurs – 2017's Women to Watch They are bold, they are beautiful, their stories are worth a million.

By Punita Sabharwal

You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.

The more women are free to succeed in business, the more the country as a whole leapfrogs to success. Women empowerment in business is increasingly unveiling itself with Millennial women at large taking the business world by storm and levelling the playing field of drawing a bigger canvas of ambition to their male counterparts. Entrepreneur's annual compendium of the women who are on the verge of creating the next wave in entrepreneurship reveals how they will transform the Indian landscape.

They are bold, they are beautiful, their stories are worth a million. When Entrepreneur went on to find out who will be the face of this year's Shepreneurs, some names just clicked our mind because of what they have done and some name we had to dig deep beyond the story being told. The search began with our reporters fishing that one story across regions, diving deep into the sectors and finding the women,who is sitting on the edge of a big breakthrough .

Anushka Sharma, the self-made actress, is on the cover of Entrepreneur Magazine's women special issue – and it is not because of her acting career. The story of the Phillauri star on turning a producer was one to be told. When Anushka's name was thought we knew she's thinking ahead. She's not the one who is thinking now. Entrepreneur realized she's made a name as an actor and now it's the start of her professional journey as an entrepreneur. With this, Anushka became the first actress to grace the cover of Entrepreneur India.

Team Entrepreneur found out some great gems from sectors like fashion designing. However, the sector is such which has more of glamour and less to be spoken about real difference it will make to the business world. Here the name of Payal Jain came forward as one woman who has really dressed up the corporate world. She's the one designing for every hospitality giant and trust me the challenges are many from finding the right cloth and color which will suit people of 73 nationalities.

Yes, that's hard. The inside feature finds mention of various such women who are on their way of finding what life has ahead of them. Radhika Mukherjee, coming out of her closet of just being known as India's foremost singer's wife is one such example. Or Jwala Gutta, India's top doubles shuttler talking to Entrepreneur exclusively on her Global Acamdey is now finding her feet as an entrepreneur.

The idea was to capture the souls of these individuals and come forth with stories, which we think are not only great now, but actually showcase a tinge of building the future change. These women really mean business. Entrepreneur went out to ask them what they have done to do the balancing act. While talking to a women entrepreneur, one of them told me for a working mom, her work life has to continue as if she doesn't have a child and on personal front she has to raise her child as if she's not working.

On the whole, women are taking the world in their stride. India's most promising lawyer, Zia Mody has some great nuggets to share on this. More power to such women entrepreneurs who will write the new rules of women empowerment and It's milestones in India.

The task wasn't easy, every time finding new names to surprise our readers and who these women would who'll write something new on the wall. More surprises await you when you grab the latest issue of Entrepreneur – Women to Watch Special. For now, here are our 23 Shepreneurs.

THE CLASS OF SHEPRENEURS 2017

>> Anam Hashim, Biker

>> Anjana Reddy, Founder, Universal Sportsbiz

>> Anushka Sharma, Actress & Producer

>> Bharti Jacob, Managing Partner, Seed Fund

>> Gayathri Vasudevan, Founder, Labourent

>> Hemalatha Annamalai, Founder and CEO, Ampere Vehicle

>> Jwala Gutta, Sportswoman

>> Manjula Pooja Shroff, Founder, Kalorex Group of Institutions

>> Mira Gulati, Founder, Mirari

>> Patricia Narayan, Co-founder and Director, Prasan Hotels and Hospitality Services

>> Payal Jain, Designer

>> Radhika Mukherjee, Founder and CEO, Happydemic

>> Rema Subramanian and Ritu Verma, Co-Founders & Managing Partners, Ankur Capital

>> Richa Kar, Founder, Zivame

>> Ritika Bindal, Founder, Woven Gold

>> Sanjjanaa Galrani, Actress and Yoga guru

>> Shruti Shibulal, Promoter and Director, The Tamara Coorg

>> Shipra Khanna, Celebrity Chef

>> Sheela Kochousuph, Founder, V-star

>> Sahiba Singh, Founder, This Is It Design Pvt. Ltd.

>> Uzma Irfan, Director, Prestige Group and Founder Sublime

>> Zia Mody, Founding Partner, AZB and Partners

(To know more about these women entrepreneurs, subscribe, click here)

Punita Sabharwal

Entrepreneur Staff

Managing Editor, Entrepreneur India

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