- Lived:
- b. 23 March 1953, Bangalore (Bengaluru) → almost the whole life lived in that one city, with a brewing education in Australia and a company that now reaches most of the world
- Field:
- biotechnology and industrial fermentation — founder and executive chairperson of Biocon, builder of India's biotech industry
- The Big Idea:
- The yeast that brews beer can be taught to brew human insulin. She trained as a brewer, was refused the job for being a woman, and turned brewing's ancient craft — fermentation — into affordable medicine for the poor world.
- In their words:
- "affordable innovation" — the two-word credo she has repeated for decades (as of September 2026)
- If you remember one thing:
- India's biotechnology industry exists because no Indian brewery would hire a woman brewmaster — so she started an enzyme company in the garage of a rented Bangalore house with ten thousand rupees, and ended up making Asia's insulin.