Mithali Raj named in BBC’s 100 most influential women list of 2017

Mithali Raj, the India Women’s cricket team captain has been described as one of the most influential women in India in BBC’s 100 Women list 2017

Indian women’s cricket team captain Mithali Raj has been revealed as one of the most influential women in India by the BBC.

Mithali Raj, who led Indian women’s cricket team to the final of the ICC Women’s World Cup final earlier this year, has been honoured by BBC in its 100 Women list 2017, which lists the most influential women in the world from various walks of life.(Getty Images)

Mithali, who led India to the final of the ICC Women’s World Cup 2017 earlier this year, was named as one of the most influential women in India alongside Delhi’s Ira Trivedi and Tulika Kiran and Bengaluru’s Aditi Avasthi and Mehroonisa Siddiqui in BBC’s 100 Women list 2017.

Ira is a writer, yoga teacher and activist, while Aditi is the founder and CEO of a company named Embibe. Tulika has been teaching kids in Tihar prison for the last eight years, whereas the 65-year-old Mehroonisa is the mother of Bollywood actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui.

Among the other Indian women in the list are Dr. Urvashi Sahni, a social entrepreneur, women’s rights activist and educationist. The list also includes Nitya Thummalachettym, who is a business analyst at CareCentra, a health care analytics company in New York.

The 29-year-old footballer Steph Houghton, who is the captain of Manchester City FC and the England Women’s football team, is also on the list.

According to a BBC release, the women featuring in their list are “taken from across all spheres of modern life — from engineering to the creative industries, from sport to business — they represent the global wealth of female talent.

“The Indian women named are part of the list of 60 women from around the world who are working or campaigning in these fields or who have inspired others through their actions,” the release added.

“The list has been inspired by the BBC 100 Women Challenge. New for 2017 this is a unique celebration of female talent which sees four teams of women tasked with finding solutions to everyday problems currently blighting female lives across the globe,” the release said.

“The challenge will be coming to Delhi from October 9-13 where a team will be are looking at female illiteracy. Other places hosting the 100 Women Challenge are Silicon Valley from October 2-6, where a group will tackle the glass ceiling; safety on public transport will be the focus for the London and Nairobi team from October 16-20. From October 23-27, women in Rio will consider sexism in sport,” the release added.