On November 30, The New Indian Express celebrates 12 women, from diverse backgrounds and professions for their contribution towards society as a whole. The Devi Awards, however, go back a decade to December 2014. In the last ten years, 290+ women in 28 award ceremonies have been recognised for their contributions to society at large, often even before the world chose to recognise them.
India is a land of extremes in many things, not in the least in the state of its women. Despite the odds, Indian women persevere. They fight to get ahead at work and play; they show intelligence, ingenuity and the indomitable spirit of the Devi when going for their goals; and sometimes they give the world a success story to rejoice in. It is their success stories that the Devi Awards celebrate.
The last edition, the 28th, was held at Bhubaneswar and saw 14 Devis from various fields receive their awards from former chief minister and author Naveen Patnaik. This edition of the awards travels to namma Bengaluru on November 30, 2024 and the Chief Minister of Karnataka, Siddaramaiah, will felicitate 12 deserving Devis from the city.
With presenting partner — Adani; powered by Kauvery Hospital Bengaluru; associate partners — Government of Karnataka — Department of Women and Child Development, KMF Nandini & KAPPEC; supporting partner Cauvery Handicrafts; celebration partner Radico and gifting partner Ahujasons, here are the Devis who will be awarded at the 29th edition of the Devi Awards, on November 30, in no particular order:
Jahnavi Phalkey, founding director, Science Gallery Bengaluru
Jahnavi Phalkey is a historian of science and technology. She was awarded the 2023 Infosys Prize in the Humanities. Jahnavi is the Founding Director, Science Gallery Bengaluru, part of an international network of eight galleries and the only autonomous institution among them. The 1.4 lakh sq ft gallery is one among many ambitious public engagement projects in India that seeks to ‘bring science back into culture’. Prior to founding Asia’s first Science Gallery, Jahnavi was a tenured faculty at King’s College London and has also been an external curator at the Science Museum London. Besides authoring books such as Atomic State: Big Science in Twentieth Century India and co-editing Science of Giants: China and India in the Twentieth Century, she has also directed and produced the documentary film, Cyclotron in 2020.
Dr Vatsala Thirumalai, professor and dean, National Centre for Biological Sciences
Dr Vatsala Thirumalai is a Professor and Dean (Research) at the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Bengaluru. Her research interests are in motor systems, neural circuits, development and neurophysiology. She was a Post-Doctoral Fellow from 2002 to 2008 at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York. She has won several honours, awards and distinctions such as Wellcome Trust DBT India Senior Fellowship (2018-24); Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award (2020) and AC Tech Distinguished Alumnus Award (2023). She is on the Editorial Board of eLife, J Physiology and J Neurophysiology and on the Programme Committee, Society for Neuroscience, Washington DC, USA.
Alina Alam, activist
Alina Alam started Mitti Café at the age of 23, with the dream of showing the world the magic of abilities. Mitti Café’s work towards economic independence and dignity for persons with disabilities is noteworthy. The organisation’s outreach initiative helps create awareness about inclusion and disability rights. Alina is a four-time TEDx speaker and has been featured in the Forbes list of 30 Under 30 Asia. She is a Commonwealth Youth Awardee and has received the NITI Aayog – Women Transforming India Award, Helen Keller Award and United Nations Intercultural Innovation Award.
Sonali Sattar, restaurateur
For more than 20 years, Sonali Sattar has been an independent entrepreneur. She has owned and operated two businesses in highly competitive fields: clothes and food. In doing so, she has continued the legacy of her parents who were both acclaimed restaurateurs and designers. Sonali graduated with a degree in fashion design from the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Delhi in 1994. Along with her design partner Himanshu Dimri, she made the radical decision to come back to Bengaluru, which at the time had few local fashion houses that created clothes with a vision and a philosophy. Sonali and Himanshu started Hidden Harmony, committing themselves to the best of raw materials and elegant minimalism in the end product. While Hidden Harmony has always maintained a flagship store in Bengaluru, their garments for men and women have been stocked in the country’s leading fashion boutiques. Extending the philosophy of minimalism and sustainability, Sonali and Himanshu started their restaurant Grasshopper in 2002. Grasshopper was an early pioneer in stand-alone fine dining restaurants in Bengaluru. While Hidden Harmony has provided employment to women in the villages around Kalena Agrahara in Bengaluru, Grasshopper has trained and mentored students in the hospitality sector.
Pavithra Muddaya, co-founder, Vimor
Pavithra Muddaya is the co-founder of Vimor, along with her late mother Chimy Nanjappa. Vimor has been working for the empowerment of weavers through conservation and design upskilling since 1974. With the belief that their textiles belong to every Indian, Pavithra believes in supporting weavers to preserve the country’s textile culture. She started training and hand-holding small-time weavers to help them transition from weavers to entrepreneurs through design guidance to address urban aesthetics. Pavithra Muddaya set up the Vimor Museum of Living Textile (2019) under the Vimor Handloom Foundation (2004). Kamala Devi Chattopadhyay and Pupul Jayakar, who were instrumental in the crafts and textile revival of India, played a great personal role in Vimor’s journey. Today, 70 percent of her weavers have become successful, moving from two looms to hundred looms with the second-generation supplying handlooms all over India.
Dr Pratima Murthy, director, NIMHANS
Dr Pratima Murthy, Director and Senior Professor of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, has over three decades of experience in the field of mental health. She is an alumnus of Bangalore Medical College. She completed her Diploma and MD in Psychiatry from NIMHANS and has a Diploma in Psychological Medicine from the University of Manchester, UK. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Glasgow, UK. Dr Murthy has contributed to public policy in the fields of mental health, addictions and integration of mental illness with non-communicable diseases. Through her work on the human rights of persons with mental illness, she has contributed significantly to mental hospital reform and the programmatic expansion of mental healthcare. She has also been involved in improving institutional mental healthcare for women through her work with the National Commission for Women.
Arundhati Nag, founder & managing trustee, Sanket Trust
Arundhati Nag is a prominent actor and theatre personality, who has been involved with multilingual theatre in India for over 50 years. She is the founder and Managing Trustee of the Sanket Trust that runs Ranga Shankara, a theatre in Bengaluru. Arundhati has also been involved in several television and film projects and has received both the Karnataka State Film Award (1985) and the National Film Award (2010). She has been presented the Padma Shri (2010) by the President of India for her untiring efforts and tremendous achievements in the arts and was also conferred the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in Theatre Acting (2008) by India’s National Academy of Music, Dance and Theatre.
Samhita Arni, author
Samhita Arni has been passionate about retelling mythology ever since she was a child, and as an adult, has been engaged in exploring critical ways in which women participate and are excluded from both mythological and historical narratives. She’s written four books; starting at the age of 11, with The Mahabharata — A Child’s View, which has been published in over seven language editions and sold over 60,000 copies. Sita’s Ramayana, her second book, a collaboration with artist Moyna Chitrakar, was a New York Times Bestseller that is in its sixth reprinting. The Missing Queen was a thriller based on the Ramayana, and her last book — The Prince — is a work of historical fiction set in the sangam era. The Prince won the 2020 Neev Book Award.
Anju Bobby George, two-time Olympian
Dr Anju Bobby George is easily one of the most celebrated athletes in our country’s history. In 2002,she won a bronze medal in the Commonwealth Games — the first Indian woman athlete to do so — and a gold medal in the Asian Games. She made history by winning a bronze medal at the 2003 World Athletics Championships in Paris, becoming the first Indian to achieve this feat. In 2005, Anju clinched the gold medal at the World Athletics Final, further solidifying her place among the world’s best. She is a two-time Olympian and holds the national record for long jump with a mark of 6.83 metres achieved at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Recognising her contributions to Indian sports, she was honoured with the Arjuna Award in 2002, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna in 2003 and the prestigious padma shri award in 2004. Currently, Anju Bobby George serves as the senior vice-president of the Athletics Federation of India and is deeply involved in nurturing young talent through her academy, the Anju Bobby Sports Foundation.
Kavita Gupta Sabharwal, founder & managing trustee, Neev Schools
Kavita Gupta Sabharwal’s professional experience till 2002 was largely in corporate strategy and finance, functions she headed for one of India’s largest publicly listed pharma firms, Lupin Limited. She switched to education after frustrations with pre-school education for her own children — starting Neev in 2005 with a vision to avoid the extremes and strike the right balance for overall early childhood development. This vision then moved to starting a grade school which works with the programmes of the International Baccalaureate. Neev currently owns five pre-schools and one Academy campus in Bengaluru, and employs over 200 teaching professionals in a continuously growing team meeting the developmental needs of nearly 1,200 children. Neev does not franchise and believes in continuous organic growth as the only way to scale quality. Kavita also intends to start a community school for under-privileged children. Neev reimagines excellence in education in a changing India, around the mission of ‘building knowledge, self-awareness and relationships with people and the environment to seek happy, healthy and impactful lives.’
Meena Ganesh, co-founder & chairperson, Portea Medical
A serial entrepreneur, Meena Ganesh co-founded Portea Medical, a leading home healthcare company, in 2013. It now has 3,000+ employees and operations across 20+ cities in India and brings in-home to patients, the full range of geriatric, chronic, post-operative care as well as allied healthcare services. As a partner of the platform, growthstory.in, one of India’s largest entrepreneurship platforms, she is also co-promoter of nearly a dozen, new-age internet/technology-enabled start-ups namely Bigbasket, Bluestone, HomeLane and verloop.io. Meena has also worked at TutorVista, Pearson Education Services, Tesco Hindustan Service Centre, CustomerAsset, Microsoft India, PWC and NIIT.
Nirupama Rajendra, classical dancer
Nirupama Rajendra, a Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee, is a renowned classical dancer and choreographer who has mastered bharatanatyam and kathak. With 35 years of dedication, she has excelled as a performer, teacher, producer and director of Abhinava Dance Company. Alongside her husband Rajendra, she has delivered over 1,000 performances across five continents, reaching seven million connoisseurs. Nirupama has choreographed 200+ sequences, including the video documentation of Bhagavadajjukam and trained 3,000 students. Contributing to Karnataka’s art and culture scene, Nirupama has served as an honorary member of Karnataka Sangeetha Nruthya Academy and advisor for PES University’s dance department. Her groundbreaking research led to the creation of a new vocabulary, deshi marga adavu, expanding the language of classical dance. Additionally, she revived the ancient Madanothsava festival, bringing together hundreds of artistes, fostering harmony and peace in the community.
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