Fortune has released its Most Powerful Women Asia 2026 ranking, with Tan Su Shan, chief executive of DBS Group, taking the top spot. Succeeding Shiv Nadar at HCLTech, Roshni Nadar Malhotra secured the eighth position — the highest-ranked Indian on the list.

Tan Su Shan made history in 2025 as the first woman to lead DBS, Southeast Asia’s largest bank by assets. She succeeded Piyush Gupta, who led the bank for 15 years, stepping into a role with exceptionally high expectations. In July 2026, DBS became the first Singaporean company to cross 200 billion Singapore dollars — about $157 billion — in market value.

How the ranking works

The report recognises 100 women across 14 markets, including mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, Japan, Australia, South Korea and Indonesia. The women come from varied backgrounds — chief executives, chairs, C-suite leaders, regional champions and founders of high-growth ventures. Twenty-four of the 100 are new to the list this year.

Fortune says the ranking is editorial-based and data-driven, scoring each candidate on five factors: the scale and performance of the business, innovation, influence, trajectory and impact. Data was drawn from public filings, company disclosures, independent reporting and nominations.

India’s strong showing

Roshni Nadar Malhotra became HCLTech’s chairperson in 2020, taking charge of one of India’s technology giants, which now reports $14.7 billion in revenue. Under her leadership, the company has been restructured as an AI-native enterprise, with advanced AI revenue reaching $620 million last year. HCLTech’s board is now 50 per cent women — among the highest shares of any major company. She was also named the richest woman on the 2026 Hurun India Rich List.

Other Indian women on the ranking include Arundhati Chakraborty of Accenture at No. 39, Vibha Padalkar of HDFC Life at No. 42, Priya Nair of Hindustan Unilever at No. 52, Vishakha Mulye of Aditya Birla Capital at No. 70, Preetha Reddy of Apollo Hospitals at No. 79, and Arundhati Bhattacharya of Salesforce at No. 81.

The rest of the top 10

The top 10 is dominated by leaders from China and Hong Kong. Grace Wang takes second place, followed by Zhou Qunfei at third, Meng Wanzhou at fourth, Bonnie Y. Chan at fifth, Malina Ngai at sixth and Wang Fengying at seventh. Mitsuko Tottori is ninth and Joey Wat rounds out the top 10.