The 6th Annual Inspiring Women Achievers Awards- IWAA 2025 were presented at the M.P. Birla Planetarium in Kolkata. It was organised by Shagufta Hanaphie, founder of SHE, in collaboration with the Universal Education Equity Foundation, established by Dr. Bratati Bhattacharyya.

This year, the theme of the award show was- Honouring Women Entrepreneurs of Today and Rising Stars of Tomorrow.

Shagufta Hanaphie said, “This year, we have made some changes to the nomination. Earlier, people could self-nominate. But I found that new people were not being discovered as a result of this. Hence, we asked the earlier awardees to send nominations of women who are doing amazing work”.

Out of 125 entries, 11 people were chosen for the awards.

Dr Bratati Bhattacharyya, Dr. Chaitali Das, Dr. Sujoy Biswas & Mrs Meena Kak helped with the selection of the awardees.

The eleven talented women who were felicitated for their amazing work this year were as follows:

1. Dr. Sharmishtha Banerjee(Global Entrepreneur)

2. Roshni Aditya (Edupreneur)

3. Saheli Mitra (Content Creator)

4. Shirin Eqbal (Home Baker)

5. Dr. Ruchika Debraj De (General Physician & Businesswoman)

6. Aban Desai (Art Curator)

7. Mahasweta Banerjee (Businesswoman)

8. Sayanee Chavda (Kathak Performer)

9. Priyanka Chatterjee (Storyteller)

10. Chandri Mukherjee (Fashion Designer)

11. Mona Sen Gupta (Book Launch Curator)

Acid attack survivors who are now engaged as entrepreneurs were also felicitated at the event.

Shagufta Hanaphie said that the next initiative of SHE will be the Humanitarian Award.

Priyanka Dutta