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I'd like to see women get on to boards and run companies despite the fact that men occupy the citadels of power.

One of my objectives when I started Biocon was to make sure that I create a company for women scientists to pursue a vocation.

We need women leaders. But we need them to have a vision for something.

The most significant barrier to female leadership is the actual lack of females in leadership. The best advice I can give to women is to go out and start something, ideally their own businesses. If you can't see a path for leadership within your own company, go blaze a trail of your own.

If more women are in leadership roles, we'll stop assuming they shouldn't be.

I really think we need more women to lean into their careers and to be really dedicated to staying in the work force.

We will have to be very vigilant that young female scientists have the same opportunities as their male colleagues.

Women need to be in key operational roles where they run businesses in the organization. Sometimes when organizations focus on leadership diversity, they're mostly in areas like HR or non-operating line functions.

In individual industries where female labour pays an important role, any movement advocating better wages, shorter working hours, etc., would not be doomed from the start because of the attitude of those women workers who are not organized.

Leaders of the future will have to be visionary and be able to bring people in - real communicators. These are things that women bring to leadership and executive positions, and it's going to be incredibly valuable and incredibly in demand.