Why Coherent Market Insights Chose to Put Its Research Behind Women's Leadership in India

Market intelligence firms are usually associated with industry forecasts and competitive analysis — not with deciding who counts as an "impactful leader." But that's precisely the role Coherent Market Insights (CMI) took on as Research Partner for the ET NOW Impactful Women Leaders of India Summit 2025, held in Delhi on December 8, 2025 under the ET Edge platform.

The summit brought together entrepreneurs, senior executives, policy advocates, and innovators from across India's business and social landscape. But CMI's contribution wasn't in the room's conversations — it was in the groundwork that decided who got to be in the room in the first place.

At the event, Monica Shevgan, General Manager – Business Accelerator at CMI, presented the research methodology built to identify India's most influential women leaders. It's worth pausing on why a firm like CMI would take this on at all. The answer, based on how the framework was constructed, seems to be a belief that recognition only means something if it's earned through a defensible process — not popularity, visibility, or who submitted the best nomination form.

That belief shows up in the details. Eligibility was tightly scoped: Indian nationals, at least three years in leadership, and a track record of impact across business, social, or innovation domains. Candidates were then evaluated across eight distinct sectors — including Corporate & Business Leadership, Banking & Finance, Technology & Digital, Healthcare, Sustainability & Energy, Social Impact, Education, and Agriculture & Food — so the final list would reflect the full range of where women are actually leading in India, not just the sectors that get the most press coverage.

The scoring itself leaned hardest on measurable impact, ahead of leadership vision, innovation, problem-solving, and financial results. A data normalization step ensured a founder running a lean MSME wasn't disadvantaged against an executive at a large corporate simply because of scale. Once the shortlist was built, it went to a jury of senior editorial figures from The Economic Times and ET Now, together with independent industry experts, for final validation — a check designed to keep the process credible rather than purely algorithmic.

The result: 29 women leaders recognized out of a starting pool of 200, spanning nearly every sector of the Indian economy.

For CMI, the exercise sits inside a broader pattern the firm has been building toward — using its research capability not just for market sizing and industry reports, but for governance-led recognition work that has real stakes for the people it evaluates. It's a quieter form of thought leadership: instead of publishing an opinion on inclusive growth, CMI built the mechanism that measures it.

CMI considers the partnership with ET Now and ET Edge a meaningful part of that mission, and one it was proud to be part of.

About the ET Now Impactful Women Leaders of India Summit 2025

A national initiative under ET Edge, the summit celebrates women driving business innovation, policy change, and social impact, marking their contribution to India's inclusive growth journey.

About Coherent Market Insights

Coherent Market Insights (CMI) is a global market intelligence and consulting firm headquartered in India, with a presence in the U.S. and strategic partnerships across the U.K. and Japan. CMI supports clients in 32+ countries through a network of 300+ full-time consultants and domain experts across 24 countries.

 https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com