Every leadership recognition list faces the same quiet question: how was this list actually built? For the ET NOW Impactful Women Leaders of India Summit 2025, that question fell to Coherent Market Insights (CMI), which came on board as Research Partner to design and run the evaluation process from the ground up.

The summit itself, part of the ET Edge platform, took place in Delhi on December 8, 2025, drawing together entrepreneurs, senior executives, policy advocates, and innovators from across the country. But the work that shaped its centerpiece — the recognition of 29 women leaders — had already been underway for months before anyone reached the stage.

Monica Shevgan, General Manager – Business Accelerator at CMI, presented that behind-the-scenes process at the summit, walking the audience through how the firm approached a problem that's easy to state and hard to solve fairly: how do you compare a startup founder in agri-tech to a CFO at a listed bank, and call the comparison meaningful?

CMI's answer was a multi-layered framework built around eligibility, evaluation, and independent validation. Entry required Indian nationality, at least three years in a leadership position, and a verifiable record of impact — corporate, social, or innovation-driven. From there, candidates were assessed across eight sectors, from Corporate & Business Leadership and Banking & Finance to Sustainability & Energy, Social Impact, Education, and Agriculture & Food, ensuring the list wasn't skewed toward any single industry or organizational type.

The technical core of the process was a weighted scoring model that prioritized measurable impact above all else, followed by leadership vision, innovation, problem-solving ability, and financial outcomes. Because the pool included everyone from MSME founders to large-corporate executives, CMI applied a data normalization technique so that scale and resources didn't quietly tilt the results toward bigger organizations. The shortlist that emerged was then reviewed by a jury of senior editorial leaders from The Economic Times and ET Now, together with independent industry experts, before 29 names were confirmed out of an original pool of 200.

For CMI, the exercise reflects a broader interest the firm has in governance-led recognition frameworks — the idea that "most impactful" should be something you can defend with a method, not just a narrative. That's arguably the more interesting story here: not just who made the list, but the fact that a market intelligence firm was brought in specifically to make sure the list could hold up to scrutiny.

CMI described the partnership as a chance to support inclusive growth and give transformative leadership a credible, transparent stage — a role it says it was genuinely honored to play alongside ET Now and ET Edge.

About the ET Now Impactful Women Leaders of India Summit 2025

A national platform under the ET Edge umbrella, the summit recognizes women advancing business, policy, innovation, and social impact, celebrating their role in India's inclusive growth story.

About Coherent Market Insights

Coherent Market Insights (CMI) is a global market intelligence and consulting firm headquartered in India, with operations spanning the U.S., U.K., and Japan. CMI serves clients across 32+ countries through more than 300 full-time consultants and a domain-expert network covering 24 countries.

 https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com