Gita Gopinath

Gita Gopinath is now the first deputy managing director (FDMD) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and will assume the role under present managing director Kristalina Georgieva. We trace her meteoric rise from being a girl from a simple Mysuru family to being a world-class economist.

Gita Gopinath's husband, Iqbal Dhaliwal is a UPSC topper and a gold medal-winning IAS officer who left his job and moved to the US. He now heads MIT's Poverty Action Lab.

We are sure that if we start counting their numbers, we will run out of space. So, for the sake of brevity, here is a list of 12 exceptional women who have made India proud in recent years.

Taking over from Maurice Obstfeld, Gita Gopinath will now be the second economist from India to assume the post at the Washington DC-based organisation, after notable economist and former RBI governor, Raghuram Rajan.