Pune: At the highly anticipated and power-packed awards ceremony held at the Reliance Corporate Park; Her Circle, the digital women's platform founded by Mrs Nita Mukesh Ambani, saw the culmination in a glittering grand finale of the Her Circle Bizruptors Awards 2024. Pune’s Akanksha Sharma, CITTA's founder, won the Her Circle Bizrutptor of the Year 2024 Award for Scalability.

During the pandemic, Akanksha Sharma and her mother Monisha, who is a cosmetic engineer, identified a demand for safer baby skincare products. This inspired them to establish CITTA, a brand that combines Indian traditions with thorough scientific research. CITTA was introduced in 2021, providing products that are free from toxins and cruelty. Each ingredient is transparently labelled, ensuring full disclosure. Their commitment to excellence and safety has resulted in this deserved acknowledgement. Here is her message to all female entrepreneurs “I'm so excited honestly like my heart is still beating super-fast. CITTA was started in the lockdown so we're a COVID baby. It's been so interesting to see the journey We started when the markets were all shut, so I actually got to see the open markets and things running smoothly just a year or so ago but it's been such an interesting journey because my mother has been a part of that journey with me. I think I'm so lucky to be able to work with my mother. I just want to tell all the women that there are so many reasons to not do what you want to do but you need just one reason to just go out there and keep doing.

The Bizruptor awards category is distinctive as the winners have been selected by an independent jury comprising industry icons such as veteran fashion designer, Anita Dongre, venture capitalist, Tarana Lalwani, entrepreneur and venture capitalist, Ankita Vashistha and CEO Her Circle, Tanya Chaitanya. Over 7 women entrepreneurs across categories were recognised and honoured at the first edition of the awards. These women entrepreneurs have transformed their kitchens into studios, living rooms into classrooms, and passion into prosperity. The winners were selected from an initial pool of 1,027 entrepreneurs from across the country.

Commenting on the occasion Ms Tanya Chaitanya, CEO, Her Circle said, “Her Circle Bizruptors is not just a nationwide hunt for women entrepreneurs with a will and disruption skill. It is a discovery of innovative, inclusive and sustainable businesses that may end up helping our planet. The overall Her Circle Bizruptors Grand Finale celebrates the winners who have gone through the rigours of initiating and steering a start-up in the competitive entrepreneurial landscape. And now just any start-up but one with a purpose. We also applaud the icons in a separate category—established veterans from their areas of expertise who are torchbearers for change, front-footers all the way. Her Circle Bizruptors 2024 is a spirited, charged and inclusive take on women and their will to be the change.”

The awards not only showcased exceptional entrepreneurs but also shed light on the many challenges – social, cultural and structural – that women have to overcome to start and grow a business. Women make up only a third of entrepreneurs worldwide. The Her Circle Bizruptors 2024 brought together a constellation of remarkable women, each shining brightly in their entrepreneurial endeavours. As the curtains closed on this power-packed event, the stage was set for a new chapter in the narrative of women's empowerment and innovation, stated a press release.