BANGALORE: Fortune magazine has recognized Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, the chairman and MD of Bangalore-based biotech company Biocon, as the 44th most powerful woman in the international business arena in 2005.

About Mazumdar-Shaw, the magazine says, “Mazumdar-Shaw, 52, became India's richest self-made businesswoman last year when her biotech company went public. Having founded Biocon in a Bangalore garage in 1978, she's now worth about $440 million and is working on the world's first oral insulin for diabetes patients. Biocon, India's largest biotech firm, had sales last year of $167 million.”

The other Indian business women on the list include ICICI Bank Executive Director Chanda Kochhar, whose ranked 47 and Vidya Chhabria of the Jumbo group.

The topper on Fortune's overall list of Fortune's most powerful women in the US is Meg Whitman, chairman and CEO of online auction company eBay.

Other prominent power women from the tech and IT sector who figure on the list include Anne Mulcahy, chairman and CEO, Xerox Corp. whose ranked number two; Pat Russo, chairman and CEO of Lucent Technologies who is at the number 14 position; Gini Rometty, IBM's Senior VP, enterprise business services at number 15 and Autodesk chairman, CEO and president Carol Bartz at number 31.

The conspicuous absentee on the Fortune top 50 list this year is erstwhile HP CEO Carlton Fiorina who was ranked number two in last year's rankings.