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When HSBC decided to expand its investment-banking presence in India, it needed someone to lead the charge. Not surprisingly, it chose Naina Lal Kidwai. The first Indian woman to graduate from Harvard Business School, in 1982, Kidwai, 45, has established herself as one of India's best bankers, a shrewd negotiator with a talent for anticipating new sectors of growth.

Kidwai made her name at Morgan Stanley, which she joined in 1994 after a stint at ANZ Grindlay's Bank. At the time, Morgan's operations in India were relatively small. She engineered a joint venture with investment bank JM Financials, making the resulting firm one of the largest in that industry in India. She also aggressively pursued opportunities in technology, nabbing the accounts of Wipro and Infosys, among others, and brokered a joint venture between AT&T and two conglomerates, owned by the Birla and Tata families, to create a telecom company offering cellular service throughout India.

Kidwai says she has no plans to leave India. "In the U.S., I may have brokered bigger deals, but here, it's much more at the cutting edge of reform, the ability to influence, to shape."

—By Michele Orecklin. Reported by Meenakshi Ganguly/New Delhi

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