CELEBRATING THE POWER WOMEN OF INDIAN REAL ESTATE

Nidhi Jayashankar doesn't like being described as someone who brings a "woman's perspective" to the table. It is a label she gently pushes back against. As a leader at Adarsh Group, she believes leadership is shaped not by gender but by values,judgement and experience. While women often bring different perspectives to the boardroom, she believes organisations are strongest when diverse viewpoints challenge one another, encouraging better decisions, stronger collaboration and lasting business outcomes.

"My role isn't to bring a female perspective alone. My role is to bringa perspective shaped by my experiences, my values and the way I engage with people and business," she says.

That philosophy has guided the way she has approached growth throughout her career. For Nidhi, rapid growth may look impressive during favourable market conditions, but sustainable growth comes from consistently balancing ambition with discipline while creating long-term value for customers, the brand and the organisation. As her responsibilities expanded across multiple functions at Adarsh, she realised growth alone does not make an organisation stronger. More often, it makes it more complex. That understanding shifted her focus from solving individual challenges to building systems that could deliver excellence as the organisation scaled. She strengthened systems, processes and learning, creating greater accountability, alignment and consistency across the organisation. While she acknowledges that conversations around women in leadership have evolved considerably, Nidhi believes the challenge today extends beyond representation.

"Participation and parity are not the same thing. The question is whether women have equal opportunities to shape decisions, lead at scale and define where organisations are headed," she says.

She also believes the next decade will redefine real estate through the convergence of data, technology and human insight. Cities will no longer be designed solely around infrastructure or demographics but around how people experience spaces. By combining behavioural insights, technology and design, the industry can create environments that respond more meaningfully to people's lives. Perhaps the defining decision of Nidhi's career was choosing to invest in what few people could see. As Adarsh entereda phase of growth, she paused to strengthen its internal systems before pursuing further expansion. She restructured inventory management, strengthened auditing, reinforced design consistency and expanded learning through the Adarsh Academy. The results followed: the workforce nearly tripled over four years, sales revenue grew 1.5 times in two years, and the organisation earned Great Place to Work Certification, reaffirming her belief that lasting leadership is built from within.