By Helen Dunne

When Viscount Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last British Governor-General of India, declared India an independent state on August 15 1947, barely nine per cent of all women in the country were literate, while the average lifespan was just 32 years.

Today, more than half of all Indian women can read and write while the average life expectancy has almost doubled to 63 years. Although it is still woefully low when compared to Japan's average of 83. And last month, just weeks before India celebrated its 60th anniversary of independence, a woman, Pratibha Patil, governor of the north western state of Rajasthan, was elected the country's first female president.

Although a largely ceremonial position, the election of Patil, 72, has been viewed as a symbolic victory for the hundreds of millions of Indian women who still contend with widespread discrimination.

It has been estimated that a woman is murdered, raped or abused every three minutes on average in India. Patil's supporters also hope that she will bring issues such as dowry-related violence into the spotlight. UNICEF estimates that more than 5,000 Indian women are killed every year because their in-laws consider their dowries inadequate. (The country now has more than 300 all-women police stations to make it easier for abused wives to complain.)

Similarly, an overwhelming majority of Indians,­ rich or poor,­ long for a son rather than a daughter, because they believe that they can only achieve nirvana (or go to heaven) if a male heir performs the funeral rights. Consequently, many states have inequitable birth rates. In Punjab, 793 girls are born for every 1,000 boys, against a national birth rate of 927. In South Delhi, the ratio falls to 760 girls while in Mumbai, it is just 898.

If western standards were applied, the birth rate should be closer to 1,050 girls to 1,000 boys. Currently, for every 1,000 children born in India, 70 will die before their first birthday; the female infant mortality rate is much higher than that of male infants. But a recent UN study revealed that if the mother has received even a few years of education, the infant mortality rate falls by 40%.

Yet despite these stark statistics, some women are becoming more successful and indeed Patil is not the first woman to hold political power. Indira Gandhi was one of the world's first female prime ministers when she took on the role in 1966. (She went onto serve a further three terms.) Her daughter in law, Sonia, is currently president of the Indian National Congress.

This year Sonia Gandhi has this year been named among Time Magazine's 100 most influential people in the world; she is also ranked 13th by Forbes magazine. (To put her appearance on the current Time Magazine list in context, George W Bush does not appear while former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, has never once been listed.)

But India is nothing if not a country of contradictions. While hundreds of millions of women struggle in their daily lives, others are making their way in big business. In growing numbers, Indian women are fighting long-standing prejudices and working their way to the top of companies. Forbes Magazine claims the most powerful Indian woman is PepsiCo chief executive and chairman Indra Nooyi, and also ranks her as the fourth most influential woman in the world this year.

While hundreds of millions of women struggle in their daily lives, others are making their way in big business. In growing numbers, Indian women are fighting long-standing prejudices and working their way to the top of companies.

But, while educated in India, Nooyi migrated to America in 1978, and has since built her career there. On the other hand, Naina Lal Kidwai, who was born in the year of independence, was the first Indian woman to graduate from Harvard Business School. Last year, she was appointed chief executive of HSBC in India, becoming the first woman to head the operations of a foreign bank in the country. She was recently awarded one of the highest civilian honours bestowed by the government of India for her work in promoting trade and industry.

Other Indian women are also making their mark in business. Indu Jain is chairman of Bennett Coleman, a privately owned media group, run by her sons Samir and Vineet, which owns The Times of India, the world's biggest selling English newspaper, with a daily circulation of more than 3.1m copies.

A champion of women's causes, supporting women's rights and the encouragement of female entrepreneurship, Jain recently attained billionaire status.

India's richest woman is, allegedly, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, who founded the country¹s first biotech company, Biocon, in her garage in 1979. Her application for a bank loan was turned down, but twenty five years later Mazumdar-Shaw had the last laugh when Biocon became only the second Indian company to breach the $1bn market capitalisation on the first day of trading.

Fifty years after independence and there are still raging disparities between the lives of women in the country. While some are paving the way of success for others to follow and working to make life easier for those women who are less fortunate, and advances are undoubtedly being made, history and tradition still is evident in holding many women back. Only time will tell how strong an influence India's current female role models will have over the next fifty years.