The Sawnet website started as a collection of FAQs about literature, film, and organizations. The Who's Who page was originally meant as a starting place to find women who were already mentioned on one of the Sawnet sections. For example, would you look for Meera Syal on the Literature page or the film page, since she's both an actress and a writer? It's easier just to go to the Who's Who page. It also became a place to link women who haven't written a book or made a film, but are undoubtedly famous, like Indira Gandhi.
There are many historical figures who are not present on this list. This is partially by design, as most South Asia-related websites link _only_ women of history like the Rani of Jhansi, as if South Asian women went into retirement after Independence. There are a few women like Fatima Jinnah and Sarojini Naidu on the Sawnet page, but given limited time, I'd prefer to concentrate on modern women.
Most of the information on these pages comes from news reports and sources on the web. There is more info out there on diasporic South Asians, who are therefore disproportionately represented. There are also a LOT of women writers, because the people who work on this website are interested in literature. Another known and unfortunate bias is that there are not enough Pakistani, Sri Lankan, & Bangladeshi women here, and few women from Nepal or the Maldives or Bhutan.
But these are changeable biases -- if you are shocked at the omission of a particular person, please put in a little effort to find out something about her and send me email. The list can grow indefinitely.