Surprise! Surprise! It is one of those rare instances when the US President has been toppled down to No.2 position in the race for being the world’s most powerful person. Moreover, the fact that the domination comes from the mighty Chinese President Hu Jintao, would certainly envy Barack Obama – who was at numero uno position last time around.
Image: Forbes
Yes, the ranking comes from none other than the US Forbes magazine that has described the Chinese President as the one who can divert rivers, build cities, jail dissidents and censor internet without meddling from pesky bureaucrats, courts.
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Forbe’s Ranking |
World’s Powerful Personalities from India |
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9 |
Sonia Gandhi |
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18 |
Manmohan Singh |
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34 |
Mukesh Ambani |
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61 |
Ratan Tata |
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63 |
Dawood Ibrahim |
Next Indian in the list to Sonia Gandhi is placed at a far-flung 18th position in form of soft-spoken Indian PM Manmohan Singh. I wonder whether the recent spate of scandals would have hurt the image of the economist-cum-minister of India. Moreover, the charm of PM’s listing in the most powerful people list is almost lost, what with the Sonia Gandhi out-scoring him as more powerful politician.
Just a rank higher to the Indian PM in the Forbe’s list is Steve Jobs, the creative founder of the Apple Inc. Dalai Lama, who has just announced his retirement from active politics, is placed at 39th rank position.
Amongst Indians, Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani finds himself at the 34th spot and NRI industrialist Lakshmi Mittal has been ranked as 44th most powerful person. Tata Group’s Ratan Tata is at 61st spot with his wings spread across the sectors from automobiles to steel sector.
Even the global bad boys have found their name in the most powerful listing. Osama bin Laden of Al Qaida and India’s most wanted Dawood Ibrahim are ranked at 57th and 63rd position respectively.
The new-generation businesses dominated by web-based services have also made a mark in this edition of Forbe’s list. Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook made a cut at 40th position. Jeff Bezos of Amazon was ranked at 66th spot; almost immediately followed by Julian Assange of Wikileaks at 68th position.
Any say?
Interesting list, surprised with Julian Assange’s 68th rank. I think he deserves a better rank for shaking up some of the most powerful countries.
Zak,
I completely agree with you. The real power is not the one which is confided by the constitution, but the one that is earned from public.
Wikileaks has certainly created stirs in the world, which can be termed as game-changer. He should have been placed at least within Top 10 most power people, what say?
Hello Madhav,
Just heard abt the earthquake in Japan. Hope you are safe. Pls put a comment on this to let all of us know that you are safe.
This is a list for Most powerful men. Its obvious that aam aadmi will not find place here.
If you want to see aam aadmi on a list along side politicians, criminals, businessmen, doctors, lawyers etc, you have to see the ‘Population list’.
But after reading your comment, its funny to see politicians alongside criminals.
How fitting that politicians, terrorists and criminals all ranked on a single list. No wonder you don’t find the ‘aam admi’ on this ;-)
Absolutely, that’s the beauty (or, say, bane of the list). Even the global havoc makers are included in the list. But, aren’t they most powerful of the lot?