China’s Hu topples Obama as Most Powerful Person; India’s Sonia Gandhi at 9th! [Forbes List]

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.

Next Indian in the list to Sonia Gandhi is placed at a far-flung 18^th 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 39^th rank position.

Amongst Indians, Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani finds himself at the 34^th spot and NRI industrialist Lakshmi Mittal has been ranked as 44^th most powerful person. Tata Group’s Ratan Tata is at 61^st 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 57^th and 63^rd 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 40^th position. Jeff Bezos of Amazon was ranked at 66^th spot; almost immediately followed by Julian Assange of Wikileaks at 68^th position.

Any say?