5 Indians in the Forbes' list of powerful people

By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 04 November 2010, 19:41 IST   |    8 Comments
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5 Indians in the Forbes' list of powerful people
Bangalore: Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Tata sons Chairman Ratan Tata are three people who made to the this year's Forbes list of most Pwerful people in the world. Joining the three we have, Steel giant Lakshmi Mittal and Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani. With a population of 1.2 billion only 5 indians made to the list of 68 people which included Chinese President Hu Jintao at top one and U.S. President Barack Obama at top two position. The people who dominated the list were chosen based on the number of people they influence, their ability to project power beyond their immediate sphere of influence and their control of financial resources. Forbes says the "ranking is intended to be the beginning of a conversation, not the final word," but interestingly, some of the names on its power list have strong India connections in their own unusual ways. Sonia Gandhi who is in the 9th position is always referred to as the 'King Maker' remains the real power behind the nuclear tipped throne. The 63 year old Congress President declined the Prime Ministerial position, on May18th 2004, passing it on to Manmohan Singh. Since then she has controlled, ruled and influenced the Indian Politics. Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty continues with her daughter Priyanka Gandhi and son Rahul Gandhi actively taking part in politics. She is now grooming her 40-year-old son Rahul for Prime Minister's role. Manmohan Singh,the Prime Minister of India ranked 18th on the list and is universally praised as "India's best Prime Minister since Nehru." Singh who is now in his fourth year of office is a self-effacing economist who led a resurgent Congress Party to a landslide victory. The soft-spoken Oxford-trained economist is credited for transforming India's quasi-socialist economy into world's second-fastest growing. Under Singh, the Indian economy grew at the rate of 6.7 percent in 2008/09 despite inadequate monsoons and a global slowdown. He was the one who introduced free-market policies which created a market for our products in foreign markets and vice versa. Ratan Tata dropped two notches from last year and comes in at the 61st position in the Forbes 2010 list of the world's most powerful people. He is called as the "India's best brand ambassador." On October 7, 2008, after a controversial stay in West Bengal, Ratan Tata and his team shifted their Rs 1-lakh car Nano project to Sanand near Ahmedabad at an investment of Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion), declaring that efforts will be made to roll out the world's cheapest car from a make-shift plant to meet the deadline. The Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi granted him huge subsidy for building the facility, including free land. The Tata's made it big with their introduction of Tata Nano last year which is called the 'People's car'. "In a nation of a billion, environmentalists call it eco-disaster. After Nano debuted in 2008, India's passenger car sales rose most in three years in 2009; three Tata competitors now working on Nano copycats," Forbes said. A second list released by Forbes had some of the religious leaders and also included outlaws like Dawood Ibrahim. According to Forbes there are also influence people in some or the other.