Most Powerful Business Leaders in India


Bangalore: The India Today magazine revealed last month, its esteemed list of the country's most powerful people across varied fields. Here are the top 10 businessmen who are country's most influential leaders.

MUKESH AND NITA AMBANI, 54, Industrialist, 48, Educationist

Mukesh and wife Nita are the first couple of Mumbai, running its popular IPL cricket team, supervising its most sought-after school, and hosting its must-attend parties. In a year when foreign investment to India dried up, the chairman of Reliance Industries, worth $50 billion (Rs 2,50,000 crore), sold a 30 per cent stake in 21 blocks to British Petroleum for $7.2 billion.  Mukesh has easy access to the country's power corridors irrespective of party lines, be it Rahul Gandhi, Nitin Gadkari or senior bureaucrats in various ministries. The couple has friends across the political spectrum like Praful Patel and Prithviraj Chavan, both of whom attended a party at Antilla for Sachin Tendulkar's 100th ton. He acquired a stake in the media space through the Raghav Bahl-promoted Network18 and TV18, which run, among others, CNBC India, CNN-IBN, IBN 7 and Colors.