Forbes ranks PM Modi among top 10 most powerful persons of world

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been ranked by the Forbes 2018 list as the ninth most powerful person who can make the world turn. Chinese President Xi Jinping has topped the list for the first time ever, while Russian President Vladimir Putin who was on the top for four consecutive years as the most influential person of the world, dropped to second place.
US President Donald Trump has been ranked third, followed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the fourth and Amazon chief Jeff Bezos at the fifth position.
Forbes said, “there are nearly 7.5 billion humans on planet Earth, but these 75 men and women make the world turn. Forbes’ annual ranking of The World’s Most Powerful People identifies one person out of every 100 million whose actions mean the most.”
PM Modi, 67, is ahead of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has been ranked 13, United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May, 14, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, 15, and Apple CEO Tim Cook, who is at 24.
“Modi ‘remains hugely popular’ in the second most populous country on earth,” Forbes said. It cited the Modi government’s November 2016 decision to eliminate India’s two largest banknotes in a bid to reduce money laundering and corruption.
“Modi has raised his profile as a global leader in recent years during official visits with US President Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. He has also emerged as a key figure in the international effort to tackle climate change, as warming affects millions of his country’s rural citizens,” Forbes said.
Forbes cited the Modi government’s November 2016 decision to eliminate India’s two largest banknotes in a bid to reduce money laundering and corruption.
From India, after Prime Minister Modi, it is Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani, who has been ranked 32 in the powerful persons’ list. Microsoft’s Satya Nadella is on the 40th position.
Explaining about Ambani, Forbes said the billionaire industrialist’s Reliance sparked a price war in India’s hyper-competitive telecom market with the launch of 4G phone service Jio in 2016, which has signed on 160 million customers by offering free domestic voice calls, dirt-cheap data services and virtually free smartphones.”
“This year’s list highlights the consolidation of power in the hands of an elite few,” Forbes said.
There are 17 new names on the list this year, including Mohammed Bin Salman Al Saud (8), the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. His father remains king, but he has consolidated power beyond any doubt and taken control of the country, Forbes said. Other new members include US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell (11), Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods (34), President of South Korea Moon Jae-in (54) and Special Counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice Robert Mueller (72).
The list also includes Pope Francis (6), Cofounder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Bill Gates (7), French President Emmanuel Macron (12), Alibaba Chief Jack Ma (21), CEO and Chairman of Tesla Elon Musk (25), UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres (31), North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (36), Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (57), Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad (62), Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte (69) and Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (73).
In compiling the list, Forbes said it considered hundreds of candidates from various walks of life all around the globe, and measured their power along four dimensions of whether the person has power over lots of people, financial resources controlled by each person, whether the candidate is powerful in multiple spheres and that the candidates actively used their power.