Forbes has announced its list of seventy five most powerful humans in the world. The list has ranked PM Modi under Modi at 9th position. Modi has outranked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (ranked 13), United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May (14), Chinese premier Li Keqiang (15) and Apple CEO Tim Cook (24).
This year’s list is also the unique as the first rank holder is not Russian president Vladimir Putin, but Chinese president Xi Jinping.
“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,” Forbes said.
For Forbes, it was Modi’s act to eliminate 500 and 1000 rupees notes in 2016 to curb money laundering and corruption. Also, his recent visits to US to meet President Donald Trump and to China to meet President Xi Jinping have increased Modi’s popularity globally.
“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.
Other Indians who made it to the lists include Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani with a net worth of $41.2 billion, who came at 32rd position. It was the launch of 4G phone service Jio in 2016 that upstaged the billionaire industrialist’s position in the power ladder.
“Jio has signed on 160 million customers by offering free domestic voice calls, dirt-cheap data services and virtually free smartphones,” Forbes said.
India-born Satya Nadella also appears in the list at 40th position. His work on changing Microsoft’s direction towards cloud computingand augmented reality from failing mobile strategy lead to increase in his global influence.
Forbes’s selection criteria involves considering hundreds of candidates from all over the world and measuring their influence, financial resources and success in multiple spheres and how the candidates use their power.
