Sonia, Nooyi, Tata listed among 100 most powerful

By Staff

Saturday, May 3, 2008, 11:37

UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Pepsico chief Indira Nooyi, Tata group's Ratan Tata and Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama have been named among the world's 100 most powerful people by the Time magazine. The names of the Indians feature among some of the most popular leaders, pioneers, scientists and thinkers.

While Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Nobel Laureate Dalai Lama are named among top political leaders like George Bush, Vladimir Putin, Tony Blair, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, Nooyi and Tata are featured among a list of most popular businessmen including media baron Rupert Murdoch and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

The magazine's article on Ms Gandhi by renowned author and former UN official Shashi Tharoor says ''...the queen, offered the crown on a brocade cushion, turns it down. She prefers to remain behind the throne, walking with the peasantry, rallying the people but leaving power in the hands of her gray-haired viziers.

The story of Sonia Gandhi, 61, is remarkable at every level, and the fairy-tale metaphor barely begins to scratch the surface of its extraordinariness.'' About Pepsico's Nooyi the write-up says ''For Indra Nooyi, 51, the shocking thing isn't who she is but the world she has inherited....Her vision is performance with purpose.''

Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata who made the world sit up and watch when he launched the world's cheapest car Nano has been described as Asia's most influential businessman and it said about the auto ''The Nano will meet all of India's automotive standards and sell for 1,00,000 rupees.''

''Oppression and exile are their daily bread, Yet the Dalai Lama, 72, remains calm in the face of cruelty,'' said Time's write-up about the spiritual leader.