Forbes ranks Hu as most powerful
PTI
NEW YORK, MARCH 10
Chinese President Hu Jintao, who rules over one-fifth of the world’s population, has topped the list of world’s most powerful person while United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Chairperson and Congress President Sonia Gandhi has been ranked ninth by Forbes magazine.
Jintao has been described by the United States magazine as a person who “unlike Western counterparts, can divert rivers, build cities, jail dissidents and censor Internet without meddling from pesky bureaucrats, courts.”
US President Barack Obama, who last year topped the list, has been placed behind Hu at second while Saudi King Abdullah stands as third most powerful man in the world.
Sonia Gandhi, at ninth place, has been described as a person who wields unequaled influence over 1.2 billion Indians and “after being elected as Congress president for the record fourth term she has cemented her status as true heiress to the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty.”
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been ranked 18th among the world’s top 20 powerful people.
Forbes has described Singh as ‘a soft-spoken Oxford-trained economist credited with transforming India’s quasi-socialist economy into the world’s second-fastest growing’.
The other Indian who have made to the list include Reliance Industries Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani and non-resident Indian industrialist Lakshmi Mittal who are ranked 34th and 44th respectively.
Pakistan’s army chief Ashfaq Pervez Kayani has been placed at 29th in the list, while Osama Bin Laden is at 57th and India’s most wanted Dawood Ibrahim is at 63th spot.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin holds the fourth place and Pope Benedict XVI has been placed fifth, while German Chancellor is at sixth place, British Prime Minister David Cameron at seventh and Chairman of US Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke is at eight place in the list.
