By Elton Gomes
As we congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi for ranking in the top 10 of the Forbes Most Powerful People list, we forgot a critical fact – that only five women have featured on the list. Only two women were named among the list’s top 20, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel coming in fourth, and UK Prime Minister Theresa May taking in 14th place.
The list was topped by Chinese Premier Xi Jinping. Russian President Vladimir Putin fell to the second spot, and US President Donald Trump occupied the third spot on the list. Christine Lagarde, Head of the International Monetary Fund, found herself at the 22nd spot. After some amount of scrolling through the list, Marry Barra, CEO of General Motors took the 53rd spot. President and CEO of Fidelity Investments, Abigail Johnson, took the 70th ranking in the list.
Women around the world have disrupted the institutions of power and been an inspiration to many and having only five women on the list seems unfair when compared to their numerous achievements.
Indians on the list
Prime Minister Narendra Modi found himself on the ninth spot in the list, above the likes of other powerful political leaders like Theresa May, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Shinzo Abe. The richest man of the country and head of Jio Infocomm, Mukesh Ambani, was ranked 32 on the list, whereas Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella occupied the 40th spot.
Other prominent personalities on the list
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was at number five on the list, one position above the head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis.
Saudi Arabia crown prince – Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud – known for his positive reforms came in eight on the list. Google’s co-founder Larry Page occupied the tenth spot.
French Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron found himself on the 12th spot. A position below him was Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.
Pakistan’s Army chief General Qamar Jawed Bajwa was on the 68th spot on the list. General Bajwa is the only Pakistani to feature on the list.
Prominent names on the list include Elon Musk, Rodrigo Duterte, Bashar al-Assad, Justin Trudeau, Michel Temer, Rupert Murdoch, Antonio Guterres, and Jack Ma, among others.
The list also included the name of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the alleged founder of terror group ISIS.
Criteria for the list
Forbes considers four things while compiling the list. First, the publication checks whether a candidate has power over considerable people. Second, it checks the financial resources controlled by the candidate, and third, if the candidate is powerful in other areas as well. Finally, Forbes checks whether the candidate has actively exercised their power.
In response to the 2018 list, Forbes said, “This year’s list comes at a time of rapid and profound change, and represents our best guess about who will matter in the year to come.”
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