TIME's 100 most-influential people list: Priyanka Chopra hails 'amazing' litigators who fought against Sec 377

NEW YORK: Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani and public-interest litigators Arundhati Katju and Menaka Guruswamy, who led a legal battle for the rights of LGBTQ community in India, have joined the list of Indians named by TIME magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

The Time 100 Most Influential People 2019 list, which was released on Wednesday, named the world's most-influential pioneers, leaders, titans, artists and icons.

Some of the names in the list included Indian-American comedian Hasan Minhaj, US President Donald Trump, Pope Francis, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Pakistan PM Imran Khan, golfer Tiger Woods and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.


Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra penned the TIME 100 profile for Ambani. He said Ambani's father Dhirubhai was a visionary in Indian business, whose Reliance Industries conglomerate pioneered ways of targeting global scale.

"But Ambani's vision is now even more ambitious than that of the father whose blessings he unfailingly invokes at the launch of each initiative," Mahindra wrote adding that the scale of his Reliance Jio mobile-data network, which has already connected over 280 million people in India with low-cost 4G, is "impressive by any standard."

Mahindra cites Ambani's promise in 2003 through an advertising tagline that his company would "put the world in the palm of your hand."

"It won't be long before he delivers on that promise," he said.

Actress Priyanka Chopra penned a profile for Katju and Guruswamy, the pioneering ladies who led a battle from the front to ensure equal rights for the LGBTQ community in India. They joined the leading lawyers who represented gay petitioners to strike down the ban imposed on on consensual gay sex in the country.

"Arundhati and Menaka have helped take a giant step for LGBTQ+ rights in the world's largest democracy. In their committed fight for justice, they have shown us that we as a society must continue to make progress, even after laws are changed, and that we must make an effort to understand, accept and love," Chopra said.

The Supreme Court of India ruled out Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code through a unanimous vote in September last year. The Section 377 legacy was put forth during the British colonization of India which rendered any sexual acitivity "against the order of nature" punishable by law.

Chopra said the "landmark judgment", overturning a 157-year-old law, was the outcome of a long-term campaign orchestrated by two "amazing" public-interest litigators, Katju and Guruswamy.


In a profile for Minhaj, host of The Daily Show Trevor Noah wrote that five years after he first met Minhaj in 2014, "Hasan is still as fresh-faced as ever, but his voice booms across screens around the world, thanks to his groundbreaking Netflix show Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj."

"We've needed Hasan's voice since Donald Trump came down that golden escalator and turned immigrants and Muslims into his targets," Noah said, adding that Hasan's show ‘Patriot Act' is the manifestation of Hasan's “whip-smart commentary, charisma and sincerity. It's also a consistent reminder that Hasan is America. And America is Hasan."

The illustrious list also includes US Open winner Naomi Osaka, actor Mahershala Ali, Oscar-winning actor Rami Malek, former first lady Michelle Obama, South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa, Oscar-winning singer and actor Lady Gaga, Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed, Special counsel Robert Mueller and Speaker Nancy Pelosi.