Tata, Nooyi among Time's 100 most influential people
Ratan Tata and PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi have made it to the Time magazine's 2008 list of the world's 100 most influential people. India Inc's hotshots | List of Billionaires
By PTI |
NEW YORK: Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Industrialist Ratan Tata and PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi were the three Indians who have made it to the Time magazine's 2008 list of the world's 100 most influential people that also included Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama and Chinese President Hu Jintao.
Gandhi,the only Indian politician to make the cut, has been listed in the category of leaders and revolutionaries while Nooyi and Tata figure in the list of Builders and Titans.
The Time said the story of Gandhi(61) is "remarkable at every level" and its narrative about the Congress leader has a fairy-tale element.
The magazine said the most appropriate way to describe Nooyi(52) is as a "world class leader". Her sharp strategic mind, tremendous market insight and humanitarian contributions all combined to make her a rare executive among the global corporate giants, it said.
Tata(70) was hailed for unveiling his tiny Re one lakh car 'Nano'.
The list covers leaders and revolutionaries, heroes and pioneers, scientists and thinkers, aristes and entertainers and builders and titans who are perceived to have a made a profound impact on the world.
Gandhi,the only Indian politician to make the cut, has been listed in the category of leaders and revolutionaries while Nooyi and Tata figure in the list of Builders and Titans.
The Time said the story of Gandhi(61) is "remarkable at every level" and its narrative about the Congress leader has a fairy-tale element.
The magazine said the most appropriate way to describe Nooyi(52) is as a "world class leader". Her sharp strategic mind, tremendous market insight and humanitarian contributions all combined to make her a rare executive among the global corporate giants, it said.
Tata(70) was hailed for unveiling his tiny Re one lakh car 'Nano'.
The list covers leaders and revolutionaries, heroes and pioneers, scientists and thinkers, aristes and entertainers and builders and titans who are perceived to have a made a profound impact on the world.
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The 2008 list, appearing on the magazine's Web site today also includes former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. It is Blair's first time on Time's 100 list; his successor, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, made the list in 2005.
Presidential contenders Barack Obama, John McCain and Hillary Clinton also figure in the list. Obama and Clinton made the list last year.
A novelist seeking to tell the story of Sonia Gandhi may be forgiven for seeing a fairy-tale element in the narrative: Beautiful foreigner comes to strange new land and marries handsome prince... But there is a twist to the tale," Tharoor said, adding that the "queen" when 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."
About Tata, the magazine said that ever since he first suggested four years ago building a car that could sell for Rs one lakh "rival automakers have sniggered".
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"But in January, Tata unveiled his baby car, a cute rear-engined bubble called Nano. The Nano will meet all of India's automotive standards and sell for 1,00,000 rupees."
"Tata, 70, a bachelor with no children," would have to choose someone as savvy and visionary as he has been to lead the 140-year-old firm, it noted, adding that "that could prove even more difficult than creating a USD 2,500 car."
In the write-up on PepsiCo's Nooyi, US coffee giant Starbucks' CEO Howard Schultz said that the most appropriate way to describe her is "world class leader".
"PepsiCo's international business grew 22 per cent last year, and she is showing the way for American companies trying to do well overseas."
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On Dalai Lama, spiritual and health writer Deepak Chopra said, "Millions of people turn to the Dalai Lama for inspiration, but to whom does he turn? He and his people have struggled all their lives with the audacity of hopelessness... Yet the Dalai Lama, 72, remains calm in the face of cruelty".
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