Narendra Modi has made his debut on Bloomberg Markets’ 50 Most Influential list, joining an elite grouping that comprises policy makers, money managers, venture capitalists, bankers, corporate leaders and others.
Ranked at 13, the Indian prime minister is preceded by only three world leaders—US president Barack Obama, Germany’s Angela Merkel and Chinese president Xi Jinping—and joins a list that Bloomberg Markets compiled by favouring “recent accomplishments over lifetime achievements.”
“He (Modi) won election in May 2014 by the widest margin in 30 years, giving him a shot at making some investment-friendly reforms that have faced stubborn resistance in the world’s largest democracy,” Bloomberg Markets wrote. “India might grow faster than China this year.”
In its first year of publication, back in 2011, the Bloomberg Markets described the list as consisting of ”people who make the most money, build the most profitable companies, shape the economic debate—and move global markets.”
But Modi isn’t the first Indian politician to break into this elite group. That honour belongs to West Bengal’s chief minister Mamata Banerjee who was ranked at 21 in 2012. The reason: “Her Trinamool Congress party, part of the ruling coalition, has stalled Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s economic reform agenda by opposing foreign retailers,” Bloomberg Markets said.
Last year, Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan and Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairman of State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender, found a spot on the list. This year, both have made an exit.
“He (Rajan) wants to change government aid to the poor to cut out corrupt middlemen and politicians,” Bloomberg Markets had said last year.
Rajan, who served as the International Monetary Fund’s chief economist between 2003 and 2007, is widely respected at home and abroad, and has gained much popularity in India for his masterful handling of the central bank.
Modi, on the other hand, has gained wide global recognition after a series of well-promoted foreign tours, including to the US, China and Australia. He has carefully projected himself as a technology-driven reformer and initiated a number of ambitious projects. But Modi’s magic seems to be gradually wearing off.
Released on Oct. 5, the 2015 ranking is topped by US Federal Reserve chairperson Janet Yellen, followed by China’s Xi and Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Here’s the full list:
Rank | Name |
---|---|
1 | Janet Yellen, chairperson, US Federal Reserve |
2 | Xi Jinping, president of China |
3 | Tim Cook, CEO, Apple |
4 | Larry Fink, co-founder, BlackRock |
5 | Warren Buffet, CEO, Berkshire Hathway |
6 | Barack Obama, US president |
7 | Carl Icahn, chairman, Icahn Enterprises |
8 | Llyod Blankfein, CEO, Goldman Sachs |
9 | Angela Merkel, German chancellor |
10 | Reid Hoffman, co-founder, LinkedIn |
11 | Jamie Dimon, CEO, JPMorgan Chase |
12 | Abigail Johnson, CEO, Fidelity Investments |
13 | Narendra Modi, prime minister of India |
14 | Mario Draghi, president, European Central Bank |
15 | Jeff Bezos, founder, Amazon |
16 | Ana Botin, chairman, Banco Santander |
17 | Jorge Paulo Lemann, co-founder, 3G Capital |
18 | Ray Dalio, founder, Bridgewater Associates |
19 | Elizabeth Warren, US senator |
20 | Thomas Piketty, professor, Paris School of Economics |
21 | Jeffrey Gundlach, founder, DoubLine Capital |
22 | Fan Bao, founder, China Renaissance |
23 | Tidjane Thiam, CEO, Credit Suisse Group |
24 | Ruth Porat, CFO, Google |
25 | Elon Musk, founder, Tesla Motors |
26 | Paul Singer, founder, Elliott Management |
27 | Marc Andreessen, co-founder, Andreessen Horowitz |
28 | Renaud Laplanche, founder, LendingClub |
29 | Akio Toyoda, president, Toyota Motor |
30 | Paul Krugman, City University of New York Graduate Center |
31 | Pope Francis, Roman Catholic Church |
32 | Ellen Kullman, CEO, DuPont |
33 | Wang Qishan, Central Commission for Discipline Inspection |
34 | Jonathan Gray, global head of real estate, Blackstone Group |
35 | Ken Griffin, founder, Citadel |
36 | John Stumpf, CEO, Wells Fargo |
37 | Wang Jianlin, founder, Dalian Wanda Group |
38 | Christine Lagarde, managing director, International Monetary Fund |
39 | Jiang Jianqing, chairman, Industrial & Commerical Bank of China |
40 | Jimmy Lai, founder, Next Media |
41 | Aliko Dangote, founder, Dangote Group |
42 | Michael Kim, founder, MBK Partners |
43 | John Taylor, professor, Stanford University |
44 | Blythe Masters, CEO, Digital Assets Holdings |
45 | George Osborne, UK Chancellor of Exchequer |
46 | Richard Thaler, professor, University of Chicago |
47 | Elizabeth Holmes, founder, Theranos |
48 | Mo Ibrahim, chairman, Mo Ibrahim Foundation |
49 | Jane Gladstone, senior managing director, Evercore Partners |
50 | Ruchir Sharma, head of emerging markets and global macro, Morgan Stanley Investment Management |