New York: As India prepares to celebrate 60 years of independence, US-based magazine BusinessWeekfeels IT is no longer the lone global face of the country — evident from its compilation of 50 powerful Indians who are leading the change in the fields of business, politics and society.
The list put together by BusinessWeek editors names industry tycoons Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani, Sunil Mittal, commerce minister Kamal Nath, aviation minister Praful Patel, UP chief minister Mayawati, Delhi Metro chief E Sreedharan, film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Rajnikant, Shahrukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai and sportspersons Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar as new leaders of India.
While acknowledging the role of IT wizards — Infosys’ N R Narayana Murthy, Wipro’s Azim Premji, and Tata Consultancy Services’ S Ramadorai — the magazine said: “There’s more to India than just outsourcing.”
Other business leaders who have made it to the list are Anand Mahindra and Anil Aggarwal, bankers K V Kamath and Deepak Parekh, Tata Steel Managing Director B Muthuraman and L&T Chairman A M Naik.
Politicians still carry the most clout with government controlling a major part of the economy, but in India’s 60th year of independence, the names on the list are representative of changing times, BusinessWeek noted.
“There are politicians who actually work, corporates who think globally, athletes who aim high, and designers who ensure India is in season. And Bollywood is now teaming up with Hollywood for a whole new script,” the publication said.
“Tech leaders used to dominate the show. But a booming economy has thrown up new sectors, new heroes, and new businesses. Telecom, financial services, retail, and many more industries are thriving,” the magazine said.
Special envoy to the Prime Minister Shyam Saran, RBI governor Y V Reddy, besides chief ministers of West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, and Delhi too were named by BusinessWeek as among India’s most influential.
However, there are surprises on the political list with the names of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and finance minister P Chidambaram missing.
The 10 filmstars on the list also included Rani Mukherjee, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Hrithik Roshan and Akshay Kumar.
Besides Dravid and Tendulkar, the sports list had names of M S Dhoni, Sania Mirza, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Jeev Milkha Singh, Vishwanathan Anand, Anju Bobby George, Joshna Chinappa and Narain Karthikeyan.
The magazine also named ten fashion designers — Ritu Kumar, Abu Jani-Sandeep Khosla, Tarun Tahiliani, Rina Dhaka, Raghavendra Rathore, Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Rajesh Pratap Singh, Rohit Bal, Suneet Varma and Manish Malhotra — as among those refashioning India.
“Indian fashion designers are mixing traditional local fashion motifs with a contemporary feel, and some, such as Ritu Kumar and Tarun Tahiliani, are making their presence felt internationally. Celebrities and creative talent from the Bollywood film industrystill wildly popular from Jakarta to Jeddah, with its musical routines and family fareare also well-represented on the list,” BusinessWeek said.