According to the Forbes magazine, Modi has been ranked among the top 10 most powerful people in the world. He ranks 9th on the Forbes 2018 list of 75 of the World’s Most Powerful People who make the world turn.
PM Modi is ahead of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who ranks 13th, United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May ranked 14th, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang ranked 15th and Apple CEO Tim Cook ranked 24th.
Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani, with a net worth of 41.2 billion dollars, is the only other Indian on the power list, ranking 32nd and Microsoft’s India-born CEO Satya Nadella is on the 40th spot.
Dethroning Russian President Vladimir Putin — who was on top for four consecutive years as the most influential person in the world, Chinese President Xi Jinping has topped the list for the first time ever.
According to Forbes, there are 17 new names on the list this year. The list of the world’s most powerful people was, Forbes says, compiled on the basis of the candidates’ “power over lots of people”, “financial resources”, “power in multiple spheres” and “active use of their power”.
“Modi has raised his profile as a global leader in recent years during official visits to US President Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. He has also emerged as a key figure in the international effort to tackle climate change, as warming affects millions of his country’s rural citizens,” Forbes said.
As per the Forbes, “Modi ‘remains hugely popular’ in the second most populous country on earth.” The magazine cited Modi government’s November 2016 decision to eliminate India’s two largest banknotes in a bid to reduce money laundering and corruption. It is interesting to note that on one side where the PM is being complimented for this bold step of his, the Congress party had strongly criticised demonetisation, saying the move has led to an economic slowdown. Asked how he would have rolled out demonetisation differently, Rahul Gandhi said: “if I was the Prime Minister and somebody would have given me a file with demonetisation written on it, I would throw it in the dustbin, out of the door and into the junkyard.” How is that the opposition is unable to see what everyone else can.
Interestingly, puncturing many holes in Congress’ narrative of ‘economic slowdown’, IMF has pegged India to be the fastest growing economy in 2018 with a growth rate of 7.4%.