New York, April 30: PM Manmohan Singh, cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar, bio queen Kiran Mazumdar Shaw and author Chetan Bhagat are among the nine Indians named in Time magazine’s annual list of 100 most influential people.
The other Indians on the list are: Eye doctor Perumalsamy Namperumalsamy, humanitarian worker Sanjit Buker Roy, writer Chetan Bhagat, Indian-America doctor and Harvard professor Atul Gwande, paramedic from Toronto Rahul Singh and entrepreneur Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw.
The magazine recognised the Indian Prime Minister’s contribution towards liberalising the economy and now “guiding India into the ranks of great powers.”
“The long history of India boasts many great leaders.
But the much shorter history of Indian democracy is already creating its own heroes, and Manmohan Singh, 77, is one of them,” Indra Nooyi, CEO of Pepsi, wrote in the magazine.
The US weekly explains its sometimes surprising choices saying that the “Time 100 is not about the influence of power but the power of influence.”
Lady Gaga, famous for bizarre costumes and chart-topping dance music, leads the list of most influential artists, leading US late-night TV host Conan O’Brien, Oscar winning director Kathryn Bigelow and daytime TV queen Oprah Winfrey.
Bill Clinton, who has reinvented himself as a major fund-raiser and anti-poverty activist since leaving the White House, heads the “heroes” section, beating South Korean figure skater Kim Yu-Na and Iranian opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi.
The “leaders” list starts with the Brazilian president, who is praised for his drive to bring social justice and end deep inequality in his huge Latin American country.
JT Wang, CEO of the Taiwanese PC maker Acer comes in at number two as a representative of the rise of Asian companies.
The top US military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, is third, with President Barack Obama only in the fourth slot.
“Some of the people you’ll encounter on this list are influential in the traditional sense,” Time managing editor Richard Stengel says.
“But we also seek out people whose ideas and actions are revolutionising their fields and transforming lives.”
The top US military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, is third, with President Barack Obama only in the fourth slot.
Dr Perumalsamy Namperumalsamy, 70, was recognised for performing cataract surgery at the Aravind Eye Care Hospitals since 1976 and having treated 3.6 million surgeries to date — a new one every 15 minutes.
“All people have a right to sight,” Namperumalsamy is quoted as saying in the piece written by Brian Mullaney, co-founder of the Smile Train, which provides more than free cleft surgeries for children in developing countries.
Describing Amartya Sen as “occasionally loquacious, often ironic, usually genial, always brilliant,” a history professor at Harvard University, Neil Ferguson noted that Sen’s notion of measuring human development is now central to the work of the UN and the World Bank.
Author Deepak Chopra wrote about Tendulkar’s double century- 200 runs – in a One Day International match.
“To millions of Indians and countless fans around the world, this act, which caps a career of record-breaking feats, arouses a sense of awe,” he said.
The magazine recognised that humanitarian worker, Sanjit Bunker Roy’, Barefoot College has trained more than 3 million people for jobs in the modern world, in buildings so rudimentary they have dirt floors and no chairs.
“Roy combines humanitarianism, entrepreneurship and education to help people steer their own path out of poverty, fostering dignity and self-determination along the way,” it said.
A paramedic from Toronto, Rahul Singh was recognised for his relief work in Haiti in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that hit the poor Caribbean nation on Jan 12.
—-Agencies