London, December 29
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati are among the four Indians named in the Financial Times list of “50 People Who Shaped the Decade”.
NRI billionaire Lakshmi Mittal and India-born Pepsico chief Indra Nooyi are the other two Indians in the league of 50, which among others also features Al-Qaida chief Osama Bin Laden and US President Barack
Obama.
About the 50, the UK daily said, “Not all are heroes, some are villains, and many fall somewhere in between.” People from fields as diverse as politics, business, economics and culture have made to the list, which includes legendary investor Warren Buffett, Apple chief Steve Jobs, golfer Tiger Woods, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s co-chair Melinda Gates and Chinese President Hu Jintao.
“... the men and women on our list should be seen as representative of the larger themes of the decade. There are some striking omissions, because we felt that a historic event or trend had been captured by someone already on our list,” it added.
On Sonia Gandhi, the publication noted that as the Congress leader since 1998, she had rebuilt India’s largest political party. “In doing so, she (Sonia Gandhi) has assured continuity of the Nehru-Gandhi family after the assassinations of her husband and mother-in-law. She has also upheld the national secular vision of India won by Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister in 1947 at the end of the British rule,” the report said. The Financial Times noted that Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi were carefully positioned to follow her example.
“Often called “Dalit Queen”, Mayawati has built a political career as a champion of the lower castes and is head of the Bahujan Samaj Party. Feared for her fierce temper and unpredictability, she has ambitions to enlarge her mission of uplifting the downtrodden beyond Uttar Pradesh,” the daily said.
According to the report, Mittal has used a series of increasingly large acquisitions around the world to construct the world’s biggest steel producer entity. The chief of steel maker ArcelorMittal “faces a tough 2010, as the steel business looks set to see only a faltering recovery,” it adds.
Noting that Nooyi was named the chief executive of Pepsico in October, 2006, the report said she seemed to epitomize both the decades’ spirit of globalisation as well as the emergence of a new generation of woman chief executive.
— PTI
