MAYAWATI MAY have not quite made it to the post of the Prime Minister of India but she has definitely made it to one of the omnipotent women of the world list released by the Forbes Magazine. Mayawati made her debut at the 59th position whereas Congress chairperson Sonia Gandhi was present on the 21st position. A fall from her last year’s sixth rank. The other Indians who made it to the list include Pepsi chief executive officer (CEO), Indra Nooyi and chief of Biocon, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw. Indra Nooyi had moved two places from her last year’s fifth spot to a commendable third place this year, whereas Shaw just completed the top hundred list by coming in at the 99th position.
Mayawati’s debut into the list may not come as a surprise to many in political critics, as after gaining chief ministership of Uttar Pradesh, she has gone from strength to strength. From carrying the ambition of becoming the prime minister of the country to being the assumed head of the Third Front of Indian politics, Mayawati has made her agenda in politics very clear from the very beginning. The trust vote on the Indo-US deal may have not gone her way, but it is a known fact that her political career has risen tremendously in the past few years and who knows her ambitions of leading the country may soon be realised.
Sonia Gandhi’s position in the list seems to have fallen a bit, after she let Prime Minister Manmohan Singh take the limelight and face the contentious issue relating to the Indo-US nuclear deal while herself maintaining a low profile for sometime. But nevertheless, Sonia Gandhi continues to be strongest woman politician in our country.
The Forbes top 100 list was topped by the German chanceller, Angela Merkel, for second year running. The second position went to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp chairperson, Sheila C Bair of America. Hillary Clinton may have not been selected as the Democratic nomination for the President in America but American women have dominated the list with six of the top ten belonging to the States. Wallpoint CEO, Angela Braly and the US secretary of state, Condolezza Rice, also make it to the top ten. Hillary Clinton herself came in at the 28th place. Other notable women who can be found in the list are Oprah Winfrey at the 36th place, Melinda Gates at the 44th and Queen Elizabeth II on the 58th position.
Indian women may not be getting their due in our society, but Forbes has acknowledged the power of Indian women by including four in the top 100 list. All the women mentioned have achieved several milestones in their powerful careers. It is interesting to note that these four women come from politics and the corporate world, both of which are supposed to be dominated by men. Hence, these women represent the ambitions and the aspirations of millions of other Indian girls who too want to push the glass ceiling and reach for the sky. These women truly epitomise the Indian woman of today -- who is confident and want to reach for the stars.
Times of india
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Dalit leader Kumari Mayawati has found a place among the Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful Women in the World giving jitters to Indian National Congress President Sonia Gandhi. According to the Forbes list released on 28th Aug. 2008, Mayawati is ranked 59th just behind Queen Elizabeth of UK.
In the running to be prime minister, from her perch as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state. In 1995, at 39, she was the youngest politician elected to the post and was also the first Dalit (India’s lowest, “untouchable” caste) to head a state government. Commands a large following and goes simply by Mayawati. In 2007 she shrewdly built an alliance with Brahmins, and the Bahujan Samaj Party, which she heads, has started to increase its national presence. Some say she could trail-blaze again as India’s first Dalit prime minister. — Kate Macmillan of the Forbes says in citation for Mayawati.
Sonia Gandhi has slipped to number 21 while Pepsi Co CEO, Indra Nooyi is on number 3 on the list headed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Gandhi, the Italian-born leader of India’s most powerful political party, the Indian National Congress Party, has by now assumed the role of elder stateswoman. Although she remains firmly at the head of the country’s ruling party, a rising star, known by the single name Mayawati, is challenging Gandhi’s position as the country’s most powerful woman. Mayawati has aligned herself with the nationalist Hindu BJP party and joined its members in vociferously opposing Gandhi’s party’s historic agreement with the U.S. on nuclear cooperation. — Heidi Brown
However, Nooyi still heads the list of businesswomen. Forbes says: At No. 3, Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo is the highest-ranked woman in business as she expands the food and beverage giant internationally to counter a decline in Americans’ preference for soda and chips
Another inclusion on the list is Kiran Mazumdar Shaw Chairman and Managing Director of the Biocan three positions behind Queen of Jordan Rania Al-Abdallah. Kiran has just scaped in to be ranked 99.
According to Forbes media release: Our annual ranking of the most powerful women in the world measures “power” as a composite of public profile–calculated using press mentions–and financial heft. The economic component of the ranking considers job title and past career accomplishments, as well as the amount of money the woman controls.
A chief executive “controls” the revenue of her business, for instance, while a head of state gets the country’s gross domestic product. The raw numbers are modified to allow comparisons across financial realms.
For the third year running Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, is the world’s most powerful woman. U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (overall rank: 28) is the woman with the highest public profile, resulting from the intense media scrutiny of her failed presidential bid.
The list that comprises 54 businesswomen and 23 politicians, with the rest being media execs and personalities and non-profit leaders. A third are newcomers to the rankings; this reflects not only new top positions for women, such as Starcom MediaVest’s Laura Desmond (No. 55) and Enterprise’s Pamela Nicholson (No. 93), but also the increasingly global reach of this list, with more women from outside the U.S. rising to worldwide prominence.
Just under half the women ranked this year are based outside of the U.S. Top countries represented include the U.K. (five women), China (four), France, India and the Netherlands (three apiece). Morocco has its first ranked woman this year: Hynd Bouhia (No. 29), director-general of the Casablanca Stock Exchange.
Candidates for our list are globally recognized women at the top of their fields: chief executives and their highest-ranked lieutenants, elected officials, nonprofit leaders. They don’t have to be rich, but they do have to wield significant influence. This year, an architect, a war correspondent and several foundation executives all won spots on the list.
We measure power as a composite of public profile–calculated using press mentions–and financial heft. This year, for instance, the woman with the highest public profile is Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, No. 28, who garnered intense media scrutiny for her failed U.S. presidential bid.
The economic component of the ranking considers job title and past career accomplishments, as well as the amount of money a woman controls. A chief executive gets the revenue of her business, for example, while a Nobel winner receives her prize money and a U.N. agency head receives her organization’s budget. We modify the raw dollar figures to allow comparisons among the different financial realms so that the corporate revenue that an executive controls, for instance, is on the same footing as a country’s gross domestic product, ascribed to prime ministers.
The World's Most Powerful Women
Rank -Name -Occupation -Country
1 Angela Merkel Chancellor- Germany
2 Sheila C. Bair Chairman, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. U.S.
3 Indra K. Nooyi Chairman, chief executive, Pepsi Co U.S.
4 Angela Braly Chief executive, president, WellPoint U.S.
5 Cynthia Carroll Chief executive, Anglo American U.K.
6 Irene B. Rosenfeld Chairman, chief executive, Kraft Foods U.S.
7 Condoleezza Rice Secretary of state U.S.
8 Ho Ching Chief executive, Temasek Holdings Singapore
9 Anne Lauvergeon Chief executive, Areva France
10 Anne Mulcahy Chairman, chief executive, Xerox Corp. U.S.
11 Gail Kelly Chief executive and managing director, Westpac Bank Australia
12 Patricia A. Woertz Chairman, chief executive, president, Archer Daniels Midland U.S.
13 Cristina Fernandez President Argentina
14 Christine Lagarde Minister of economy, finance and employment France
15 Safra A. Catz President and chief financial officer, Oracle U.S.
16 Carol B. Tome Executive vice president and chief financial officer, Home Depot U.S.
17 Yulia Tymoshenko Prime minister Ukraine
18 Mary Sammons Chairman, chief executive, president, Rite Aid U.S.
19 Andrea Jung Chairman, chief executive, Avon U.S.
20 Marjorie Scardino Chief executive, Pearson PLC U.K.
21 Sonia Gandhi President, Indian National Congress Party India
22 Risa Lavizzo-Mourey Chief Executive and President, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation U.S.
23 Sri Mulyani Indrawati Coordinating minister for economic affairs and finance minister Indonesia
24 Dr. Julie Gerberding Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention U.S.
25 Michelle Bachelet President Chile
26 Ellen Alemany Chief executive, Royal Bank of Scotland Americas U.S.
27 Carol Meyrowitz Chief executive, president, The TJX Cos. U.S.
28 Hillary Rodham Clinton U.S. senator, New York U.S.
29 Hynd Bouhia Director General, Casablanca Stock Exchange Morocco
30 Anne Sweeney President, Disney-ABC Television Group U.S.
31 Valentina Matviyenko Governor, St. Petersburg region Russia
32 Nancy Tellem President, CBS Paramount Television Entertainment Group U.S.
33 Ann Livermore Executive vice president, Hewlett-Packard U.S.
34 Marina Berlusconi Chairman, Finivest Group and Mondadori Group Italy
35 Nancy Pelosi Speaker, House of Representatives U.S.
36 Oprah Winfrey Chairman, Harpo U.S.
37 Gulzhan Moldazhanova Chief Executive, Basic Element Russia
38 Aung San Suu Kyi Deposed prime minister; Nobel peace laureate Myanmar
39 Lynn Laverty Elsenhans Chief executive and president, Sunoco U.S.
40 Melinda Gates Co-founder, co-chairman, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation U.S.
41 Gloria Arroyo President Philippines
42 Jane Mendillo President and chief executive, Harvard Management Co. U.S.
43 Linda Z. Cook Executive director, gas and power, Royal Dutch Shell Netherlands
44 Laura Bush First lady U.S.
45 Brenda Barnes Chief executive, Sara Lee U.S.
46 Christine Poon Vice chairman, Johnson & Johnson U.S.
47 Neelie Kroes Competition commissioner, European Union Netherlands
48 Amy Woods Brinkley Global risk executive, Bank of America U.S.
49 Susan E. Arnold President, global business units, Procter & Gamble U.S.
50 Susan Decker President, Yahoo! U.S.
51 Ana Patricia Botin Chairman, Banesto Spain
52 Tzipora Livni Vice prime minister and minister of foreign affairs Israel
53 Dominique Senequier Chief executive officer, AXA Private Equity France
54 Amy Pascal Co-chairman, Sony Pictures Entertainment U.S.
55 Ursula Burns President, Xerox U.S.
56 Helen Clark Prime minister New Zealand
57 Laura Desmond Chief executive officer, Starcom MediaVest Group Worldwide U.S.
58 Queen Elizabeth II Queen U.K.
59 Mayawati Kumari Chief minister, Uttar Pradesh India
60 Judy McGrath Chairman and chief executive officer, MTV Networks U.S.
61 Meredith Vieira Co-anchor, Today show, NBC News U.S.
62 Katie Couric Anchor, CBS Evening News, CBS News U.S.
63 Barbara Walters Correspondent, ABC News U.S.
64 Sallie Krawcheck Chairman and chief executive, Global Wealth Management, Citigroup U.S.
65 Diane Sawyer Anchor, Good Morning America, ABC News U.S.
66 Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf President Liberia
67 Janice Fields Chief operating officer and executive vice president, McDonald's U.S.
68 Zhang Xin Chief executive officer, co-founder, Soho China
69 Zaha Hadid Founder, Zaha Hadid Architects U.K.
70 Yang Mian Mian President, Haier China
71 Tarja Halonen President Finland
72 Ruth Bader Ginsburg Justice, Supreme Court U.S.
73 Hyun Jeong-Eun Chairman, Hyundai Group South Korea
74 Mary McAleese President Ireland
75 Guler Sabanci Chairman, Sabanci Holding Turkey
76 Drew Gilpin Faust President, Harvard University U.S.
77 Lisa M. Weber President, Individual Business, MetLife U.S.
78 Dora Bakoyannis Foreign minister Greece
79 Beth Brooke Global vice chairman, Ernst & Young U.S.
80 Lee Myung-Hee Chairman, Shinsegae Group South Korea
81 Susan M. Ivey Chief executive, Reynolds American U.S.
82 Nancy McKinstry CEO, Wolters Kluwer Netherlands
83 Janet L. Robinson President and chief executive, The New York Times Co. U.S.
84 Margaret Chan Director-general, World Health Organization Switzerland
85 Clara Furse Chief executive, London Stock Exchange U.K.
86 Ellen J. Kullman Executive vice president, DuPont U.S.
87 Susan Desmond-Hellmann President, product development, Genentech U.S.
88 Eva Cheng Chief executive, Greater China and Southeast Asia, Amway China
89 Maha Al-Ghunaim Chairman, managing director, Global Investment House Kuwait
90 Christina Gold Chief executive, Western Union U.S.
91 Christiane Amanpour Chief international correspondent, CNN U.S.
92 Pamela Nicholson President, Enterprise Rent-a-Car U.S.
93 Ann Moore Chairman, chief executive, Time Inc. U.S.
94 Sharon Allen Chair, Deloitte U.S.
95 Jing Ulrich Chairman and managing director, JPMorgan Chase China Equities China
96 Queen Rania Al-Abdullah Queen Jordan
97 Virginia Rometty Senior vice president, IBM Global Business Services U.S.
98 Georgina Rinehart Owner, chairman, Hancock Prospecting Australia
99 Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw Chairman and managing director, Biocon India
100 Paula Rosput Reynolds Chief Executive, Safeco U.S.
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