Manmohan, Tendulkar among world’s most influential: Time

WASHINGTON - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar and Nobel prize winner Amartya Sen are among nine Indians who figure in Time magazine’s annual list of 100 most influential people, while Bollywood superstar Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan tops its 100 Alumnae list.

Manmohan Singh finds himself in the 19th spot in the Leaders list headed by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva with US president Barack Obama in the fourth place.

As India’s finance minister from 1991 to 1996, Manmohan Singh “released India’s potential for the benefit of its people. Now, as prime minister, he is guiding India into the ranks of the great powers”, wrote PepsiCo’s Indian American chairperson Indra Nooyi.

Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar gets the 13th place among 25 “Heroes” headed by former US president Bill Clinton who is recognised for his work as a fund-raiser and anti-poverty activist.

Writing about Tendulkar’s double century in a One Day International match, new age guru Deepak Chopra says: “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.”

“The Alchemist” is the favourite book of Time Alumnae Aishwarya, who lists “certainly my mother and father” as the two people who had the most effect or influence on her.

Sixth placed among heroes, 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.

Indian entrepreneur Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw gets the 16th spot among ‘heroes’ for donating $2 million to support health insurance coverage for 100,000 Indian villagers and another $10 million for creating the 1,400-bed Mazumdar-Shaw Cancer Centre in Bangalore.

A paramedic from Toronto, Rahul Singh in 22nd place is recognised for his relief work in Haiti in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that hit the poor Caribbean nation Jan 12. In 1998, Singh founded GlobalMedic to provide disaster relief using volunteer professional emergency workers.

Chetan Bhagat, author of bestsellers, “One Night @ the Call Centre” and “Five Point Someone” is the lone Indian in the list of artists headed by extravagantly outfitted singer Lady Gaga.

“I’ve seen the effect Chetan has on his readers,” writes Academy Award winner Indian composer A.R. Rahman. “He often writes about following your dreams and not bowing to others’ expectations. That isn’t easy in India, where family opinion matters and some professions are regarded as more serious than others.”

Economist Amartya Sen is 20th on the “Thinkers” list. “Occasionally loquacious, often ironic, usually genial, always brilliant,” Sen’s notion of measuring human development is now central to the work of the UN and the World Bank, notes Harvard University history professor, Neil Ferguson.

Indian-American doctor and Harvard professor Atul Gwande is fifth on the list of “thinkers” for his contribution to medicine. “In this historic time for health policy, the need for smart, creative thinkers is greater than ever. Gawande certainly is one and it is equally certain his influence will grow,” wrote former US State Senator Tom Daschle.

Humanitarian worker, Sanjit Bunker Roy’s Barefoot College has trained more than three million people for jobs in the modern world, in buildings so rudimentary they have dirt floors and no chairs, Time said.

“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.