Washington: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been named as the top decision maker in a list of 100 global thinkers by a leading American foreign policy magazine. Modi is placed at the top followed by German Chancellor Angella Merkel and BJP President Amit Shah in the decision makers category of the '100 Global Thinkers' by the Foreign Policy magazine. The magazine described 64-year-old Modi as "charismatic and business-friendly" leader. "By India's 2014 elections... Modi had convinced many that his record as a charismatic, business-friendly leader made him just the person to revive India's flagging growth. His speeches drew hundreds of thousands, and he reached millions via 3-D holographic projections," it said.
It also referred to the US visa ban on Modi following the 2002 Gujarat riots when he was the state's Chief Minister. On Shah, the magazine praised the 50-year-old leader for "building a formidable campaign machine" in Uttar Pradesh, where he directed the BJP to victory in the polls. "...Shah exhibited an almost otherworldly understanding of how to make candidate Narendra Modi appeal to Indians. His deft image management balanced the human with the superhuman," the magazine said. State Bank of India Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya has also made it to the coveted list for "telling hard truths about India's debt".
The '100 Global Thinkers' also included CGNet Swara founder Shubhranshu Choudhary for giving rural Indians a megaphone and news anchor Padmini Prakash for bringing third gender to prime time. The other Indians figured in the list are India National PolioPlus Committee Chairman Deepak Kapur and Sangeeta Bhatia, an engineer and physician from Cambridge, for creating a kinder alternative to the colonoscopy. Atmospheric scientist Veerabhadran Ramanathan and economist Partha Dasgupta were also named among the top global thinkers.
