Narendra Modi and Kailash Satyarthi are world’s greatest leaders, says Fortune Magazine

Advertisement
Narendra Modi and Kailash Satyarthi are world’s greatest leaders, says Fortune Magazine India has produced many great leaders in the past, and there are some names that the entire world swears by. Now, two new names have been added to that list: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi. A recent ET report reveals that they have been named among the 50 greatest leaders in the world by Fortune magazine in its annual list of "extraordinary" men and women transforming business, government and philanthropy.
Advertisement

While Modi is ranked 5th on the 2015 roster of 'World's Greatest Leaders', Satyarthi has earned the 28th spot.

On the top of the list is Apple CEO Tim Cook. Surprisingly, Fortune hasn’t included the US President Barack Obama in the list for a second year in a row.
Fortune said that "faced with difficult circumstances" domestically and globally, Obama has "surrendered."

Modi has earned the top honors because Fortune believes the Indian leader has "actually" begun to deliver on his election promises and is "making genuine progress" in his efforts to make India more business-friendly and less regulated, addressing violence against women, improving sanitation and "patching up relations with other Asian countries and the US".

It said there is still a "long way to go" and fully achieving Modi's goals will require "reforming India's powerful, widely corrupt bureaucracy."
Advertisement

On Satyarthi, Fortune said while he had been "overshadowed" by last year's other recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize Malala Yousafzai, Satyarthi has led the global fight against child labor for more than three decades. It said no one has done as much to prevent child labour as he has.

Also included in the list are European Central Bank President Mario Draghi (2), Chinese President Xi Jingping (3), Pope Francis (4), General Motors CEO Mary Barra (9), Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz (17), Bill and Melinda Gates (18), Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (25), J P Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon (38) and Uber CEO Travis Kalanick (44).

The list also includes Indian-origin CEO of nonprofit Last Mile Health Raj Panjabi on the 34th spot. Panjabi, a native of Liberia, is working with Liberia's government to launch a national community health worker programme.