The Forbes Most Powerful People in the World, 2015 list is out.
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Apart from Modi who is at the ninth position, others in the top ten are Microsoft Founder Bill Gates at the sixth place, US Federal Reserve Chairperson Janet Yellen (7), UK Prime Minister David Cameron (8) and Google’s Larry Page(10).
He slipped from second place in last year’s ranking and is now behind both Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has topped the list of most powerful people of Forbes Magazine for the third consecutive time.
Rounding off the top five, is the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis who has been placed in fourth place, and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in fifth.
In an interview on CBS “This Morning,” editor Luisa Kroll speculated Obama’s fall to third “has a lot to do with the fact that this is going to be his a year ago in office”. According to Forbes, “as Obama enters the final year of his presidency, it’s clear his influence is shrinking, and it’s a bigger struggle than ever to get things done”.
“A barnstorming tour of Silicon Valley reinforced his nation’s massive importance in tech”, it said. His approval ratings at home has sunk under 50 per cent overseas.
“Putin continues to prove he’s one of the few men in the world powerful enough to do what he wants — and get away with it”, Forbes wrote in its justification for choosing the 63-year-old leader.
Factors such as the amount of money the individual controls, the number of people they impact, “spheres of influence” and how the figures use their power are all taken into account when putting together the 73-person strong list.
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Among the eight newcomers were Saudi Arabia’s new monarch, King Salman, number 14, and United States presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump at number 58 and 72 respectively.
