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'Capt Fantastic' powers to Time list
Led by India's "captain fantastic" Mahendra Singh Dhoni, five Indians have made it to the Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world, whose "ideas spark dialogue and dissent and sometimes even revolution". The line up
Led by India's "captain fantastic" Mahendra Singh Dhoni, five Indians have made it to the Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world, whose "ideas spark dialogue and dissent and sometimes even revolution".
Other Indians on the list released on Thursday are "titan of industry" Mukesh Ambani, "brain mapper" VS Ramachandran, "philanthropist" Azim Premji and "change agent" Aruna Roy.
The list is topped by Wael Ghonim, the Google executive who became the "spokesman for a revolution" in Egypt.
US President Barack Obama, ranked 86, trails far behind his secretary of state Hillary Clinton (43), Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (6), WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (9) and Pakistani ISI spy master Ahmed Shuja Pasha (17).
Ranked 52nd, Dhoni - under whose leadership India won its first World Cup in 28 years - Time noted, is now universally acknowledged as India's best captain ever.
"He's also its most likable, exuding both cool confidence and down-to-earth humility."
"Dhoni doesn't just lead a cricket team, he's also India's captain of hope. And he didn't just win India the World Cup, he also taught India how to win," it said.
The story of Ambani, ranked 61st, "is straight out of the Bollywood movies of his hometown", Time said.
"He started out in life crammed with six people in a two-bedroom tenement... He took the firm his father founded - Reliance Industries - and turned it into India's largest private-sector company, a $45-billion petrochemicals giant."
