Mayawati enters Forbes' power women list; Sonia slips in rank

New York, Aug 28 (PTI) Making her debut in the club of
100 most powerful women in the world, India's Bahujan
Samajwadi Party chief Mayawati has joined Congress President
Sonia Gandhi in a list compiled by US magazine Forbes.

While Gandhi, also chairperson of the country's ruling
UPA alliance, has slipped from her previous year's sixth rank
to 21st this year, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has
made her debut at 59th.
The list also includes Indra Nooyi, the Indian-origin
chief of global soft drink major PepsiCo, at third position,
up from fifth last year, and Indian biotechnology firm
Biocon's Chief Kiran Mazumdar Shaw at 99th.

The list has been topped by German chancellor Angela
Merkel.

On Gandhi, the magazine said the Italian-born leader of
India's most powerful political party has by now assumed the
role of elder stateswoman.

"Although she remains firmly at the head of the country's
ruling party, a rising star, known by the single name
Mayawati, is challenging Gandhi's position as the country's
most powerful woman."

The magazine said that Mayawati has aligned herself with
the Bharatiya Janata Party and joined its members in
vociferously opposing Gandhi's party's historic agreement with
the U.S. on nuclear cooperation.

The magazine described Mayawati as the one "in the
running to be prime minister, from her perch as chief minister
of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state."

"In 1995, at 39, she was the youngest politician elected
to the post and was also the first Dalit... to head a state
government," it said. The report further said that Mayawati
commands a large following and goes simply by her first name.

"In 2007, she shrewdly built an alliance with Brahmins,
and the Bahujan Samaj Party, which she heads, has started to
increase its national presence. Some say she could trail-blaze
again as India's first Dalit prime minister."

According to Forbes, its annual ranking of the most
powerful women in the world measures "power" as a composite of
public profile and financial heft. The economic component
considers job title and past career accomplishments, as well
as the amount of money the woman controls.

Merkel is followed by Federal Deposit Insurance Corp
Chairman Sheila C Bair of the US at the second position.

Others in the top ten include WellPoint CEO Angela Braly,
Anglo American CEO Cynthia Carroll, Kraft Foods chief Irene B
Rosenfeld, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Temasek
Holdings CEO Ho Ching, Areva CEO Anne Lauvergeon and Xerox
Corp CEO Anne Mulcahy.

Six of the ten most powerful women are from the US, while
one each are from the U.K., Germany, France and Singapore.

Gandhi, Mayawati and Shaw are the only three Indians on
list, while Nooyi is the only other person of Indian-origin.

About Nooyi, the third most powerful in the world, the
magazine said that she "continues to grow PepsiCo, the 39
billion dollar food and beverage giant, through new product
offerings and acquisitions."

Despite her fall from sixth position last year, Gandhi has
outranked people like Hillary Clinton (28th), Oprah Winfrey
(36th), Melinda Gates (40th), Laura Bush (44th) and Queen
Elizabeth II (58th).