Manmohan Singh, Sachin among world's most influential

Kings in their arena

Manmohan Singh finds himself in the 19th spot in the leaders’ list headed by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva with US president Barack Obama in the fourth place.

As India’s finance minister from 1991 to 1996, Manmohan Singh “released India’s potential for the benefit of its people. Now, as prime minister, he is guiding India into the ranks of the great powers,”  wrote PepsiCo’s chairperson Indra Nooyi.
Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar gets the 13th place among 25 “Heroes” headed by former US president Bill Clinton who is recognised for his work as a fund-raiser and anti-poverty activist.

Writing about Tendulkar’s double century in a One-Day International match, new age guru Deepak Chopra says: “To millions of Indians and countless fans around the world, this act, which caps a career of record-breaking feats, arouses a sense of awe.”

“The Alchemist” is the favourite book of Aishwarya, who lists “certainly my mother and father” as the two people who had the most effect or influence on her.
Sixth placed among heroes, Perumalsamy Namperumalsamy, 70, was recognised for performing cataract surgery at the Aravind Eye Care Hospitals from 1976 and having treated 3.6 million surgeries to date — a new one every 15 minutes.
Entrepreneur Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw gets the 16th spot among “heroes” for donating $2 million to support health insurance coverage for 1,00,000 Indian villagers and another $10 million for creating the 1,400-bed Mazumdar-Shaw Cancer Centre in Bangalore.

A paramedic from Toronto, Rahul Singh in 22nd place is recognised for his relief work in Haiti in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake.
Agencies