Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been named to Time's list of '100 Most Influential People.'
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been named to Time’s list of ‘100 Most Influential People.’
SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) — This year’s list of Time’s “100 Most Influential People” featured two prominent Indians — Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Paytm founder and chief executive Vijay Shekhar Sharma.
Modi was featured in Time’s “Leadership” category, while Sharma made the “Titans” category cut.
Modi shares space with fellow leaders of the world — British Prime Minister Theresa May, U.S. President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, Rodrigo Duterte and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Julian Assange and Melinda Gates were also included in the list.
Pankaj Mishra, an award-winning Indian writer, authored Modi’s profile on the list:
In May 2014, long before Donald Trump seemed conceivable as a US President, Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of the world’s largest democracy. Once barred from the US for his suspected complicity in anti-Muslim violence, and politically ostracized at home as well, this Hindu nationalist used Twitter to bypass traditional media and speak directly to masses feeling left or pushed behind by globalization, and he promised to make India great again by rooting out self-serving elites. Nearly three years later, his vision of India’s economic, geopolitical, and cultural supremacy is far from being realized, and his extended family of Hindu nationalists have taken to scapegoating secular and liberal intellectuals as well as poor Muslims.
It’s been an amazing year for Vijay Shekhar Sharma personally, who was one of the latest to crack the world’s list of billionaires.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s stellar climb was documented by Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani:
In November, when India’s government unexpectedly scrapped 86 percent of the country’s currency notes, Vijay Shekhar Sharma seized the moment. As Indians scrambled to exchange the banned notes for new currency, Paytm, Sharma’s digital payments startup, went on a promotional spree. With a flurry of ads, Sharma invited Indians to start using Paytm’s digital wallet to pay for everyday goods and services.
Sharma was joined in his category by fellow executives of the industry, including Snapchat chief executive Evan Spiegel, Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos, NBA superstar LeBon James and Jean Liu. It’s a perfect cap on the year personally for Sharma, who this year became one of the latest to crack the world’s list of billionaires, with an estimated net worth of $1.3 billion.
