“As a boy, Narendra Modi helped his father sell tea to support their family. Today, he’s the leader of the world’s largest democracy, and his life story — from poverty to Prime Minister — reflects the dynamism and potential of India’s rise.” Thus begins US President Barack Obama’s brief but eloquent write-up on India’s prime minister, one of the four Indians in the 2015 edition of TIME 100, the publication’s annual list of the 100 most influential people. The outgoing US President himself is on the list.In the write-up headlined ‘India’s reformer-in-chief’, Obama also refers to Modi’s visit to the US: “When he came to Washington, Narendra and I visited the memorial to Dr Martin Luther King Jr. We reflected on the teachings of King and Gandhi and how the diversity of backgrounds and faiths in our countries is a strength we have to protect. Prime Minister Modi recognises that more than one billion Indians living and succeeding together can be an inspiring model for the world.”
The other Indians on the list are ICICI Bank Managing Director and Chief Executive Chanda Kochhar, Microsoft CEOSatya Nadella and Vikram Patel, joint director at the Public Health Foundation of India and professor at London School of Hygeine and Tropical Medicine.“The list is not a ranking of any kind. It is about individual influence from various backgrounds and how these people are doing different things that are having all kinds of impact, both positive and negative,” says Nikhil Kumar, TIME’s South Asia bureau chief.TIME had on Tuesday released another list of the world’s 100 most influential people, based on a readers’ poll conducted by the magazine. While that list also had Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the one released on Thursday and compiled by TIME‘s editors had only four people from India. Both Modi and Kejriwal were part of last year’s list, too.Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal took first place after more than 3.2 million votes were cast, followed by Narendra Modi, the frontrunner in the Indian elections, and celebrities like Katy Perry, Justin Bieber and Laverne Cox
Indian politician Arvind Kejriwal has won the readers’ poll for the 2014 TIME 100, TIME’s annual list of people who influenced the world this past year for better or worse.Celebrities like Katy Perry, Justin Bieber and Rihanna ranked high as reader favorites, but the poll turned into a competition between two men competing in India’s ongoing elections.Kejriwal, who leads the Aam Aadmi, or common man, party, received a total of 261,114 “yes” votes from readers; Kejriwal, a candidate for a Parliamentary seat, came to prominence as the leader of an anti-corruption movement in India. Narendra Modi, the controversial leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party and frontrunner to become the country’s next Prime Minister, brought in 164,572 approving votes.Readers could also weigh in on whether figures should not be included in the TIME 100. Modi received 166,260 “no” votes, outnumbering his total “yes” votes. The poll’s winner was decided by raw number of “yes” votes.More than 3.2 million votes were cast in the poll. There were attempts to inflate the voting numbers, but only legitimate votes were tabulated for the final results. On Thursday, TIME will announce this year’s TIME 100 honorees, who are selected by the editors.Rounding out the top ten finishers after Kejriwal and Modi were singer Katy Perry, singer Justin Bieber, actor Laverne Cox, actor Benedict Cumberbatch, singer Beyoncé, actor Jared Leto, actor Lupita Nyong’o, singer Lady Gaga and music duo Daft Punk.Earlier this week, Cox and Bieber were battling for the poll’s top finisher. Cox, who appears in the Netflix series “Orange Is the New Black,” took to Twitter to encourage her fans to vote.Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal have been voted among the 100 most influential people in the world in an online poll by readers of Time magazine. Russian President Vladimir Putin emerged the winner of this year’s Time 100 readers’ poll. He edged out rapper-singer CL to claim the number one spot with 6.95 per cent of the votes in the final tally. Pop stars Lady Gaga (2.6 per cent), Rihanna (1.9 per cent) and Taylor Swift (1.8 per cent) rounded out the top five.While the official list of the 100 most influential people in the world will be announced later , Time editors had asked readers to cast their vote online for people from politics, entertainment, business, technology, science, religion and other fields who “changed the world this past year, for better or worse.”
Modi, however garnered just 0.6 per cent of the votes cast, with only 34 per cent of the people voting in his favour and 66 per cent against. Kejriwal got 0.5 per cent, with 71 per cent voters saying he should not be in the list.BJP president Amit Shah was also on the initial list but failed to garner enough votes to make it to the top 100. Other winners include Hillary Clinton, the Dalai Lama, actress Emma Watson, Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, Pope Francis,Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Chinese President Xi Jinping, rapper Kanye West, media mogul Oprah Winfrey, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yahoo CEO Marisa Mayer.
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