The list also includes Indian-origin restaurateur Asma Khan as well as Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya.
New York: World Bank President Ajay Banga, Bollywood actor Alia Bhatt, Olympian wrestler Sakshi Malik, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and actor-director Dev Patel are among the Indians who have made it to the prestigious Times’s list of 100 most influential people in the world released on Wednesday.
Time’s ‘100 Most Influential People of 2024’ also includes US Department of Energy’s Loan Programmes Office director Jigar Shah, Professor of Astronomy and Professor of Physics at Yale University Priyamvada Natarajan; Indian-origin restaurateur Asma Khan; as well as Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya.
Time’s profile of the former Mastercard CEO, written by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, said, “It’s not easy to find a leader with the skill and drive to take on the monumental task of transforming an essential institution, but since becoming World Bank president last June, Ajay Banga has done just that.”
She said Banga comes to the World Bank after leading a global organisation through which he brought millions of unbanked people into the digital economy. At the World Bank, he set forth a new vision to create a world free of poverty on a livable planet and moved boldly to make good on it — from pioneering innovative financial tools to reimagining partnerships across the multilateral development banks and with the private sector.
“His sharp wit consistently enables him to cut through the noise. With unprecedented challenges such as climate change threatening our collective future, I cannot imagine a better partner with whom to take decisive action on behalf of people around the world,” Yellen said.
Describing Bhatt as a “formidable talent”, director, producer and writer Tom Harper said in the Time profile that she is “not only one of the world’s leading actors, admired for her work in the Indian film industry for over a decade — she is also a businesswoman and a philanthropist who leads with integrity”.