'Women continue to scale the heights of power and influence'

Gone are the days when men used to symbolize power and influence. Today, women are leading men in each sphere of life. With women sitting comfortably on the most respected chair, it is the other sex 'men' who are now looking 'up' and getting influenced by them. The world is now working on their commands and to highlight the new 'boss', Forbes magazine has listed the world's 100 most powerful women. For the third year running Germany's Chancellor, Angela Merkel, is the worlds most powerful women. U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (overall rank: 28) is the woman with the highest public profile, resulting from the intense media scrutiny of her failed presidential bid. The top 10 of the World's 100 Most Powerful Women figured Indian-origin chief executive of PepsicCo Indra Nooyi at number three after Sheila Bair, Chairperson of Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. while Condoleeza Rice figured at number seven.
Congress President Mrs. Sonia Gandhi and ICICI Bank CEO and Managing Director Chanda Kochhar ranked in the top 20 of the World's 100 Most Powerful Women. Kochhar debuted at number 20 behind Mrs. Gandhi who was ranked 13 in the list. Yahoo's Carol Bartz was ahead of Gandhi at number 12. Besides Mrs. Gandhi and Kochhar, Biocon's chairman Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw also featured in the list at number 91. Mrs. Gandhi improved her ranking from 21 last year to 13 this year, while Mazumdar-Shaw moved to 91 from last year's 99th place. Nooyi retained her third position in the list. Bahujan Samajwadi Party leader and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, who was ranked 59th in last year's list, did not figure in the latest list. Regarding Mrs. Gandhi, Forbes said, she is "still the country's dominant force since she reluctantly entered politics in the 1990s. "The landslide victory in the recent general election further strengthened her position as the leader of "India's most powerful political party" — Indian National Congress. Kochhar was named as the first woman boss of India's second largest lender ICICI Bank and took charge in May this year. "She now oversees a bank with assets of $100 billion," Forbes said. She was instrumental in transforming the retail business of ICICI Bank and turning it into a retail banking powerhouse.
Forbes' Powerful Women list is based largely in terms of influence rather than celebrity status or popularity. In assembling the list, Forbes looked for women who run countries, big companies or influential nonprofits. The annual ranking of the most powerful women in the world measures "power" as a composite of public profile--calculated using press mentions--and financial heft. The economic component of the ranking considers job title and past career accomplishments, as well as the amount of money the woman controls. "Their rankings are a combination of two scores: visibility — by press mentions — and the size of the organization or country these women lead," the US-based magazine said.