His empire may have taken a knock or two in the global recession, but Ratan Tata, the 72-year-old head of the Rs 251,543 crore Tata group, seems to be an all-weather brand.
His empire may have taken a knock or two in the global recession, his Nano minicar may have been buffeted by ill political winds, but Ratan Tata, the 72-year-old head of the Rs 251,543 crore Tata group, seems to be an all-weather brand. Not only has he consistently led DNA’s annual list of Mumbai’s Top 50 Influentials for three consecutive years, this time he has also topped the all-India list.
Not surprising, considering that 2008 was the year in which Ratan Tata spread his wings globally, acquiring such brands as Corus Steel and Jaguar-Land Rover. Towards the end of the year, the two acquisitions were certainly weighing Tata down, but he has broad shoulders. Which is why he has been our No 1 Influential for so long. The next businessman on the list is Mukesh Ambani at No 2.
India’s Top 50 Influentials, compiled for the first time ever with the help of a high-powered, four-member jury, is a unique ranking of 50 power people who impacted India greatly in 2008. In it you will find not only businessmen and politicians - Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi figure at No 2 and No 4 in the list - but also people from other walks of like made huge contributions to society in multiple ways.
The ranking of Manmohan Singh above Sonia Gandhi was a surprise. Everyone knows that Singh derives his power from his closeness to Sonia, but the jury probably felt that he had redeemed himself as a leader in his own right by taking a stand on the nuclear deal, never mind the political consequences.
Apart from politicians, DNA’s India Influentials 2008 has a fair sprinkling of spiritual gurus (Baba Ramdev at No 14, Sri Sri Ravishankar at No 19), professionals (E Sreedharan of the Delhi Metro at No 9), intellectuals (Amartya Sen at No 8, Javed Akhtar at No 30), film stars (Aamir Khan ahead of Shah Rukh at No 11), cricketers (who else but MSD and Sachin at Nos 6 and 7), and media personalities.
A distinctive feature of the list is that it was entirely selected by an external jury comprising actress and social activist Shabana Azmi, adman Piyush Pandey, businessman Anand Mahindra, and BJP politician Arun Jaitley. The jury, which met in mid-July just before the parliament vote, was presented with a shortlist of potential candidates and their recent achievements, after which they rated each one on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being least influential and 10 most influential.
When the voting was done, the top 50 were identified. The jury members then discussed the relative positions of people who had the same number of points, and reranked them according to their collective judgments. In one case, where the spouse of one of the jury members was considered a key influential, the member concerned abstained from voting while the other three awarded their points. The average of the three was extrapolated for the abstaining member and ranked accordingly.
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