Nitish Kumar in Foreign Policy's top 100 global thinkers
Foreign Policy magazine has listed a top 100 global thinkers, a list that is topped by Aung Saan Sui Kyi and Thein Sein, and also has Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
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The 61-year-old Chief Minister of Bihar figures at the 77th spot and finds the place for his achievement of "turning around India's poorest state" through an array of innovative programmes to address crime, corruption and lack of development.has been credited for reforming the state of the government in what was long considered India's own Haiti or Somalia, "viewed as one of the most dysfunctional corners of a country world famous for government dysfunction". "Much of that began to change, however, when a low-key bureaucrat from a local centre-left party, Nitish Kumar, won the 2005 election and set out to clean up a wasteland where 100 million people are squeezed into a territory smaller than Arkansas," the magazine wrote.
Source:Foreign Policy -
At number 67 is Ruchir Sharma, Head of Global Emerging Markets Equity, Morgan Stanley Investment Management and the author of the the book Breakout Nations.
The Foreign Policy website says... Sharma -- who oversees a portfolio worth an estimated $25 billion -- debunks the conventional wisdom that the emerging markets of the last decade will continue to drive global growth in the next one.
Source: Foreign Policy -
The list of 100 also features India's chief economic advisor Raghuram Rajan at 80. Internal Monetary Fund's chief economist Raghuram Rajan, who took over as chief economic advisor to the Finance Ministry of India in August this year finds a place in the list for his toughest assignment yet - "saving the world's largest democracy from economic ruin".
Source:Foreign Policy
Coming up next: Top 10 in the list -
At number 1 is Aung San Suu Kyi. Citing Myanmar as "one of the most remarkable and unexpected political reversals of our time," the magazine writes about how the country - long counted among the world's most repressive dictatorships - has begun to reform under the leadership of "two very unlikely allies".
Source: Foreign Policy -
In an ironic but interesting feature, sharing the number one spot with democracy icon Suu Kyi has been bracketed with her tormentor-turned-ally Thein Sein, the military ruler, as the two leaders together chart out a non-military future for Myanmar.
Source: Foreign Policy -
Tunisia's president Moncef Marzouki is at the number 2 spot for " For keeping the ideas of the Arab Spring alive." The magazine goes on to say.. . "As the spirit of 2011 has faded this year amid religious violence in Egypt and Libya and the bloody sectarian civil war in Syria, Tunisia remains the Arab Spring's most promising success story." Source: Foreign Policy
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At number 4 is computer scientist Sebastian Thrun who in words of the magazine "reimagined the future of cars." Thrun's cars can maneuver on and off highways and through rush-hour traffic all by themselves says the magazine.
Seen in this pic are power couple Bill and Melinda Gates who are at number 5. Both co-chair the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which has invested nearly $150 million in programs that improve global sanitation. Just one of the many reasons the couple makes it to the list.
Source: Foreign Policy -
Pakistani blogger who was shot in the head by Taliban for blogging about women's education in the country, 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai is at number 6.
The teen recuperating from her bullet injuries in Birmingham is now a household role model and continues to receive worldwide support for her bravery.
Source: Foreign Policy -
At number 9 is the man whose escape from house arrest sparked a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Washington. Chen Guangcheng won plaudits for exposing rights abuses including forced sterilisations and late-term abortions under China's "one-child" family planning policy.
His activism earned him a four-year prison sentence that ended in 2010 when he was placed under extra-legal house arrest in his home village of Dongshigu, in the eastern province of Shandong, where he languished until his escape.He now lives in New York.
At number 10 are three people -- Activist David Blankenhorn, ecomomist Narayana Kocherlakota, and physicist Richard A. Muller.
Source: Foreign Policy