Sonia Gandhi, Chanda Kochhar among top 20 powerful women

New York, Aug 20 (PTI) Congress President Sonia Gandhi
and ICICI Bank CEO and Managing Director Chanda Kochhar ranked
in the top 20 of the World's 100 Most Powerful Women list
compiled by Forbes.

Kochhar debuted at number 20 behind Gandhi who was
ranked 13 in the list led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Indian-origin chief executive of Pepsico Indra Nooyi figured
at number three after Sheila Bair, Chairperson of Federal
Deposit Insurance Corp.

Yahoo's Carol Bartz was ahead of Gandhi at number 12 in
the list.

Besides Gandhi and Kochhar, Biocon's chairman Kiran
Mazumdar-Shaw also featured in the list at number 91.

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 put up on Forbes.com.

Regarding 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 USD 100
billion," Forbes said. She was instrumental in transforming
the retail business of ICICI Bank and turning it into a
retail banking powerhouse. PTI