Nooyi is world's fourth most powerful woman, Sonia is 13th

New York, Sep 1 (UNI) Clearly reflecting the growing clout of Indian women, PepsiCo's Chief Executive-designate Indra Nooyi has jumped to the fourth position from 28th in the Forbes' list of the world's 100 most powerful women while Congress President Sonia Gandhi made her maiden entry into the list at the 13th spot.

The coveted list also included several other Indian women like ICICI Bank's Lalita Gupte and Kalpana Morparia, who shared the 93rd spot, and the Dubai-based Jumbo Group Chairperson Vidya Chhabria (95th position).

German Chancellor Angela Merkel topped the list, followed by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi in the third place.

According to the magazine, ''Merkel, the first woman to become Chancellor of Germany, has displaced Condoleezza Rice as number one on our list of the 100 Most Powerful Women.'' Bangladesh Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia was placed at the 33rd position while her New Zealand counterpart Helen Clark was ranked 20th. US First Lady Laura Bush was placed 43rd while President of Finland Tarja Halonen was ranked 44th. President of the Philippines Gloria Arroyo was in the 55th position.

''Few people who could handle either the presidential or the chief financial officer job at a company worth 100 billion dollar,'' the magazine said about Nooyi, who will succeed Steve Reinemund to become the chief of the soft drink major.

''But not only has Nooyi held both offices since 2001, she was recently hand-picked to become Pepsi's new chief executive, effective October 1. Nooyi has a string of career successes that helped her land the corner office at the food and beverage giant,'' the magazine added.

About Italian-born Sonia Gandhi, Forbes says, ''She has travelled far since she tentatively entered India's political maelstrom in the 1990s. The daughter-in-law of Indira Gandhi, she won a general election victory in May 2004 but then took a pass on the prime minister's job, giving it to Manmohan Singh.'' Gupte and Morparia are the joint managing directors of India's second-largest bank, ICICI, with subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, Canada and Russia. Chhabria is chairperson of Jumbo Group, whose flagship company, Jumbo Electronics, is one of the largest distributors of consumer electronics, IT and telecom in West Asia.

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