There are 7.1 billion people on the planet. These are the 71 who matter
1. Barack Obama
President, United States of America
Age: 51
The decisive winner of the 2012 US presidential election on all counts: Obama took the popular vote, the electoral college and seven out of seven toss-up states. Now, he gets four more years to push his agenda past weakened Congressional Republicans. Still, he faces major challenges, including stubbornly high unemployment and renewed unrest in the Middle East. But Obama remains the commander-in-chief of the world’s greatest military and head of the sole economic and cultural superpower—literally the leader of the free world.
2012 HIGHLIGHT In June, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of ObamaCare’s ‘individual mandate’—and a conservative Chief Justice cast the deciding vote.
8. Mario Draghi
16. Michael Bloomberg
33 . Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan
41. Charles & David Koch
62. Jiang Zemin
(This story appears in the 25 January, 2013 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)