Time Magazine features PM Modi, Mamata Banerjee, Adar Poonawalla among '100 most influential people of 2021' list

TIME on Wednesday unveiled its annual list of The 100 Most Influential People of 2021', a global list featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Serum Institute of India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawalla.

While featuring PM Modi in the influential people's list, TIME called him the third pivotal leader of independent India after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi who "dominated the country's politics like no one since them."

However the magazine didn't shy away from alleging that PM Modi has pushed the country away from secularism and toward Hindu nationalism. "In addition to eroding the rights of India's Muslim minority, Modi's government has imprisoned and intimidated journalists who shine a light on its abuses and has passed laws crippling India's thousands of NGOs and advocacy groups," read the article.

On Banerjee, her profile for the 100 most influential list says that the 66-year-old leader "has become the face of fierceness in Indian politics." "Of Banerjee, it is said, she doesn't lead her party, the Trinamool Congress - she is the party. The street-fighter spirit and self-made life in a patriarchal culture set her apart," the profile says.

Poonawalla's TIME profile says that from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 40-year-old head of the world's largest vaccine maker sought to meet the moment. "The pandemic is not over yet, and Poonawalla could still help end it. Vaccine inequality is stark, and delayed immunisation in one part of the world can have global consequences including the risk of more dangerous variants emerging," it says.

The annual global list also includes US President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Duke and Duchess of Sussex Prince Harry and Meghan, former US president Donald Trump and co-founder of the Taliban Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.

The Time profile describes the Taliban co-founder Baradar as a "quiet, secretive man who rarely gives public statements or interviews." "Baradar nonetheless represents a more moderate current within the Taliban, the one that will be thrust into the limelight to win Western support and desperately needed financial aid. The question is whether the man who coaxed the Americans out of Afghanistan can sway his own movement," says Baradar's profile.

The list further includes tennis player Naomi Osaka, Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny, music icon Britney Spears, executive director of the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council Manjusha P. Kulkarni, Apple CEO Tim Cook, actor Kate Winslet and the first African and first woman to lead the World Trade Organization Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

The Time magazine 100 most influential people list is divided into 6 major categories, Pioneer, Artist, Leader, Icon, Titan, and Innovator. Each of the categories has a list of personalities from all over the world.