World's 100 Most Powerful Women 2016 list released by Forbes

Forbes on 6 June 2016 released the list of World’s 100 Most Powerful Women of 2016 showing women who impacted businesses, media, philanthropy, politics and more.

Four metrics: money (net worth, company revenues or GDP), media presence, spheres of influence, and impact, were analysed to prepare the list.

Highlights of the List
• The world’s most powerful woman in the list is German Chancellor Angela Merkel who fetched the first spot for the sixth consecutive year.
• The top three most powerful in the list are politicians: Germany’s Angela Merkel, U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen.
• Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, tops the list in the automotive section.
• Gwynne Shotwell, the President-COO of SpaceX, is the top woman in Construction & Engineering at 76th position.
• Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of International Monetary Fund, fetched the 6th spot.
• Diane von Furstenberg, Owner, Fashion Designer, Diane von Furstenberg Studio, L.P., stands at 71th position in the Fashion and Retail category.
• Oprah Winfrey stands at 21st position in the ranking.
• Newcomers joining this year’s list include seven world leaders, two philanthropists, five CEOs, two billionaires, one editor-in-chief, two company chairpersons, and three U.S. Supreme Court justices.
• 20 women are off the list from last year, among them Ellen Pullman, Renee James, Dilma Rousseff, Cristina Kirschner, and Elizabeth Holmes.
• A host of celebrities, including Ellen Degeneres, Taylor Swift, and Angelina Jolie, came off the list this year.
• Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung Sun Suu Kyi, and Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen are included in this year’s list.
• Wellcome Trust chair Eliza Manningham-Buller and UNESCO director-general Irina Bokova join a host of women who are dedicated to helping solve the world’s problems.

Top 10 powerful women in the List

Rank Name
1 Angela Merkel

2 Hillary Clinton

3 Janet Yellen

4 Melinda Gates

5 Mary Barra

6 Christine Lagarde

7 Sheryl Sandberg

8 Susan Wojcicki

9 Meg Whitman

10 Ana Patricia Botín

Indian Women in the list
• Four Indians have been named in Forbes list including Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chair-Managing Director of State Bank of India (SBI), who stood at 25th position.
• Chanda Kochhar, MD and CEO of ICICI Bank, was placed at 40th position.
• Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Founder-chair of Biocon Limited, was placed at 77th position.
• Shobhana Bhartia, Chair, HT Media, was placed at 93rd position.