Kejriwal, Butalia on global thinkers' list

Kejriwal ranks 32nd, the list topped by Edward Snowden

Founder of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Arvind Kejriwal is among Foreign Policy magazine's leading Global Thinkers of 2013, a list of 100 people who have made a "measurable difference" and are "pushing the boundaries of the possible".

Activists Urvashi Butalia and Kavita Krishnan have also made it to the list that has been topped by US intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Kejriwal, 45, who figures on the 32nd spot, was a global thinker because he had led a campaign to clean up India's capital and the Indian "elite" had good reason to be worried about him, the magazine said.

Kejriwal "is out to ignite a revolution... (he) is leading an influential campaign to rid New Delhi of corruption and refocus government attention on the needs of citizens. Known for his no-nonsense oratory, he has also staged protests and hunger strikes, and he has levelled corruption charges against some political heavyweights, including the son-in-law of Sonia Gandhi, head of India's ruling Congress party," the magazine said.

Butalia and Krishnan, on the 77th spot, "aren't just thoughtful activists: They are formidable, front-line opponents in the battle against India's scourge of sexual violence," the magazine said.

Other Indians on the list are: Anand Grover - UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health; Rohit Wanchoo - co-founder of non-profit organisation GiveDirectly; Sanjay Basu - epidemiologist and physician at Stanford University; and Naval Ravikant - co-founder of Angellist, online platform that connects investors with start-ups seeking funding.

The list also includes US Secretary of State John Kerry Russian President and Foreign Minister Vladimir Putin and Sergei Lavrov, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Pope Francis, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and UN Human Rights High Commissioner Navi Pillay.

The magazine named Butalia and Krishnan in its global thinkers list for "exposing the roots of India's rampant sexual violence". It said the two are among a group of women's rights activists who have been calling for outrage over the brutal gangrape and death of a 23-year-old girl in a moving Delhi bus to be channelled into "progressive discussions of the paternalism, sexism, and social inequality that undergird the country's rape crisis".

Rajendra Pachauri-led Nobel Peace Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) also makes it to the list "for showing that humanity is on the brink of catastrophe".

"The IPCC shown that climate change is already too far along for us to stop it. But whether the worst of the panel's predictions come to pass is, at least in part, still up to us," the magazine said.

Pakistani girls' education activist Malala Yousafzai who survived after being shot in the head by the Taliban is on the 71st spot.