Raghuram Rajan in TIME's 100 most influentials list

Environmentalist Sunita Narain and tennis ace Sania Mirza find mention on the list

Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan and India’s most successful start-up entrepreneurs Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal (not related), co-founders of the country’s largest online marketplace Flipkart, are among six Indians who have have made it into TIME magazine’s list of 100 most influential people in the world.

The Bansals and Rajan feature with environmentalist Sunita Narain, tennis ace Sania Mirza, actress Priyanka Chopra and Indian born Google CEO Sundar Pichai in the Time annual list that showcases those who have significant influence on people. Others in the top 100 list include Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Sundar Pichai (Google) and Tim Cook (Apple), Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, Pope Francis, WWE star turned Hollywood actor Dwayne Johnson and others.

“...he steered India through the global crisis and fallout, playing a large role in making it one of the emerging-market stars of the moment,” says TIME’s profile on Rajan, who is named as India’s prescient banker.

Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal became the first startup entrepreneurs from India to become billionaires, each controlling 7.5 per cent stake in their company which was valued at $15.2 billion (Rs one lakh crore) when it raised $700 million (Rs 4,600 crore) in July 2015. They are also seen as the poster boys of India’s e-commerce space, just as Flipkart is considered to be the benchmark player.

“Binny and Sachin do have modest lifestyles, by billionaire standards, but they’re also nimble tacticians and hardheaded realists, and they dream big,” read TIME’s profile of the Bansals. “They’ll have to fight it out with foreign heavyweights like Amazon and Alibaba, but it’s safe to say that no one is going to underestimate Binny and Sachin again.”

India is the last large markets in the world, with the US market being saturated and China being a walled garden for global companies. Flipkart, which opened its doors in India in 2007, is currently valued at $13 billion (Rs 85,800 crore) and has 75 million users, nearly two-thirds more than its closest competitors Snapdeal and Amazon.

“This is truly a recognition of the Indian internet ecosystem and its role in using technology to solve local problems that is enabling Indians to lead a better life. This acknowledgment validates that the path we have chosen of creating a world-class Indian internet company that delivers quality products and reliable service at an affordable price to millions of families across India,” said Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal in a joint statement.