Five Indians in foreign policy global thinkers list

Wipro chairman Azim Premji, social activist Anna Hazare, writer Arundhati Roy, poverty researcher Deepa Narayan and economist- writer Arvind Subramanian figure in the list of top 100 global thinkers published by American magazine, Foreign Policy.

Besides several ‘Arab Spring’ revolutionaries, the list has named heads of states, including President Barack Obama (he comes 11th) among the global thinkers.

Of the five Indians in the list, Subramanian is a columnist with Business Standard.

The top nine in the list are revolutionaries who have played a leading role in the revolutionary wave of protests occurring in the Arab world for the past one year.

Sexagenarian Premji is the first Indian in the list — and 14th in the global 100. In the global thinkers list, the Bangalore-based tycoon is just below Bill Gates and Melinda Gates. According to the magazine, Mumbai-born Premji is compared with the 56-year-old American magnate not just because of his wealth, but for the philanthropic work..

Gandhian Hazare, 74, known for his anti-corruption campaign and the Lokpal movement, is on the 37th spot in the list.

Foreign Policy is a bimonthly American journal founded in 1970 by Samuel P Huntington and Warren Demian Manshel. In the 1990s, the magazine changed its character from an academic quarterly to a bimonthly glossy.

In 2008, The Washington Post Company announced that that it had bought Foreign Policy from Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.