Seven Indians among most influential telecom leaders

As many as seven Indians, including Srinath N of Tata Communications and Sunil Bharti Mittal of Bharti Enterprises have made it to the list of world's 100 most influential telecom leaders, an industry magazine has said.

Tata Communications Chief Executive Srinath Narasimhan (Eighth) is among the top 10 telecom personalities in the list compiled by Global Telecoms Business.

Google Chairman Eric Schimdt is on top of the chart.

Technology major Apple Chief Steve Jobs and China's Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Yizhong are at the second and third positions, respectively.

Bharti Enterprises CEO and Group Chairman Sunil Mittal is ranked at the 35th place, while Bharti Airtel Chief Executive Manoj Kohli is placed at the 39th position.

The Euromoney group magazine introduces Srinath as leading the technology end of India's leading industrial empires.

"He has transformed VSNL into a true international operation, putting Tata's $29 billion might into taking over networks such as Teleglobe and Tyco Global Networks so that it now has a presence in Europe and North America...," GTB said.

Other Indians in the list include Motorola Mobile Services Division CEO Sanjay Jha (41), Sanjiv Ahuja who is the Chief of Augere (45), Tata Communications President of global data and mobility solutions Vinod Kumar (68), former Vodafone Chief Executive Officer Arun Sarin (71).

"There is a sad absence of women; Viviane Reding is the only one among 99 men... There's probably a weighting towards US and European executives, but that reflects the method of our survey...," the magazine said.

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch (33) and telecom billionaire Carlos Slim Helu (73) are also among the telecom czars listed by the journal.