Top 10 Most Powerful People In The World

Usually, elected leaders from politics exercise the most power. However, outside politics also there are many influential leaders from the field of religion, Innovation, Business, Social media, and entertainment.

Because of the huge following and cult, these people are looked up to as opinion shapers and influencers.

Here are the top 10 most powerful people in the world.

Xi Jinping

Xi Jinping

Xi Jinping is a Chinese politician who has served as the People’s Republic of China’s president since 2013. He has been seen as the most powerful person in the world, even though the Western world regards him as a tyrant or authoritarian leader, citing increased mass surveillance, a decrease in human rights, and censorship of news, the Internet, and events.

He was General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and Chairman of the Central Military Commission before becoming President of China. In 1953, he was born in Beijing as the second son of a Chinese Communist veteran, Xi Zhongxun. Tsinghua University is where Xi studied Chemical Engineering.

To maintain a solid hold on the governing party, Xi removed presidential term limits in China in 2018 through a series of constitutional modifications.

Xi has strengthened state control over the Chinese economy while also bolstering the country’s private sector. He is a hardliner when it comes to Chinese security matters, as well as in international affairs, where he is growing his influence in South Africa and Europe. On the international scene, he portrays China as more forceful and patriotic.

Read More: Top 9 people with highest IQ

Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, is the world’s second most powerful person. He is a former intelligence officer who has been Russia’s president since 2012.

He served as Russia’s Prime Minister from 1999 to 2000, and again from 2008 to 2012. Putin was born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) and earned a law degree from Leningrad State University in 1975. Putin spent 16 years as a KGB foreign intelligence officer, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel before entering politics.

Russia has seen democratic backsliding under Putin’s rule. Many analysts do not consider Russia to be a democratic state because of restrictions on free speech, the imprisonment of political opponents, purges, restrictions on press freedom, and the lack of free and fair elections. Putin modified the law to allow him to compete for reelection in 2021.

Read More: Top 10 best Asian standup comedians

Joe Biden

Joe Biden

Joe Biden is the current Vice President of the United States of America and one of the world’s most prominent politicians. In 2020, he will succeed Donald Trump as the 46th President of the United States.

From 1973 through 2009, he was the Democratic Party’s 47th vice president, representing Delaware as a senator. He is the country’s oldest elected president and the first to have a female and African/Asian-American vice president, Kamala Harris.

In his first two days as president, Biden issued 17 executive orders, most of which were geared to reversing most of Trump’s foreign policies, particularly those concerning immigration and climate change.

Read More: Top 10 famous Indian authors

Angela Merkel

Angela Merkel

Angela Merkel is a German politician who has been the country’s chancellor since 2005, making her the world’s most powerful woman. Before becoming chancellor, she was the head of the opposition from 2002 until 2005. Merkel was the Christian Democratic Union’s leader from 2000 to 2018.

She is Germany’s first female chancellor and is largely regarded as the de facto head of the European Union. Merkel was born in Hamburg, West Germany at the time.

Merkel completed her studies at Karl Marx University in Leipzig from 1973 to 1978, where she majored in physics. Her thesis in quantum chemistry earned her a Ph.D. She worked as a researcher for three years before entering politics, publishing several publications.

The collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was a watershed moment in her political career, as she joined a new party called Democratic Awakening, which ultimately merged with the East German Christian Democratic Union. Merkel temporarily served as the deputy spokesperson for East Germany’s first democratically elected government.

Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos is the first American entrepreneur to be named on the list of the world’s most influential people in 2021. He is the founder and CEO of Amazon, a worldwide technology firm. According to Forbes, as of June 2021, his estimated net worth is more than $200 billion, making him the world’s richest and most powerful person.

Mr. Bezos attended Princeton University and majored in electrical engineering and computer science. Before founding Amazon in 1994, he worked on Wall Street for over eight years in several capacities.

Amazon began as an online bookshop and has now expanded to include a wide range of e-commerce items and services such as cloud computing, video/audio streaming, and artificial intelligence.

With $400 billion in revenues, it is currently the world’s largest online sales corporation. Due to his passion for space travel, Bezos launched the suborbital spaceflight services firm Blue Origin in the year 2000.

Pope Francis

Pope Francis

Pope Francis is the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the ruler of Vatican City State. He is one of the most popular world leaders, with supporters from all around the world. He is the first pope who belongs to the Society of Jesus.

He was born in Argentina and worked as a bouncer and janitor throughout his youth. He eventually received pharmaceutical training to become a chemist and worked as a technician in a food science laboratory.

After recuperating from a terrible illness, he was inspired to join the Society of Jesus and became a priest 11 years later. He was then appointed Archbishop and eventually made a cardinal.

Bill Gates

Bill Gates

Bill Gates is a computer programmer and entrepreneur from the United States who cofounded Microsoft Corporation, the world’s largest personal computer software firm. Bill Gates, the American business billionaire, has several interests outside of computers.

He is also an author, landowner, and philanthropist, with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s biggest private charity, carrying out various charitable activities.

Gates’ estimated net worth is $145.3 billion as of 2021, and he wrote his first computer software application when he was 13 years old. He was a Harvard University dropout who held several roles in the corporation, including the chairman, CEO, president, and chief software architect.

Gates along with his wife Melinda launched the William H. Gates Foundation in 1994 which was later renamed the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 1999 to fund global health programs.

In 2010, The Giving Pledge was founded by Gates and Warren Buffett where they and other billionaires pledge to give a minimum of 50% of their wealth to Philanthropy.

Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud

Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud

Mohammed bin Salman, popularly known as MBS, is a Saudi Arabia politician who serves as the country’s deputy prime minister as well as the crown prince of Saudi Arabia.

He is also the Chairman of the Council for Economic and Development Affairs, the Chairman of the Council for Political and Security Affairs, and the Defense Minister.

MBS is frequently referred to as the power behind his father, King Salman’s, throne. In 2017, King Salman removed his nephew Muhammad bin Nayef from the post of the crown prince and selected MBS in his stead.

MBS was successful in implementing numerous major internal changes, including rules limiting religious police powers, lifting the prohibition on female drivers, and weakening the male-guardianship system.

Bin Salman rules an authoritarian regime in Saudi Arabia, and his tenure has been marred by numerous controversies, including an increase in alleged cases of torture of human rights activists, his relationship with Donald Trump, the escalation of the Qatar diplomatic crisis, the phone hack against Jeff Bezos, and the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of MBS.

Narendra Modi

Narendra Modi

Narendra Modi is the current and fourteenth Prime Minister of India, the world’s biggest democracy. As a result, he is the world’s most popular prime minister. From 2001 until 2014, he served as the state of Gujarat’s chief minister. He is a member of the Uttar Pradesh legislature representing the Varanasi seat.

He belongs to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the world’s largest political party in terms of primary membership. He is a registered member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and a member of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) (RSS).

Modi was born in the tiny hamlet of Vadnagar in northeastern Gujarat in 1950. He spent two years traveling over India after finishing high school, visiting various religious sites.

Modi joined the RSS when he was eight years old. In 1971, he began working for the RSS. In 1985, the RSS sent him to the BJP, where he rose through the ranks to become general secretary.

Modi was the party’s prime ministerial candidate in the 2014 general election, and he won a landslide win with 282 seats and a large majority in Lok Sabha, India’s lower house of parliament. Modi was re-elected to a second term in 2019 with 303 seats.

Larry Page

Larry Page

Google needs no introduction in the world of technology, and Larry Page and Sergey Brin are Google’s co-founders. Larry is a computer scientist and online entrepreneur from the United States. He served as Google’s CEO for four years, from 1997 to 2001, when he stepped down.

He was re-appointed as Google’s CEO from 2011 to 2015, before resigning to become CEO of Alphabet Inc, Google’s parent company. He maintained the position till 2019, after which he joined the Alphabet board of directors.

With an estimated net worth of $112.5 Billion, Page is the sixth wealthiest person globally. He played a significant role in creating Google’s search ranking algorithm.

Born in 1973 in Michigan, Page holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan and a Master of Science from Stanford University. He also has a Ph.D. in Computer Science.