Sonia Gandhi ranked 6th in world’s “100 Most Powerful Women”

Indian National Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi and soft drink giant PepsiCo's India-born Chairman Indra Nooyi have been named among the world's 10 most powerful women by the US-based business magazine Forbes.

Gandhi has jumped to sixth rank this year, up from 13th in 2006, with the magazine attributing the election of her choice Pratibha Patil as the country's President another testimony of her growing power. Nooyi has been ranked at the fifth position, down from fourth last year.

"The 100 Most Powerful Women" list compiled by Forbes has been topped by German Chancellor Angela Merkel for the second year in a row.

Another Indian-origin businesswoman Vidya Chhabria, Chairman of UAE-based Jumbo Group, was ranked 97 in the list. Here is a list of top 25:

Rank	Name	Occupation	Country
1	Angela Merkel	Chancellor	Germany
2	Wu Yi	Vice premier	China
3	Ho Ching	Chief executive, Temasek Holdings	Singapore
4	Condoleezza Rice	Secretary of State	U.S.
5	Indra K. Nooyi	Chairman, chief executive, PepsiCo	U.S.
6	Sonia Gandhi	President, Congress Party	India
7	Cynthia Carroll	Chief executive, Anglo American	U.K.
8	Patricia A. Woertz	Chairman, Archer Daniels Midland	U.S.
9	Irene Rosenfeld	Chairman, chief executive, Kraft Foods	U.S.
10	Patricia Russo	Chief executive, Alcatel-Lucent	U.S.
11	MichÃ¨le Alliot-Marie	Minister for the Interior and overseas territories	France
12	Christine Lagarde	Minister of economy, finance and employment	France
13	Anne M. Mulcahy	Chairman, chief executive, Xerox	U.S.
14	Anne Lauvergeon	Chief executive, Areva	France
15	Mary Sammons	Chairman, chief executive, president, Rite Aid Corp.	U.S.
16	Angela Braly	Chief executive, president, WellPoint	U.S.
17	Marjorie Scardino	Chief executive, Pearson PLC	U.K.
18	Wu Xiaoling	Deputy governor, People's Bank of China	China
19	Brenda Barnes	Chairman, chief executive, Sara Lee Corp.	U.S.
20	Ruth Bader Ginsburg	Supreme court justice	U.S.
21	Oprah Winfrey	Chairman, Harpo	U.S.
22	Margaret Whitman	Chief executive, president, Ebay	U.S.
23	Queen Elizabeth II	Queen	U.K.
24	Melinda Gates	Cofounder, cochairman, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation	U.S.
25	Hillary Rodham Clinton	U.S. senator, New York	U.S.