Hu Jintao is world's most powerful person: 'Forbes'

China's President Hu Jintao has been named the world's most powerful person by Forbes, ahead of US President Barack Obama, who is ranked second among 68 people "who matter", a list that includes Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Gandhi ranks ninth on the Forbes 2010 list of the 'World's Most Powerful People'. Singh comes in at number 18.

India's business tycoons Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, Tata Sons chairman Ratan Tata, and head of ArcelorMittal Lakshmi Mittal also made it to the list.

Of the 6.8 billion people on the planet, Forbes's list comprises "the 68 who matter". The heads of state, major religious figures, entrepreneurs and outlaws on the second annual list were chosen "because, in various ways, they bend the world to their will".

Hu, 67, occupies the top slot for being the "paramount political leader of more people than anyone else on the planet" and one who "exercises near dictatorial control over 1.3 billion people, one-fifth of the world's population".

Forbes said that unlike his Western counterparts, Hu, head of the world's largest army in size, can "divert rivers, build cities, jail dissidents and censor internet without meddling from pesky bureaucrats, courts".

His country, which refuses to "kowtow" to US pressure to change its exchange-rate regime, recently surpassed Japan to become the world's second-largest economy both in absolute and purchasing power terms.

China is also poised to overtake the US as the world's largest economy in 25 years.

"Creditor nation oversees world's largest reserves at 2.65 trillion dollars — 1.5 trillion dollars of which is in US dollar holdings," Forbes said.

His handpicked successor, Xi Jinping, is set to assume the presidency in 2012.

Forbes said the second most powerful person in the world is Obama who has slipped in this year's ranking after occupying the top slot last year. His Democratic Party suffered a mighty blow in the just concluded US mid-term elections, with the president decisively losing the support of the House of Representatives and barely holding on to the Senate, Forbes said.

"It is quite a come-down for last year's most powerful person, who after enacting widespread reforms in his first two years in office will be hard-pressed to implement his agenda in the next two," the publication said.

The 49-year-old first African-American president of the US can, however, "take comfort" in the fact that he remains commander-in-chief of the world's largest, deadliest military, leader of the world's largest — in spending — and most dynamic economy, and holds the unofficial title of "Leader of the Free World", Forbes said.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who was not featured in Forbes's recent list of the world's most powerful women, is named the ninth most powerful person in the world.

The 63-year-old leader was recently elected to a record fourth term as head of India's ruling Congress party, "cementing status as true heiress to the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty".

Forbes said that despite her Italian birth, foreign religion and political reluctance, "Gandhi wields unequalled influence over 1.2 billion Indians".

Crediting her for "handpicking brainy Sikh economist Manmohan Singh as prime minister", Forbes said Gandhi remains the real power behind the nuclear-tipped throne and is grooming 40-year-old son Rahul for the prime minister's role.

Singh, "universally praised as India's best prime minister since Nehru", ranks 18th on the list.

Forbes said the soft-spoken Oxford-trained economist is "ideally trained to lead the world's fourth-largest economy in terms of purchasing power into the next decade".

Credited with transforming India's quasi-socialist economy into the world's second-fastest growing, 78-year-old Singh is now enjoying the fruits of the free-market policies he implemented as India's finance minister in the early 1990s.

"The World Bank forecasts India's GDP will surge 7.6% in 2010, another 8% in 2011; not far behind its 9% forecast for China. Speaking of: Slow and steady will win the race."

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al Saud is ranked third, followed by Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (4), Pope Benedict XVI (5), Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel (6), Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron (7), US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke (8), and spiritual leader the Dalai Lama (39).

Pakistan's chief of army staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the "quiet army chief now Pakistan's de facto leader", ranks 29th.

Forbes said 58-year-old Kayani took the lead on the flood crisis, "controls Pakistan's powerful intelligence agency, and recently demanded President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani dismiss corrupt members of their bloated 60-member cabinet". His term was extended for three years in July.

In the 31st spot is North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il. Though his health appears to be fading, 68-year-old Kim remains in firm control of "the renegade nuclear power and its 22.7 million impoverished people" and keeps the world on edge with his eccentric antics. His youngest son, Kim Jong-un, is now the Hermit Kingdom's heir apparent.