By TIOL News Service

NEW YORK, DEC 07, 2012: FORBES Magazine in its annual power rankings has placed US President Barack Obama as number one for the second year in a row. Forbes has stated that 51-year-old Obama emerged “unanimously” as the world's most powerful person for the second year running. Forbes dropped US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from the list this year. Clinton, who had ranked 16th last year, does not feature in 2012 rankings.

The second most powerful person in the world also happens to be the most powerful woman, German Chancellor Angela Merkel. She jumped up from the number four position last year to take the runner-up spot on the 2012 list.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi have been named among the top 20 most powerful persons in the world by Forbes magazine.

India's richest businessman Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani and Arcelor Mittal CEO Lakshmi Mittal also feature in the list that comprises 71 mighty heads of state, CEOs, entrepreneurs and philanthropists who “truly run and shape the world of 7.1 billion people. Forbes said the 65-year-old leader of India's ruling political party has the reins of the world's second-most-populous country and tenth-largest economy.

Gandhi dropped a notch from last year's list and ranks at number 12 this year ahead of Chinese Vice- Premier Li Keqiang and French President Francois Hollande. Rahul Gandhi is next in line to take over India's most famous political dynasty,

Ambani, owner of the world's most expensive private residence, ranks 37th in the list. Mittal, ranked 47th in the most powerful people list, has a net worth of billion but also has “lots of headaches, including S&P and Moody downgrades of his company's debt to junk status.

Zaheer ul-Islam, the head of Pakistan's notorious intelligence service ISI, has been ranked 52nd on the list.“The ISI has played both sides in the war on terror and, as US troops draw out of Afghanistan, will be hugely influential in determining the region's future,” Forbes reported.

Chinese President Hu Jintao had ranked number two on the list last year and was the most powerful person in the world in 2010.

The list also includes Russian President Vladimir Putin at number three, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (4), General-Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping (9), Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin (20), Iran's Supreme leader Ali Khamenei (21) UN chief Ban Ki-moon (30), North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (44) and former US President Bill Clinton (50).