TIME 100 Most Influential People 2021: PM Modi, Mamata Banerjee, Adar Poonawalla, Taliban Mullah Baradar

Time 100 most influential 2021: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and Chief Executive Officer of the Serum Institute of India (SII) Adar Poonawalla have been listed in the TIME 100 Most Influential People of the Year 2021, as per the list released by the magazine on September 15, 2021. PM Modi and Banerjee were listed among ‘leaders’ while Poonawalla got listed among ‘pioneers’. Taliban government’s Deputy PM Abdul Ghani Baradar in Afghanistan also was listed among ‘leaders’.

Time 100 Most Influential People 2021: PM Narendra Modi

As per TIME magazine, PM Narendra Modi is the third among three pivotal leaders that India has had in its 74 years of existence as an independent nation. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, the approval rating of PM Modi has slipped to a sky-high 71 per cent. The magazine further said that during the election of PM Modi, it was expected that he would move India into a capitalist future. “He has done some of that but more determinedly, he has pushed the country away from secularism and toward Hindu nationalism,” stated the magazine.

Time 100 Most Influential People 2021: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee

Mamata Banerjee has become the face of fierceness in Indian politics. Unlike many other women in India's political arena, Mamata has never been referred to as anybody’s wife, mother, daughter, or partner, said Indian journalist Barkha Dutt in the article on Banerjee in TIME Magazine. Mamata has risen from acute poverty. She worked as a stenographer and a milk-booth vendor. Dutt stated that Mamata does not lead her party, she is the party ‘Trinamool Congress’.

Time 100 Most Influential People 2021: Adar Poonawalla

Adar Poonawalla has been at the forefront since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. His company, the Serum Institute of India, had already been recognized as the world’s largest vaccine maker when Poonawalla promised 1.1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of 2021, stated TIME magazine. The assurance by Poonawalla became the backbone of the plan for global vaccine access. Poonawalla said that he did not want to have regrets when history judges his actions. Currently, the Serum Institute has doubled the production of COVID-19 vaccines since May 2021. The company will have two new vaccines in its portfolio, namely Novavax and Russia’s Sputnik V.

Time 100 Most Influential People 2021: Taliban Deputy PM Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar

Taliban Deputy PM Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar has also been listed on the TIME 100 Most Influential People of 2021 as a ‘charismatic military leader’ and a ‘deeply pious figure’. The magazine described Baradar as quiet and secretive who is representing a moderate face of the Taliban, the one that will win Western support and desperately needed financial aid.