• Time magazine has released the list of 100 most influential personalities of the world.
• At just 25 years of age, Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza is the youngest person on this years’ TIME list.
• Yulia Navalnaya, wife of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, has also been included in this list.
• This time, 15 artists, 15 titans, 16 icons, 24 leaders, 15 innovators and 15 pioneers have been included in Time magazine.

INDIANS IN THE LIST:

• Olympian Sakshi Malik, Indian-origin actor Dev Patel, actor Alia Bhatt, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and World Bank President Ajay Banga were among the eight Indians named in the prestigious TIME’s list of 100 most influential people in the world.

ALIA BHATT

• In his write-up for Time magazine, British film director Tom Harper described Alia Bhatt as a “formidable talent.” Bhatt, who holds British citizenship, is based in India and works predominantly in the Hindi film industry. She is the recipient of a National Film Award, one of India’s highest paid actresses and a brand ambassador for Gucci. She made her international debut with Netlfix’s “Heart of Stone” last year.

DEV PATEL

• A British actor of Indian descent – his parents are Indian Gujarati Hindus – Dev Patel made a crackling big screen debut with “Slumdog Millionaire”, a film that propelled him to international fame in 2008. He made his directorial debut with “Monkey Man” this year.

SAKSHI MALIK

• India’s first and only female wrestler to win an Olympic medal, Sakshi Malik last year became the face of resistance against Brij Bhushan Singh, the Wrestling Federation of India chief who was accused of sexually harassing athletes. “This fight is no longer only for India’s female wrestlers,” said Malik, “it is for the daughters of India whose voices have been silenced time and again.”

AJAY BANGA

• India-born Ajay Banga has ascended the ranks to serve as president of the World Bank today. In her write-up for Time, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen described Banga as a leader with the “skill and drive to take on the monumental task of transforming an essential institution.” Banga was born in Pune and graduated from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi with a bachelor’s degree in economics. He became a US citizen in 2007.

JIGAR SHAH

• Director of the US Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office, Jigar Shah “leads one of the largest economic-development programs the world has ever seen,” says Richard Branson. He was born in India but moved to the United States when he was one-year-old.

ASMA KHAN

• An Indian-born British restaurateur and cookbook author, Asma Khan is the force behind the acclaimed London restaurant, Darjeeling Express, which is famous for its all-female kitchen. “Asma’s food is surprising. It doesn’t taste like restaurant food—and that is the highest compliment,” wrote Padma Lakshmi for Time.

PRIYAMVADA NATARAJAN

• Priyamvada Natarajan is a professor in the departments of astronomy and physics at Yale University. She is noted for her work in mapping dark matter and dark energy. Natarajan was born in Tamil Nadu and studied at Delhi Public School, RK Puram.

SATYA NADELLA

• He is the CEO of Microsoft, noted for his leadership in the technology sector and contributions to the global business community. Nadella started at Microsoft in 1992 as a Windows NT operating system developer.