Position: Prime Minister of India
Age: 78
Time in Power: 6 years
Singh attended Punjab University and the University of Cambridge in Great Britain. He later earned a doctorate in economics from the University of Oxford. He is the first Sikh to be Prime Minister of India. This year, TIME listed him among the 100 most influential people in the world and Newsweek ranked him among their top ten leaders who have won respect, calling him "the leader other leaders love." When he came to power in 2004, Singh pushed for liberalization, privatized a few state-run industries and encouraged foreign investment — reforms that helped improve economic growth — while also implementing landmark legislation that sought to uplift hundreds of millions in India's impoverished countryside. In elections last year, his party's ruling coalition returned to power with a significant majority of voters. But Singh's critics say he's too close to Washington and too much under the thrall of the Congress party's iconic Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.