Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina on Forbes’ list of 100 most powerful women in the world

Business magazine Forbes has put Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on a list of 100 most powerful women in the world this year.

Hasina ranks 59th on the list published on Tuesday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel topped the list with former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton as the second powerful woman.

Microsoft owner Bill Gates’ wife Melinda Gates is on the third place.

The others in the top 10 of the list include IMF’s Christine Lagarde, Brazil President Dilma Rousseff and US First Lady Michelle Obama.

In the profile of Hasina, Forbes said she was elected prime minister for the second consecutive term through ‘a violent election with suspiciously low voting in January 2014’.

She had been in power from 1996 to 2001, and 2009 to 2014.

Forbes said Hasina's government oversaw the execution of war criminal Abdul Quader Molla in 2013 for his atrocities during the 1971 Liberation War against Pakistan.

It also noted that the daughter of Bangladesh’s founding father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had been the leader of the Awami League since 1981.

The youngest powerful woman on the list is 25-year-old US singer Taylor Swift. She ranks 64th on the list.

The 89-year-old British Queen Elizabeth II is the most aged woman on the list. The queen ranks 41st. 

Among the celebrities who are on the list, Oprah Winfrey is on the top. She is on the 12th position. Singer Shakira and actress Angelina Jolie followed her.

Four from India, none of them politician, are on the list.

They are State Bank of India Managing Director Arundhati Bhattarcharya (30th), ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar (35th), Biocon Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (85th) and HT Media Chairperson Shobhana Bhartia (95th).