Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has climbed up on Forbes’ list of 100 most powerful women in the world this year.
She now ranks 30th on the list the influential business magazine published on Wednesday. Last year, she was on the 36th position.
For a seventh consecutive time and 12 times in total, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has topped the list, with British Prime Minister Theresa May on the slot for the second most powerful woman.
May is followed by Melinda Gates, wife of Microsoft owner Bill Gates and co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Last year, she was fourth in the list.
The other two in the top five are Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg (fourth) and General Motors CEO Mary Barra (fifth).
The others in the top 10 of the list include YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki (sixth), International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde (eighth), and IBM CEO Ginni Rometty in the 10th spot.
Surprisingly, former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who was the second most powerful woman in the list last year, got pushed down 63 spots on it to 65 this year after her stunning loss in the 2016 US presidential election.
In the profile of Sheikh Hasina, Forbes called the 70-year-old the “lady of Dhaka”, saying she has promised aid to the Rohingya refugees in stark contrast to Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar and allocated 2,000 acres of land to provide them shelter.
Forbes, however, by mistake wrote Pakistan instead of Bangladesh on her profile while mentioning the land allotment. It was corrected later.
It also said: “Citing Bangladesh's own state sanctioned genocide during 1971's Liberation War, Hasina is "proud to bear the bulk of the cost" of the relocation of these refugees to her country. This includes issuing identification cards and providing childhood immunisations.”
Myanmar's de facto leader Suu Kyi ranked 33rd in the list.
Hasina, who has been heading the ruling Awami League since 1981, is currently serving as the Bangladesh prime minister for the third term. Previously she had been the premier from 1996 to 2001 and later from 2009 to 2014.
On Forbes’ list, the 100 female politicians, business leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, scientists, philanthropists and CEOs are from 27 countries. Forty-eight of them are from the US and three from China.
The list also boasts 23 newcomers, which Forbes said is a record for its Power Women list, with new women stepping in to power in politics, technology, business and media.
Forbes said this year’s list is ranked in terms of money (either net worth, company revenues, assets, or GDP), media presence, spheres of influence, and impact, analysed both within the context of each woman’s field (media, technology, business, philanthropy/NGOs, politics, and finance) and outside of it.
The youngest powerful woman on the list is the 27-year-old musician Taylor Swift. She has ranked 85th.
Britain’s 91-year-old Queen Elizabeth II is the most aged woman on the list. The queen moved up to 26th from last year’s 29th.
Ivanka Trump, first daughter and adviser to US President Donald Trump, was the top ranked newcomer at 19th place.
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