External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj Named in Top 100 Global Thinkers 2016 list

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has been named among the top 100 global thinker by the US based Foreign Policy magazine.

• Swaraj was named in the Global Thinkers of 2016 List under the ‘Decision-makers’ category along with the Democratic nominee for US President Hillary Clinton, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US Attorney General Loretta Lynch among others. 
• She was favored for her Twitter diplomacy and evacuating Indians from Yemen as well as helping to replace lost passports.
• Apart from Swaraj, the magazine also listed the co-founders of Sampark Foundation, Anupama Nayar and Vineet Nayar, under the ‘the Moguls’ category for transforming learning techniques in Schools.
• The Nayars were named along with other thinkers who “put their money where their morality is” including Melinda Gates, Crown Princess of Norway Mette Marit and Kate Roberts, Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg among others.
• Through their Sampark Foundation, the former HCL Technologies executive and his wife are on a mission to re-structure rural India’s primary education system with low-tech teaching tools.
• They have created ‘smart class kits’ which include various economical innovations, such as a plastic audio device that contains English words and lasts 15 days without the need to charge. The cost of supplying kits is just $1 per year per child.
• The Nayars want to reach 50,000 schools, including Chhattisgarh and Jammu and Kashmir.

Other Indians who were listed in the Global Thinkers Of 2016 List includes:

Nitesh Kadyan, Nikhil Kaushik, and Anirudh Sharma of Graviky Labs, which is an Indian firm that uses polluted air to create art supplies were named under the Stewards Category.

• Immunologist Gursaran Prasad Talwar was named under the Healers category for the vaccine developed
  by him that could decrease leprosy rates by 65 per cent over three years.
• Total 9 categories were listed in the Global Thinkers of 2016 List.
• The decision-makers, the challengers, the innovators, the artists, the advocates, the chroniclers, the moguls, the stewards, the healers.

Global Thinkers of List

Foreign Policy magazine recognizes the world’s eminent thought leaders and public intellectuals in its annual issue, “100 Leading Global Thinkers”.

• Honorees include a wide range of leaders, advocates, innovators, artists, government officials, and visionaries from around the world.
• The editors of Foreign Policy select the 100 Global Thinkers based on their standout contributions over the past year and their ability to translate ideas into action that change and shape the world.