Who moved India in 2025, and what their rise tells us about how power, ideas and aspiration now travel across Bharat.
We are proud to present the Bharat Dialogues 100 Most Influential People 2025, the second edition of BD100.
A year ago, our first list captured an India whose cultural and entrepreneurial energy was impossible to ignore. Film stars, founders, cricketers and creators stood shoulder to shoulder with ministers and industrialists. The 2025 list tells a different story. It was a year of military resolve, sweeping economic reform, state elections, a sovereign AI programme and an Indian in orbit. In that year, influence gathered around the people who govern, regulate, secure and build.
How The List Was Made
BD100 is built in three stages:
1. The Long List
Our editorial team curated a pool of 300 change-makers across politics, governance, business, startups, science, sport, entertainment, media, law and social impact.
2. The Citizens' Survey
More than 75,000 citizens took part this year, nearly two and a half times the 30,729 respondents of the first edition.
3. The Jury
An anonymous jury of senior journalists, academics and industry leaders deliberated on the survey results to arrive at the final ranking.
"We asked one question throughout: who changed outcomes in 2025? Reach without consequence ranked lower than quieter influence that moved institutions, markets or public mood."
At A Glance
- New vs Returning 61 New / 39 Returning
- 2024 Top 10 Retained 9 / 10
- Sitting Chief Ministers 17 (up from 6)
- Opposition Leaders 12
- Women Leaders 13 (down from 26)
- Northeast Representation 4 (up from 1)
- Citizens Surveyed 75,000+
The Top 10
Nine of last year's Top 10 hold their place. The summit of Indian influence is stable, but the order within it has shifted in ways that reflect the year.
Narendra Modi
Prime MinisterHolds the top spot for a second year. 2025 saw India become the world's fourth-largest economy, the rollout of GST 2.0 and a new Income Tax Act, Operation Sindoor, and an Indian astronaut aboard the ISS. Few years have tied so many national milestones to a single leader.
Amit Shah
Union Home MinisterStays at No. 2. The 130th Constitutional Amendment, the National Cooperative Policy 2025 and the push against Left-wing extremism kept him at the centre of both governance and party strategy.
Mohan Bhagwat
Sarsanghchalak, RSSMakes the biggest move in the Top 10. In the RSS's centenary year, his addresses on civilisational confidence, decentralisation and community service set the tone for a large part of the national conversation.
Mukesh Ambani
Chairman, Reliance IndustriesOvertakes Gautam Adani for the top business position. Jio's AI ecosystem, the green energy build-out in Kutch, and his push at WAVES 2025 to treat media as real power kept Reliance at the center of India's next-economy story.
Gautam Adani
Chairman, Adani GroupSlips one place but remains a defining force in infrastructure. The 30 GW Khavda renewable park, record port volumes and an AI-ready data centre partnership with Google show a conglomerate repositioning itself.
Yogi Adityanath
Chief Minister, UPMoves down three places but remains the highest-ranked Chief Minister. The Mahakumbh, drawing over 66 crore devotees, was the largest public event of the year and a showcase of state capacity.
S. Jaishankar
External Affairs MinisterHolds steady. The India–UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement and Vision 2035 turned foreign policy into a growth lever in a turbulent year.
Rajnath Singh
Defence MinisterEnters the Top 10. In the year of Operation Sindoor, defence moved from the policy pages to the front pages, and so did the Defence Minister.
Nirmala Sitharaman
Finance MinisterRises one place after her eighth consecutive Union Budget and a year of trust-based tax reform. She remains the only woman in the Top 10.
Rahul Gandhi
Leader of Opposition, Lok SabhaSlips two places but remains the only opposition leader in the Top 10. His campaigns on electoral integrity and caste justice ensured the opposition's questions stayed on the national agenda.
The List in Numbers
Politicians and the heads of national institutions hold 51 of the 100 places, up from 25. That is the single biggest change between the two editions.
| Field | 2025 | 2024 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Politics and elected office | 40 | 22 | +18 |
| Startups and new-age founders | 13 | 12 | +1 |
| Business and industry | 11 | 8 | +3 |
| Institutions, bureaucracy and security | 11 | 3 | +8 |
| Film and entertainment | 8 | 15 | −7 |
| Digital creators | 5 | 8 | −3 |
| Sports | 4 | 8 | −4 |
| Law and judiciary | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Media and journalism | 2 | 7 | −5 |
| Spiritual and socio-cultural leaders | 2 | 3 | −1 |
| Science, space and health | 1 | 6 | −5 |
| Social sector, arts and literature | 0 | 5 | −5 |
* Each person is counted once, by their primary role during the year.
Eight Trends That Define The 2025 List
The State Returns to the Centre
Politics accounts for 40 names (up from 22), featuring 17 sitting Chief Ministers. Influence followed the power to deliver across infrastructure, welfare, and state investments.
Quiet Power of Institutions
12 institutional heads feature (up from 4), including Chief Justice Surya Kant, Army Chief Gen Upendra Dwivedi, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra, and CEC Gyanesh Kumar.
A Plural Political Map
Features 12 opposition leaders and expanded geography including 4 leaders from the Northeast and key Southern figures like Chandrababu Naidu, Pawan Kalyan, and Vijay.
Old Money, New Confidence
Legacy business houses return strong (N. Chandrasekaran, Sunil Bharti Mittal, Kumar Mangalam Birla), alongside Big Tech heads Arun Srinivas (Meta) and Irina Ghose (Microsoft).
The Founder Class Grows Up
13 startup founders feature. Focus shifted from consumer internet to AI (Perplexity's Aravind Srinivas, Sarvam AI's Pratyush Kumar), Bharat-first platforms (STAGE, Rapido), and quick commerce.
Bollywood Steps Back
Entertainment dropped from 15 to 8 names. SRK, Akshay Kumar, and Salman remain, while new cinematic influence shifted towards creators matching national mood like Aditya Dhar & Ranveer Singh.
Durable Voices Over Viral Moments
Creator economy slimmed to 5 long-term builders like Raj Shamani, Samay Raina, Zakir Khan, Bhuvan Bam, and Ranveer Brar. Traditional media shrank to 2 key editors.
The Gaps We Must Name
Women representation dropped to 13. Science, social, and arts reduced to 1 name (astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla), and sports fell from 8 to 4 names.
Risers, Debuts and Exits
Biggest Climbers
- Prasoon Joshi +27 (83 → 56)
- T.V. Somanathan +15 (80 → 65)
- Raj Shamani +13 (70 → 57)
- Aravind Srinivas +13 (53 → 40)
- Devendra Fadnavis +12 (42 → 30)
- Nikhil Kamath +9 (56 → 47)
Notable Debuts
- Piyush Goyal No. 13 (Highest)
- Nitin Nabin No. 20
- Shubhanshu Shukla No. 86
- Kaivalya Vohra No. 92
- Samrat Rana No. 100 (Youngest)
Biggest Falls & Exits
Arvind Kejriwal: Down from #25 to #53
Karan Johar: Down from #36 to #45
Nitin Gadkari: Down from #6 to #14
Introducing Emerging Leaders
Alongside the 100, we are introducing Bharat Dialogues Emerging Leaders, recognising 20 fast-growing figures including Diya Kumari, O.P. Choudhary, Karan Adani, Rishad Premji, Pirojsha Godrej, Nadia Chauhan, Divya Deshmukh, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Arghya Bhattacharya, and Kamiya Jani.
The Full List: BD100 2025
| Rank | Name | Designation | Field | 2024 |
|---|