Microsoft founder Bill Gates has been named as the most admired person on the planet with cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar fifth on a list of 30 people compiled after a poll in 13 countries, including India.
The ‘World’s most admired people poll’ was conducted by YouGov for The Times by surveying almost 14,000 people in Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, the US, Australia, Pakistan, Indonesia, India, China, Egypt, Nigeria and Brazil.
There were four Indians in the top ten and seven overall in the list of 30 most-admired people.
Sachin was fifth with six other Indians featuring in the list - BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi (7th), Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan (9th), former President Abdul Kalam (10th), social activist Anna Hazare (14th), Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal (18th) and Business tycoon Ratan Tata (30th).
Mr. Gates the co-founder of Microsoft and a billionaire philanthropist, earned more admiration than U.S. President Barack Obama who was second, Russian President Vladimir Putin (3rd), Pope Francis (4th) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (6th) to claim the title.
Some interesting choices in the list of 30 were Pope Francis, The Dalai Lama (13th), American business magnate Warren Buffet (8th), Queen Elizabeth (17th) and Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie (19th).
Surprisingly, there were just six women on the list of most admired people with Queen highest ranked among them.
Other women to make it to the list were Jolie, US talk show host Oprah Winfrey (20th), German Chancellor Angela Merkel (26th), former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (27th) and Chinese contemporary folk singer Peng Liyuan (28th).
Sportsmen featured highly in the affections of many across the world. After Tendulkar it was Argentina footballer Lionel Messi who was 15th followed by US basketball player Michael Jordon (21) and Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo (22).
Pakistani cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan was 12th on the list.
However, no Briton featured in the world’s top ten most-admired people. Stephen Hawking was placed highest, at 16th.
A separate list of the poll in different countries was also given by YouGov.
In the poll in India, as expected, Sachin Tendulkar topped the list but interestingly it was Barack Obama who came in second followed by Narendra Modi, Bill Gates and Amitabh Bachchan.
In the Pakistan poll it was Imran Khan who topped the chart. Pervez Musharraf was fourth on the Pakistan list and interestingly, Zakir Naek, an Indian public speaker on the subject of Islam and comparative religion, was sixth.
Malala Yousafzai was eighth on the Pakistan list; however, she did not make it to the overall list of 30.
Bill Gates scored highly among those polled in each country and topped the list among Chinese voters. However, he claimed only fifth place in his home country of the U.S., where the Pope won the most accolades.
Bill Gates regained the title of world’s richest person last year, when his fortune rose to 48 billion pounds after a 40 per cent increase in the value of his company’s shares.
He is now better known for his philanthropic work, having donated 17 billion pounds to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is trying to eradicate polio, malaria and measles in developing countries.
