TIME magazine has announced its famous list of 100 most influential people for 2022. The list includes categories titled Icons, Pioneers, Titans, Artists, Leaders, and Innovators.
US President Joe Biden, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, tennis icon Rafael Nadal, Apple CEO Tim Cook and media mogul Oprah Winfrey are among those got featured in the list.
Along with dignitaries from various walks of life, three Indias have also been featured in different categories. Supreme Court lawyer Karuna Nundy, business giant Gautam Adani and Kashmiri human rights activist Khurram Parvez are featured among the world’s 100 most influential people of 2022 by TIME magazine. While Adani has been identified as an influential personality in the Titans category, Nundy and Parvez have been identified in the leaders’ category.
Karuna Nundy
Karuna Nundy, an advocate at the Supreme Court of India and international human rights lawyer, is a vocal figure and represents and acts as a legal policy adviser to governments, United Nations, companies and civil society movements.
Nundy’s pro bono practice includes the Supreme Court litigation from the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy. She argued cases involving the rights of alleged terrorists, mentally ill people and class actions on sexual harassment. She drafted contributions to the new “anti-rape” laws and the Right to Food Act.
Karuna had completed her Economics degree from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University, a law degree from the University of Cambridge, and did her LL.M. from Columbia Law School. She is qualified to practice in India and Newyork.
The magazine said that Nundy is not just a lawyer but also a public activist who ably—and bravely—uses her voice both inside and outside the courtroom to bring about change. She is a “champion of women’s rights” who has advocated for the reform of antirape laws and fought cases relating to sexual harassment in the workplace.
Her most recent litigation challenged the rape laws that exempted marital rape in India.
Khurram Parvez
Parvez, a Kashmiri rights activist, who serves as the chairperson of the Philippines-based Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in November last year. He was arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and he is still in jail. Parvez has been one of the prominent personalities from the Kashmir valley and has been a vocal critic of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. He was previously arrested under another draconian law in 2016.
Renowned journalist Rana Ayyub wrote the profile for Khurram Parvez. She said that Parvez’s voice ‘had to be silenced’ as his voice resounded around the globe for his fight against human rights violations in the Jammu and Kashmir region.
She wrote, “The attacks against him speak volumes of the truth he represents at a time when the world’s largest democracy is being called out for its persecution of the more than 200 million Indian Muslims.
Gautam Adani
Gautam Shantilal Adani, a billionaire and owner of a multinational conglomerate responsible for building ports and other major developmental projects in India, is known as the close ally of current rulers at the Centre. His profile in the magazine reads, “Adani’s once regional business now spans airports, private ports, solar and thermal power, and consumer goods. Adani Group is now a national behemoth in the world’s sixth-largest economy, though Adani stays out of the public eye, quietly building his empire.”
“Adani… competes with Warren Buffett to be the world’s fifth-richest person. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s stated goal of making India a $5 trillion economy by 2025, Adani’s journey may have only just begun,” the magazine elaborated.
