Sonia Gandhi,           Ratan Tata ,             Kiran Karnik

Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi, industrialist Ratan Tata and information technology specialist Kiran Karnik have been named among 25 ‘Stars of Asia’ by the Asian edition of BusinessWeek magazine.

The U.S.-based magazine lavished praise on Gandhi for turning down the prime minister’s post after she led her to party to power at the center. By doing so, she set a new tone for India, the magazine said, apart from referring to her as the “power behind the throne” occupied by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

“For much of its 55-years of independence, India has been mired in political corruption. Now ordinary Indians hope that Gandhi, who has never held high office and has a clean reputation, will tackle corruption and speed up India’s development,” it said.

Gandhi was the architect of the Congress Party’s victory, the magazine said, adding that “pundits were blown away by the electoral triumph of (the) Indian National Congress Party led by Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born widow of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, over the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.”

“It reminded us all of a democracy’s power in a society that has become a global outsourcing mecca but still struggles with entrenched poverty.”

Tata Sons chairman Ratan Tata was included in the list in recognition of his role in building up the Tata empire as a global player. “For decades, Tata Sons was the archetypal conservative Indian conglomerate: honest and solid but risk-averse. It’s that late-career spurt of dynamism that makes Tata a star –– and could catapult his 136-year-old company into the global big league,” the magazine said.

It praised his initiatives such as the $435 million acquisition of Tetley Tea to make Tata the world’s second-largest tea company, purchase of 46 percent stake in VSNL for an estimated $530 million, and acquisition of South Koera-based Daewoo’s truck unit for $120 million.

Karnik, who heads India’s apex software industry representative body Nasscom, was included in the list for being an influential opinion shaper. The magazine said even at the peak of the raging debate over outsourcing in the U.S., Karnik remained a “picture of calm.” Not only did he ignore harsh words from Washington as well as various state governments across the U.S., but he helped instill confidence in Indian software sector.

(Compiled from news dispatches by Charles Isaac)