From Trump’s seventh appearance to Yunus’s seniority, TIME’s 2025 influential list highlights global leadership, innovation, and impact, noting the surprising absence of Indian leaders despite past recognition.
BY PC Bureau
From the 2025 roll call of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People, a diverse array of impactful figures earned recognition, spanning from the US President Donald Trump to the helm of Tesla, Elon Musk. This year’s compilation, however, notably lacked the presence of Indian nationals, a somewhat surprising omission given past inclusions in the prestigious list.
Recalling the 2024 edition, the spotlight shone on a select few from India, including the celebrated Bollywood actor Alia Bhatt and the accomplished Olympian wrestler Sakshi Malik.
The “Leaders” section of TIME’s 2025 roster features Trump, making a a significant milestone for him, representing his seventh appearance on the list, a distinction unmatched by any other individual this year.
Also gracing the “Leaders” category is Muhammad Yunus, the esteemed Nobel Peace Prize recipient and Chief Adviser guiding Bangladesh’s interim government. At the age of 84, he stands as the list’s most senior member in 2025. His groundbreaking work with Grameen Bank and his pivotal role in Bangladesh’s transitional period have been duly acknowledged.
READ: Torture Fears Rise as China Blocks Viewing of Abbot’s Body
TIME’s annual compilation categorizes influential individuals across various domains, including ‘Leaders’, ‘Icons’, and ‘Titans’. Interestingly, the ‘Leaders’ segment does feature Reshma Kewalramani, an accomplished CEO of Vertex Pharmaceuticals with Indian roots. Having immigrated from India at the age of 11, she broke barriers to become the first woman to lead a major, publicly traded US biotechnology firm.
Congratulations, Dr. Muhammad Yunus, Chief Adviser GOB on being named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2025! pic.twitter.com/LTqAbJgfkC
— 𝓡𝔂𝓪𝓷 𝓡𝓪𝓱𝓶𝓪𝓷🇧🇩 (@oiiii_butch) April 16, 2025
In his profile of Reshma Kewalramani for TIME, author Jason Kelly lauded her insightful contributions during her time on the board of Ginkgo Bioworks, emphasizing her adeptness at pushing scientific boundaries while navigating the complex drug-approval process. Kelly quoted her as saying that groundbreaking innovation often sounds “crazy or impossible” precisely because it ventures into uncharted territory.
Kelly further highlighted Kewalramani’s leadership at Vertex, which achieved a historic first by securing FDA approval for a CRISPR-based therapy, offering a revolutionary treatment for sickle cell disease through the correction of patients’ own DNA mutations. He emphasized the future potential of DNA-based drugs and recognized Kewalramani as a visionary leader capable of bringing this “extraordinary future” to fruition.
The “Leaders” list for 2025 also includes other prominent personalities such as UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, fellow Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, and US President J.D. Vance, reflecting a spectrum of global leadership.
READ: Myanmar Junta Airstrikes on Buddhist Monasteries Kill 11
The FULL LIST:
Artists: Ed Sheeran Scarlett Johansson Daniel Dae Kim Kristen Bell Adam Scott Rashida Jones Diego Luna Nicole Scherzinger Kristen Wiig Willy Chavarria Danielle Deadwyler Hozier Miranda July Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Mohammad Rasoulof Annabelle Selldorf Yoshitomo Nara.
Icons: Demi Moore Jalen Hurts Adrien Brody Gisèle Pelicot Hiroyuki Sanada Angeline Murimirwa David Muir Raquel Willis Bobbi Brown Anthony D. Romero Yoshiki Amy Griffin Léon Marchand Fatou Baldeh.
Leaders: Keir Starmer Claudia Sheinbaum Donald Trump María Corina Machado Elon Musk Muhammad Yunus Howard Lutnick Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus J.D. Vance Reshma Kewalramani Friedrich Merz Megyn Kelly Lee Jae-myung Teresa Ribera Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Andrea Vidaurre Duma Boko Russell Vought Javier Milei Noa Argamani Mo Abudu Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Titans: Serena Williams Ed Bastian Blake Lively Lorne Michaels Simone Biles Doug McMillon Miuccia Prada Percival Everett Ted Sarandos Joe Rogan Lisa Su Mark Zuckerberg Bonnie Y Chan Alex Karp Jonathan Greenblatt Stephen J. Squeri.
Pioneers: Demis Hassabis Rosé Andrew Forrest Robert Montgomery Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier Robin Wall Kimmerer Dario Amodei Myles Smith Cordelia Bähr Julie Burkhart Liang Wenfeng Allison Sesso Tomas Cihlar and Wesley Sundquist.
Innovators: Snoop Dogg Nikki Glaser Ma Yansong Larry Fink Kwame Onwuachi Sandra Díaz Mickalene Thomas Jon M. Chu Wendy Freedman Josh Koskoff Chutatip “Nok” Suntaranon Christian Happi Ismahane Elouafi Skye Perryman Tim Cadogan Richard Thompson.
