No Indian On TIME 100 Most Influential List For 2025, Barring THIS Indian-origin CEO

While the list included new and old faces, there was not a single Indian to feature in the list. Last year, several Indian personalities, including Alia Bhatt and Sakshi Malik had made it to the list.

Reshma Kewalramani is the CEO of Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

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The TIME magazine has released its list of the top 100 Most Influential People, including the likes of US President Donald Trump, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and musicians like ED Sheeran and Snoop Dogg. 

While the list included several new and old faces, there was not a single Indian to feature in the influential lineup.

Last year, several Indian personalities, including actor Alia Bhatt and Olympic wrestler Sakshi Malik had made it to the top. Also, Indian-origin business leaders like Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, World Bank President Ajay Banga and actor Dev Patel had found themselves on the list.

This year, in the 100 Most Influential People, a surprising entrant was Muhammad Yunus, the Chief Adviser of the interim government of Bangladesh.

"After a student-led uprising toppled Bangladesh’s authoritarian Prime Minister last year, a known leader stepped up to guide the nation toward democracy: Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus," the TIME magazine wrote about Yunus.

The only individual of the Indian-origin to feature in the list was Reshma Kewalramani, CEO of US-based biotechnology company Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

The TIME magazine’s list casts a wide net across politics, science, business, and entertainment, spotlighting those who have made extraordinary contributions over the past year.

All About Reshma Kewalramani

Reshma Kewalramani was born in Mumbai and went to the United States in 1988, at the age of 11. After moving to the US, she studied medical science at Boston University and pursued degree in General Management from Harvard Business School in 2015. 

Reshma is the CEO and President at Vertex, a Fortune 500, global biotechnology company. She is trained in internal medicine and nephrology before entering the biopharmaceutical industry, where she has dedicated her career to discovering and developing new medicines.

"Reshma Kewalramani’s journey to become the first female CEO of a large, public U.S. biotechnology company after immigrating from India at age 11 embodies what makes America great. In 2018, her exceptional career in medical research led her to become the chief medical officer of Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Within two years, she was CEO," TIME Magazine said in her profile.

"Reshma sat on my board at Ginkgo Bioworks, and her insights proved invaluable: she knows how to effectively push the limits of science while navigating the drug-approval process. She told us that when you are doing something innovative, if it sounds crazy or impossible, that’s OK—it’s only because no one has done it before," the magazine added.

She joined Vertex in 2017 and rose through the ranks to become the Chief Medical Officer in 2018. She was ascended to the role of CEO just two years later. 

She made headlines in 2020 when she became the first woman to head the popular biotech firm in the US. Under her leadership, Vertex achieved a significant breakthrough by earning FDA approval for the first-ever CRISPR-based therapy, according to the company's website.