Michelle Obama tops Forbes powerful women list

Boston: US First Lady Michelle Obama has been named the most powerful woman in the world beating corporate honchos like India-born Pepsi Co chief Indra Nooyi and heads of state like the Queen of England to occupy the top slot in Forbes magazine's annual list.

Michelle, 46, ranked number one in the overall list of 'The World's 100 Most Powerful Women' 2010 released today. She ranked no.1 in 'political' category too.

Kraft Foods Chief Executive Irene Rosenfeld ranked second and is followed by media mogul Oprah Winfrey in the third spot and German Chancellor Angela Merkel who ranks fourth.

Nooyi, the India-born chief executive of Pepsi, ranked 6th on the list.

Two other Indian women -- Axis bank Chief Executive Shikha Sharma and ICICI bank head Chanda Kocchar also make it the list.

Sharma is ranked 89th in the list while Kocchar comes in at the 92nd spot.

Forbes has divided the power women candidates into four groups: politics, business, media and lifestyle. It ranked the women in each group, and then group against group.

The 2010 World's 100 Most Powerful Women list "reflects the New Order of now," Forbes said, adding that its assessment is based less on traditional titles and roles and more on creative influence and entrepreneurship.

"These power women have built distinctive companies and brands and championed weighty causes, sometimes through unconventional means; in other cases they have broken through gender barriers," it said.

Calling Michelle "a true change-maker", Forbes said the first African-American First Lady has "literally" changed the face of the office.

With consistently high approval ratings, she's given a new generation of girls and women around the world a role model.

Describing Michelle as a "fashion icon and an athletic mother of two," Forbes said Michelle has "made the office of First Lady her own."

With 54 per cent Americans calling her a favourite, Obama is "a forceful advocate of school nutrition standards and military families' affairs."

The US First lady is more involved in policy than her predecessor Laura Bush was.

"But unlike Hillary Clinton, who championed a secretive and ultimately unsuccessful health care reform, Obama has stayed away from hard policy."