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Pak origin UK Mayor Sadiq Khan tops list of most influential Asians

According To GG2 Power List Brought Out By The Leading Bi-lingual Weekly Garavi Gujarat, 46-year-old Khan Smashe Done Of The Biggest Glass Ceilings In The Country By Becoming The First Muslim Mayor Of A Major Western Capital.

PTI | Updated on: 21 Oct 2016, 02:04:00 PM
UK mayor Sadiq Khan tops list of UK's most influential Asians in Britain

London:

According to a list featuring Britain's 101 prominent Asians London Mayor Sadiq Khan, son of a bus driver from Pakistan, is the most influential Asian in the UK. The list features Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, the Hinduja brothers, Laxmi Mittal and musician Zayn Malik.

According to GG2 Power List brought out by the leading bi-lingual weekly Garavi Gujarat, 46-year-old Khan "smashe done of the biggest glass ceilings in the country" by becoming the first Muslim mayor of a major western capital.

Launched by Indian Acting High Commissioner to the UK Dinesh Patnaik at the GG2 Leadership Awards at Park Plaza hotel on Thursday, the list ranks Sajid Javid business,innovation and skills minister in the former prime minister.

David Cameron's government, at second place followed by new international development minister and Indian-origin Priti Patel. Nobel laureate Sir Venkatraman Ramakrishnan is the fourth most powerful Asian in the country while Hinduja family led by S P Hinduja is ranked sixth on the list.

"The UK has the best relations with the Commonwealth countries. So I am sure that the UK will negotiate and try to work more with Commonwealth countries where they have an edge on the EU.

With India, the UK has a long historical and traderelations," Gopi Hinduja, said Co-Chairman of the HindujaGroup. The list compiled by the Asian Media and Marketing Group(AMG) also includes NRI steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal at seventh position while Pakistani-origin activist and Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai features tenth on the list.

Sir Rabinder Singh, one of Britain's most celebrated high court judges, presiding in the south eastern circuit since 2013 is rated 12th on the list. Lord Navnit Dholakia, Deputy Leader of the LiberalDemocrats in the House of Lords is rated 41st followed by NRI industrialist Lord Swraj Paul at 42nd spot.

Malik, who signed a solo recording contract with RCA Records last year after his departure from the popular boyband 'One Direction', is ranked 17th on the list. "The one Prime Minister who has truly recognised the valueof Non-Resident Indians after Mrs Gandhi is Narendra?Modi.?Ithink he has been a great prime minister.

He is the first onewho has been able to deliver respectability to NRIs," Paul said. "This is what the NRIs deserve. Mrs Gandhi tried (to dothe same) but unfortunately at that time she didn't have the kind of majority (Modi has) and her own ministers in government also let her down," he was quoted as saying in the publication. 

Paul said that Modi's policy of engaging with the Indian diaspora has been beneficial both to NRIs and the Indiangovernment. "I am very optimist of India. I think Modi and his cabinet members whom I've met are all very committed.I think his greatest achievement is you don't hear of corruption at the top," he said. 

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First Published : 21 Oct 2016, 01:20:00 PM

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