Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been ranked as the world’s ninth most powerful person by Forbes magazine in a 2015 list which is topped by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Mr. Modi was placed 14th in the 2014 Forbes list of world’s powerful people.

Forbes while releasing the list today at the same time said governing 1.2 billion people in India requires more than “shaking hands” and that Mr. Modi must pass his party BJP’s reform agenda and keep “fractious opposition” under control.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is at the second spot followed by US President Barack Obama (third) and Pope Francis (fourth) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (fifth).

Apart from Mr. Modi who is at the ninth position, others in the top ten are Microsoft Founder Bill Gates at the sixth place, US Federal Reserve Chairperson Janet Yellen (7), UK Prime Minister David Cameron (8) and Google’s Larry Page(10)

About Mr. Modi, the magazine said that India’s “populist” Prime Minister presided over 7.4 per cent GDP growth in his first year in office, and “raised his profile” as a global leader during official visits with Barack Obama and Xi Jinping.

“A barnstorming tour of Silicon Valley reinforced his nation’s massive importance in tech. But governing 1.2 billion people requires more than shaking hands: Now Modi must pass his party’s reform agenda and keep fractious opposition under control,” it said.

To compile the list of world’s most powerful people, the magazine said it considered hundreds of candidates from various walks of life all around the globe, and measured their power along four dimensions. They are whether the candidate has power over lots of people, financial resources controlled by each person, whether the candidate is powerful in multiple spheres and whether the candidates actively used their power.