Fortune magazine rates Indra Nooyi as most powerful business woman
New York: After topping Forbes' list of most powerful women, Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi is at the top of Fortune's 50 Most Powerful Women In Business list.

This time Nooyi was up against stiff competition from eBay's Meg Whitman, Xerox's Anne Mulcahy and celebrity TV host Oprah Winfrey.

"Pepsi's brand new chief is a powerful force behind the consumer giant's strong profit pipeline and $108bn stock market valuation," the magazine said.

The magazine also cited her focus on constant reinvention as one of the factors for her success. "The minute you develop a new business model, it's extinct, because somebody is going to copy it," the magazine quoted her as saying.
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Tharoor withdraws as Moon moves ahead
India's nominee Shashi Tharoor has withdrawn from the race for UN secretary general after South Korean foreign minister Ban Ki-Moon emerged a clear likely successor to Kofi Annan.

Ban, 62, received 14 'encourage' and one 'no-opinion' votes in Monday's crucial straw poll among 15 Security Council members with no opposition from any of the five veto-bearing powers.

Tharoor, 50, currently UN under-secretary-general for public information, finished second for the fourth time in a row with 10 positive votes — same as in the first two ballots, but two more than in the last one — but one veto among three negative votes was bad news for his candidature. Two others had 'no opinion'.
Tharoor announced his withdrawal from the race. "It is clear that he will be our next secretary-general," he said, offering his warmest congratulations to Ban.
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Naina Kidwai appointed group GM, HSBC
Mumbai: Naina Lal Kidwai has been promoted to the post of group general manager within the HSBC group which has 40 such group GMs, of which only three are women. Kidwai has also decided to resign from the board of Swiss company, Nestle. Two other Indians have been appointed as group general manager, within HSBC group, namely Aman Mehta and Zarir Cama. The promotion to the post of group general manager would place Ms Kidwai on the panel of the bank's senior-most executives.

Following the completion of the resignation formalities from the Nestle board, Kidwai would be appointed as the chief executive officer in India, in adherence to regulatory norms. In May '06, Kidwai was appointed as the CEO of HSBC India.

The central bank gave the approval to her appointment, subject to her resigning as the member of the Nestle board. Under the Banking Regulation Act, the CEO of a bank cannot hold a board-level position in another company.
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Sanjay Budhia appointed on Zenith Birla board
Kolkata: Sanjay Budhia, managing director of Patton International, has been appointed on the board of Zenith Birla (India), a Yash Birla group company. The appointment takes effect from September 28, 2006.

Budhia is also the chairman of CII's National Committee on Trade Policy and Honorary Consul for the Government of Malaysia in Kolkata.
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New director for IOC refineries
New Delhi: B.N. Bankapur has taken over as director (refineries) of Indian Oil Corporation from Jaspal Singh who superannuated recently. Before this assignment, Bankapur was the executive director (operations) at the company's refineries division, a company release said.
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