Indian-origin Indra Nooyi, the CEO and chairman of PepsiCo is the 2nd most powerful woman in Fortune's 51 Most Powerful Women list, which is topped by the CEO and chairman of General Motors Mary Barra.
The Fortune 2016 list list includes 22 CEOs of major companies and many more corner office contenders across industries. It has nine newcomers and one return candidate.
The only Indian-origin woman in Fortune list, Nooyi is now in her 10th year as CEO. She "shows no signs of slowing down," Fortune said.
Over the past 12 months, PepsiCo's market capitalisation has increased 18 per cent to $155 billion, even as international volatility hit 2015 earnings. PepsiCo's 2015 sales dropped 5 per cent, while its profits declined 13 per cent.
Fortune said that, "Investors seem to have faith that Nooyi's push towards healthier food and drink offerings will pay off, and they like the $63 billion company's $3 billion cost cut over the past three years too." Adding to this, some think more acquisitions in the health space may come soon, as Nooyi further diversifies out of the declining soda category.
Mary Barra retained the Fortune's Most Powerful Woman tag after a year of "dramatic improvement" at the $152.4 billion in revenues of the auto giant.
Fortune added that, "She ably steered GM through the ignition switch crisis that hit in 2014, made the tough decision to end operations in Russia, and invested in ride-sharing company Lyft and she posted record profits in 2015 of USD 9.7 billion."
According to the lsit, the top 10 most powerful women are Marillyn Hewson of Lockheed Martin (3rd ) Ginni Rometty of IBM (4th), Abigail Johnson of Fidelity Investments (5th), Facebook's COO Sheryl Sandberg (6th), Meg Whitman of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (7th), General Dynamics' Phebe Novakovic (8th), Irene Rosenfeld of Mondelez International (9th) and Safra Catz Co-CEO, Oracle at the 10th place.
While, Singing diva Beyonce earned 51st position in the coveted list. "Not only did she make music history by becoming the first female artist to have 12 songs on the Billboard top 100 (all on her sixth album, Lemonade), but she also made waves in the business world too," Fortune said.
She launched the athleisure clothing brand Ivy Park in April. "While the venture is her first major foray outside the music world, Beyonce is no stranger to being the boss," Fortune added.
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