Arun Sarin: UK's most powerful businessman

Having survived the boardroom rumpus and a slew of shareholder dissent and with a masterstroke-like entry into Indian market, British mobile giant Vodafone's India-born CEO Arun Sarin has been named the most powerful businessperson in the UK's technology and telecom industry.

According to a list of UK's 100 most powerful people in technology and telecom sector, published today by the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Sarin won the top slot. Nikesh Arora, internet search giant Google's Indian-origin president for Europe, Mid-East and Africa, is ranked fourth.

The daily is spotlighting UK's 1,000 most powerful in business and has divided it into 10 sectors. The lists of top 100 for each sector is being published in a span of two weeks.

So far the lists have been published for retail and food industries, energy and utilities, banking and insurance and technology and telecom, which was released.

Besides Sarin and Arora, the tech and telecom list includes at least two other persons of Indian origin – BT Group's group finance director Hanif Lalani, ranked 22, and Colt Telecom CEO Rakesh Bhasin at 75th position.

Another person of Indian origin, Anshu Jain, has been named UK's third most powerful in banking and insurance. The 44-year old Jain, an economics graduate from Sri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University, heads global markets division at German banking giant Deutsche Bank.

"Indian-born Jain, who does not speak German, has helped transform Deutsche Bank into a bond market powerhouse, generating more revenue from trading fixed income than any competitor except Goldman Sachs," the daily said.

The list of 100 most powerful bankers also includes at 49th position Viswas Raghvan, head of capital markets at global investment banking major JP Morgan.