NEW YORK  - Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani and ISI chief Lt Gen Zaheerul Islam are the only two from Pakistan who have made it to a list led by US President Barack Obama, Pope Benedict XVI, Angela Merkel, Facebook's founder and other global leaders on Forbes's ranking of the mightiest earthlings.The American magazine placed General Kayani on the 28th spot for "controlling nuclear weapons and one of the world's largest standing armies in an unstable country."General Kayani had earlier given a statement issued by the public relations wing of the Army that caused a stir in the news. He said: "As a nation, Pakistan is passing through a critical phase."Following General Kayani is Inter-Services Intelligence's (ISI) recently inducted chief, Zaheerul Islam.The magazine's 2012 list of the world's most powerful people also features those who might raise an eyebrow or two: a Mexican drug baron, and the young leader of North Korea, a hermit state assailed for pursuing a nuclear program at the expense of feeding its very poor people. Last year's No 2 on the list, Chinese President Hu Jintao, is among those who fell off the rankings altogether this time. In Hu's case it is because he's on his way out of office. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi have been named among the top 20 most powerful persons in the world by Forbes magazine.India's richest businessman Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani and andArcelor Mittal CEO Lakshmi Mittal also feature in the list that comprises 71 mighty heads of state, CEOs, entrepreneurs and philanthropists who "truly run and shape the world of 7.1 billion people."Gandhi dropped a notch from last year's list and ranks at number 12 this year ahead of Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang and French President Francois Hollande.Forbes said the 65-year-old leader of India's ruling political party has the reins of the world's second-most-populous country and tenth-largest economy."Son Rahul is next in line to take over India's most famous political dynasty," it added. Coming in at the 20th spot is Singh, the Oxford and Cambridge-educated economist who is the architect of India's economic reforms. Singh had ranked 19th in the list last year."But Singh's quiet intellectualism is increasingly seen as timid and soft," Forbes added. Ambani, owner of the world's most expensive private residence, ranked 37th in the list. Forbes said the petrochemical billionaire is India's richest and Reliance Industries is the nation's most valuable company. It however described Ambani's support for disgraced former Goldman Sachs Director Rajat Gupta as a "low point" for him in 2012. Mittal, ranked 47th in the most powerful people list, has a net worth of $16 billion but also has "lots of headaches, including S&P and Moody downgrades of his company's debt to junk status." A highlight for Mittal during the past year was carrying the Olympic flame in the 2012 Torch Relay.Forbes said 51-year-old Obama emerged "unanimously" as the world's most powerful person for the second year running.The decisive winner of the 2012 US presidential election, Obama now has four more years to push his agenda even as he faces major challenges, including an unresolved budget crisis, stubbornly high unemployment and renewed unrest in the Middle East."But Obama remains the commander-in-chief of the world's greatest military and head of the sole economic and cultural superpower--literally the leader of the free world," it said.The second most powerful person in the world also happens to be the most powerful woman, German chancellor 58-year-old Angela Merkel. She jumped up from the number four position last year to take the runner-up spot on the 2012 list.Forbes termed Merkel as the backbone of the 27-member European Union, one who carries the fate of the Euro on her shoulders.Forbes dropped US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from the list this year. Clinton, who had ranked 16th last year, does not feature in 2012 rankings as she is not expected to return to her powerful post for Obama's second term.It is for the same reason that US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner also does not feature in this year's list.Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who came in at the 25th spot, is one of the youngest persons on the list at age 29. He dropped significantly from last year's top-ten ranking after Facebook's much-anticipated IPO turned out to be a flop. Brazilian president DilmaRousseff (18) is one of the list's biggest gainers. At the midpoint of her first term, Rousseff's emphasis on entrepreneurship has prompted a slew of new start-ups and energised Brazilian youths, Forbes said.Apple CEO Tim Cook (35) made a big upward move too.A year after succeeding iconic founder Steve Jobs as Apple CEO, the company is the most valuable in the world and Apple stock hit an all-time high in September, reaching above $700 a share.New members of the list include LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman who is ranked 71.Forbes said Hoffman is the world's most powerful venture capitalist and the most-connected man in Silicon Valley.Making his debut on the list at rank 66 is Elon Musk, the entrepreneur behind PayPal and Tesla Motors who is the most powerful man in space."His company SpaceX is a leader in the private space industry, and with that business set to boom, Musk stands to make out like a 19th-century railway tycoon," Forbes added.In compiling the list, Forbes considered hundreds of candidates from various walks of life all around the globe. It took into consideration factors including whether the candidate has power over lots of people, the financial resources controlled by each person, whether they are powerful in multiple spheres and the active use of the candidates' power.The ranking features 71 names, a figure Forbes said it set as a cutoff because there are an estimated 7.1 billion people in the world and thus the ranking works out to one very heavy hitter for every 100 million people.