New York, Aug 20 - Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, PepsiCo chief executive Indra Nooyi and ICICI Bank's new head Chanda Kochhar have been listed among the world's 100 most powerful women by Forbes magazine.

All three of them have been ranked higher than US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the list, which has German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the top, followed by US Federal Deposit Insurance chairperson Sheila Bair.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairperson of Bangalore-based Biocon, is another Indian woman to make the list.

Chennai-born Nooyi has been ranked third on the list, followed by the 13th position for Gandhi, 20th position for Kochhar and 91st for Mazumdar-Shaw.

'Gandhi, the Italian-born leader of India's most powerful political party, the Indian National Congress Party, is still the country's dominant force since she reluctantly entered politics in the 1990s,' said the magazine.

'A landslide victory for her Congress party in May solidified her position and weakened the Communists and nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party,' it said.

'Although Gandhi is widely revered by her fellow countrymen, especially India's poor and its vast agricultural population, her party's victory is being seen as a test.'

Referring to Nooyi, Forbes said she has been struggling to revamp falling profits in PepsiCo's core beverage business.