Chief Negotiator - Arun Jaitley, 65

The main architect of the first major tax reform since Independence, the Goods and Services Tax, has also deftly managed the aftermath of demonetisation

- Shweta Punj

On November 29, amidst the heat and dust of Gujarat elections, finance minister Arun Jaitley received a call from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a blog the former had written on the insolvency law the day before. The blog post—The Fiction of Loan Waiver to Capitalists—sought to counter the criticism that the government could waive loans of capitalists. The PM was obviously intrigued by the FM’s arguments and wanted him to elaborate. Jaitley, Union minister for finance and corporate affairs, wears many hats as a BJP leader and a senior minister who has been in charge of key elections, one of the few to be consulted on cabinet reshuffles, the only minister to be given two heavyweight portfolios (until recently he handled finance and defence ) and, most importantly, the man at the forefront of reforms that form the cornerstone of the Narendra Modi-led government.