By Arun Kumar

Washington, Sep 30 (IANS) PepsiCo's India born chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi is No.1 on Fortune magazine's US list for the fifth year in a row with Kraft Foods' Irene Rosenfeld right behind her at No.2.

It was a year of expansion for this elite group, said the US business magazine noting that several women, including Nooyi, pulled off big acquisitions, while 13 others earned big promotions.

In her fifth year atop the list, Nooyi completed the purchase of PepsiCo's two largest bottlers, bringing revenues to a projected $60 billion.

Now she'll have to deliver the $400 million annual cost savings she promised, it said. "Investors seem assured: The stock is up 12 percent since September 2009."

Beyond the two top powerful women executives, Fortune found a pattern: The consumer packaged-goods industry is welcoming to top-level women. Perfect evidence: the news, just out, that Denise Morrison is set to become CEO of Campbell Soup.

Morrison's sister Frontier Communications CEO Maggie Wilderotter jumped to No.40, from 50th place, in this year's rankings by pulling off an $8.6 billion acquisition of Verizon assets that she had been eyeing for years. That deal makes Frontier the largest rural communications company in the US.

The list criteria is four-fold: the size and importance of the woman's business in the global economy, the health and direction of the business, the arc of the woman's career, and social and cultural influence -- which puts Oprah Winfrey (No. 6) high on the list.