Women are having a major impact in this year’s election whether it’s Hillary Clinton or Sarah Palin, but who are the most powerful women in the world. Last week, Forbes released their list of the 100 Most Powerful Women for 2008. We scoured through the list for the Asian women and we found 17. Here they are:

#3 Indra K. Nooyi

Chairman, chief executive, PepsiCo

U.S.

Nooyi continues to grow PepsiCo, the $39 billion food and beverage giant, through new product offerings and acquisitions. Company subsidiaries Quaker, Gatorade and FritoLay introduced a new line of whole-grain oatmeal and granola bars called Simple Harvest, and G2, a low-calorie “lifestyle beverage” for athletes. Nooyi orchestrated a major expansion into international markets, most notably with a $1.4 billion acquisition of a 75% stake in Russian juice giant Lebedyansky.

#8 Ho Ching

Chief executive, Temasek Holdings

Singapore

The wife of the prime minister of Singapore, Ho Ching has been credited with converting Temasek from a Singapore-focused firm to a leading investor in Asia. She earned accolades by making investments in Indian and Chinese telecoms and banks, and as a result, brought the portfolio to roughly $100 billion. Temasek has bought a 15% stake in Merrill Lynch since last December in the wake of the bank’s write-downs. Another deal, Temasek’s tax-free takeover of Shin Corp., one of Thailand’s biggest telecom companies, sparked a wave of protests. The tax-free deal eventually led to the overthrow of Thailand’s prime minister

#19 Andrea Jung

Chairman, chief executive, Avon

U.S.

Under Jung’s leadership, the world’s premier direct seller of beauty products continues to benefit from a restructuring she implemented in 2005. With 5.4 million independent reps across 100 countries, Avon’s annual revenue for 2007 increased 13% to $9.9 billion, and first-quarter revenue for 2008 increased 14% over the first quarter of 2007. Business in North America may be sputtering, but it’s exploding in emerging markets in Latin America, Europe and Asia. China, which lifted its ban on direct selling in 2006, now boasts 600,000 sales reps

#21 Sonia Gandhi

President, Indian National Congress Party

India

Gandhi, the Italian-born leader of India’s most powerful political party, the Indian National Congress Party, has by now assumed the role of elder stateswoman. Although she remains firmly at the head of the country’s ruling party, a rising star, known by the single name Mayawati, is challenging Gandhi’s position as the country’s most powerful woman. Mayawati has aligned herself with the nationalist Hindu BJP party and joined its members in vociferously opposing Gandhi’s party’s historic agreement with the U.S. on nuclear cooperation.

#23 Sri Mulyani Indrawati

Coordinating minister for economic affairs and finance minister

Indonesia

Since Indrawati’s 2005 appointment as Indonesia’s finance minister, the country’s foreign exchange reserves reached an all-time high of $50 billion, and foreign investment skyrocketed. She has fought against government corruption, created tax incentives and simplified investment laws. Her performance earned her a promotion. In June Indrawati was named to run the country’s economic affairs.

#38 Aung San Suu Kyi

Deposed prime minister; Nobel peace laureate

Myanmar

The recent Myanmar cyclone disaster has raised the profile of this country’s political situation. Since the democratic elections in 1990, when she was elected prime minister, Suu Kyi, 63, has been kept from power and is now in the sixth consecutive year of house arrest. Having nullified the 1990 election with a new constitution in May 2008, the junta has even prevented her doctor from visiting her in recent months. The recipient of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, she was recently awarded the U.S. Congressional Medal of Honor and became an honorary Canadian citizen.

#41 Gloria Arroyo

President

Philippines

The scandal-tainted president’s popularity fell to a record low in June over escalating food and energy prices; Arroyo soon announced a deal with oil companies to trim diesel prices. A recent imbroglio: Arroyo’s husband is among those accused of accepting bribes in a $330 million deal with a Chinese telecom firm. Despite rumors of another ouster campaign in the works, Arroyo has survived three impeachment attempts and three coup plots since taking office in 2001 and is sure to fight back.

#46 Christine Poon

Vice chairman, Johnson & Johnson

U.S.

Poon is the top-seated woman of this $61 billion pharmaceutical giant. Before joining J&J in 2000, she spent 15 years at rival Bristol-Myers Squibb. She’s a director at the U.S-China Business Council and on the boards of Prudential Financial and the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. Poon holds degrees in biology from Northwestern and St. Louis University and also has an M.B.A. in finance from Boston University.

#59 Mayawati Kumari

Chief minister, Uttar Pradesh

India

In the running to be prime minister, from her perch as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state. In 1995, at 39, she was the youngest politician elected to the post and was also the first Dalit (India’s lowest, “untouchable” caste) to head a state government. Commands a large following and goes simply by Mayawati. In 2007 she shrewdly built an alliance with Brahmins, and the Bahujan Samaj Party, which she heads, has started to increase its national presence. Some say she could trail-blaze again as India’s first Dalit prime minister.

#68 Zhang Xin

Chief executive officer, co-founder, Soho

China

Beijing property developer. Rose from Hong Kong slum to get a master’s from Cambridge and a job at Goldman Sachs. With husband Pan Shiyi, returned to China to found Soho in 1995. Calls herself a middle-market developer, but has upscale ambitions. High-profile current project: the Commune by the Great Wall, a series of villas designed by 12 famous architects. Soho raised $1.7 billion in an initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in October 2007.

#70 Yang Mian Mian

President, Haier

China

As president of Haier, the world’s fourth-largest maker of household appliances, Yang Mian Mian is one of China’s most powerful businesswomen. Haier lost its bid for U.S. white goods maker Maytag to Whirlpool in 2005, but it’s now one of the contenders for GE’s appliance unit, which is being spun off. In order to regain traction in its market share, Haier is considering spinning off its divisions into five separately traded, listed companies, beginning with its computer business, which is slated for an independent listing next year. Yang graduated from what is now Shandong University in eastern China in 1963; she joined the Qingdao Refrigerator General Factory, which later became known as Haier, in 1984.

#73 Hyun Jeong-Eun

Chairman, Hyundai Group

South Korea

A housewife, Hyun came to power in 2003 as a scandal widow. Her husband, Chung Mong-Hun, Hyundai’s chairman and heir apparent, apparently committed suicide after he was charged with hiding government fund transfers of hundreds of millions of dollars to North Korea to set up a historic summit in 2000. Now she leads daily meetings with Hyundai’s six affiliates. Grew the company solidly; now dealing with high oil prices and material costs that have hurt Hyundai’s results.

#80 Lee Myung-Hee

Chairman, Shinsegae Group

South Korea

Korea’s richest woman heads powerhouse retailer Shinsegae, where she handles the company’s overall direction, leaving the daily management to professionals. She is the youngest daughter of Samsung founder Lee Byung Chull and sister of Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-Hee, who stepped down in April amid charges of corruption. The family has been caught up in a scandal alleging they bought valuable art with Samsung money. Still quotes her father’s management aphorisms to her employees. Shinsegae has grand plans to expand into China and become one of the top 10 retail distributors in the world within four years.

#84 Margaret Chan

Director-general, World Health Organization

Switzerland

Now in the second year of a six-year term, Chan goes after the ramifications of climate change on global health, including heat stroke, malnutrition due to drought, and the spread of waterborne disease. Her first position with the WHO in 2003 was head of the Human Environment Protection department. Prior to joining the WHO, the Chinese native headed Hong Kong’s Department of Health, where she won international respect for her calm handling of the avian flu outbreak. Chan studied home economics at the University of Western Ontario before medical school.

#88 Eva Cheng

Chief executive, Greater China and Southeast Asia, Amway

China

Also chairs Amway China and is an executive VP of the global parent firm. Started as a secretary at Amway Hong Kong in 1977; now her domain makes up 40% of Amway’s global sales, with China the company’s top-selling country for the past five years. Today 279,000 independent reps sell 114 products in five categories, up from five household cleaners when the unit started in 1998. (Current top seller: Nutrilite protein powder.) Serious about Cantonese opera.

#95 Jing Ulrich

Chairman and managing director, JPMorgan Chase China Equities

China

Based in Hong Kong, familiar to American business-TV viewers. Helps international investors understand her native market; guides Chinese ministries and regulators on foreign investment. Frequently named “Best China Strategist.” Came to JPMorgan Chase in 2005 after stints at Deutsche Bank and Crédit Lyonnais. Organized JPMorgan’s “Hands-On China” seminars and also established a China investor forum with speakers such as Bill Clinton and former Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji.

#99 Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

Chairman and managing director, Biocon

India

Trained in Australia as a brewer, she founded Biocon in 1978 to make industrial enzymes with a small Irish company, Biocon Biochemicals. Now a top-20 global biotech company, Biocon makes drugs, including insulin and anti-cancer treatments, and its chairman is the dean of India’s rapidly growing biotech industry. Donates half of her dividends to fund hospitals and a health insurance program for poor villagers. Has won the Padma Bhushan, one of India’s highest civilian honors

Forbes Co-editor Chana Scheoenberger discusses the 2008 Forbes 100 Most Powerful Women