KARNAM MALLESWARI

Weightlifter
Indian weightlifter from Andhra Pradesh. She became the First Indian woman ever to win an Olympic medal. She won bronze in 69kg category at Sydney Olympics 2000. She has also won gold in Istanbul World Championship (1994) and Asian Championships (54-kg category) at Pusan, Korea (1995). In World Weightlifting Championship at Guangzhou (China) on November 19, 1995 Malleswari set a new world record by winning three golds in 54-kg category. She was awarded 'Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award' in 1994-95.

Sania Mirza

Lawn Tennis Player

The young Indian women tennis sensation Sania Mirza, was born in Mumbai on November 15, 1986. Presently the highest ranked Indian, Sania started playing Tennis at the tender age of six at the Nizam club in Hyderabad 

Born to parents,  father Imran Mirza a sports journalist and mother Nasima, it was Sania's father Imran who initiated her into the game and who has always encouraged her to be the best. She started practicing under CK Bhupati, India's top tennis player Mahesh Bhupati's father. She learnt the professional game at Sinnet Tennis Academy in Secunderabad before moving to Ace Tennis Academy in the USA. Now she is managed by Mahesh Bhupati's company Global Sports and has a specialist advisor Bob Brett who was Boris Becker's coach earlier.

Sania played her first international tournament in 1999 when she represented India at the World Junior Championship at Jakarta. Mirza's big boost came in 2002 when Paes decided to take her as his mixed doubles partner at the Asian Games. The duo went on to claim the bronze medal. The rise has been steady since then. In 2003, Sania at 16years did India proud by becoming the youngest and first ever Indian to figure in the main draw of the girls' doubles junior Wimbledon tennis championship and winning the Grand Slam title.

NARAIN KARTHIKEYAN

 Formula One Driver

Hailed as the fastest Indian in the world by the British Motoring Press, Kumar Ram Narain Karthikeyan is the Ist Formula One driver from India.

Narayan K.

Born on January 14th 1977 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, as the son of G. R. Karthikeyan, a former Indian National Rally Champion, Narain got his aspirations in motor sport from his father at an early age. Young Narain's aim was to become the first Formula one Driver from India, a feat he succeeded to achieve later in life. His first ever race was at Sriperumbudur near Chennai in a Formula Maruti at 16 years of age, which he finished on the podium. He took training at Elf Winfield Racing School, France, and became a Semi Finalist in the Pilote Elf Competition for Formula Renault Cars in 1992.

In 1993 he came back to India to participate in Formula Maruti and also competed in Formula Vauxhall Junior Championship in Great Britain. With this experience in European racing he returned to UK in 1994 for racing in Formula Ford Zetec Series as the No.2 driver for the foundation racing team. In that season he had to his credit a podium finish in a support race for the Portuguese Grand Prix held at Estoril. He went on to become the first Indian to win a Championship in Europe at the British Formula Ford Winter Series.

PRAKASH PADUKONE

Badminton Player
Prakash Padukone  is one of the noted Badminton player of India. He was born on 10th June 1955, in Bangalore. At the age of 14, he became the National Junior Badminton Champion and at 15, the National Champion. He was the National Badminton Champion for nine consecutive years during 1970-78. When he was only 15, he made a record by winning junior boys and men's singles badminton titles in 1971. In 1980, he won the Badminton Grand Slam by winning three major international badminton tournaments including All England Badminton Championship. He also represented India in Thomas Cup Matches. In the 7th Asian Games, held at Tehran in 1974, he won a bronze medal. In the Common Wealth Games held at Edmonton (Canada) in 1978, Prakash won the final of men's single's event by beating Ray Talbot of Britain in straight sets and won a gold medal. In the First World Games held in USA (1981), he was awarded a bronze medal. He also won the Alba World Cup in the same year defeating Han Jain of China.

P.GOPICHAND

Badminton Player

Pullela Gopi Chand is the brightest star to emerge on the Indian badminton scene in a long time, after Prakash Padukone  He was born on November 16th 1973, in Nagandla in Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh, India to parents Pullela Subhash Chandra Bose and Subbaravamma who were both interested in sports. Gopichand is indeed a story of sheer hard work, dedication and pure determination for the game of Badminton.

Though Gopichand nicknamed Gops, favoured cricket earlier, his elder brother made him switchover to Badminton. Gopi's skill at Badminton was the talk at St.Pauls where he had his schooling, when he was hardly around 10 years old. He suffered a setback in 1986, when he suffered a multiple ligament rupture. But this young fighter came back to the field with sheer determination and reached the finals of Andhra Pradesh State Junior Badminton ship in 1987, even though he lost the title to his elder brother Rajashekar. By the time he passed out of school in 1988, he had already made a mark in the Badminton field. He did his graduation in Economics from AV College, Hyderabad. In 1989 he won his first single title at the National Championship at Goa and then went on to win the doubles championship also.

By 1999, Gopichand achieved a world ranking of 26 winning the Indian international, Scottish, Toulouse, French championships etc. He received the SAARC gold medal the same year. Always a fighter, he refused to be crushed by his defeat in the 2000 Sydney Olympics and true to his recognition out played the Olympics champions to reach the finals of the All England Badminton ship, finally arriving at the forefront of international badminton. He defeated Olympic Gold medallist Anders Boeson in the Quarterfinals of this tournament. In the Semifinals he defeated world No.1 ceded player Peter Gade of Denmark, and in the finals he defeated Chen Hong of China. He achieved his career best world ranking of 5 in April 2001.

LEANDER PEAS

Lawn Tennis Player 
Leander Paes, India's Tennis pride, was born in Goa on June 17,1973 and brought up in Kolkata. Born into a family of sportsmen;  His father, Vece was a member of the Indian field hockey team which won a bronze medal in the 1972 Munich Olympic Games and mother, Jennifer a member of the basketball team; Leander began playing tennis at the age of 5. 

He captured the 1990 Wimbledon Junior title and was ranked as the No.1 junior player in the world at one time. Since then he has been representing India at various international events winning matches bringing glory to the country. He is also a member of the Davis Cup squad since 1990, compiling a 32-19 career record (21-12 in singles). In 1996 Atlanta Olympics, he won the bronze medal in the Tennis event and made India proud with this individual medal won after a long gap of 44 years. The last individual medal being the wrestling medal won by K.D Jadhav in1952 Helsinki Olympics.

He teamed up with Mahesh Bhupathi to form the Indian doubles team and the duo in 1999, showed their class by winning the French Open and Wimbledon and entering the finals of the two other Grand Slam Tournaments; the Australian an US opens. But the dream team separated soon after, due to mutual misunderstanding. They came together again in time for the Sydney Olympics and started regaining their lost prestige at the end of 2000, winning the Men's Double title in Japan Open 2000 followed by Worlds Doubles Championship in Bangalore, Verizon Atlanta Challenge, US Clay court Championship in Houston and at Roland Garros defeating the Czech pair of Petr Pala and Pavel Vizner, ranked no. 2 in the world.

MAHESH BHUPATHI

Lawn Tennis Player

Top league Doubles Tennis star Mahesh Srinivas Bhupathi, is one of India's outstanding sporting heroes. He is known for his booming serves and hard-hitting volleys. He was born on 7th June, 1974 in Madras, Tamilnadu. Bhupathi was educated in Dubai, Muscat and in USA. His father Mr. C.G. Krishna Bhupathi coached him right from his formative years, exclusively on hard courts in the Middle East and his son has proved that hard work pays.

Mahesh has traveled extensively from the age of 14 and has played in major tournaments all over the world. He had an outstanding two-year career at the University of Mississippi from 1994-95, earning singles and doubles All-America honors in '95. He was the finalist in doubles in the Under-18 at Wimbledon. He turned pro in 1995.   He teamed with Ali Hamadeh in 1995 to win the NCAA doubles title and finished as the No. 1 player in doubles and No. 3 in singles. He was India's national champion in 1994 and 1995 and a member of the Indian Davis Cup team since 1995 and represents India in Davis Cup Singles and Doubles. He won a Silver and 3 Gold medals at the SAF Games, represented India at the Atlanta Olympics - 1996, took India to the Quarter Finals of the Elite World Group in Davis Cup along with Leander Paes. In 1997, he became the first Indian to win a Grand Slam when he took the mixed doubles French Open along with Japan's Rika Hiraki.

TENZING NORGAY

Adventurist, First Indian to scale Mount Everest 
Tenzing was the first Indian to scale the highest peak of the world, the Mount Everest (height 8,848 metres) on 29, March 1953. He achieved this mountaineering feat together with Sir Edmund Hillary the well known adventurist of New Zealand.

Tenzing was born in Nepal in a poor family. Tenzing was a follower of Buddhism and had acquired the Indian citizenship in 1933.The childhood name of Tenzing was Namgyal Wagundi. He was also called Khumjung Bhutia.

The Government of India conferred the title of 'Padma Bhushan' on Tenzing in 1959. Tenzing was also awarded the George Medal in recognition of his excellent service in the field of mountaineering. For imparting training in mountaineering the Government of India established the 'Himalayan Mountaineering Institute' at Darjeeling in West Bengal In1954 and Tenzing was appointed Director (training ) in this Institute. Tenzing Norgay was nick named as 'Tiger of Snows'.

SUBRAMANYAN CHANDRASEKHAR Asrtophysicist, Nobel prize winner

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, a Nobel Laureate in Physics and one of the greatest astrophysicists of modern times was born on October 19, 1910 in Lahore, (now in Pakistan) to parents Chandrasekhara Subrahmanya Ayyaa civil servant and Sita Balakrishnan. Being the nephew of the great, C.V. Raman, a Nobel Prize winner in Physics young  Chandrashekhar's interest in the subject came naturally to him. 

In 1930, at the age of 19, he completed his degree in Physics from Presidency College, Madras and went to England for postgraduate studies at the Cambridge University. Chandrasekhar was noted for his work in the field of stellar evolution, and in the early 1930s he was the first to theorize that a collapsing massive star would become an object so dense that not even light could escape it; now known as the Black hole. He demonstrated that there is an upper limit ( known as 'Chandrasekhar Limit' ) to the mass of a White dwarf star. His theory challenged the common scientific notion of the 1930s that all stars, after burning up their fuel, became faint, planet-sized remnants known as white dwarfs. But today, the extremely dense neutron stars and black holes implied by Chandrasekhar’s early work are a central part of the field of astrophysics.

Initially his theory was rejected by peers and professional journals in England. The distinguished astronomer Sir Arthur Eddington publicly ridiculed his suggestion that stars could collapse into such objects( black holes). Disappointed, and reluctant to engage in public debate, Chandrasekhar moved to America and in 1937 joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Chicago and remained there till his death. At Chicago, he immersed himself in a personalized style of research and teaching, tackling first one field of astrophysics and then another in great depth. He wrote more than half a dozen definitive books describing the results of his investigations. More than 100,000 copies of his highly technical books have been sold. He also served as editor of the Astrophysical Journal, the field’s leading journal, for nearly 20 years; presided over a thousand colloquia; and supervised Ph.D. research for more than 50 students.

DR. H. J. BHABHA

Father of Indian nuclear science, 1st chairman of Atomic Energy Commission

The eminent scientist who ushered India into the atomic age was Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha. He was born on 30 October 1909 in a Parsi family of Mumbai. He is called the 'Father of Indian Nuclear Science'.

Dr.Bhabha was appointed the first chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, set up in 1948. It was largely due to his efforts that the nation's first Atomic research Center, now named Bhabha Atomic research Center, was established at Trombay, near Mumbai. Under his expert guidance the nation's first atomic reactor 'Apsara' was also commissioned in 1956. In 1945, he founded the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai.

Dr.Bhabha had a highly distinguished career and was an exceptionally bright student. Even as a student, he made some fundamental discoveries in electricity, magnetism, quantum theory and the cosmic rays.

Dr.Bhabha as the scientist of a very high caliber, received many national and international awards and honours. In 1942, he was awarded the 'Adams' award. In 1951, Bhabha was elected the president of the Indian Science Congress. In 1955, he was elected the chairman of the U.N. sponsored International conference on the peaceful uses of the atomic energy held in Geneva. The Government of India also honoured him with 'Padma Bhushan' in 1954. The 'Homi Jehangir Bhabha Award' has been instituted by Indian National Science Academy. He passed away in 1966 in a plane crash.

MEGHNAD SAHA

Physicist, Discoverer of Thermo- Ionisation Equation
Meghnad Saha, one of the famous Physicist was born in Saroyatali village in Dacca (now in Bangladesh). He invented an instrument to measure the weight and pressure of solar rays.  He produced the famous equation which he called 'equation of the reaction - isobar for ionization' which later became known as Saha's "Thermo-Ionization Equation". 

Saha was the leading spirit in organizing the scientific societies like the 'National Academy of Science' (1930), 'Indian Institute of Science' (1935) and the 'Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science' (1944). The lasting memorial to him is the 'Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics' founded in 1943 in Calcutta. He was the chief architect of river planning in India. He prepared the original plan for Damodar Valley Project.

DR.SHANTI SWAROOP BHATNAGAR Father of Research Laboratories

Dr. Shanti  Swaroop Bhatnagar is known as 'The Father of Research Laboratories'. He is remembered for having established various chemical laboratories in the country. 

He was born in Bera, Punjab. After completing his M.Sc in India he went to England on a fellowship. On his return he served as a professor in Benaras Hindu University. He used to spent all his spare time in his laboratory doing research.

He was awarded the title 'Sir' by the British in recognition of his service to Science, in 1941. As Nehru was much in favour of scientific development after Independence, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research was set up under the chairmanship of Dr. Bhatnagar. Later, he was awarded 'Padma Bhushan'. He became the first director-general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in 1940. After his death, CSIR established a Bhatnagar Memorial award for eminent scientists in his honour.

SRINIVASA RAMANUJAN Mathematician

Srinivasa Ramanujan  was a great Mathematician, who became world  famous at the age of twenty six. He was born at Erode in Tamil Nadu on 22 December 1887. 

Ramanujan could not complete his college education because of illness. He was so interested in mathematics that he learned on his own. He found out new formulas for solving mathematical problems and wrote articles about them. Professor Hardy a scientist in the Cambridge University saw one his article and impressed by his knowledge, took Ramanujan to England.  

Ramanujan was considered as the master of theory of numbers. The most outstanding of his contributions was his formula for p (n), the number of 'partitions' of 'n'. It was in 1914, while he was working in Trinity College he developed the 'Number Theory' and for his valuable contribution, was elected fellow of Trinity College on 18th October 1917. He returned to India in 1919 and began Research. He passed away on 26 April 1920. Government of India issued a commemorative stamp in his honour. Indian National Science academy and many other scientific institutions in India are giving various awards in memory of this brilliant mathematician.

Lakshmi Mittal Chairman and CEO of Mittal Steel

Steel Tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, the 57 year old non resident Indian living in Kensington, London, is the fourth richest person in the world, with a personal fortune of US$45.0 billion according to Forbes magazine. The Financial Times named Lakshmi Mittal its 2006 Person of the Year. This London-based Indian billionaire industrialist, was named one of the "100 most influential people" by Time magazine in May 2007. He was also listed as the richest person in Britain in the Sunday Times Rich list 2005. Since 2005, Mittal has been the richest person residing in the United Kingdom, the richest person in Asia and the 4th richest person on the planet. He is the President of the Board of Directors and CEO of Arcelor Mittal, the world's largest producer of steel. Arcelor Mittal is the combination of the world’s number one and number two steel companies, Arcelor and Mittal Steel.

Lakshmi Narayan Mittal alias Lakshmi Niwas Mittal was born on June 15th, 1950, in Sadulpur, a village which didn't have electricity until 1960's, in Rajasthan, India. His family moved to Calcutta in West Bengal, where he studied accounting and business at the prestigious St. Xavier’s College. His father Mohan Lal Mittal had set up a small steel mill in Calcutta.  After class, Mittal used to work in his father's company. 

After finishing his Bachelor of Commerce degree in business and accounting with first class, Mittal began his career in his father's steel firm in the early seventies. Realizing the fact that opportunities in India are limited for him, Mittal moved to Indonesia in 1976 and with his father's backing founded a steel plant, Ispat Indo and made the company a success. There began a saga of triumphs for the shrewd businessman.

MANOJ NIGHT SHYAMALAN Script Writer and Director

Manoj Night Shyamalan, alias Manoj Nelliyattu Shyamalan, director, screenwriter and actor was born on 6th August 1970 in Pondicherry. His parents Nelliyate C Shyamalan and Jayalakshmi were both doctors and the family moved to the United States when Shyamalan was still a young boy and he was raised in a suburban area of Penn Valley of Philadelphia. He had his early education at a Catholic Private School and Philadelphia's Episcopal Academy. Although he received scholarships to several medical schools, Shyamalan chose to attend the Tisch School of Arts at New York University to study film-making.

Shyamalan had a very early passion for filmmaking and as a child, he revelled in making up stories. At the age of 10, inspired primarily by Steven Spielberg's films, he began making film with his father's 8mm camera and by age 16, he had made over 45 short films. Shyamalan graduated from NYU and during his final year, he wrote, directed and starred in his first full-length feature film, 'Praying With Anger'. In 1995 he was asked to write the script for a combined live action-animated version of the E B White children's classic 'Stuart Little' and it was released onto the big screen in 1999. In 1997 he made his second film 'Wide Awake'. 

Shyamalan's third directorial effort , the supernatural thriller 'The Sixth Sense' in 1999, was one of the year's biggest box office hit. It scored six Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture and two for Shyamalan himself for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. This film about a 11 year old disturbed boy who can see the dead, has also won two Golden Globe nominations and 26th annual People's Choice Award for the favorite dramatic film. Following the success of the this film he directed another supernatural thriller 'Unbreakable' in 2000'. This film about a man who undergoes mysterious changes following a train accident.  In 2002, Shyamalan directed another film 'Signs' an emotional story which deals with crop circles in a rural Pennsylvania town. In 2003 Shymalan comes the chilling tale of a close-knit community that lives with the frightening knowledge that creatures reside in the woods around, and the courage of one young man who challenges the unknown creatures in the film 'The village'.

AMARTYA SEN Economist

Amartya Kumar Sen, son of Amita Sen and Ashutosh Sen, was born on 3rd  November 1933 at Shantiniketan, West Bengal. He received his initial education at Shantiniketan and then Presidency College, Calcutta. He was exposed early on to the plight of the poor. As a 10-year old child, during the Bengal famine, he was shocked to see people dying of hunger on the streets of Calcutta yards away from shops stocked with food. Three years later in Dhaka a Muslim labourer was killed in communal riots outside his house. The traumatic incidents directed Sen to a relentless study of the economic mechanism underlying famines and poverty. 

Amartya Sen joined Trinity College, Cambridge in 1953. He became the youngest chairman of the Department of Economics, Jadavpur University, at the age of 23. Between 1956-1998 he was Professor of Economics at various Universities in India and abroad. 

Sen's contributions on welfare economics and definition of poverty in relation to development have offered a new philosophy and an alternative way to solid economic development. He was of the opinion that the World Bank system of ranking countries according to the GNP and saving rates was not enough and he helped to create the United Nations Human Development Index which has now become the most authoritative international source of welfare comparisons between countries. Some of his works include '  Choice of Techniques', ' Collective Choice and Social Welfare', ' Poverty and Famines', ' Development as Freedom' etc.

Sen is the sixth Indian to get the Nobel and the first Asian winner of the Economics Prize. Some of the honours to his credit are 'Indira Gandhi Gold Medal Award' of the Asiatic Society (1994), 'Nobel prize for Economics' (1998) for his work on ' The poorest people in Society', 'Eisenhower Medal' from USA (2000), 'Honorary Companion of Honour' from UK (2000). He also received 'Bharat Ratna', the highest civilian award in India. He has been honored with Honorary D.Litt degrees and fellowships of a large number of Indian and Foreign Universities and Institutes of repute. Now living in Cambride, Massachusetts with his third wife, an economic historian Emma Rothschild, this genius has spent a lifetime fighting poverty with analysis rather than activism.

SALMAN RUSHDIE Writer

Salman Rushdie is a famous writer. He was born in a Kashmiri Muslim Family  of Bombay and later migrated to Great Britain.  Some of his well known books are 'Rome', ' Midnight's Children', ' Haroun and the sea of Stories' and the 'Moor's Last Sigh'. He commented against India in ' Midnight's Children' and made some critical references about Islam in ' Satanic Verses'. He created a world-wide furore and commotion with the publication of his book ' Satanic Verses'.

Most of the books of Salman Rushdie have been subject to controversies and discussions. The publication of ' Satanic Verses' has raised a storm in the entire Muslim World. This made Iran's spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomeini sentence him to death. So presently he lives in hiding in England. The matter even led to Britain severing diplomatic ties with Iran. Rushdie's work Midnight's Children was awarded the 'Booker of Bookers' prize in 1993, which distinguishes as the best novel to have won the Booker prize over its 25-year history. In 1996 he received the European Union Literary Award in Denmark.

SWRAJ PAUL Business Magnate

Lord Swraj Paul, the great business magnate was born in 1931 in Jalandhar, Punjab.  Having learned business lessons from his father at a young age, he later founded the successful multinational company Caparo, an UK-based steel and engineering group. 

Swraj was educated at Punjab University and obtained a master's degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US. In 1953 he returned to India to join the Apeejay Surrendra Group, founded by his father, which he helped build up to a diversified industrial group. Swraj went to England in 1966 hoping to find a cure for his leukemia-stricken two-year-old daughter, Ambika. Shattered by her death, he buried himself in work and there began his spectacular business career in Britain. 

In 1968, he started buying and selling steel in a one-man business and acquired a small tube unit, Natural Gas Tubes (NGT), which developed into one of the leading UK producers of welded steel tube and spiral welded pipe. Gradually he bought more units, mainly in the steel products manufacturing industry and founded Caparo Group in 1978. Her Majesty the Queen knighted Swraj Paul in the same year, thereby making him The Lord Paul of Marylebone and a member of the House of Lords. 

Lord Paul has been honoured by various international organisations over the years. He has written the biography of Indira Gandhi and was awarded the Padma Bhushan by her in 1983. Among the honours bestowed on him are the Pro-Chancellorship of the Thames University (1998) and its Governorship (1992-97), Chancellorship of Wolverhampton University and the Bharat Gaurav award by the Indian Merchant's Chamber. He is a member of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's Foreign Policy Centre Advisory Council and MIT's Mechanical Engineering Visiting Committee.

Vinod Khosla Venture Capitalist

Vinod Khosla, a native Indian and the world's No.2 ranked Venture Capitalist, is considered as one of the most influential personalities in Silicon valley.  He is a partner in the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Aged 50, he was among the first venture capitalist to understand that internet technology and fiber optics could make communications so fast, cheap and easy and spot the potential of companies that sell gear for high-speed optical networks.

He was born in 1955 in a military family in New Delhi, India.  He earned a B.Tech degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi. After that he attempted to start his own company in India, a dream since the age of 15. Being frustrated by the experience, he gave up his mission. Then he went to United States and completed M.S degree in Biomedical Sciences at Carnegie Mellon and also earned an M B A degree from Stanford University in 1979.

Vowing to become a millionaire before 30, ambitious Khosla found a business idea and partners from Standford business club. They found Daisy Systems, a computer-aided engineering and design company, but failed quickly because the economics of the market went against it

At 27, Khosla became successful when he co-founded Sun Microsystems with a German student Andreas Bechtolsheim, a multi millionaire.  Khosla ran Sun until 1984.  In 1986, he joined in Kleiner Perkins, a firm that funded Sun as a general Partner. During this time, Khosla has played key roles in starting companies that are involved in multimedia, semiconductors, video games, Internet software and computer networking.  He conceived the idea to optimize SONET for data, a scheme that led to the creation of Cerent Corp, a telecommunications-equipment company which Cisco acquired in 1999 for $6.9 billion. Khosla was also instrumental in launching Juniper Networks, a company many thought as the next Cisco. Others include Viant, Extreme Networks, Lightera etc.

VIKRAM SETH Poet, Novelist

Vikram Seth was born in Calcutta in 1952. He earned degrees in Philosophy, Politics and  Economics from Oxford University. He has published 6 books of poetry and 3 novels since 1980. His novel "A suitable boy" won the W.H.Smith prize in 1993. The latest novel written by Vikram Seth is 'An Equal music' and it is about the troubled love life of a violinist.

Vikram Seth received one of Britain top honours for his services to literature.  The award of the commander of the order3 of the British Empire was announced earlier in the year by Queen Elizabeth II and given to Seth on 14 February 2001.

Vikram Seth creates a living, breathing world that enchants and grips the reader in all his novels.

Professor Raj Reddy Computer Scientist

Professor Raj Reddy, one of the prominent scientists in computer science in the US, is presently serving as the Director of the West Coast campus of Carnegie Mellon University, USA.
Professor Reddy a native Indian, earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Guindy Engineering college of the University of Madras, India, in 1958 and a Master's degree in technology from the University of New South Wales, Australia, in 1960. He received a doctor's degree in Computer science from Stanford University in 1966 and the same year began his academic career as an Assistant Professor in the same University.  
Since 1969 for over three decades, the professor has been a member of the Carnegie Mellon University faculty. He served as the Founding Director of the Robotics Institute at the University from 1979 to 1991. For the next ten years, he served as the Dean and professor of Computer Science and Robotics, at the School of  Computer Science and now as the Director of the West coast campus.
Dr. Reddy's research interests include the study of human-computer interaction and artificial intelligence. His main area of work is in artificial intelligence in particular with computers that can see, hear, walk , talk etc. His current research project include speech recognition and universal digital libraries, an Information Appliance for rural environments for use by illiterate people, where all creative works of the human race are available to anyone anywhere. 

MIRA NAIR Documentarist, Director

Ms Mira Nair was born in 1958 in Bhubaneshwar, Orissa. Her parents are from Punjab. At the age of 13, she attended a boarding school in Shimla, where she became a passionate student of dramatics and acted in school theatre productions. After graduating from New Delhi, she went to United States on a theater scholarship to Harvard. 

Mira began her career as a documentarist and later turned to commercial films. The film titled 'India Cabaret' brought her the American Film Festival Award for the best documentary of 1985. She won her first film award, the 'Golden Camera' from the Cannes Film Festival for her renowned film 'Salaam Bombay' and this film was nominated for Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1988.  Her movies, 'Mississippi Masala' won rave reviews in Europe and 'Kamasutra - A tale of love' got world wide attention for being provocative.

She won the 'Golden Lion' award for her film 'Monsoon Wedding' at the Venice Film Festival in 2001.  This movie narrates the happenings of a Punjabi wedding and the bride having second thoughts about her arranged marriage. It was the first time an Indian film or particularly a woman is winning the Golden Lion award in the Venice Film Festival. Mira's future projects include a Hollywood production with a film based on Edith Wharton's novel "A Mother's Recompense".

Shashi Tharoor Writer and UN Diplomat

Shri Shashi Tharoor, is a well-known Indian English writer, scholar and international civil servant. He was born in London on March 1956 to father, a newspaper executive and mother a housewife, with their roots in Palakkad, a town in Kerala, India.

Tharoor mostly grew up in India did his schooling and under graduation in cities such as Bombay, Calcutta and Delhi. He completed his honors degree in History from the prestigious St. Stephen's College in Delhi and won a scholarship to Tufts University in Boston. As a student he took part in debates, quiz contests and also tried his hand in theatre. In the mid 1970's, he went to the United States and acquired two master's degrees and a Ph.D. in Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University, all by the age of twenty-two.

Tharoor joined the United Nations in May 1978 in the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva and has been with the organisation since then. He became the head of UNHCR Singapore office  (1981-1984) at the peak of the Vietnamese "boat people" crisis. Then he served as Special Assistant to the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations from 1989 to1996 at UN headquarters in New York, towards the end of the term from 1991 to 1996, he led the team responsible for peacekeeping operations in the former Yugoslavia. He served as the Executive Assistant to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan (1997-1998) and as the Director of Communications and Special projects in the office of the Secretary-General from 1998 to 2001. In January 2001, he was appointed as interim head of the Department of Public Information (DPI) by Kofi Annan, and after a year and a half was confirmed as the Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information of the United Nations. In this capacity, he is responsible for the communication strategy, enhancing the image and effectiveness of the organisation. In 2003, the Secretary-General appointed him United Nations Coordinator for Multilingualism. In 2006, he was the official candidate of India for the succession to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and came second out of seven official candidates in the race. Tharoor served as the UN Under-Secretary General for Communications and Public Information between June 2002 and February 2007. Dr. Tharoor, in addition to a variety of other activities in his private life, is Chairman of Dubai-based Afras Ventures. He is also the Joint Chairman of UNSICAD (United Nations Simulation International Conference at Abu Dhabi and Dubai), the World Summit to be held in the United Arab Emirates in June 2008.

MADHUR JAFFREY Actress and Culinary expert

Madhur Jaffrey a multifaceted personality born in Delhi, is an actress, TV presenter, movie script and cook book writer but it is for her cookery that she is best known. 

She went to England on a scholarship to learn acting and after graduation married Jaffrey.  She settled down in New York and gave birth to three daughters, Meera, Zia and Sakina.  She began her career in films with the Ivory-Merchant production, 'Shakespeare Wallah' winning her the best actress award at the Berlin Film Festival in 1965.  Some of her other films are 'Heat & Dust', 'Autobiography of a Princess', 'The Assam Garden', 'The Perfect Murder', 'Six Degrees of Separation' and 'Wolf'.

She turned to cooking as a new career after she divorced her husband, actor Saeed Jaffrey, to make both ends meet. It was an eye opener into a range of Indian dishes.  She wrote cookery books like 'Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking', 'A Taste of India 'and more recently 'World vegetarian'.  Later she appeared on T.V.shows but acting always remain as her first love.

She has received accolades of awards for her talents  from media and cookery, they are Muse Award for Outstanding Vision & Achievement, NYWFTV 2000; Award for Excellence in acting & cookery, Gov. Pataki '99; Tarknath Das Award, Columbia U for contribution to Indo-American understanding thru acting and cooking, Glenfiddich Award for Best Radio/TV Broadcasting 1982 etc

After divorced from Saeed Jaffrey she is remarried and now lives in New York City. She has three children -- Zia, Meera, and Sakina Jaffrey.  She has hosted a cooking series on BBC television,  having appeared both in film and on stage.

ISMAIL MERCHANT Producer, Director and Writer

Ismail Merchant was born in Mumbai in 25th December  in the year 1935 as Ismail Noormohamed Abdul Reh.  In his career spanning three and a half decades, he has made some 40 feature films.  Many of them made with the collaboration of his pal, director James Ivory and writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.  

The famous Merchant- Ivory duo has made a mark of their own in the film world. Adaptation of E. M. Forster's 'A room with a view', Kazuo Ishiguro's 'Remains of the Day', 'Rose Land' and 'Heat & Dust' are some of the best Merchant-Ivory movies.

Vanessa Redgrave, Isabelle Adjani, Christopher Reeve, Anthony Hopkins, Paul Newman, Emma Thompson, Isabelle Adjani, Paul Newman are a few well known actors who have featured in his films.  They all crave to work with him knowing that he will pay them only a little more than his attention.  

Besides film making, Merchant was also a renowned chef and the author of several books on quality cooking.

He passed away at the age of 68. He was unmarried.

Professor Jagdish N. Bhagwati Economist

Jagdish Bhagwati, renowned professor, member of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's High-level Advisory Group and the External Advisor to the Director General World Trade Organisation (WTO), is regarded as one of the foremost international trade economists of his generation.

He was born in Mumbai, India in the year1934. He did his B.com from Mumbai in 1954 and post graduated in l956 from Cambridge University with a first in Economics Tripos.  He then did his Ph.D at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in 1967. After studying in England and the United States, Bhagwati returned to India in 1961 and served as Professor of Economics at the Indian Statistical Institute, and then as Professor of International Trade at the Delhi School of Economics. He returned to MIT in 1968, leaving it twelve years later to join Columbia, as the Ford International Professor of Economics. Bhagwati is one of the only 10 scholars who hold the title of University Professor at Columbia. 

Professor Bhagwati has made major contributions to pure theory and is engaged with major practical policy problems as Economic Adviser to the Director-General of GATT(1991-1993) and Special Adviser to the United Nations on Globalisation. He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and has been elected a member of the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

He also writes regularly for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times. He has written or edited 40 books, written hundreds of articles, and founded and edited two journals, 'Economics and Politics' (1989) and 'The Journal of International Economics' (1971), the premier journal in the field today. Among his famous books are 'In Defense of Globalization' (2004);'Free Trade Today' (2002);'The Wind of the Hundred Days' (2000);'A Stream of Windows' (1998);'India in Transition' (1993);'World Trading System at Risk' (1991);'Protectionism' (1988); 'Economics & Politics' (founder-editor); 'The Journal of International Economics' (founder-editor) etc. 

He has been honored with Honorary D.Litt degrees from several universities they are, Erasmus (Netherlands) and Sussex (UK), South Gujarat University. Among the awards he has received are the Mahalanobis Memorial Medal ( India ), the Bernhard Harms Prize (Germany), the Kenan Prize (USA), the John R. Commons Award (USA), the Freedom Prize (Switzerland), and the Frank E. Seidman Distinguished Award in Political Economy (USA). Professor Bhagwati has delivered many prestigious lectures, among them are the Frank Graham Lecture at Princeton , the Bertil Ohlin Lectures at the Stockholm School of Economics, the Harry Johnson Lecture in London, the Eyskens Lectures in Belgium, the Radhakrishnan Lectures in Oxford, and the Prebisch Lecture at UNCTAD IX in Johannesburg.

Deepak Chopra Physician, Author, Philosopher

Indian born Deepak Chopra has earned fame as a great physician in the field of alternative medicine in the US. Dr. Chopra serves as the Director of Education at the Chopra Center, which offers training programs in mind body medicine. He has established a new life giving pattern which has a crucial  connection between mind, body, spirit and healing.  Chopra is also known as the prolific author of more than 35 books, 100 audio, video and CD-ROM titles, which have been translated into 35 languages with over 20 million copies sold worldwide.

Born in Delhi, India in the year 1947, Chopra was raised in a family infused with both Western Medicine and Traditional Hindu beliefs and practices. His father, Krishnan Chopra was a prominent cardiologist who served as the dean of a local hospital and a lieutenant in the British army and his grandfather was an Ayurveda ( Indian Medicine) practitioner. 

Following his father's career in medicine, Chopra graduated from the All India Institute of Medical Science in 1968. He went to United States in 1970 to serve an internship at a hospital in New Jersey. He got further training at the Lahey Clinic and University of Virginia Hospital.  In the early 1980s, he became the Chief of staff at New England Memorial Hospital and later the Chief at Boston Regional Medical Center and he also taught at Tufts University and Boston University Schools of Medicine.  Meanwhile Dr. Chopra built a successful endocrinology practice in Boston.

In 1981, a turning point occurred in Chopra's life when he met Dr. Brihaspati Dev Triguna, a famous Ayurvedic physician at New Delhi, who advised him to meditate. At first, he didn't give it much thought but eventually he was impressed by the sizable amount of research that proves that Transcendental Meditation (TM) reduces stress.  In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Chopra became a dedicated champion of TM thought and practice. In 1985 he met Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who invited Chopra to study Ayurveda. That year Chopra became the president of the American Association for Ayurvedic Medicine. He was later named medical director of the Maharishi Ayurveda Health Center for Stress Management and Behavioral Medicine.

MOHAMMED RAFI

Playback Singer

Mohammed Rafi was a famous playback singer. He was born on 25 December 1924 in Punjab. Even at a young  age he was more fond of music than studies. 

He started learning music from the famous Hindustani singer Chotte Gulam Ali Khan. Later he became the disciple of Firoze Nizam.  When Firoze was appointed as a music director in Lahore Radio Station, Rafi got an opportunity to sing in the radio. It was a turning point in his life.

He sang first for a Punjabi movie. Then in Nazeer Khan's 'Leila Majnu', Rafi began his career as a singer in the Hindi film field. But as a singer he succeeded for his songs in the film 'Gavom ke gori'. His songs in films like 'Jugnu' and 'Baiju Bavra' made him very popular. He also used to sing in various other languages. More than 26,000 songs are recorded in his name. Famous music director Naushad and Rafi had a remarkable relationship. Their team work created many hit songs.

He was very punctual and faithful to his profession. He encouraged and welcomed new comers. His famous songs are 'oh duniya ke rakwale' (Baiju Bavra), 'ghun ghuna rehe hai' (Aradhana), 'kya hua tera vaada' (Hum kise se Kum nahin), 'yaham badla vaham kya he' (Jugnu) etc. He has performed in around thirty eight musical concerts abroad.

He got Padmashree Award in 1965 from India Government and National award twice. He also got Film fare Award for the best singer several times. His last recording was on May 26, 1980. He died on July 31, 1980.

PANDIT BHIMSEN JOSHI

Singer
Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, who holds a legendary status in Indian Classical music was born in Gadag (Karnataka) on 14 February 1922. His unique style and mastery over ragas has made him un parallel to any other vocalist in the country.

A conservative schoolmaster's son, Bhimsen Joshi had a passion for music even from his early childhood. The little boy deeply moved by a recording of Abdul Karim Khan, the founder father of the ' Kirana gharana', was later destined to become an accomplished jewel of the gharana. He left home in 1932 and was on the move for the next two years in search of a guru. He travelled to Bijapur, Pune, Gwalior where he tutored under Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan, the well-known sarodiya and father of Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, then to Calcutta, Punjab and back home, only to goad his father into sending him to Sawai Gandharva for training.

In 1936, Joshi started his rigorous training under Sawai Gandharva (Pandit Rambhan Kundgolkar), the eminent Khyal singer student of Abdul Karim Khan at Kundgol, near Gadag. He taught him the basics of Khayal singing. The tutoring spanning several years honed his inborn talent and helped him attain his mastery over ragas.

MILKHA SINGH

Athlete
Milkha Singh is one of the most outstanding athletes of India. He has earned the nickname 'Flying Sikh' because of his marvelous running speed on the tracks. He was born in 1935 in the Western Punjab of undivided India.

He joined the army in 1953. On joining the army, Milkha Singh paid special attention to athletics and started to train himself for 400 meter race. Soon, he succeeded in establishing a new record in 400 meter race and earned great fame and prestige.

In 1957, he established a new national record of 47.5 seconds in 400 meter race. In the Third Asiad held at Tokyo (Japan) in 1958, Milkha Singh set two new records in 400 meter and 200 meter races respectively. In the 4th Asiad held at Jakarta (Indonesia), Milkha Singh won a gold medal in the 400 meter race. In 1959, Government of India honoured Milkha Singh with 'Padma Shri' for his notable achievements in the field of sports. Milkha Singh at present is fully dedicated to the promotion of sports in India.

DHYAN CHAND

Hockey Player

Dhyan Chand  made great contribution in enhancing prestige of  Indian Hockey in the eyes of the world. He was born on 29th August 1906, in Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh). He joined army at the age of sixteen. He started playing hockey in army and was included in the Indian Hockey team for the 1928 Amesterdam Olympics. 

By his superior play, Dhyan Chand was held  in high esteem with in the country as well as abroad. Dhyan Chand helped his country in winning gold medals in hokey in 3 successive Olympics games; Amesterdam Olympics (1928), Los Angles Olympics (1932) and Berlin Olympics(1936). He was the captain of  the gold medal winner Indian Hockey team in the historic 1936 Berlin Olympics. Dhyan Chand scored 101 goals at the Olympic games and 300 goals in other international matches and his record is unbroken. Dhyan Chand had a wonderful command in wielding the hockey stick and this earn him the title " Hockey Wizard". India won one gold medal in Hockey at Amersterdom Olympics and out of a total of 28 goals scored by Indian hockey, 11 were scored by Dhyan Chand alone. He died on December 3,1979.

K.R GOWRI AMMA

Politician

K.R.Gowri - Popularly known as Gowri Amma, a prominent figure in the Communist Movement in Kerala, has played a profound and significant role in determining the destiny of the state. A relentless and staunch crusader for the downtrodden, she has proved herself as an efficient administrator while remaining a perceptive politician. K.R.Gowri was born at Pattanakad, in Alappuzha district as the seventh daughter of K.A.Raman and Parvathi. After her schooling at Thiroor and Cherthala, she graduated from Maharajas College, Ernakulam. She then obtained her law degree from Law College, Ernakulam.

Starting her public life through trade union and peasant movements, K.R. Gowri Amma was elected to the Travancore Council Of Legislative assembly in the Year 1953 and 1954 with an overwhelming majority. In 1957, when the first elected Communist Government took office under the Chief Ministership of E.M.S. Namboodiripad, V.S. Achuthananthan was overtaken by the Communist couple from Alapuzha - T.V. Thomas and K.R. Gowri Amma, who went on to become influential Ministers. She became Revenue minister in the first EMS Ministry in 1957 holding the portfolio of Revenue Minister. As revenue minister in the first communist ministry, she piloted the first land reforms bill.

Her marriage to fellow minister and CPI strongman T. V. Thomas is part of communist folklore in Kerala. She got married to him in 1957 but they separated when the Communist Party of India split into two, with Gowri joining the newly formed Communist Party of India-Marxist in 1964. In 1967, both Gowriamma and Thomas became ministers in the Namboodiripad government and both of them lived in two nearby ministerial bungalows. The CPI-M though dumped her later on, even though she was a prominent woman leader in 1987, after projecting her initially as a chief ministerial candidate. On that occasion, E.K. Nayanar became CM, due to the machinations of the Malabar lobby.

GHANSHYAM DAS BIRLA

Founder of Birla Group of Industries

G.D. Birla was a great architect of India's industrial growth. He started his career in Calcutta at the beginning of this century. He entered the field of business during the days of the First World War and established himself after the war years.

He established a cotton mill in Sabzi Mandi, Delhi followed by Keshoram Cotton Mills and Birla Jute Mills around 1920. In 1919, with an investment of 50 lacs, the Birla Brothers Limited was formed and thereafter a mill was set up in Gwalior.

In the decade of the 30's he set up Sugar and Paper mills. From 1943 to 1946, Birla Brothers ventured into the area of cars.

He had also established Ruby, Asiatic Insurance Co and Inland Air Service.

After independence, the Birlas expanded their business and started production in many fields. Near Mirzapur, he, in collaboration with Caesar, an American friend, set up an Aluminum Plant 'Hindalco'. He also started many educational Institutions. To his credit go many temples, planetariums and hospitals. During the decades of 70's and 80's, Birla brothers were among the topmost Industrial Houses of India. G.D. Birla award for scientific Research has been established to encourage scientists for their contribution in the various fields of scientific Research.

J.R.D. TATA

Industrialist, 4th Chairman of TATA Industries

Jehangir  Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata, was born on July 29, 1904 in Paris. He was the second child of Mr Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata. He spent much of his childhood in France since his mother was French. In 1922, Tata returned to India to join the family business. He inherited most of his grandfather Jamshedji's industrial empire but first became a pioneer in aviation. He had a great personality with a charm and style of his own. 

After his father's death in 1926, Tata became the director of the Board of Tata Sons Ltd. Eventually in 1938, he became the chairman of the company. Under his leadership Tata Sons expanded into one of the largest industrial empire in the country- from ironworks and steelworks into chemicals, hotels, engineering and lot of other industries. In 1945, Tata Steel promoted the Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company (TELCO) with an objective to produce locomotives for the Indian Railways. Today Telco has emerged as the country’s largest Commercial Vehicle producer.

JRD Tata was the first Indian pilot to qualify for a British private license. He founded Tata Airlines in 1932 and by 1953, it developed and came to be known as Indian Airlines. Till 1978, Tata was the Chairman of the Indian Airlines and Air India. 

Tata was an early advocate of family planning and he created the Family Planning Foundation in 1971. His innovations in India's fledgling hotel and tourist industry as well as his contributions to scientific and technical research and corporate management gained public recognition from the Indian Government. He  was honoured by India's highest civilian award, Bharat Ratna in 1991 and  United Nations Population Award in 1992. In 1991, at the age of 87, Tata retired from Tata Sons. He passed away on November 29, 1993.