India Was The History, So Is The Future

2020-04-08T00:21:00.000-07:00

India has the world's twelfth largest economy at market exchange rates and the fourth largest in purchasing power.

Economic reforms have transformed it into the second fastest growing large economy. Foreign exchange reserves have risen from US$5.8 billion in March 1991 to US$308 billion on 4 July 2008.

India has the world's fourth largest GDP.

With an average annual GDP growth rate of 5.7% for the past two decades, the economy is among the fastest growing in the world. India has the world's second largest labour force, with 516.3 million people, 60% of whom are employed in agriculture and related industries; 28% in services and related industries; and 12% in industry.

The Major Part of India's GDP accounts from the service sectors which make's up 54%(of which India's IT sector accounts to 7% of GDP ), The agricultural sector accounts for 28% of GDP; and industrial sectors accounts for 18% of GDP.

India is one amoung Big Emerging Market (BEM) economies which consists Argentina, Chile, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Poland, Russia, South Africa, South Korea and Turkey.

Source: IMF, CIA, WIKI, INDIAMAPS....etc.

2012-01-27T11:25:00.000-08:00

Lalbagh Flower Show 2012 - 100th Exhibition Event :

January 20 till 29, all roads lead to the Glass House in Lalbagh Botanical Gardens. Around 10 lakh visitors are expected to visit the gardens and see a visual treat, thanks to the Mysore Horticultural Society. The flower show is the 100th exhibition of the Mysore Horticultural Society that was started by the then Superintendent of Lalbagh GH Krumbiegal in 1912.
Major Attractions this time include Buddha Stupa, Floral dance forms, Floral Flow, Florance Flora Show and Diagonal floral Lines.

Check out the complete blog on Lalbagh Flower Show 2012 here:
www.sandeepyc.blogspot.com/2012/01/geggew.html

BBMP 2010 Election Results

2010-04-05T01:28:00.000-07:00

Bruhat Bangaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Election Result: BJP have won 111 Seats keeping Congress (INC) (65 seats) and JD (s) (15 Seats) behind, with Independents grabbing the rest 7 seats out of a total 198 seats.
The election for the 198 member BBMP was held on Sunday, March 28.

The winners list ward wise is listed below:

The Secular Class

2009-05-17T04:22:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

Here is a contribution from Dr. Jagdish Tummala which helps clarify the "secular" discussion.

THE SECULAR CLASS

As I sit in my home in Detroit, Michigan, watching all the drama that is unfolding in the General Elections of 2009, I wonder how far the truth can be stretched. I am quite disillusioned by the definition of secularism being proscribed and prescribed to the Indian public. I was wondering what a lesson in secularism would be like if there was one; so, I thought of this fantasy classroom where secularism is being taught by a Mr. Secular Indian to his Gullible disciples who are pursuing a political career as a secular politician . Now tighten your seat belts and start thinking. Think what your definition of secularism is?

Mr. Secular Indian: I welcome you disciples to your first day in class. I know you people are obsessed with the idea of secularism, but I will help you build on this idea today which will benefit you tremendously in your political careers; so, let us start by taking some questions.

A Gullible disciple: I am confused about the idea of secularism. I feel I am a secular person, but when I see some of our English channels and listen to our politicians, I feel I am not - How do I get over this dilemma ?

Mr. Secular Indian: What makes you feel as though you are not secular ?

A Gullible disciple: I find myself agreeing to some of the views of BJP, especially on terror, international policies and common civil code etc. But the very next moment, when the panelists on these shows call it a farce and communal, I feel I am communal too.

Mr. Secular Indian: First things first. You cannot be called secular, If you agree with the BJP. You have to be a staunch opponent of BJP policies irrespective of whether you feel they are right or wrong. Be careful, you will be tagged as a communal instantaneously if you agree with them. It would not matter what you think about the upliftment of minorities.

A gullible disciple: Some politicians are even called communal if they go to a temple or wear saffron clothes, what do you think of that?

Mr. Secular Indian: Well, you cannot wear any identity that could relate you to a majority community. You can go to the temple every now and then but make sure nobody is watching you. This might come to haunt you later in your political career. At the same time make sure you make frequent visits to churches and mosques and also meet some religious leaders, but this time makes sure you do it in front of the full glare of the media.

Meanwhile a Muslim gullible disciple jumps in and asks:

A gullible Muslim disciple: I go to mosques every Friday. Would I have to be careful too ? Also would I have to meet some swami jis in front of the media?

Mr. Secular Indian: No, this does not apply to you as you belong to a minority community. In fact, if someone questions you about any aspect of your faith, just call for protection of your rights and your secular friends will take care of the rest. Talking about you meeting swamis, this could severely dent your chances of being a secular politician and your credentials might get questioned, even if you have to do that, do it behind the cameras.

A gullible Muslim disciple: I find myself agreeing with the BJP sometimes, especially about the introduction of a common civil code. I feel a different civil code for the Muslims is only alienating them and I do not agree with some of it’s clauses. How do I express this view?

Mr. Secular Indian: Again, the golden rule is, you cannot agree with the BJP at any cost. Even if the BJP is trying to do some good for the minorities, you will need to portray the evil in it. These are the times when your secular credentials will be tested. Remember, you being a Muslim and finding any of BJP’s comment acceptable, can spell doom to your political career. Common civil code might be necessary for the upliftment of the Muslims, but it is not acceptable to the Muslim masses. You can only take popular decisions in politics irrespective of the consequences.

A gullible disciple: I believe we would need to work hard for the upliftment of the minority masses to be called a secular.

Mr. secular Indian: Not necessarily, as long as you are anti-BJP and are making speeches condoning Hindutva, you need not do anything, just tell the minorities that you will protect them from the Hindutva forces and hope they might vote for you. At the same time, it can be dangerous if you try to bring a lot of development in the minority dominated areas as this would mean land occupations for roads, building, and schools instead of madrases etc.. It might be popular among few, but the masses would not like it. Always stay away from such controversies in the minority dominated areas. Moreover, educating them might harm you in the long run, as you might not be able to use them as vote banks.

A gullible disciple: What are the advantages of being a secular politician?

Mr. secular Indian: Numerous! Firstly, it negates several ills. You can be a gangster, a rapist or a murderer and you can still be called a good politician with an honest ideology if you are secular. You will be acceptable to all the secular parties and will never be treated as an untouchable in politics. Moreover, if you have any criminal cases or CBI cases pending against you, just lend support to a secular party at the centre and be rest assured that all the CBI cases against you will be withdrawn. Another advantage is you can win elections without doing any public service. Look at all the states which are dominated by these secular parties. They do not have to do any public work or develop anything. These states continue to lag behind in all human development indices. They know that as long as they are secular, their chances of remaining in power are high.

A gullible disciple: How do I tackle riots which are so rampant in our society?

Mr. secular Indian: Wait until the riots have subsided, you need not mobilise any forces to tackle these riots. But make sure you put the entire blame on the hindutva forces for the riots. Also portray the BJP as an accomplice and be very vocal about it in the media. This will exonerate you from being complacent during the riots. Look at the Mumbai riots and Babri demolition for example. A secular government was at the centre on both these occasions. They even agreed to these events tacitly, if not directly involved and let nature take its own course. But they make sure even to this day that they blame the BJP for anything and everything that happened. I am sure they could have done something about it, but they opted not to. Instead, they used it to their advantage and portrayed the BJP as the only evil. This is a great example of how you can maintain your secular credentials by just blaming the BJP, even though you were involved your self.

A gullible disciple: Can you tackle Jihadi terrorism and maintain your secular credentials?

Mr. secular Indian: You have to be very careful when talking about tackling Jihadi terrorism. This is a condition you should be able to mend to your advantage. You should oppose every law that asks for a strong action against Jihadis. This will win you a lot of secular votes. In fact, if anybody tries to condemn Jihadis, reply to them by talking about Hindutva terrorism and always portray Hindutva terrorism to be a greater threat than the Jihadis. Also, try to magnify every violent incident associated with the Hindutva forces and make them look bigger and more threatening than the Jihadis. You will be surprised to know how many hearts you will win.

A gullible disciple: Muslims are equally affected by Jihadi terrorism. What if they do not agree to our idea of being soft on terror?

Mr. secular Indian: You have to create a fear psychosis among the Muslims and tell them that the fight against Jihadis is actually a fight against Islam. Tell them all the stories about how young Muslims are being tortured in the name of this fight against the Jihadis and that this fight would only create more terrorists.

A gullible disciple: What if the majority community gets angry with us for being soft on terrorism?

Mr. secular Indian: You have to make sure that the majority community is not majority anymore by dividing them into multiple factions in the name of caste or regions or languages and so on. Then select some large but disenchanted groups among them and promise them greater opportunity in every field. Now you will be left with a select few smaller groups which will question you. This is where you have to work like a salesman and try to sell your idea of secularism. If they still question you, threaten them with thoughts that they might be tagged communal if they support the same ideas as those being supported by the BJP. This works wonderfully and helps people soften their stance on terrorism.

A gullible disciple: How can we deal with the symbols of worship and religion and still be secular?

Mr secular Indian: You do not have to worry about the symbols of a majority religion like Ram Sethu etc., but make sure you divide the majority community so much that they start believing that the artificial lines created by you are more important than their religious identity. If they still persist on retaining their identity, then tell them that they could be identified with the communal forces. This helps even hardliners change their stance. Then you can even talk about destroying those symbols to appease the secular forces. At the same time make sure you never do anything to dilute the sentiments of a minority community. Remember, this sentiment is your bread and butter. Your entire survival depends on the minorities retaining their religious identity.

A gullible disciple: How can we tackle the media?

Mr. secular Indian: The media will give you a red carpet welcome. Remember, Indian media is the mouth piece of secular forces. They have been either created by the secular forces or been made to buy our idea of secularism. They cannot exist in this country if they differ from our viewpoint. The fear psychosis we have created helps us to make the media dance to our tunes. When in any TV debates, you can score a lot of points by making anti BJP rhetoric’s. If you find yourself in any trouble, just raise the issue of Gujarat riots and portray Narendra Modi as a devil. You are sure to come out of any troubled situation.

A gullible disciple: If you are tagged as a communal, is there anything we can do to get back to the secular brigade?

Mr. secular Indian: This is very simple. It is like conversion from one religion to the other. The easier we make it, the more it boosts our strength. Even if you are in the communal alliance for sometime for your own political advantage, you can dump these communal forces whenever you feel they are redundant and join the secular brigade. Remember Naveen Patnaik. He was tagged communal and his party was called a principal architect of the Kandhmal violence by the Indian media and the secular forces alike. Though as soon as he dumped the BJP on the question of ‘winnability’, he became the poster boy for secularism and everything that happened in Kandhmal was portrayed as a BJP conspiracy. We made everyone believe that Naveen Patnaik was just having a difficult time dealing with them. Also remember Kalyan Singh, the principle architect of Babri demolition is now trying to jump into the secular bandwagon and the secular force s are trying every bit to find him a place in their bandwagon. You can perpetrate the most heinous communal crime, but you can be secular any time you renegade the BJP. Remember, BJP hatred is the core quality required to become secular and other factors do not matter as much.

I will stop here and hope all of you had a very good understanding of secularism. Now work hard on these principles and you will climb to great heights in your political career. We will discuss some other issues in the next class.

Here is where you can join the discussion on this topic on our website.

Team Friends of BJP

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India Was The History So Is The Future: Facts and Statistics

2008-12-23T06:14:00.000-08:00

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Contact

2008-12-14T05:29:00.000-08:00

CONTACT:

The Author can be reached @ Sandeep.YC@gmail.com

Facts and Statistics

2008-12-14T05:21:00.000-08:00

India has the world’s twelfth largest economy at market exchange rates and the fourth largest in purchasing power.

Economic reforms have transformed it into the second fastest growing large economy. Foreign exchange reserves have risen from US$5.8 billion in March 1991 to US$308 billion on 4 July 2008.

India has the world’s fourth largest GDP.

With an average annual GDP growth rate of 5.7% for the past two decades, the economy is among the fastest growing in the world. India has the world’s second largest labour force, with 516.3 million people, 60% of whom are employed in agriculture and related industries; 28% in services and related industries; and 12% in industry.

The Major Part of India’s GDP accounts from the service sectors which make’s up 54%(of which India’s IT sector accounts to 7% of GDP ), The agricultural sector accounts for 28% of GDP; and industrial sectors accounts for 18% of GDP.

India is one amoung Big Emerging Market (BEM) economies which consists Argentina, Chile, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Poland, Russia, South Africa, South Korea and Turkey.

Here is a full list of Facts & Statistics under Different Categories:

Industrial production growth rate, When Compared to other Developed & Developing Countries:[he annual percentage increase in industrial production (including manufacturing, mining, and construction).]

China 13.40
India 8.50
Russia 7.40
Singapore 7.40
Korea, South 5.50
Germany 5.20
Brazil 4.90
Australia 4.10
France 1.80
Japan 1.30
U K 0.50
Hong Kong -0.80
U S -1.70

where the average growth of world is 5.00 % as of year 2007.

GDP - real growth rate, When Compared to other Developed & Developing Countries:[gives GDP growth on an annual basis adjusted for inflation and expressed as a percent.]

China 11.90
India 9.00
Russia 8.10
Singapore 7.70
U A E 7.50
Philippines 7.30
Hong Kong 6.40
Indonesia 6.30
Malaysia 6.30
Brazil 5.40
Korea South 5.00
Thailand 4.80
Australia 4.30
U K 3.10
Canada 2.70
Germany 2.50
France 2.10
U S A 2.00
Japan 2.00

where the average growth of world is 5.20 % as of year 2007.

While On Rank Order For GDP (purchasing power parity):[The gross domestic product (GDP) or value of all final goods and services produced within a nation in a given year. A nation's GDP at purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rates is the sum value of all goods and services produced in the country valued at prices prevailing in the United States.]
Units : Billion US Dollars

U S A $13,780
China $ 7,099
Japan $ 4,272
India $ 2,966
Germany $ 2,807
U K $ 2,130
Russia $ 2,097
France $ 2,075
Brazil $ 1,849
Italy $ 1,800

Where the GDP-PPP of world is $65,610 as of year 2007.

While On Rank Order for Labor force:[total labor force figure]

China 800,700,000
India 516,400,000
U S A 153,100,000
Indonesia 109,900,000
Brazil 99,230,000
Russia 75,100,000

Where the Labor force of world is 3,131,000,000 as of year 2007.

While On Rank Order for Internet users:[the number of users within a country that access the Internet. Statistics vary from country to country and may include users who access the Internet at least several times a week to those who access it only once within a period of several months.]

China 253,000,000 (2008)
U S A 223,000,000 (2008)
Japan 88,110,000 (2007)
India 80,000,000 (2007)
Brazil 50,000,000 (2007)
Germany 42,500,000 (2007)
U K 40,200,000 (2007)
Korea South 35,590,000 (2007)
Italy 32,000,000 (2007)
France 31,295,000 (2007)

The numbers shown In brackets is the Year Estimated.

Where the total number of Internet users of world is 1,018,057,389 as of year 2005.

While On Rank Order for Telephones - mobile cellular:[The total number of mobile cellular telephone subscribers.]

China 547,286,000 (2007)
India 296,080,000 (2008)
U S A 255,000,000 (2007)
Russia 170,000,000 (2007)
Brazil 120,980,000 (2007)
Japan 107,339,000 (2007)
Germany 97,151,000 (2007)

The numbers shown In brackets is the Year Estimated.

Where the total number of cellular phone users of world is 2,168,433,600 as of year 2005.

History: Social Reformers

2008-11-18T07:37:00.000-08:00

History: Social Reformers

1.Swami Vivekananda:
One of the chief disciples of Ramkrisna Paramhansa, Swami Vivekananda was born as Narendranath Dutta on January 12, 1863 in Kolkata to Vishwanath Dutta and Bhuvaneswari Devi. He took the name Swami Vivekananda after becoming a monk. He was a good student, besides being proficient in music and sports. He stood up against many of the superstitions prevalent during that time and had great affection and respect for ascetics.

He entered the hallowed portals of the Presidency College in 1879. After a year, he joined the Scottish Church College in Kolkata and studied philosophy, western logic, western philosophy and the history of European nations. His studies made him question the existence of God. Though he associated himself with the Brahmo Samaj for sometime, he did not get the answers to his questions. It was then that he went to visit Ramakrishna Paramhansa. Soon, he became Ramkrishna's disciple.

Ramakrishna passed away in 1886. Swami Vivekananda and a few other disciples of Ramkrishna decided to become monks and renounced everything. In 1890, he set out on a on a long journey across the length and breadth of the country. This brought him in close contact with various kinds of people: rich as well as poor, good as well as bad. He reached Kanyakumari, the southernmost tip of mainland India in December 1892 and started meditating on a lone rock. He meditated for three days; this rock has presently become popular as the Vivekananda memorial .

His greatest moment came when in 1893, he went to the United States and addressed the Conference of World Religions in Chicago. He mesmerized everyone with his speech. He also traveled to England. He returned to India in 1897 after four years and started the Sri Ramakrishna Mission in 1897. This great saint and philosopher passed away for his heavenly abode on July 4, 1902.

2.Raja Ram Mohan Roy:
Raja Ram Mohan Roy was the founder of the Brahmo Samaj and is known as the Father of the Bengal Renaissance. Born in Radhanagore, Bengal on May 22, 1772, he is most well-known for his efforts to abolish the evil practice of sati.

He founded the Brahmo Samaj in 1828 along with Dwarkanath Tagore. He initially worked as a moneylender and from 1803 to 1814 worked with the British East India Company. Ram Mohan Roy also campaigned against polygamy.

Though he campaigned vigorously against practices like Sati, idolatry and polygamy, he was not against tradition and religion. He was a scholar of the Upanishads. Besides, he campaigned for the right of widows to remarry, the right of women to hold property and the right of women to education.

It was his firm opinion that English-language education was much better than the traditional Indian education system, and he opposed the grant of government funds to support schools teaching Sanskrit. In 1822, he started a school based on the Western scheme of education.

The Brahmo Samaj was set up to fight against the social and religious evils in society prevalent during that time. In 1831 Ram Mohan Roy traveled to the United Kingdom as an ambassador of the Mughal empire. He died in the U.K of meningitis on September 27, 1833.

3.Mother Teresa:
The "Saint of the Gutters, " Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje, Macedonia on August 27, 1910. She was very religious from her childhood days and at the age of eighteen, she left her parental home in Skopje and joined the Sisters of Loreto, an Irish community of nuns which ran many missions in India. She first landed in India in May 1931. She taught as a teacher from 1931 to 1948, but her heart lay elsewhere. In 1948 she began her work among the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta. She started running an open-air school for slum children and on October 7, 1950, she started her own order, The Missionaries of Charity".

The Missionaries of Charity spread to different countries all over the world undertaking relief work in times of natural calamities like floods, earthquakes, epidemics and famines. Besides, it runs shelters for alcoholics, homeless, and AIDS victims in different countries.

Her work won her accolades from individuals and governments all across the Globe. She was awarded the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize in 1971 and the Nehru Prize for her promotion of international peace and understanding in 1972, besides the Templeton and Magsaysay awards. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.

History: Ancient India

2008-11-18T07:33:00.001-08:00

History: Ancient India

1.The Great Ashoka:

ASHOKA or better known as the Emperor Ashoka The Great was a Mauryan King. He was the son of the Emperor Bindusara and one of his queens named Dharma. It is believed that Buddha prophesized about the birth of Ashoka, in the story of the 'Gift of Dust'. He said that a king would be born in Pataliputra who will reign one of the four continents and adorn Jambudweep with my relics and spread Buddhism in the whole world. And Ashoka did exactly same as prophesized by the Buddha.

The name Ashoka means 'without sorrow', he has been referred with many other names such as 'Devanampriya' meaning 'the beloved of the Gods' ,and 'Priyadarshi', one who regards everyone amiably.

Ashoka is known in the history of the India as well as world mainly for two things, first one for the battle of Kalinga and the second one for the spread of Buddhism in India and across the world. He ruled India from 273 BC to 232 BC. He made many conquests during his rule and reigned over most parts of India, parts of South Asia and Persia.

During his initial days Ashoka was very cruel, and is believed to have killed his half brothers in order to get the throne. As a result he began to be called as a Chand Ashoka, meaning brutal Ashoka. He did not miss any opportunity to invade the neighboring kingdoms, but the war of kalinga and its subsequent conquest is believed to be the last conquest of King Ashoka. It is believed that in this war around 100,000 people from each side were killed and many more became homeless. After watching such a scene of devastation Ashoka screamed 'What have I done?' and he changed his policy. From then onwards he laid more emphasis on the welfare of his state and adopted Buddhism

He preached Buddhism all over India and abroad. For this he made many Stupas at the places associated with the life of Buddha. Due to all this he earned the epitaph of Dharmaashoka, meaning the Pious Ashoka. He sent his son Mahendra and daughter Sanghmitra to Ceylon to spread Buddhism there. Ashoka built thousands of Stupas and Viharas for the followers of Buddhism. The pillar of Ashoka at Sarnath is the most famous of all the Stupas, and is the national emblem of India. He ruled for almost thirty-eight years and died in 232 BC. He is remembered in India even today for the service he did to the Buddhism.

Science fiction novelist H.G. Wells was very right when he wrote of Ashoka, "in the history of the world there have been thousands of kings and emperors who called themselves 'their highness', their majesties', and their exalted majesties' and so on. They shone for a brief moment, and as quickly disappeared. But Ashoka shines and shines brightly like a bright star, even unto this day."

2.Chandragupta Maurya:

Born in 340 BC Chandragupta was the founder of Mauryan Empire in India. He was the first ruler who consolidated almost whole of India and for the first time ruled the unified India. Historian are of different opinion regarding the birth of Chandragupta, some believe him to be from Magadha, as the son of a Nanda Prince, while others connect him to Gandhara. He was the disciple of Chanakya, a teacher in Taxila.

Chanakya saw the prince of Taxila, Ambhi, making treaty with Alexander, and felt very bad and realized the need of an empire that can stand against the foreign invasion. He found child Chandragupta to be very brilliant in military and administrative skills and started tutoring him. Chandragupta with the help of Chanakya, started building the famous Mauryan Empire, and defeated King Dhana Nanda. He formed many other alliances and built a composite army of Yavanas, Kambojas, Shakas, Kiratas, Parasikas and Bahlikas. After defeating Dhana Nanda he acquired his army and territory and used all this in acquiring more territories. His empire extended from Bay of Bengal in the East to Arabian Sea in the West. He entered into an alliance with Seleucus in 305 BC, and as a result he got Western Territories of Southern Afghanistan and parts of Persia. Seleucus sent his ambassador, Megasthenes, to the court of Chandragupta Maurya. Megasthenes wrote an elaborate account of the army and power of the king.

In his last days Chandragupta gave away his throne to his son, Bindusara, and spent his life as an ascetic. He ended his life in self-starvation at Sravenbelagola, a place in Karnataka, leaving behind a mighty Mauryan Empire.

Medical and Technology Achievements

2008-11-18T07:33:00.000-08:00

Science and Technology : Medical and Technology Achievements

1.N.R. Narayanamurthy:

N.R. Narayana Murthy, the founder of Infosys Technologies is one of the most famous personalities in India's I-T sector. Born on August 20, 1946, he obtained a degree in electrical engineering from the National Institute of Engineering under University of Mysore in 1967 and went on to do his Masters from IIT Kanpur in 1969.

He joined Patni Computer Systems in Pune. While at Pune, he met his wife Sudha Murty In 1981, he founded Infosys alongwith with six otherpeople. He served as president of the National Association of Software and Service Companies, India from 1992 to 1994.

Murthy was the CEO of Infosys for twenty years, and was succeeded by Nandan Nilekani in March 2002. He functioned as the Executive Chairman of the Board and Chief Mentor from 2002 to 2006.

He is on the governing bodies of many leading institutes like the International Institute of Information Technology - Bangalore, and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He is a member of the Advisory Boards and Councils of various well-known institutions like the Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Corporate Governance initiative at the Harvard Business School, Yale University and the University of Tokyo's President's Council.

Besides, he has served on the Central Board of the Reserve Bank of India, as a member of the Prime Minister's council on trade and industry, as a member of the Asia Advisory Board of British Telecommunications and was the Chairman of the committee on Corporate Governance appointed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in 2003.

Narayanamurthy has won several accolades in India and abroad. In 2000, he was awarded the Padma Shri and was voted the World Entrepreneur of the Year - 2003 by Ernst andYoung. In 2001, his name was included by TIME / CNN in the list of twenty-five, most influential global executives. He was ranked by the Economist as the 8th among the top 15 most admired global leaders in 2005.

Though he retired on 20th August, 2006, he continues to be the Non-Executive Chairman.

2.Sabeer Bhatia:

Sabeer Bhatia-co-founder of Hotmail, is one among select group of people who have made it big in America's Silicon Valley. Born in Chandigarh, Sabeer Bhatia did his schooling from St. Joseph's Boys' High School, Bangalore. He graduated from Caltech and went to Stanford to pursue his MS in Electrical Engineering. Sabeer attended many lectures by famous like Steve Jobs and was determined to make it big. After completing his Masters, he joined Apple computers. He left Apple soon after. He teamed up with his partner to create a web-based e-mail system Microsoft bought Hotmail on December 30th, 1997, for a reported sum of $400M. After the success of Hotmail, Bhatia in April 1999, he started another venture, Arzoo Inc, which however had to be shut down. In 2006, Arzoo was relaunched.

Bhatia has won many awards. Among the notable ones include the "Entrepreneur of the Year" awarded by the venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson in 1997, the "TR100" award, presented by MIT to 100 young innovators expected to have the greatest impact on technology in the next few years. Besides, he was named by TIME magazine as one of the "People to Watch" in International Business in 2002.

3.Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty:

Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty, a renowned cardiac surgeon founded the Narayana Hrudayalaya , a multi-specialty hospital in the outskirts of Bangalore which has earned fame across all of India and the neighbouring countries. Even patients from developed countries have been flocking to this hospital because of the high-quality and affordable treatment. Dr. Shetty is also credited with introducing Yashasvini, a health insurance scheme provided at very nominal rates in collaboration with the Government of Karnataka.

He did his graduation and post-graduation in Medicine from the Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore, before moving to the United Kingdom for his education. After attending a basic training in Cardiac Surgery at the West Midlands Cardiothoracic Rotation programme, he trained at the Guy's Hospital in London between 1983 and 1989. After returned to India in 1989, he started off at the B.M. Birla Hospital in Kolkata. He then moved on to Bangalore. In 1997 he teamed up to start the Manipal Heart Foundation. He has single-handedly brought down the cost of many complicated heart surgeries, bringing them within the reach of many people.

He has a long list of achievements. Dr.Shetty is the first heart surgeon in India to perform neo-natal open-heart surgery, the first surgeon in India to use an artificial heart and many others. He operates kids under twelve for free and a major chunk of his operations are on children.

Science and Technology: Scientists

2008-11-18T07:06:00.000-08:00

Science and Technology: Scientists

1.Aryabhatta:
Aryabhatta is a renowned mathematician and astronomer of ancient India. He was born in 476 AD in Kerala. He studied at the University of Nalanda. One of his major work was Aryabhatiya written in 499 AD. The book dealt with many topics like astronomy, spherical trigonometry, arithmetic, algebra and plane trigonometry. He jotted his inventions in mathematics and astronomy in verse form. The book was translated into Latin in the 13th century. Through the translated Latin version of the Aryabhattiya, the European mathematicians learned how to calculate the areas of triangles, volumes of spheres as well as how to find out the square and cube root.

In the field of astronomy, Aryabhatta was the pioneer to infer that the Earth is spherical and it rotates on its own axis which results in day and night. He even concluded that the moon is dark and shines because of the light of sun. He gave a logical explanation to the theory of solar and lunar eclipses. He declared that eclipses are caused due to the shadows casted by the Earth and the moon. Aryabhatta proposed the geocentric model of the solar system which states that the Earth is in the center of the universe and also laid the foundation for the concept of Gravitation. His propounded methods of astronomical calculations in his Aryabhatta-Siddhatha which was used to make the the Panchanga (Hindu calendar). What Copernicus and Galileo propounded was suggested by Aryabhatta nearly 1500 years ago.

Aryabhatta's contribution in mathematics is unparalleled. He suggested formula to calculate the areas of a triangle and a circle, which were correct. The Gupta ruler, Buddhagupta, appointed him the Head of the University for his exceptional work. Aryabhatta gave the irrational value of pi. He deduced ? = 62832/20000 = 3.1416 claiming, that it was an approximation. He was the first mathematician to give the 'table of the sines', which is in the form of a single rhyming stanza, where each syllable stands for increments at intervals of 225 minutes of arc or 3 degrees 45'. Alphabetic code has been used by him to define a set of increments. If we use Aryabhatta's table and calculate the value of sin(30) (corresponding to hasjha) which is 1719/3438 = 0.5; the value is correct. His alphabetic code is commonly known as the Aryabhata cipher.

2.Vikram Sarabhai:
Considered as the Father of the Indian Space Program, Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai was born on 12th August 1919 to Ambalal Sarabhai and Sarala Sarabhai. After matriculating from the Gujarat College, he cleared the Intermediate Science Examination and moved to London. He joined St. John's College, University of Cambridge. Due to the problems of Second World War he returned to India and joined the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

This innovator got married to the famous dancer of that time, Mrinalini Sarabhai in 1942. The whole family of Vikram Sarabhai was involved in freedom struggle and he himself was greatly influenced by Mahatma Gandhi. Vikram Sarabhai again went abroad and after getting doctorate's degree for his thesis 'Cosmic Ray Investigation in Tropical Latitudes', Sarabhai returned to India in 1947. After returning to an independent India he felt the need of science and technology for the development of the nation. He wholeheartedly plunged into developing the Space Programs of India. He was not an ordinary scientist interested in just development of rockets and space programs instead was the man who was inclined to use all the aspects of science and technology as 'levers of development'.

To help the cause of the developing India, Vikram Sarabhai founded the Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad. He was not just a scientist, but a dreamer, an innovator who not only developed science and technology institutions but also laid the foundation of some of the developmental and management institutes. The Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad and the Nehru Foundation for Development are the two world- famous organizations established by this philanthropist. He also set up Ahmadabad Textiles Industrial Research Association(ATIRA),Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) and Blind Man Association(BMA). One of the greatest achievements of Vikram Sarabhai was the development of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). It was due to his efforts that this space organization came into being.

Vikram Sarabhai left for his heavenly abode on 31st December 1971 at Kovalam.

3.Sir C.V. Raman:
Bharat Ratna and Nobel Prize winner Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman is known for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the Raman effect, named after him. He received the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work.

Born in Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu on November 7, 1888, he completed his Bachelors and Masters degrees from Presidency College, Madras. Shortly thereafter, he joined the Indian Finance Department as an Assistant Accountant General in Kolkata.

Later, he started doing experiments at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS). In 1917, Raman resigned from his government service and took up the newly created post of Palit Professorship in Physics at the University of Calcutta. At the same time, he continued with his research at IACS. He presided over the 16th session of the Indian Science Congress in 1929.

In addition to his Nobel prize winning work on the scattering of light, Raman worked on the acoustics of musical instruments. In 1934, he became the director of the newly established Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and in 1947 was appointed as the first National Professor by the new government of free India.

He was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1954 and received the Lenin Peace Prize in 1957. The government has honoured Sir CV Raman by declaring 28th February every year as National Science Day to commemorate Raman's discovery in 1928.

4.Jagdish Chandra Bose:
Eminent scientist Jagdish Chandra Bose was the first to prove that plants have feelings. Born on November 30, 1858 in Mymensingh in present-day Bangladesh, Jagdish Chandra Bose is credited with inventing wireless telegraphy a year before Marconi patented his invention. Jagdish's father Bhagabanchandra Bose served as a Deputy Magistrate. Young Jagdish Chandra Bose had his early education in his village school before moving to Kolkata in 1869. He graduated in physical sciences in 1879, before leaving for England in 1880.

He studied medicine at the London University for a year but could not complete the course due to his ill health. He moved to Cambridge after getting a scholarship to study Natural Science at Christ's College, Cambridge. In 1885, he came back to India with a B.Sc. degree. Upon his return, he was offered lectureship at Presidency College, Kolkata, but on a salary that was half of what was paid to his English colleagues. Though he accepted the job, he refused to draw his salary in protest till the time the college conceded his demand and he was paid full salary from the date of joining. Many of his students went on to become famous in their own right, which include names like Satyendra Nath Bose and Meghnad Saha.

In 1894, Jagadish Chandra Bose started devoting his time and energy to pure research. He carried out experiments involving refraction, diffraction and other scientific processes. He shifted from physics to the study of metals and plants. Jagdish Chandra Bose showed that plants too have life and invented an instrument to record the pulse of plants. Besides his research, he founded the Bose Institute at Kolkata, mainly dedicated to the study of plants. This great scientist died on November 23, 1937.

5.Homi J. Bhabha:
Famous Indian nuclear physicist Homi Jehangir Bhabha was born on 30 October 1909 in Mumbai. Bhabha played a key role in the development of the Indian atomic energy program. Widely referred to as the father of India's nuclear weapons program, Bhabha had his education at the Elphinstone College and the Royal Institute of Science before obtaining his doctorate from the University of Cambridge in 1934. He was influenced greatly by the legendary Paul Dirac. Bhabha was a research scientist at the Cavendish Laboratories at Cambridge. When he was stranded in India as a result of the Second World War, he set up the Cosmic Ray Research Unit at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore under Nobel Laureate C. V. Raman in 1939.

Dr. Bhabha is credited with establishing the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research(TIFR) with the help of eminent industrialist J. R. D. Tata. After India won independence from the British, Bhabha established the Atomic Energy Commission of India in 1948. He represented India in various international forums including the United Nations and his tenure represented a high in terms of the progress of India's atomic energy programme. The climax of this programme came on May 18, 1974 when India exploded a nuclear device at Pokhran, Rajasthan joining a select club of nations.

This legendary scientist died in an air crash near Mont Blanc on Januuary 24, 1966. Many possible theories have been advanced for the aircrash, including a conspiracy theory. The atomic energy centre in Trombay was renamed as Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in his honour. In addition to being a famous scientist, Bhabha was also a painter and a classical music and opera enthusiast, besides being an amateur botanist.

6.Harish Chandra:
Harish Chandra was a renowned physicist and mathematician of India. His father Chandrakishore was a civil engineer. Harish Chandra spent his childhood at his maternal grandfather's home in Kanpur. At an early age he received education from a tutor. He studied at Christ Church High School till the age of fourteen, and passed his intermediate degree from Kanpur. He went to the University of Allahabad and studied theoretical physics, influenced by Dirac's Principles of Quantum Mechanics. He passed graduation in 1941 and achieved master's degree in 1943. He was a postgraduate research fellow under the supervision of Homi Bhabha on problems in theoretical physics, at the Indian Institute of Science at Bangalore. He married Lalitha Kale and had two daughters.

K S Krishnan was Harish Chandra's teacher at Allahabad University; he recommended his name to Dirac for research work at Cambridge for his Ph.D. degree. In 1945, Harish-Chandra studied for his doctorate degree at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, under Dirac's supervision. However, he was not quite satisfied with Dirac's lectures when he realized that Dirac was actually reading from his books. During his days in Cambridge, he started to loose interest in Physics and took more interest in mathematics and attended the lecture courses of Littlewood and Hall. While attending a lecture by Pauli, he pointed out an error in Pauli's work. Later Pauli and Harish Chandra became very close friends. In 1947, he received his doctorate degree for his thesis 'Infinite irreducible representations of the Lorentz group. In the thesis he gave "a complete classification of the irreducible unitary representations of SL(2,C)".

Harish Chandra accompanied Dirac to Princeton from 1947 to 1948 and worked as his assistant. During his stay at United States, the leading mathematicians Weyl, Artin and Chevalley who were working there had great impact on him. He remained at Princeton for another year even after Dirac came back to Cambridge. At Harvard from 1949-50, he was influenced by Zariski.. Harish Chandra was a faculty at the Columbia University from 1950-63, this duration is considered to be the most productive period of his career where he worked on representations of semisimple Lie groups. During this period he worked in many institutions. From 1955-56 he was at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, from 1957-58 as a Guggenheim Fellow in Paris.

Harish Chandra formulated a fundamental theory of representations of Lie groups and Lie algebras. He even extended the concept of a characteristic representation of finite-dimensional of semisimple Lie groups to infinite-dimensional representations of a case and formulated a Weyl's character formula analogue. Some of his other contributions are: the specific determination of the Plancherel measure for semisimple groups, the evaluation of the representations of discrete series, based on the results of Eisenstein series and in the concept of automorphic forms, his "philosophy of cusp forms", including the real Lie groups, but also p-adic groups or groups over adele rings. While working at the Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton from 1963, he was appointed IBM-von Neumann Professor in 1968.

7.Bhaskara I:
Bhaskara I was an Indian mathematician of the 7th century, who probably lived between c.600- c.680. He was most likely the first to use a circle for the zero in the Hindu-Arabic decimal system, and while commenting on Aryabhata's work, he evaluated an extraordinary rational approximation of the sine function. There is very little information about Bhaskara's life. He is said to be born near Saurashtra in Gujarat and died in Ashmaka. He was educated by his father in astronomy. He is considered to be a follower of Aryabhata I and one of the most renowned scholars of Aryabhata's astronomical school.

Bhaskara I wrote two treatises, the Mahabhaskariya and the Laghubhaskariya. He also wrote commentaries on the work of Aryabhata I entitled Aryabhatiyabhasya. The Mahabhaskariya comprises of eight chapters dealing with mathematical astronomy. The book deals with topics such as: the longitudes of the planets; association of the planets with each other and also with the bright stars; the lunar crescent; solar and lunar eclipses; and rising and setting of the planets. Bhaskara I suggested a formula which was astonishingly accurate value of Sine. The formula is: sin x = 16x (p - x)/[5p2 - 4x (p - x)] Bhaskara I wrote the Aryabhatiyabhasya in 629,, which is a commentary on the Aryabhatiya written by Aryabhata I. Bhaskara I commented only on the 33 verses of Aryabhatiya which is about mathematical astronomy and discusses the problems of the first degree of indeterminate equations and trigonometric formula. While discussing about Aryabhatiya he discussed about cyclic quadrilateral. He was the first mathematician to discuss about quadrilaterals whose four sides are not equal with none of the opposite sides parallel.

For many centuries, the approximate value of p was considered v10. But Bhaskara I did not accept this value and believed that p had an irrational value which later proved to be true. Some of the contributions of Bhaskara I to mathematics are: numbers and symbolism, the categorization of mathematics, the names and solution of the first degree equations, quadratic equations, cubic equations and equations which have more than one unknown value, symbolic algebra, the algorithm method to solve linear indeterminate equations which was later suggested by Euclid, and formulated certain tables for solving equations that occurred in astronomy.

8.Bhaskara II:
Bhaskara II is a well-known mathematician of ancient India. He was born in 1114 AD in Vijayapura, India. Bhaskara II is also known as Bhaskaracharya, which means "Bhaskara the Teacher". His father Mahesvara was as an astrologer, who taught him mathematics, which he later passed on to his son Loksamudra.

Bhaskara II was the head of the astronomical observatory at Ujjain, the chief mathematical center of ancient India. It goes to the credit of Varahamihira and Brahmagupta, the leading mathematicians who worked there and built up this school of mathematical astronomy. He wrote six books and the seventh book, which is attributed to him, is considered to be a forgery. The subjects of his six works are arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry, calculus, geometry, and astronomy. The six works are: Lilavati on mathematics; Bijaganita on algebra; the Siddhantasiromani which is divided into two parts: mathematical astronomy and sphere; the Vasanabhasya of Mitaksara which is Bhaskaracharya's views on the Siddhantasiromani ; the Karanakutuhala or Brahmatulya in which he simplified the concepts of Siddhantasiromani ; and the Vivarana which comments on the Shishyadhividdhidatantra of Lalla. From the mathematical point of view the first three of these works are the most interesting.

Bhaskara II wrote Siddhanta Shiromani at the age of 36 in 1150 AD. This colossal work is divided into four parts Lilawati, Beejaganit, Ganitadhyaya and Goladhyaya and consists of about 1450 verses. Each part of the book consists of huge number of verses and can be considered as a separate book: Lilawati has 278, Beejaganit has 213, Ganitadhyaya has 451 and Goladhyaya has 501 verses. He formulated simple ways of calculations from Arithmetic to Astronomy in this book. He wrote Lilawati is an excellent lucid and poetic language. It has been translated in various languages throughout the world.

Few important contributions of BhaskarII to mathematics are as follows:

Terms for numbers

In English, the multiples of 1000 are termed as thousand, million, billion, trillion, quadrillion etc. These terms were named recently in English, but Bhaskaracharya gave the terms for numbers in multiples of ten which are as follows: eka(1), dasha(10), shata(100), sahastra(1000), ayuta(10,000), laksha(100,000), prayuta (1,000,000=million), koti(107), arbuda(108), abja(109=billion), kharva (1010), nikharva (1011), mahapadma (1012=trillion), shanku(1013), jaladhi(1014), antya(1015=quadrillion), Madhya (1016) and parardha(1017).

Kuttak

Kuttak according to modern mathematics is 'indeterminate equation of first order'. In the western world, the method of solving such equations was called as 'pulverizer'. Bhaskara suggested a generalized solution to get multiple answers for these equations.

Chakrawaal

Chakrawaal, according to western mathematics is the "indeterminate equation of second order". It is also called Pell's equation. The equation was first solved by an ancient Indian mathematician, Brahmagupta (628 AD) and given in his Brahmasphutasiddhanta. Bhaskara II converted the method and gave a generalized solution.

Simple mathematical methods

Bhaskara II suggested simple methods to calculate the squares, square roots, cube, and cube roots of big numbers. The Pythagoras theorem was proved by him in only two lines. Bhaskara's 'Khandameru'is the famous Pascal Triangle. Pascal, the European mathematician was born 500 years after Bhaskara. In Lilawati, he solved several problems on permutations and combinations and called the method as 'ankapaash'. He even gave an approximate value of PI as 22/7, which is 3.1416. He was even familiar with the concept of infinity and called it as 'khahar rashi', which means 'anant'.

He died in 1185 in Ujjain, India

India's Leading Sports Persons

2008-11-18T06:28:00.000-08:00

India's Leading Sports Persons

1.Kapil Dev(Cricket):
The Haryana Hurricane Kapil Dev Ramlal Nikhanj was born on 6 January 1959 in Chandigarh. He led India to their first and only World Cup title in 1983 and was named by Wisden as the Indian Cricketer of the Century in 2002. Kapil Dev made his international cricket debut against Pakistan at Faisalabad in 1978-79. When the Pakistani team returned to India for a six-Test series in 1979-80, Kapil's spectacular performance fetched him the "Man of the Series" award. He was successful in the next season in Australia too. He bagged the "Man of the Series" award against England in the home series of 1981-82 as well as the away series in 1982. He was appointed as the captain of the Indian cricket team after India's dismal performance in its tour to Pakistan in 1982. He lost the captainship in 1984 to Sunil Gavaskar, but regained it in 1985. In 1996, Kapil led India to a Test series win over England.

He was a very successful bowler too. Kapil became the second bowler ever to take 400 wickets in Test cricket in 1991. He went on to become the highest Test wicket-taker in the world in 1994, a record which was broken by Courtney Walsh in 1999. Kapil's name has entered the record books for being the only player to have scored 4,000 Test runs and taken 400 Test wickets. In 1988, Kapil become the highest wicket-taker in ODI cricket before his record was broken by Wasim Akram in 1994.

A very attacking player, he loved to take the fight to the opposition's camp. One of his most memorable innings was in a match en route to the World Cup final of 1983 when he scored 175 not out against Zimbabwe, rescuing India from a precarious position at 17/5 and finally turning the game in India's favour.

He retired from cricket in 1994 and was appointed as the coach of the Indian national cricket team in 1999, but he resigned in 2000. He was awarded the Arjuna Award for 1979-80, the Padma Shri in 1982 and the Padma Bhushan in 1991.

2.Dhyan Chand(Hockey):

India's hockey wizard, Major Dhyan Chand Singh was born on 29 August 1905 in Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh. The title "Chand" (Moon) was given by his first coach, who predicted that he would one day shine like the chand(Moon). His father was in the Army. Dhyan Chand also followed in the footsteps of his father when joined the army at the young age of 16.

Major Dhyan Chand Singh (August 29, 1905 – December 3, 1979) was a former Indian hockey player. He was part of the Gold winning Indian team in three Olympic Games (1928 Amsterdam, 1932 Los Angeles, 1936 Berlin). He was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honour, in 1956. He got the title Chand or Moon from his first coach, Pankaj Gupta, who had predicted that he would one day shine like a Chand or Moon. Even today Dhyan Chand is the only Indian sports person who can lay claim to be the unchallenged master of a sport.

In 1928 Chand was selected to represent the Indian hockey team in the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Chand helped India win the gold medal winning the finals against the Netherlands by a score of 3-0. He played in the centre-forward position and scored two of India's three goals.

In the 1932 Summer Olympics held at Los Angeles, USA, the team under Lal Shah Bukhari defended their title winning the gold. The team routed the United States hockey team 23-1, a world record that stood until 2003. He contributed eight of those goals, and along with his brother Roop Singh formed a formidable core of the team. He scored 12 goals in India's two matches in that Olympics and he had scored 133 goals out of India's 338 in that year. Dhyan Chand and Roop Singh scored 25 out of the 35 goals scored by India. This gives an indication of the havoc the two brothers caused among the defenders. They were called the 'hockey twins'.

Dhyan Chand captained the Indian team in 1936 Summer Olympics final. A crowd of 40,000 that included the Maharaja of Baroda and a large number of Indians who had travelled from all over the Continent and England had turned out to see the final battle. The audience included Adolf Hitler, and top Nazi officials like Hermann Goering, Joseph Goebells, Joachim Ribbentrop and others. India Won the finals with 8-1, of which 3 goals were scored from Dhyan Chand, 1 from Roop Singh. Impressed by his performance, Adolf Hitler supposedly offered to make Dhyan Chand a Field Marshal in the German army, but the latter refused. Chand scored 59 of India's 175 goals in the pre-Olympic matches and 11 of 38 in the Olympics.

Dhyan Chand's imposing statue at the entrance of the National Stadium (main venue of the inaugural Asian Games in 1951), One of his statues is near the India Gate, New Delhi while another has been erected in 2005 at Medak in Andhra Pradesh. One of the most touching gestures came from the residents of Vienna, Austria who built a statue of the Indian with four hands and four sticks, signifying his unparallel control over the ball.In 2002, the union sports ministry of India introduced a Lifetime Achievement Award in sports in the name of Dhyan Chand.

In 1956, The Government of India honoured him that year by conferring him the Padma Bhushan (India's third highest civilian honour).

He died in 1979. A year after his death, the Indian Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp in his honour. In addition, Dhyan Chand National Stadium in New Delhi is named in his honor. 29 August, his birthday is celebrated as the National Sports Day in India.

3.Viswanathan Anand (Chess):

Viswanathan Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster and the current World Chess Champion. Anand won the FIDE World Chess Championship in 2000 for the first time after defeating Alexei Shirov 3.5 - 0.5 in the final match held at Tehran, thereby becoming the first Indian to win that title. He became the undisputed World Champion in 2007 and defended his title against Vladimir Kramnik in 2008. With this win, he became the first player in chess history to have won the World Championship in three different formats: Knockout, Tournament, and Match. He will next defend his title in the World Chess Championship 2009 against the winner of the challenger match between Veselin Topalov and Gata Kamsky. He had also won 2000 FIDE World Bitz Chess Championship, to become the first World blitz chess champion. He had also won 2003 FIDE World Rapid Chess Champion, Anand won this event ahead of ten of the other top twelve players in the world, beating Kramnik in the final.

In 2007 he was awarded the second highest civilian award of India, the Padma Vibhushan. He is also the first recipient of Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 1991-92, India's highest sporting honour.

4.Geet Sethi(Billiards):
The Indian Billiards player who ruled the sport of billiards throughout the 1990s is none other than Geet Sethi. He created history by breaking the world record of 1276 points under the two-pot rule in the 1992 World Professional Billiards Championship. He was honored with the greatest award in sports, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna in 1992-1993. He was also awarded the Padma Shri in 1986.

Geet Sethi was born on 17th April,1961 in New Delhi. He did his schooling from St Xavier's School, Ahmedabad and completed his college education from St Xavier's College, Ahmedabad. He has a MBA degree from BK School of Management.

He gained recognition when he won the World Amateur Billiards Championships in 1985 and 1987. He made a147-point break in snooker at the 1989 National Snooker Championships held in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. He was the first amateur to achieve this record.

He won the World Professional Billiards Championship in 1993, 1995,1998 and 2001. Side-by-side he also won three world amateur titles in 1985, 1987 and 2001.

Nowadays, he is involved in a project named the Gold Quest which aims to support sportsmen who have the potential to win in the Olympics.

5.Vijay Amritraj & Leander Paes(Tennis):
Vijay Amritraj:
Often appearing in the commentary box for Fox Sports and ESPN Star Sports, Vijay Amritraj has reigned as one of the premier tennis players in Asia for over two decades. Born in Chennai on 14th December, 1953

Amritraj achieved his first significant success in singles in 1973 when he reached the quarter-final stage at two Biggest Grand Slam events. At Wimbledon he lost 7–5 in the fifth set to the eventual champion Jan Kodeš and later that summer at the US Open, lost to Ken Rosewall after having beaten Rod Laver two rounds earlier.
Amritraj repeated his feat in US open at Forest Hills in 1974 when he went out in the Quarter-final stage again to Rosewall after beating a young Björn Borg in the second round. It was not until 1981 when Amritraj again reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon, going out in five sets to Jimmy Connors, he was up two sets but lost the last two convincingly in a 2–6, 5–7, 6–4, 6–3, 6–2 loss.
He qualified in the finals twice in 1974 and 1987 in the Davis Cup.
His highest ranking in Men’s Singles was No. 16 in the world in 1980. The Indian Government has awarded him the Padma Shri Award, which is one of the prestigious honors of the country.

Leander Adrian Paes:
Born in Goa on June 17, 1973, he won the Wimbledon Junior title in 1990 and claimed the No.1 spot in the junior world-rankings.

In 1996, he won a bronze medal in Men’s single’s at the Atlanta Olympics.
In 1998, The doubles team of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi reached the Semi-Finals of 3 grand slams, the Australian Open, the French Open and the US Open. July 6, 1998, he won the ATP singles title at Newport, US beating Neville Godwin in finals and had beaten Pete Sampras at the New Haven ATP tournament in the same year.
In 1999, the duo reached the finals of all the 4 grand slams winning the Wimbledon and the French Open, thus becoming the first Indian pair to win a doubles event at a Grand slam event. Paes also teamed up with Lisa Raymond to win the Mixed doubles event at Wimbledon, by beating Jonas Björkman and Anna Kournikova in finals. The year also marked his ascent to the No.1 ranking in the doubles.
In 2001, he along with Bhupathi won the French Open doubles.
In 2003, Leander won the Mixed doubles events at the Australian Open and Wimbledon with Martina Navaratilova, both in 2003.
In 2004, he finished 4th place in doubles of Olympic Games.
In 2006, His next Grand Slam success was in the U.S. Open doubles event partnering with Martin Damm & also won two gold’s in Doha Asian Games in the Men's doubles (partnering Mahesh Bhupathi) and Mixed doubles(partnering Sania Mirza).
In 2008, partnering with Cara Black won the US open Mixed Doubles title. The doubles team of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi reached the Quarter-finals of 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Even after his 1st grand slam title 10 years back he is still ranked world No.10 in doubles as on November 16, 2008.

He was a recipient of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in the year 1996-1997 and in 2001, he was awarded the Padma Shri.

NRI’S

2008-11-18T06:25:00.000-08:00

NRI’S

1.Arun Sarin:
The CEO(Chief Executive Officer) of the Britian-based telecom major Vodafone Group plc., Arun Sarin was born on October 21, 1954 at Panchmari, Madhya Pradesh. After doing his schooling from the military boarding school in Bangalore, Arun graduated from IIT Kharagpur in 1975. During his school and IIT days, he excelled in studies, sports and various extracurricular activities. Thereafter, he moved to the United States where he did his MS in Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 1977, going on to complete an MBA from the same university in 1978. The same year he started his career with a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm. In 1981 he moved on to Natomas as a corporate development manager. He started his telecom career in 1984, when he joined the Pacific Telesis Group in San Francisco. The year 1995 saw Arun Sarin launching a new wireless-communications company with his mentor Sam Ginn. Arun Sarin served as the President and Chief Operating Officer of AirTouch from 1997 to 1999. The year 1999 saw AirTouch and Vodafone merging to form Vodafone-AirTouch, where he became the chief executive. Arun Sarin resigned from Vodafone-AirTouch in 2000 and became the CEO at InfoSpace, an Internet infrastructure company. He moved away from Infospace in July 2001 and started a telecommunications company called Accel-KKR Telecom. In 2003, Arun became the CEO of Vodafone. He became the CEO of Vodafone after its takeover driven expansion phase between 1999 and 2002. He has focused his energies on emerging markets like India. Under his stewardship, Vodafone successfully bid U$11.1 billion for a majority stake in the Indian mobile operator, Hutch.

2.Amar Bose:
The founder and chairman of the Bose Corporation, Amar Bose was born on November 2, 1929. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, his father, Nani Gopal Bose, was an Indian freedom fighter who had fled to the United States to avoid being persecuted by the British police in India. Amar Bose obtained a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). During the World War II, Amar Bose took the help of some of his school friends and started repairing model trains and home radios to increase his family's income. He went to Eindhoven, Netherlands where he spent a year. He then spent a year in India as a Fulbright student. Upon his return to MIT as an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering, Bose invented a stereo loudspeaker with brilliant acoustic qualities. He founded his company in 1964 and the rest is history. Today, the Bose Corporation is a byname for quality which manufactures top-end products for homes, cars professional audio systems and conducts basic research in acoustics, automotive systems and other areas. Amar Bose was a Professor of electrical engineering at MIT for many years until his retirement in Fall 2000. He has earned many awards including the Inventor Of The Year award in 1997 and the Distinguished Service Citation in 2007. Amar Bose was listed on the 2006 Forbes 400 with an estimated net worth of $1.5 billion.

3.Lakshmi Nivas Mittal:
Lakshmi Nivas Mittal was born on June 15, 1950 in Sadulpur, Rajasthan, India and is presently the CEO & Chairman of Arcelor Mittal. Lakshmi Nivas Mittal was listed in the Forbes List of Billionaires in 2006 as the the richest Indian and the fifth richest man in the world with an estimated wealth around of $25.0 billion and is the richest man in the United Kingdom. Young Lakshmi Nivas Mittal spent his first years in Sadulpur, before his father moved to Kolkata. Lakshmi graduated from St. Xavier's College, Calcutta. He founded Mittal Steel in 1976, which soon became a global steel producer with operations on 14 countries. His success mantra lies in the identification, acquisition and turnaround of many loss making steel companies all across the world. In 1994, he took over the international operations of his family's steel business. Arcelor Mittal is presently the world's largest producer of low and mid-grade steels, with operations in Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, South Africa, Poland, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Kazakhstan and many other countries. Mittal is considered to be close to the British Prime Minister Tony Blair and has donated large sums of money to the Labour party coffers. He bought his residence at 18-19 Kensington Palace Gardens from Formula One car racing boss Bernie Ecclestone in 2004 for £57.1 million ($105.7 million), the highest-ever price paid for a house. His son Aditya is the CFO(Chief Financial Officer) of Arcelor Mittal. Mr. Mittal has been nominated as a member of the Foreign Investment Council in Kazakhstan, the International Investment Council in South Africa, the World Economic Forum's International Business Council, besides being a Director of ICICI Bank Limited and being on the Advisory Board of the Kellogg School of Management in the United States.

Business and Economy

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Business & Economy

India's top business gurus, industrialists and economists… you will find them all in this section.

1.Dhirubhai Ambani :

Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani was born on 28 December 1932, at Chorwad, Junagadh in Gujarat, When he was 16 years old, he moved to Aden,Yemen. Initially, Dhirubhai worked as a dispatch clerk with A. Besse & Co. Married to Kokilaben. Dhirubhai also worked in Dubai for sometime. He returned to India and founded the Reliance Commercial Corporation with an initial capital of Rs 15000. Dhirubhai set up the business in partnership with Champaklal Damani from whom he parted ways in 1965. Dhirubhai started his first textile mill at Naroda, near Ahmedabad in 1966 and started the brand "Vimal". Dhirubhai Ambani is credited with having started the equity cult in India. With the passage of time, Dhirubhai diversified into petrochemicals and sectors like telecommunications, information technology, energy, power, retail, textiles, infrastructure services, capital markets, and logistics. Dhirubhai courted controversy all throughout his life. Many a times, he has been accused of unethical business practices and has been accused of having manipulated government policies to suit his own needs. He was involved in an open spat with Nusli Wadia of Bombay Dyeing. The end to this tussle came only after Dhirubhai Ambani suffered a stroke. While Dhirubhai Ambani was recovering in San Diego, his sons Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani managed the affairs. The Indian Express had turned the guns against Reliance and was directly blaming the government for not doing enough to penalize Reliance Industries. The battle between Wadia - Goenka and the Ambanis took a new direction and became a national crisis. Gurumurthy and another journalist, Mulgaokar consorted with President Giani Zail Singh and ghost-wrote a hostile letter to the Prime Minister on his behalf. The Indian Express published a draft of the President's letter as a scoop, not realizing that Zail Singh had made changes to the letter before sending it to Rajiv Gandhi. Ambani had won the battle at this point. Now, while the tussle was directly between the Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Ramnath Goenka, Ambani made a quiet exit. The government then raided the Express guest house in Delhi's Sunder Nagar and found the original draft with corrections in Mulgaokar's handwriting. By 1988-89, Rajiv's government retaliated with a series of prosecutions against the Indian Express. Even then, Goenka retained his iconic stature because, to many people, he seemed to be replaying his heroic defiance during the Emergency regime. Dhirubhai Ambani won many words and accolades during his life. In November 2000, he was conferred the 'Man of the Century' award by Chemtech Foundation and Chemical Engineering World for his contribution to the growth and development of the chemical industry in India. In June 1998, he was awarded the Dean's Medal by The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, for setting an outstanding example of leadership. Dhirubhai Ambani was also named the "Man of 20th Century" by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). Dhirubhai Ambani suffered a "brain stroke: on June 24, 2002 and was admitted to the Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai. He had suffered another stroke in February 1986 which had paralyzed his right hand. He passed away on July 6, 2002. On Dhirubhai Ambani's first death anniversary, the Union Government released a postage stamp in his memory.

2.B.M. Munjal:
Brij Mohan Lall Munjal, founder of the world-famous Hero Group was born in 1924, at Kamalia in Pakistan. In 1944, at the age of 20, he went to Amritsar along with his brothers to earn a living. His two elder brothers Dayanand and Satyanand and younger brother Om Prakash were struggling to establish their business. Their journey began as the motor component supplier to the local market. In 1947, at the time of partition, like many others, they were forced to shift to Ludhiana which during those times was already a vital center for Indian motor cycle business. soon they started expanding their business within the country as a motor-parts distributor. From 1952 onwards, the Munjal brothers decided to be a full-time manufacturers, moving over from being mere distributors. Henceforth, they started making motor-parts like, handlebars, front forks, and chains of their own and founded the Hero Group. In 1984 Japan's largest Motorcycle manufacturers Honda, teamed up with the Hero Group. B.M.Munjal, the Chairman of Hero Group is a first generation entrepreneur who started with nothing, and today his company is a leading name in the automobile industry. He won the Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the year award in 2001.

3.Bhai Mohan Singh:
Bhai Mohan Singh was born at Rawalpindi on the 30th of December in the year 1917. His father Bhai Gyan Chand was a Hindu whereas his mother Sunder Dai was a Sikh. Bhai Mohan Singh began his business career during the Second World War with a construction business. After the partition of India and Pakistan he settled down in New Delhi. While in Delhi he started business as a moneylender. His cousins, Ranjit Singh and Gurbax Singh started Ranbaxy. Then Ranbaxy worked as the distributor for a Japanese pharmaceutical company, A. Shionogi, manufacturing vitamins and anti-TB drugs. When Ranbaxy failed to pay a loan, Bhai Mohan Singh bought the company for Rs. 2.5 lakh. He bought the company on 1st of August, 1952. He joined hands with Italian pharma company Lapetit Spa and later on bought this company too. In the late 1960's with the launch of his super brand, Calmpose he made his mark in the pharmaceutical industry. In early 1970s when Indian adopted a system of process patents, Bhai Mohan Singh quickly realized the possibility of manufacturing any product in the world through reverse engineering. Thus, he established an R&D facility at Mohali. By the year 1973, Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd became a recognized brand of India. The same year, his eldest son Parviner Singh joined the company. In 1982, he became the Managing Director of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. Bhai Mohan Singh had another son Analjeet Singh. He along with Analjeet laid the foundation of a new company Max.

Bhai Mohan Singh was the ex- vice president of the New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC). For his contribution in civic matters he was awarded the Padma Shri. For his contribution to the industrial development of Punjab, the Punjab Goverment named an Industrial Township near Ropar after him. Padma Shri Bhai Mohan Singh died on March 27, 2006.

4.Ghanshyam Das Birla:
One of the icons of Indian industry, Ghanshyam Das Birla is remembered as the man who laid the foundation of the Birla Empire. He was a very close associate of Mahatma Gandhi and used to advise him on economic matters. The founder of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), G.D. Birla was born on April 10, 1894 in Pilani. He entered the world of business during the First World War. He established the Keshoram Cotton mills and then shifted his base to Calcutta or present-day Kolkata, where he established the Birla Jute Mills. This was not liked by the European merchants who tried out all means, fair as well as foul to have his business shut, but a resolute G.D. Birla stood his ground. His business boomed during World War I, when there was a great demand for his products. He then went ahead to establish the Birla Brothers Limited in 1919. In the post-independence period, Birla diversified into tea, textiles, cement, chemicals, rayon, steel tubes and other areas. Along with his business activities, G.D. Birla is remembered for founding several educational institutions including the Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences (BITS), Pilani, which ranks in the forefront of engineering institutions in the country. He was also instrumental in founding many temples, planetariums, and hospitals. He was awarded the Padma Vibhusan by the Government of India in 1957. The G.D. Birla award for scientific research has been established in his honour to encourage and reward scientists for their contribution to scientific research. This modern-day legend of India passed away on January 11, 1983

5.J.R.D. TATA:
One of the pioneering industrialists of India, Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy(J.R.D Tata ) was born in Paris on July 29, 1904. He became the chairman of the Tata Group in 1938. He saw the assets of the Tata Group climbing from Rs 62 crore (Rs 620 million) in 1939 to over Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) in 1990. Under him, the Tata Group diversified into a large number of sectors from airlines to hotels, trucks to locomotives, soda ash, heavy chemicals to pharmaceuticals, financial services, tea, air-conditioning etc. He was not only an industrialist, but was a pioneering aviator too and brought commercial aviation to India, besides being a patron of the arts and philanthropist.

He formed the Tata Administrative Service and the Tata Management Training Centre , the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, and was the longest serving member of the Atomic Energy Commission. He passed away in Geneva on November 29, 1993.

6. Dr. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw:
Dr. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has entered the elite ranks of the Indian business world as India's richest woman. Born on 23 March, 1953, she is the Chairman & Managing Director of Biocon Ltd. She did her schooling from Bangalore and graduated in Zoology from Bangalore University in 1973, after which she moved on to Ballarat University in Melbourne, Australia. She became India's first woman Brew Master and started off as a trainee brewer in Carlton & United Beverages in 1974, following which she worked in various positions in Kolkata and Vadodara. She collaborated with Biocon Biochemicals Limited, Ireland, to found Biocon India in 1978. Initially, she faced many problems, but she was not the one to give up. Her firm has grown to be the biggest biopharmaceutical firm in India today. Though her business interests keep her occupied, she has found time to write a book titled 'Ale and Arty'. She tied the knot with John Shaw, in 1998, who was working as the managing director of Madura Coats. After their marriage, John Shaw quit Madura Coat and joined Biocon. A very active social activist, she has been involved in various projects like the Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF). She was awarded the MV Memorial Award, given in honour of the great engineer and visionary Sir M Vishwesharaiah. Apart from this, she was awarded the Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award in 2006, the Padma Bhushan in 2005, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Indian Chamber of Commerce in 2005, the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in Healthcare & Life Sciences Category in 2002 besides the Padma Shri in 1989. Dr. Kiran Majumdar-Shaw has held several honorary and advisory positions. Among them, she was the Chairperson and Mission Leader of the Confederation of Indian Industry's National Task Force on Biotechnology, a member of the Prime Minister's Council on Trade & Industry in India, Member, Board of Science Foundation, Ireland , Member, Board of Governors, IIM Bangalore and many others. In doing so, she has set an example for other Indian women to follow.

7. Rahul Bajaj :
Rahul Bajaj is the Chairman and Managing Director of the Bajaj group, which has been named amongst India's top ten business groups. He is one of India's renowned industrialists and is internationally respected for his business expertise and entrepreneurial character. Rahul Bajaj comes from the family of Jaman Lal Bajaj. Rahul is the grandson of Jaman Lal Bajaj, who founded the Bajaj Group. Shishir Bajaj is the brother of Rahul Bajaj. Rahul Bajaj has two sons, Rajiv Bajaj and Sanjiv Bajaj, and daughter Sunaina Kejriwal. His sons Rajiv and Sanjiv Bajaj manage his companies. Rahul Bajaj completed his schooling from Cathedral, a school in Bombay. Then he further pursed his studies from St Stephen's College, Delhi and Harvard University, USA. He took over control of the Bajaj Group in 1965 and successfully established one of India's best companies. He established factories at Akurdi and Waluj. In 1980s Bajaj Auto was India's topmost scooter making company. After ten years of Bajaj Auto's success Chetak was launched. Bajaj Auto had to face many challenges with the liberalization of the Indian economy. The slump in the sale of scooters and the downfall of the stock market of 2001 hit the company hard. It was forecast by some business analysts that Bajaj industries would have to shut down soon. But without losing hope Rahul Bajaj with his business expertise re-established the battered company. He established another factory in Chakan, invested in R&D and came up with Bajaj Pulsar Motorcycle. Bajaj Pulsar is presently a leader in its sector.

Indian Nobel Prize Winners

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Indian Nobel Prize Winners

The Nobel Prize is the most respected award the world over and here is a list of those Indians who have won this award and made the country proud.

1.Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941) Nobel Prize for Literature (1913)Tagore was born and lived in Calcutta for most of his life. He was one of modern India's greatest poets and the composer of independent India's national anthem. In 1901 he founded his school, the Santiniketan, at Bolpur as a protest against the existing bad system of education. The school was a great success and gave birth to Viswabharati. He was awarded the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature for his work "Gitanjali"; for the English version, published in 1912. The noble citation stated that it was "because of his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the West." In 1915, he was knighted by the British King George V. Tagore renounced his knighthood in 1919 following the Amritsar massacre or nearly 400 Indian demonstrators.

2.Sir C.V. Raman (Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman)(1888 - 1970)Nobel Prize for Physics (1930)C V Raman was born on 7th Nov. 1888 in Thiruvanaikkaval, in the Trichy district of Tamil Nadu. He finished school by the age of eleven and by then he had already read the popular lectures of Tyndall, Faraday and Helmoltz.He acquired his BA degree from the Presidency College, Madras, where he carried out original research in the college laboratory, publishing the results in the philosophical magazine. Then went to Calcutta and while he was there, he made enormous contributions to vibration, sound, musical instruments, ultrasonics, diffraction, photo electricity, colloidal particles, X-ray diffraction, magnetron, dielectrics, and the celebrated "RAMAN" effect which fetched him the Noble Prize in 1930. He was the first Asian scientist to win the Nobel Prize. The Raman effect occurs when a ray of incident light excites a molecule in the sample, which subsequently scatters the light. While most of this scattered light is of the same wavelength as the incident light, state (i.e. getting the molecule to vibrate). The Raman effect is useful in the study of molecular energy levels, structure development, and multi component qualitative analysis.

3.Dr. Hargobind Khorana Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology (1968)Dr. Hargobind Khorana was born on 9th January 1922 at Raipur, Punjab (now in Pakistan). Dr. Khorana was responsible for producing the first man-made gene in his laboratory in the early seventies. This historic invention won him the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1968 sharing it with Marshall Nuremberg and Robert Holley for interpreting the genetic code and analyzing its function in protein synthesis. They all independently made contributions to the understanding of the genetic code and how it works in the cell. They established that this mother of all codes, the biological language common to all living organisms, is spelled out in three-letter words: each set of three nucleotides codes for a specific amino acid.

4.Dr. Subramaniam Chandrasekar Nobel Prize for physics (1983)Subramaniam Chandrashekhar was born on October 19, 1910 in Lahore, India (later part of Pakistan). He attended Presidency College from 1925 to 1930, following in the footsteps of his famous uncle, Sir C. V. Raman.His work spanned over the understanding of the rotation of planets, stars, white dwarfs, neutron stars, black holes, galaxies, and clusters of galaxies. He won the Nobel Prize in 1983 for his theoretical work on stars and their evolution.

6. Mother Teresa (1910 - 1997) Nobel Prize for peace (1979)Born in 1910, Skoplje, Yugoslavia (then Turkey) and originally named Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, Mother Teresa dedicated her life to helping the poor, the sick, and the dying around the world, particularly those in India, working through the Missionaries Of Charity in Calcutta. The Society of Missionaries has spread all over the world, including the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries. They provide effective help to the poorest of the poor in a number of countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and they undertake relief work in the wake of natural catastrophes such as floods, epidemics, and famine, and for refugees. The order also has houses in North America, Europe and Australia, where they take care of the shut-ins, alcoholics, homeless, and AIDS sufferers. Mother Teresa died on September 5, 1997.

7.Dr. Amartya Sen Nobel Prize for Economics (1998)Born in 1933, Bolpur, in West Bengal, Amartya Sen is the latest in our list of Nobel Laureates. He was honored with the Nobel Prize for his work in Welfare economics. When Thailand's Baht plummeted, markets from Bombay to New York were in turmoil and there was talk of worldwide depression, Sen's argument that growth should be accompanied by democratic decision-making seemed only too correct. Amidst the human suffering caused by mass unemployment and exacerbated -- as many felt -- by the stringent economic policies of the International Monetary Fund and ideas of free-market capitalism, Sen's call for social support in development appeared humane and wise. A new brand of softer, gentler economics seemed in order. Although Sen is probably best known for his research on famines, his work on women -- the attention he has drawn to their unequal status in the developing world, and his calls for gender-specific aid programs -- is just as important.

Other Nobel Prize Laureates related to India:

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) British writer, Rudyard Kipling wrote novels, poems and short stories -- mostly set in India and Burma (now known as Myanmar). He was the 1907 Nobel Prize Laureate in Literature "in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration, which characterize the creations of this world-famous author."

V.S. Naipaul (1932- )British writer of Indian origin, Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature 2001 "for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories."

Greatest Personalities of India

2008-11-18T05:40:00.000-08:00

Below is the list of Grestest Indian Personalities under different sections,

1.Indian Nobel Prize Winners

2.Business and Economy

Business and Economy: NRI's

3.India's leading sportspersons

4.Science and Technology :Scientists

Science and Technology :Medical & Technology Achievements

5.History : Social Reformers

History: Ancient India

Building New India

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post under construction

Indian History

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Concise History of India

2500 BC The Dravidian civilization

1500 BC The Aryans invaded India and conquered the Dravidians

1400 BC The Vedas, the Hindu scripture, was written

800-600 BC The sacred scripture, the Upanishads, was written

518 BC Persians conquered Pakistan

500 BC Buddhism was founded in India by Siddhartha Gautama

500 BC Jainism was founded in India by Mahavira Jains

326 BC Alexander the Great and his Macedonian army moved into India

324 BC The Mauryan Empire was established by Chandragupta Maurya which included Afghanistan and parts of central Asia

272 BC Ashoka, the grandson of Chandragupta Maurya, became the emperor of India

185 BC The Maurya Empire ended

50 AD The Kushans established an empire in northern India

320 - The Gupta Indian dynasty reunited northern India initiating the "golden Age" of India

700s Muslim armies from Arabia invade India

1206 Qutb ub-din Aybak established the Delhi Sultanate

1398 Timur conquered India causing the decline of the Delhi Sultanate

1498 Vasco da Gama, of Portugal, became the first European explorer to reach India

1500 Christianity was introduced to India by the Europeans

Early 1500s Sikhism was founded by Nana

1526 Babur established the massive Mughal Empire

1600 Queen Elizabeth I, of the United Kingdom, granted a charter to the East India Company established trading posts in Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras

1628 Shah Jahan, the ruler of the Mughal Empire, built the Taj Mahal

1658 The Strict Muslim, Aurangzeb, ruled India and tried to force Hindus to convert to Islam

1757 The Battle of Plassey - Robert Clive, an agent of the East India Company, led forces which defeated the Mughal governor of Bengal

1774 Warren Hastings was appointed the first governor general of India by the East India Company

1857 The Sepoy Rebellion

1858 The British government ruled India through an Indian Viceroy- called the British Raj

1876 Queen Victoria was given the title Empress of India by the British Parliament

1885 Burma became an Indian province

1885 The Indian National Congress was formed

1905 The British government divided Bengal into separate Hindu and Muslim sections

1914 - 1918 First World War

13 April 1919 The Amritsar Massacre

1920 Mohandas K. Gandhi became the leader of the Indian independence movement and the Indian National Congress

1935 The Government of India Act created a new constitution

3 September 1939 The United Kingdom declared war on Germany beginning World War II

1940 Muhammad Ali Jinnah demanded that a new country be formed from India for the Muslims, which would be called Pakistan

1939 - 1945 WW11

August 1945 The United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

1945 World War II ended

1946 The British government agreed to grant India independence if they could agree on a form of government

16 August 1946 Muslims held nation-wide demonstrations calling for the establishment of Pakistan

1947 British and Indian leaders agreed to divide the country into India and Pakistan

15 August 1947 India became independent

30 January 1948 Gandhi was assassinated

26 January 1950 A new Indian Constitution was ratified and Jawaharlal Nehru became the Indian first prime

1952: India's first general elections are comprehensively won by the Congress Party of India.
1962: Conflict between India and China over boundary disputes.
1965: Kashmir is again the cause of conflict between India and Pakistan before the UN intervenes.
1971: India and Pakistan go to war over the independence of Bangladesh.
1971: India signs a pact with the Soviet Union.
1974: India conducts its first nuclear test.
1984: The Gold Temple in Amritsar, being used as a refuge by Sikh separatists, is raided by the Indian army.
1984: Indira Gandhi, in her second spell as prime minister, is assassinated in New Delhi by her Sikh bodyguards.
1987: Indian troops are sent to Sri Lanka on a peacekeeping mission.
1990: The Indian army withdraws from Sri Lanka.
2001: More than 20,000 people are killed by an earthquake in the Indian province of Gujarat.
2002: War between India and Pakistan looms as Pakistan responds to India's testing of nuclear-capable missiles with tests of its own.
2003: India and Pakistan agree a ceasefire in Kashmir.
2004: The Asian tsunami kills thousands in coastal areas.
2006-2008: Terrorist attacks in various parts of India:
2006: A bomb in Mumbai kills 187 train passengers; police blame Islamic militants based in Pakistan.
2007: A train from New Delhi to Lahore in Pakistan is bombed, killing 68; many were Pakistanis.
2008: over 173 people died in a coordinated shooting and bombing terrorist attack

Globalising India

2008-10-26T03:03:00.001-07:00

Globalising India

by Matthijs Nieuwenhuis 2005

Globalisation may not be a new concept, but for European politicians and business leaders, it may as well have been the buzzword of the year in 2005. It seemed every time managers and prime ministers announced another economic reform or downsizing, the reason they gave was "globalisation." Patrick de Vos, a Belgian social scientist, has just published a book about his travels in rapidly globalizing India, where many Western companies have outsourced production.

What is globalisation?
"It's like a steam engine, in which you have to maintain a difference in temperature, in order to maintain drive. The system rests on the possibility of generating profit through the exploitation of the socially weak".

This is what Patrick de Vos writes in his book India Unbound. It means that the essence of globalisation is the endless search for cheap labour. Businesses move production to countries like China and India, because they can hire cheap labour there. This keeps the price of a product low and increases profits. But there's more, says De Vos. There's also a social cultural exchange:

"Streams of people go to a specific place and take with them money, culture, and political and cultural ideas that change the place". So aside from its economic impact, globalisation also has a strong impact on a country's culture.

Businesses moving their activities to the Far East has given large sections of European society a negative image of globalisation. A common view is that "people in China and India are becoming increasingly wealthy at the expense of our jobs and standards of living". Many European jobs do indeed move along with the companies that build a factory in India, for instance.

"The city of Bangalore in southern India is a key hub in the world of computers and information technology and a textbook example of globalisation. All well-known technology or IT companies have descended on the place. Microsoft, IBM, Intel, Siemens, Motorola and Philips are only some of the close to 1400 technology companies that settled in Bangalore over the years.

Although two-thirds of these are Indian companies, two-thirds of total investments come from abroad."

The idea that globalisation only has negative effects on Europe needs rectifying. Setting up shop in India helps a company survive, for instance, and also saves jobs in Europe. Without cheap labour, groups like Philips would be driven from the market and all their jobs would be lost.
"[Philips] is a company with three headquarters, one in Eindhoven in the Netherlands, one in Bruges in Belgium and one in the Indian city of Bangalore. You could say that the partial move to India was negative for those who lost their jobs as a result of the new factory being built there. But if you look at the big picture, even they benefit from it. The move makes Philips stronger on a competitive world market and the company continues to exist. If it didn't, there would also be unemployment", says De Vos.

Drawbacks of globalisation
The mass arrival in India of companies and prosperity also has its negative side. People and the environment are suffering from the explosion of activity. De Vos writes in his book:

"In the twilight around us, there are scenes of crowded poverty and forever increasing want. We move slowly past a festering, overcrowded anthill of underfed and neglected people. In the damp air, the black smoke mingles with exhaust fumes and the penetrating smell of urine. The endless coughing bouts of our driver don't bode well. In a smog city like Bombay breathing can seriously damage your health."

Countries that once seemed out of reach are now increasingly easy to reach.

On the other hand, poverty is also increasing at a fast rate. This presents Europe with problems.

"The continuous flow of migration from poor to rich countries shows that the problem of large-scale poverty and exclusion is no longer someone else's problem. The globalisation of poverty is increasingly our problem."

Europe benefits from globalisation, but the flow of illegal immigrants in search of happiness and wealth is also part of it. This means it will remain an important topic in the coming years, which will see important cultural, economic and political changes. And one word will be heard again and again: globalisation.

India The Superpower

2008-10-26T02:59:00.000-07:00

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India The Superpower
by Pieternel Gruppen 27-12-2006

India is rapidly emerging as a major economic force in the global arena. India is the world's largest democracy, it's the second most populous country in the world and has one of the fastest-growing economies. it's an increasingly dynamic member of the international community. Nevertheless, in spite of the big economic success alot of Indians still live in considerable poverty.

The centre of New Delhi brims over with energy. More and more international companies are opening their offices in the Indian capital to benefit from the economic growth which this year reached almost nine percent.

People
It's the people of India who are behind the economic progress, says Dutch businesswoman, Tina Uneken, corporate Director of Bhart Airtel, India's leading provider of telecommunications services.

"I have never seen before such consolidation, ambition and enthusiasm and such determination to make things happen. Over the last four or five years I have seen a change. As the world started to take note of India, people have become more confident and they have started to reflect on themselves and say: 'Hey, is this India, is this us and are we capable of doing this?'. That makes all the difference."

Growth
Economic growth started in 1991 when the government decided to liberalise the economy. The technological revolution in the late 1990s did the rest. But not everyone benefits. Street children, knocking on the windows of cars stuck in traffic, remind the CEOs and expats of Delhi of the country's poverty:

India now has as many as 26 billionaires but at the same time 300 million Indians survive on less than a dollar a day. Almost three million children die annually as a result of poor nutrition and easily preventable illness. The India of today is only shining for a few. Inequality exists between states in the south and the north, between urban and rural areas, between rich and poor.

Bad governance
Millions of people are lagging behind because of bad governance says Tarun Tejpal, editor in chief and publisher of Tehelka, a leading Indian newspaper:

"We are usually hampered by governance. How will government deliver? Government will deliver when civil society and media holds it to account. We placed too much faith in a kind of bureaucracy at a certain point in time."

"But the bureaucracy has not delivered at the level we thought it would. And we were not able to hold it to account."

Not only bad governance but also bad education are often singled out as hampering India's growth. The public education system is in a poor state with fewer than ten percent of children making it to tertiary education.

Struggling
According to Dutch businesswoman Tina Uneken, international companies are still struggling to get people who can perform the jobs. An equal chance for a good life for everyone, that is, according to education rights activist Shabnam Ramaswamy the only condition to becoming a real superpower:

"I will be really thrilled and proud if we are a superpower when we will have a more equal society with equal opportunities. At the moment I am ashamed and sick of the term superpower. If we have a more just world then we would be a superpower - not because of our military or technical power - then I will be a much prouder Indian."

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Indian Economy - Markets

2008-10-26T02:53:00.000-07:00

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India on fire

Feb 1st 2007 The Economist

India's growth rate is close to China's; but signs of overheating suggest that this pace cannot be sustained

The economy is sizzling and foreign businessmen and investors are swarming to Bangalore and Mumbai to grab a piece of the action. India's year-on-year growth rate could well hit double figures at some point in 2007, and the country may even grow faster than China for at least one quarter. But things are so hot there is a big problem: India's current pace of expansion may not be sustainable.

On the face of it, the figures are compelling. India's real GDP grew by 9.2% in the year to last September (the latest numbers available). Over the past four years it has clocked up an average annual pace of more than 8%, compared with around 6% in the 1980s and 1990s—and a measly 3.5% during the three decades before 1980, when highly interventionist policies shackled the economy.

India seems to be reaping the rewards of reforms that were made in the early 1990s. These massively lowered barriers to trade and liberalised capital markets. As a result, total trade in goods and services has leapt to 45% of GDP, from 17% in 1990.

Economic growth is likely to remain strong this year, driven by booming investment and consumption. The government's five-year plan to 2011-12 has an ambitious target of 9% average annual growth. Most Indian economists expect at least 8% over the next five years. Some, such as Surjit Bhalla, of Oxus Investments, think even 10% is feasible, thanks to a surge in investment.

Optimism is abundant. Indian businessmen were the most upbeat among 32 countries surveyed recently by Grant Thornton, a London-based accounting firm: 97% of the respondents were bullish about the future. Indians are rightly proud of the huge global success of firms such as Infosys, or of Tata Steel's £5.8 billion ($11.3 billion) acquisition of Britain's Corus this week. They point to new mobile-phone subscriptions, which are running at a higher monthly rate than in China, as evidence of their economy's vigour and modernity. But look again. Perhaps the only thing really growing faster in India than China is hype.

Recent visitors to Delhi were greeted by a poster campaign by the Times of India announcing “India poised”. But poised for what? The economy is displaying alarming symptoms of overheating. This implies that demand is outpacing supply and hence the pace of growth is unsustainable. Despite lower oil prices, wholesale-price inflation has risen to 6%, which is above the 5.5% upper limit set by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). India does not have a single rate of consumer-price inflation, but the crude average of the rates for industrial, non-manual and agricultural workers is above 7%. Capacity utilisation is higher than at any time in the past decade and severe skill shortages have caused wages to rocket.

The RBI is also concerned about a credit boom. Bank lending to firms and households has expanded by 30% over the past year. Lending on commercial property is up by 84% and home mortgages by 32%. Asset prices look bubbly. After rising more than fourfold over the past four years, India's stockmarket is one of the emerging world's most expensive, with a price-earnings ratio of more than 20. House prices in many big cities have more than doubled over the past two years.

Against this sweltering background, the RBI's interest-rate decision on January 31st looked timid. It raised its overnight lending rate by a quarter-point to 7.5%, but left the reverse repo rate (which it uses to drain excess liquidity from the banking system) unchanged at 6%. Over the past couple of years interest rates have risen by less than the rate of inflation, so they have fallen in real terms.

The inflation numbers probably understate the degree of overheating. When demand outpaces supply in an open economy it is more likely to show up in a current-account deficit than in inflation. India's deficit widened to more than 3% of GDP in the three months to September—a huge swing from a surplus of almost 4% in the first half of 2004. And the true gap between domestic demand and supply is even bigger. Yaga Venugopal Reddy, the RBI'S governor, recently drew attention to how India's current-account deficit is larger once you exclude the money sent home by Indians abroad. These remittances do not reflect domestic demand or supply, but are more like a capital inflow. Excluding workers' remittances, India's deficit is running close to 5% of GDP — larger than the equivalent deficit during India's balance-of-payments crisis in the early 1990s.

Keeping up with demand
The risk of a financial crisis is slight, because India has the cushion of $180 billion of foreign-exchange reserves, which is equivalent to 11 months' imports, and its external debt is small. But this misses the point. The reason for concern about India's widening current-account deficit is not that it heralds a financial crisis, but that it is a signal of how supply cannot keep pace with red-hot demand.

Furthermore, unlike China and most other Asian emerging economies, India is heavily dependent on short-term portfolio capital inflows, rather than foreign direct investment, which is longer-term. Short-term capital has accounted for four-fifths of capital inflows into India over the past three-and-a-half years—although, encouragingly, foreign direct investment did pick up strongly last year. This means India is vulnerable to rising interest rates if there is a sharp reversal in the appetite for risk in global financial markets.

How fast can India grow?
Most standard methods of estimating the trend—or potential—rate of growth (the maximum at which an economy can expand without triggering a rise in inflation) arrive at figures of around 7%. But business people, investors and an unusually large number of economists, are convinced that India is undergoing a “paradigm shift” and so backward-looking historical data are now irrelevant for assessing future growth.

India's capacity for growth has certainly increased over the past decade, thanks to earlier reforms. Yet given widespread signs that India is already exceeding its speed limit, there is a high risk that if the economy continues to grow at 9% or more, it will get ever hotter. Inflation will climb higher and financial imbalances will widen, running the risk of a hard landing. India has no genuinely independent central bank to put on the brakes. And policymakers are understandably reluctant to cool demand when India needs rapid growth to create jobs and reduce poverty.

An alternative to slowing demand is to boost supply by speeding up reforms and attacking the many bottlenecks caused by inadequate infrastructure, dreadful public services, skill shortages and rigid labour laws. But improving infrastructure and education not only takes time, it also requires money, and India's fiscal finances are far from healthy.

On the surface, the government has made great strides to cut its budget deficit. The IMF forecasts the deficit for central and state governments will fall to 6.2% of GDP in the fiscal year ending in March, slightly below budget and down from a peak of 10% in 2001-02. Some of the reduction is due to greater fiscal prudence and reduced tax evasion, but it also reflects a cyclical upswing in tax revenue on the back of the economic boom and low interest rates, thanks to the global liquidity glut. If interest rates rose because foreign investors lost their appetite for risk, or if the economy slowed, the budget deficit would widen.

It already looms dangerously large. Chetan Ahya, Morgan Stanley's economist in Mumbai, calculates that off-budget items, such as oil and power subsidies, amount to another 1.8% of GDP. This puts the total deficit closer to 8% of GDP, the biggest among the main emerging economies. India also has the highest ratio of public debt to GDP, at 80%.

The budget deficit could swell further over the next few years. Generous tax exemptions for exporters in special economic zones may erode future revenues. And the government's Sixth Pay Commission, due to report by April 2008, is likely to lead to a big rise in public-sector pay. Its predecessor's report marked the start of a sharp downturn in public finances; and the new recommendations will be implemented in 2009, an election year.

Again, the concern is not that India's public borrowing causes a financial crisis. Most of it is funded through domestic, not foreign, debt and controls on capital outflows ensure that domestic savers buy government bonds. The real problem is that India's weak fiscal position constrains its future growth by leaving no room for more public spending on infrastructure, education and health.

Leaving the farm
The growth optimists point to India's favourable demography. The population of working age will continue to rise for several decades, whereas in China it is expected to fall. This, it is argued, will boost India's workforce and both saving and investment. Furthermore, 60% of India's labour force is engaged in low productivity farming. As workers shift from agriculture to more productive jobs in industry and services, this will automatically boost GDP growth. Yet this assumes the newcomers will all find jobs. If those jobs do not appear, the so-called demographic dividend will more likely turn into a demographic disaster. Some 60% of the demographic bulge will come in five poor and badly governed states.

This is just one example of how economic commentators tend to confuse India's long-term potential (what is feasible provided the best policies are put in place) with its current potential (ie, non inflationary) growth rate. That India has huge long-term potential is undeniable, but without reforms the country cannot fully exploit it.

All agree that the biggest obstacle to growth of 9% or more is India's infrastructure—especially its lousy roads, ports and power. According to the World Bank, the average manufacturing firm loses 8% of sales each year from power cuts. India spends 4% of its GDP on infrastructure investment, compared with China's 9%. In absolute dollar terms, China spends seven times as much on its infrastructure.

India's government has ambitious plans to increase total infrastructure spending to 8% of GDP over the next five years. This will involve some increase in government spending, but the idea is for the bulk of it to be financed by public-private partnerships. That will be hard.

Private investors, especially foreign ones, still shy away from sectors like electricity and roads because they are uncertain of earning a reasonable return. Only about half of all electricity generated is paid for, because power is stolen and bills are left unpaid. Saumitra Chaudhuri, the economic adviser at ICRA, a credit-rating agency, argues that public-private partnerships first require regulatory reforms to protect the interests of both investors and consumers. As the World Bank put it in a report last year, “when systems are failing, it is not enough to fix the pipes, one needs to fix the institutions that fix the pipes.”

Another obstacle to growth in manufacturing is India's labour laws, which are among the most restrictive in the world. Firms employing more than 100 people cannot fire workers without government permission, which discourages expansion. Today's central government cannot scrap these laws because it relies on the support of the communist parties. In theory, the state governments can apply the laws more flexibly, especially in the special economic zones, but this is unlikely to lead to more flexible labour markets overnight.

A third big problem is the dreadful quality of public services, from education and health to the provision of water. Half of urban households lack drinking water within the home; one quarter have no access to a toilet, either public or private. Many public services in cities have worsened in recent years. In Bangalore water is now available for less than three hours a day, compared with 20 hours in the early 1980s. This may be another reason why workers are not moving in from rural areas as rapidly as in China.

Nor are young Indians equipped for more productive jobs in the towns. The quality of education and health care is dire. A survey in 2003 found that only half of paid teachers were actually teaching during school hours. Another survey found that government health centres in poor parts of Delhi had a more than 50% chance of prescribing a harmful therapy for common ailments.

Bizarrely, India has one of the most privatised health systems in the world. Government spending accounts for only 21% of total health spending. Likewise, in eight of 18 states studied more than half of all children in urban areas are in private schools. But this is not a model for free-market economics or the result of policy reform. People go private only because public services are so bad. Subir Gokarn, an economist at CRISIL, another credit-rating agency, worries that because the educated middle class do not use public services, there is less public outcry for reform than there should be.

Sadly, the prospects for dramatic change in the near future look slim. With a few exceptions, such as the partial opening of retailing to foreign investment and the privatisation of the two biggest airports, reforms have stalled since the government took office in 2004. Despite the reformist instincts of Manmohan Singh, the prime minister, the need to maintain the coalition overwhelms the appeal of reform.

Back to school
The supply-side constraints of infrastructure, labour laws and public services seem formidable, yet the vast majority of local economists in Delhi reckon that annual growth of at least 8% is sustainable even without further reform (with reform they look forward to 9% or more). A popular argument is that other Asian economies grew by 8-9% for long periods, so why not India? But East Asian economies invested much more in education and infrastructure than India does today.

A recent study from Goldman Sachs, which forecast that India could sustain 8% growth until 2020, was widely trumpeted in Indian newspapers. However, the bank's report clearly stated that this would require better education, labour market reforms and less red tape. Oddly, most newspapers failed to mention that.

Indeed, it is possible to detect a belief among some that it is now India's “right” to match China's growth rate of 10%. Even the finance minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, has felt the need to remind people that present rates of growth are not “because some kind god smiled at us”. No country “deserves” rapid growth, unless it puts in place the right policies. The biggest danger of today's rampant economic optimism is that it could breed complacency about the need for reforms. That would be a sure recipe for a future slowdown.

India needs faster growth to create more jobs for its expanding population and to make it easier to relieve poverty. The awkward truth is that although the economy is sprinting ahead, most people are only crawling. Although the educated middle class has enjoyed big salary increases and a surge in the value of their homes and shares, the 60% of the population close to or below the poverty line have not yet seen a material gain.

Measured by the commonly used gini coefficient, India has less income inequality than China or America. But it has much more poverty. Some 260m people still live on the equivalent of less than $1 a day. Half of all children under five are malnourished. India needs rapid growth. But by itself that is not sufficient to end poverty, warns Rajiv Kumar, the director of ICRIER, an economic research institute. Better infrastructure and education are needed to make the rural poor more mobile so they have an escape route. In this way, better infrastructure and improved public services can not only increase growth, but also spread the rewards.

To boost sustainable growth, India needs to clear the path ahead rather than risk running an economy beyond its safe maximum speed. Indians are understandably eager for their economy to sprint like a tiger rather than amble along like an elephant. Yet few animals have an elephant's stamina or can travel as far in a day—provided its way is not blocked.

"You do not require an invitation to make profits." - Dhirubhai Ambani

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