Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar was born on 24 April 1973 is an Indian cricketer widely acknowledged as one of the greatest batsman in cricket. In 2002, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ranked him the second greatest Test batsman of all time, behind Don Bradman, and the second greatest one-day-international (ODI) batsman of all time, behind Viv Richards. Tendulkar was a part of the 2011 Cricket World Cup winning Indian team in the later part of his career, his first such win in six World Cup appearances for India. He was also the recipient of "Player of the Tournament" award of the 2003 Cricket World Cup held in South Africa.

Tendulkar won the 2010 Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for cricketer of the year at the ICC awards. He has been recommended for the receipt of the Bharat Ratna award, in fact it has been speculated that the criteria for the award of the Bharat Ratna were changed to allow him receive the award. He is also a member of Rajya Sabha of Parliament of India. Tendulkar passed 30,000 runs in international cricket on 20 November 2009. On 5 December 2012, Tendulkar became first batsman in history to cross the 34,000 run aggregate in all formats of the game put together. At 36 years and 306 days, he became the first ever player to score a double-century in the history of ODIs. Two years later he became the first player to score 100 international centuries. As of June 2013, Tendulkar has played 662 matches in international cricket.

Tendulkar has been honoured with the Padma Vibhushan award, India's second highest civilian award, and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, India's highest sporting honour. He was also the first sportsperson and the first one without aviation background to be awarded the honorary rank of Group Captain by the Indian Air Force. Tendulkar has received honorary doctorates from University of Mysore and Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences. Sachin holds the 19th rank in ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen as of 17 March 2013. On 1 August 2012, Sachin Tendulkar was nominated for the ICC People's Choice award for the third time. In 2012, he was nominated to Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India.Sachin tendulkar was ranked 78th richest sportsman in the world according to the Forbes' list of world's highest-paid athletes for the year 2012.In June 2013 list, Forbes ranked Sachin at 51st position in highest paid athletes list, with his total earnings were estimated to be USD 22 million.

Sachin Tendulkar was named as an Honorary Member of the Order of Australia in 2012. On 23 December 2012, Tendulkar announced his retirement from ODIs. Tendulkar has already stated that he will not be playing T20 Internationals.In May, 2013, Tendulkar revealed his retirement from IPL

Tendulkar is an ardent devotee of Sathya Sai Baba of Puttaparthi. He has visited Puttaparthi on several occasions to seek Baba's blessings. In 1997, Tendulkar captained the Indian National side, playing against a World Eleven team, in the Unity Cup which was held at the hill view stadium in Puttaparthi, in Baba's presence. After Sai Baba's death, Tendulkar broke into tears when he saw the body of Baba in Puttaparthi, and cancelled his birthday celebrations. The cricketer is also known to celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi at home and frequently visits temples during night when it is calm and quiet. The cricketer has also offered his prayers at several other Hindu temples across the country.

Salman Khan

Salman Khan

Salman Khan

Abdul Rashid Salim Salman Khan was born  on 27 December 1965, is an Indian film actor, producer, television presenter, and philanthropist. The son of actor and screenwriter Salim Khan, Khan began his acting career with Biwi Ho To Aisi but it was his second film Maine Pyar Kiya in which he acted in a lead role that garnered him the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut. Khan has starred in several commercially successful films, such as Saajan (1991), Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! (1994), Karan Arjun (1995), Judwaa (1997), Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya (1998), Biwi No.1 (1999), and Hum Saath Saath Hain (1999), having appeared in the highest grossing film nine separate years during his career, a record that remains unbroken.

In 1999, Khan won the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor for his extended guest appearance in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998). In 2011, he won the Screen Award for Best Actor for his performance in Dabangg and in 2013, he won the Best Actor Popular Choice for his performances in Ek Tha Tiger and Dabangg 2. Eight of the films he has acted in, have accumulated gross earnings of over 1 billion (US$15 million) worldwide. He played leading roles in five consecutive blockbusters namely Dabangg, Ready, Bodyguard, Ek Tha Tiger, and Dabangg 2. He has starred in more than 80 Hindi films and thus far has established himself as a leading actor of Hindi cinema.

Khan is the eldest son of screenwriter Salim Khan and his first wife Sushila Charak. His paternal grandfather was a Muslim from Afghanistan who immigrated to India and settled in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. Charak is a surname of Dogra Rajput clan. Khan belongs to Pathan Muslim family through his father while Khan's mother is reported to be a Dogra Hindu. His family celebrate Islamic and Hindu festivals such as Maha Shivaratri and Ganesh Chaturthi. In 2010 Khan said that he is "half Muslim and half Hindu". His stepmother is Helen, a former actress, who has co-starred with him in a few films. He has two brothers, Arbaaz Khan and Sohail Khan, and two sisters, Alvira and Arpita. Alvira is married to actor/director Atul Agnihotri. Khan finished his schooling at St. Stanislaus High School in Bandra, Mumbai, as did his younger brothers Arbaaz and Sohail. Earlier, he studied at The Scindia School, Gwalior for a few years along with younger brother Arbaaz.

Mohammad Rafi

Mohammad Rafi

Mohammad Rafi was born on 24th December 1924 (24 December 1924– 31 July 1980), was an Indian recording artist who is considered by many to be one of the greatest Indian playback singers of the Hindi film industry. In his lifetime, he was awarded the National Film Award, Best National Singer Award and six Filmfare Awards. In 1967, he was honoured with the Padma Shri award by the Government of India. His singing career spanned about 35 years. Rafi is noted for his ability to sing songs of different moods and varieties: They ranged from classical numbers to patriotic songs, sad lamentations to highly romantic numbers, qawwalis to ghazals and bhajans. He is best known for romantic and duet songs and, as a playback singer, his ability to mould his voice to the persona of the actor lip-synching the song.

Rafi is primarily noted for his songs in Hindustani, over which he had a strong command. He sang in other Indian languages including  Assamese , Konkani,Bhojpuri, Oriya, Punjabi, Bengali, Marathi, Sindhi, Kannada, Gujarati , Telugu, Maghi, Maithili and Urdu. He also recorded a few songs in English, Persian, Spanishand Dutch. From available figures, Rafi sang 4,516 Hindi film songs, 112 non-Hindi film songs, and 328 private (non-film) songs from 1945 to 1980.

Mohammed Rafi was the youngest of six brothers. His father was Hajji Ali Mohammad. The family lived in Kotla Sultan Singh, a village near present-day Amritsarin Punjab, India. Rafi, whose nickname was Pheeko, began singing by imitating the chants of a fakir in his village. Rafi's father moved to Lahore in the 1920s where he ran a men's salon in Noor Mohalla in Bhatti Gate. His elder brother, Mohammad Deen, had a friend, Abdul Hameed, (future brother-in-law), who spotted the talent in Rafi in Lahore and encouraged him to sing. Abdul Hameed later convinced the family elders to let Rafi move to Mumbai; he accompanied him in 1944.

Rafi learnt classical music from Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Ustad Abdul Wahid Khan, Pandit Jiwan Lal Mattoo and Firoze Nizami. His first public performance came at the age of 13, when he sang in Lahore featuring K. L. Saigal. In 1941, Rafi, under Shyam Sunder, made his debut in Lahore as a playback singer in the duet "Soniye Nee, Heeriye Nee" with Zeenat Begum in the Punjabi film Gul Baloch(released in 1944). In that same year, Rafi was invited by All India Radio Lahore station to sing for them.

He made his professional debut in the Shyam Sunder-directed 1941 Punjabi film Gul Baloch and the earliest debut in a Hindi film was Gaon Ki Gori in 1945.

Dhirubhai Ambani

Dhirubhai Ambani

Dhirubhai Ambani

Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani was born on 28th December 1932  better known as 'Dhirubhai Ambani' Indian business tycoon who founded Reliance Industries in Mumbai with his cousin. Dhirubhai has figured in the Sunday Times list of top 50 businessmen in Asia. Ambani took Reliance Industries public in 1977, and by 2007 the combined fortune of the family was $60 billion, making the Ambani's the second richest family in the world. Ambani died on July 6, 2002.

Dhirubhai Ambani started, of by working with a firm in Yemen in the 1950s and moved to Mumbai in 1958 to start his own business in spices. After making modest profits, he moved into textiles and opened a mill in Naroda industrial area of Ahmedabad. He founded Reliance Industries in 1966, and as of 2012, the company has over 85,000 employees and provides almost 5% of the Central Government's total tax revenue. As of 2012, Reliance Industries was listed among top 100 firms in Fortune 500 list of world's biggest companies by revenues.

Dhirubhai Ambani returned from Yemen to India and started "Majin" in partnership with Champaklal Damani his second cousin who lived with him in Aden,Yemen. Majin was to import polyester yarn and export spices to Yemen. The first office of the Reliance Commercial Corporation was set up at the Narsinatha Street in Masjid Bunder. It was a 350 sq ft (33 m²) room with a telephone, one table and three chairs. Initially, they had two assistants to help them with their business. During this period, Ambani and his family stayed in a two-bedroom apartment at the Jai Hind Estate in Bhuleshwar, Mumbai. In 1965, Champaklal Damani and Dhirubhai Ambani ended their partnership and Ambani started on his own. It is believed that both had different temperaments and a different take on how to conduct business. While Damani was a cautious trader and did not believe in building yarn inventories, Ambani was a known risk-taker and believed in building inventories, anticipating a price rise, and making profits.

Extensive marketing of the brand "Vimal" in the interiors of India made it a household name. Franchise retail outlets were started and they used to sell "only Vimal" brand of textiles. In the year 1975, a Technical team from the World Bank visited the Reliance Textiles' Manufacturing unit.

In 1982, Reliance Industries came up against a rights issue regarding partly convertible debentures. It was rumored that the company was making all efforts to ensure that their stock prices did not slide an inch. Sensing an opportunity, The Bear Cartel, a group of stock brokers from Calcutta, started to short sell the shares of Reliance. To counter this, a group of stock brokers until recently referred to as "Friends of Reliance" started to buy the short sold shares of Reliance Industries on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The Bear Cartel was acting on the belief that the Bulls would be short of cash to complete the transactions and would be ready for settlement under the "Badla" trading system operative in the Bombay Stock Exchange. The bulls kept buying and a price of  152 per share was maintained until the day of settlement. On the day of settlement, the Bear Cartel was taken aback when the Bulls demanded a physical delivery of shares. To complete the transaction, the much money was provided to the stock brokers who had bought shares of Reliance, by Dhirubhai Ambani. In the case of non-settlement, the Bulls demanded an Unbadla, or penalty sum, of  35 per share. With this, the demand increased and the shares of Reliance shot above  180 in minutes. The settlement caused an enormous uproar in the market.

To find a solution to this situation, the Bombay Stock Exchange was closed for three business days. Authorities from the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) intervened in the matter and brought down the "Unbadla" rate to  2 with a stipulation that the Bear Cartel had to deliver the shares within the next few days. The Bear Cartel bought shares of Reliance from the market at higher price levels and it was also learnt that Dhirubhai Ambani himself supplied those shares to the Bear Cartel and earned a healthy profit out of The Bear Cartel's adventure.

After this incident, many questions were raised by his detractors and the press. Not many people were able to understand as to how a yarn trader until a few years ago was able to get in such a huge amount of cash flow during a crisis period. The answer to this was provided by the then finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee in the Parliament. He informed the house that a Non-Resident Indian had invested up to 220 million in Reliance during 1982-83. These investments were routed through many companies like Crocodile, Lota and Fiasco. These companies were primarily registered in Isle of Man. The interesting factor was that all the promoters or owners of these companies had a common surname Shah. An investigation by the Reserve Bank of India in the incident did not find any unethical or illegal acts or transactions committed by Reliance or its promoters.

Dhirubhai Ambani was admitted to the Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai on June 24, 2002 after he suffered a major stroke. It was his second stroke, the first one had occurred in February 1986 and had paralyzed his right hand. He was in a coma for more than a week and a number of doctors were consulted. He died on July 6,2002.

Rahul Dravid

Rahul Dravid

Rahul Dravid was born on 11th January 1973. He  is a former Indian cricketer, who captained the national Test and One Day International (ODI) teams. Born in a Marathi family, he started playing cricket at the age of 12 and later represented the state team at the under-15, under-17 and under-19 levels. Hailed as The Wall, Dravid has been described as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. He was named one of the best five cricketers of the year by Wisden Cricketers' Almanack in 2000 and received the Player of the Year and the Test Player of the Year awards at the inaugural ICC awards ceremony in 2004. In December 2011, he became the first non-Australian cricketer to address at the Bradman Oration in Canberra.

As of October 2012, Dravid is the third-highest run scorer in Test cricket, after Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting, and is only the second Indian cricketer, after Tendulkar to score 10,000 runs both in Tests and in ODIs. Wisden ranked him the third greatest Test batsman of all time, after Don Bradman and Tendulkar. In April 2009, he became the only player to score a century in all the ten Test-playing countries. As of October 2012, he holds the record for the most number of catches taken by a player (non-wicket-keeper) in Test cricket, with 210.

In August 2011, after receiving a surprise call in the ODI series against England, Dravid declared his retirement from ODIs as well as Twenty20 International (T20I), and in March 2012, he announced his retirement from international and first-class cricket. He appeared in the 2012 Indian Premier League as captain of the Rajasthan Royals.

Rahul Dravid, along with Glenn McGrath were honoured during the seventh annual Bradman Awards function in Sydney on 1 November 2012. Dravid has also been honoured with the Padma Bhushan award, India's third highest civilian award.

Dravid was born in a Maharashtrian Deshastha Brahmin family in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. His family later moved to Bangalore, Karnataka, where he was raised. Dravid's father worked for a company that makes jams and preserves, giving rise to the later nickname Jammy. His mother, Pushpa, was a professor of Architecture at the University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE), Bangalore. Dravid has a younger brother named Vijay. He did his schooling at St. Joseph's Boys High School, Bangalore and earned a degree in commerce from St. Joseph's College of Commerce, Bangalore.

Dravid started playing cricket at the age of 12, and represented Karnataka at the under-15, the under-17 and the under-19 levels. Former cricketer Keki Tarapore first noticed Dravid's talent while coaching at a summer camp in the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Dravid scored a century for his school team. He also played as wicket-keeper, but later stopped keeping wicket on the advice of former Test players Gundappa Vishwanath, Roger Binny,Brijesh Patel and Tarapore.

Dravid made his Ranji Trophy debut in February 1991, while he was still attending college. Playing alongside future Indian teammates Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath against Maharashtra in Pune, he scored 82 runs in the match, which ended in a draw. His first full season was in 1991–92, when he scored two centuries and finished up with 380 runs at an average of 63.3, getting selected for the South Zone cricket team in the Duleep Trophy.

Lakshmi Mittal

Lakshmi  Mittal

Lakshmi Niwas Mittal was born  on 2nd  September 1950. He is a British-based Indian steel magnate. He is the chairman and CEO of ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel making company. Mittal owns 41 percent of ArcelorMittal and holds a 34 percent stake in the Queens Park Rangers F.C. football team.

In 2007, Mittal was the richest man of Asian descent in the United Kingdom. Despite being the eighth wealthiest man in Britain in 2002, he does not hold British citizenship. He was ranked the sixth richest person in the world by Forbes in 2011, but dropped to 21st place in 2012, due to having lost $10.4 billion the previous year. In spite of the drop, Forbes estimates that he still had a personal wealth of US$16 billion in October 2012. He is also the 47th "most powerful person" of the 70 individuals named in Forbes' "Most Powerful People" list for 2012. His daughter Vanisha Mittal's wedding was the second most expensive in recorded history.

In 2008, his net worth peaked at US$ 69.1 billion, making him the third richest person in history.

Mittal has been a member of the board of directors of Goldman Sachs since 2008, and is also member of the board of directors of the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company. He sits on the World Steel Association's executive committee, and is a member of the Indian Prime Minister’s Global Advisory Council, the Foreign Investment Council in Kazakhstan, the World Economic Forum’s International Business Council, and the Presidential International Advisory Board of Mozambique. He also sits on the advisory board of Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management in the United States and is a member of the board of trustees of the Cleveland Clinic.

In 2006 The Sunday Times named him "Business Person of 2006", the Financial Times named him "Person of the Year", and Time magazine named him "International News maker of the Year 2006". In 2007, Time magazine included him in their "100 most influential persons in the world".

Lakshmi Narayan Mittal alias Lakshmi Niwas Mittal was born into an Indian business family in Rajgarh tehsil (also known as Sadulpur) of Churu district in Rajasthan, India. His family moved from (Rajgarh) Sadulpur, Rajasthan to Calcutta in West Bengal. Mittal has two siblings—Pramod Mittal and Vinod Mittal.He studied at Shri Daulatram Nopany Vidyalaya from 1957 to 1964. He graduated from St. Xavier's College, Calcutta, with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in business and accounting. His father, Mohan Lal Mittal, ran a steel business, Nippon Denro Ispat. Until the 1990s, the family's main assets in India were a cold-rolling mill for sheet steels in Nagpur and an alloy steels plant near Pune. Today, the family business, including a large integrated steel plant near Mumbai, is run by Pramod and Vinod, but Lakshmi has no connection with it.

N.R. Narayanamurthy

Narayana Murthy

Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy usually referred to as Narayana Murthy, is an Indian businessman and the co-founder of Infosys, a multinational corporation providing business consulting, technology, engineering, and outsourcing services. Murthy was born and raised in Mysore, Karnataka, studied electrical engineering at the National Institute of Engineering, University of Mysore, and M. Tech at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur.

Before starting Infosys, Murthy worked with Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad as chief systems programmer and Patni Computer Systems in Pune (Maharashtra). He started Infosys in 1981 and served as its CEO from 1981 to 2002 and as chairman from 2002 to 2011. In 2011, he stepped down from the board and became Chairman Emeritus. On 1 June 2013, Murthy was appointed as Additional Director and Executive Chairman of the board for a period of five years.

Murthy has been listed among the 12 greatest entrepreneurs of our time by Fortune magazine. He has been described as Father of Indian IT sector by Timemagazine due to his contribution to outsourcing in India. Murthy has also been honoured with the Padma Vibhushan and Padma Shri awards.

Narayana Murthy was born on 20 August 1946 to Sri R H Kulkarni and Vimala Kulkarni at Mysore, located in the Indian state of Karnataka. After completing his school education, he appeared for the Indian Institute of Technology entrance test but could not attend. Instead he went to the National Institute of Engineering and graduated in 1967 with a degree in Electrical Engineering. In 1969 he received his master's degree from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur.

Murthy started his career at IIM Ahmedabad as chief systems programmer. There he worked on India's first time-sharing computer system  and designed and implemented a BASIC interpreter for Electronics Corporation of India Limited. He started a company named Softronics. When that company failed after about a year and a half, he joined Patni Computer Systems in Pune.

Murthy and six software professionals founded Infosys in 1981 with an initial capital injection of Rs 10,000, which was provided by his wife Sudha Murthy. Murthy served as the CEO of Infosys for 21 years from 1981 to 2002 and was succeeded by co-founder Nandan Nilekani. At Infosys he articulated, designed and implemented the Global Delivery Model for IT services outsourcing from India. He was Chairman of the Board from 2002 to 2006, after which he became Chairman of the Board and Chief Mentor. In August 2011, he retired from the company, taking the title Chairman Emeritus.

Murthy serves as an independent director on the corporate board of HSBC and has served as a director on the boards of DBS Bank, Unilever, ICICI and NDTV. He also serves as a member of the advisory boards and councils of several educational and philanthropic institutions, including Cornell University, INSEAD, ESSEC, Ford Foundation, the UN Foundation, the Indo-British Partnership, Asian Institute of Management, a trustee of the Infosys Prize, and as a trustee of the Rhodes Trust. He is also Chairman of the Governing board of Public Health Foundation of India. He serves on the Asia Pacific Advisory Board of British Telecommunications. In 2005 he co-chaired the World Economic Forum in Davos.

On 1 June 2013, Murthy returned to Infosys as Executive Chairman and Additional Director.