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Abbas K.A: Khwaja Ahmed Abbas was a well knownIndian journalist, writer and film director. He wrotemore than seventy books of which Tomorrow isOurs, Invitation to Immorality, Outside India, In-dian Look at America, Defeat for Death, I am Notan Island and The Walls of Glass are very famous.

Abdul Gaffar Khan : He was a staunch Congress-man and a soldier of the Indian freedom struggle.He was also called Frontier Gandhi, because heorganised the people of the North West FrontierProvince (NWFP) of undivided India (now mergedwith Pakistan) on Gandhian principles. He was thefirst foreigner to be awarded the Bharat Ratna,India’s highest civilian award, in 1987. He was thefounder of the movement known as KhudaiKhidmatgars (Servants of God) in 1929.

Abdul Khadar Maulavi, Vakkom: He was a socialreformer who started the daily Swadeshabhimaniwith the editorship of K. Ramakrishna Pillai on Janu-ary 19, 1905.

Abdul Kalam, A.P.J. : AvulPakir Jainulabdeen AbdulKalam was elected the 11thPresident of India on July 18,2002. He is the second non-po-litical person after Dr. S.Radhakrishnan to be elected tothe country’s highest post.

Acharya, Sankara: Born inKaladi, Kerala, he was a phi-losopher and scholar. He is the founder and propo-nent of Advaita philosophy. He established fourmatts and revived the Hindu religion.

Advani, Lal Kishanchand: India’s Deputy Prime Min-ister from 2002 to 2004. Union Minister for Informa-tion and Home Minister, 1998-2002. Leader of Op-position in 14th Lok Sabha.

Advani, Pankaj: Only the second cueist who wonthe both Billiards and Snooker Amateur World titles.The 20 year old turned professional in 2003.

Aggarwal, Anil: The President of Cosmos groupwas elected the new President of ASSOCHAM.

Ahalya Bai, Rani: She was the widoweddaughter-in-law of Malhar Rao Holkar. On the latter’sdeath, Ahalya Bai became the ruler for thirty yearstill her death in 1795.

Ahluwalia, Montek Singh: Montek Singh Ahluwaliais the Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission.He played keyrole in financial reforms in the 1990’s.Previously he was Finance Secretary and memberof Planning Commission.

Akilandam, P.V. : P.V. Akilandam, known as Akhilan,was a famous Tamil poet. He won Jnanapith Awardfor h is Chithira Pavai. Nengin Alaikal,Vazhvininpam and Pavai Velaku are his famousworks.

Ali, Aruna Asaf: Indian freedom fighter, Mayor ofDelhi, 1958. A devoted socialist, radical in her views,Bharat Ratna’97.

Ali, Salim: Indian ornithologist known as ‘the Bird-man of India.’

Amarasimhan: Sanskrit lexicographer. He was oneamong the nine jewels in the court of VikramadityaII. He is the author of the famous Sanskrit dictio-nary Amarakosha.

Ambani, Anil: The younger of Ambani brother. Henow owns Reliance Energy, Reliance capital, Reli-ance Infocomm, Reliance mutual and Harmony afterthe split.

Ambani, Dhirubhai: Founder-Chairman of RelianceIndustries Ltd. (RIL), India’s largest Private SectorCompany. Succeeded by sons, Mukesh and Anil.

Ambani, Mukesh: The elder Ambani now owns themother company Reliance industries after split withyounger brother. Third richest Indian according toForbes Magazine.

Ambati, Balamurali: Indian medical doctor on May19,1995 he graduated from New York’s Mount SinaiSchool of Medicine and became the world’s young-est (17 years) medical doctor.

Ambedkar, B.R.:Dr.Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar wasan eminent jurist, social reformer and a scheduledcaste leader. He was the Chairman of the Constitu-tion Drafting Body and is considered the Architect

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of the Indian Constitution. He was the Minister ofLaw (1946-51) in the Nehru Cabinet, and wasawarded Bharat Ratna in 1990 posthumously.

Amrtraj, Vijay - Captained India in the Davis Cupfrom 1982. Only player to adorn the hall of fameTennis thrice.

Amte, (Baba) Muralidhar Devidas: Indian socialworker known for his work among leprosy patients.Established the Anandvan, a colony for the leprosypatients, near Nagpur. Founder of Knit India Move-ment and Varro Maharaoga Seva Samiti, GokulWorkers’ University for orphans. Recipient of thefirst G.D. Birla International award for outstandingcontribution to humanity. Returned Padma Shri andPadma Vibhushan in 1991 in protest against ill-treat-ment of tribals by the Madhya Pradesh and GujaratGovernments during the Save Narmada campaign.Amte got the Gandhi Peace Prize-1999.

AnandaVardhan: Propounder of ‘DwaniSiddhantha’. Author of the famous book DwanyaLoka.

Anand, Mulk Raj: Indian writer in English. Chair-man of Lalit Kala Akademi (1955-1970). Author ofThe Untouchable, The Bubble, Confessions of aLover, Morning Face, Seven Summers, etc. Winnerof Leverhulme Fellowship (1940-42), World PeaceCouncil Prize (1952), Padma Bhushan (1968) andmany other awards. He died on 2004.

Anand, Viswanathan: India’s Grandmaster. First In-dian and youngest Asian to win InternationalMaster’s title (1987) and Chess Oscar (1997). Firstrecipient of Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award. WonArjuna Award (1985), Padma Shri (1998), and K.K.Birla Foundation Award (1992). He won four ChessOscar, latest being in 2004.

Ananthamurthy, U.R.: Kannada writer. He was thePresident of the Kendra Sahitya Akademi. Recipi-ent of the 1994 Bharatiya Jnanpith Award.

Arora, Lt. General Puneeta: Lt. General PuneetaAroa is the first woman in the three services toreach the second highest rank in the armed forces.She has taken over as the new commandant ofArmed Force Medical College, Pune. He attainedthe world No.1 position on March 10, 2007.

Athaiya, Bhanu: First Indian to win an Oscar forcostume design in 1983 biopic ‘Gandhi’. Her recentworks include Lagan and Swadesh.

Atwal, Arjun: First Indian golfer to qualify for

USPGA. He is also the first Indian to win a Euro-pean Tour event when he won the 2002 Caltex Mas-ters.

Atwal, Charanjit Singh: The Shiromani Akali Dalleader, Charanjit Singh Atwal, has been unanimouslyelected as the Deputy Speaker of 14th Lok Sabha.

Ayyankali: Leader of Harijans, in Kerala. MahatmaGandhi called him, ‘Pulayaraja’. Great organiser.

Azmi, Shabana: Indian film actress and social activ-ist. Her debut film was Ankur. Winner of manynational and international awards.

Bachchan, Amitabh: India’s most popular film starever. M.P. for a short while. His programme ‘ KaunBanega Crorepati’ was a big hit in the miniscreen.UNICEF named him as the good will ambassor(2005) focusing an polio eradication and educatingthe public on HIV. He was honored with the Legionof Honor. 2007 by the French Government.

Bachchan, Harivansh Rai: Hindi poet. Recipient ofthe first Saraswati Samman (1991) for his autobio-graphical work, Dashdwar Se Sopan Tak. Father ofthe celebrated Hindi film star Amitabh Bachchan.Died in 2002.

Bahuguna, Sunderlal: Indianenvironmentalist and leader ofChipko Movement. He hasbeen resisting construction ofTehri Dam on Bhagirathi riverin the Uttarkashi region of theHimalayas on ecologicalgrounds.

Bardhan, A.B: The currentGeneral Secretary of CPI As theGeneral Secretary of All India Trade Union Con-gress, he headed All India Federation of ElectricityEmployees for three decades.

Basu, Jyoti: Senior communist leader was the chiefminister of West Bengal for 23 years from 1977 to2000. He resigned in 2000 due to health reasons.

Bateille, Andre: Renowned Social scientist hasbeen appointed the Chairman of Indian Council ofSocial Science Research (ICSSR). He is also amember of National Knowledge Commission.

Bathew (neé Kharbull), Rose Millian: A Khasi tribalfrom Meghalaya and the first woman to becomeChairman of the Union Public Service Commission.

Bedi, Kiran: India’s first woman IPS officer (1972).She was appointed United Nations Civilian Police

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Adviser. Awarded Magsaysay Award, 1995, UNmedal for outstanding service, 2004.

Benegal, Shyam: Poineer of parallel cinema inHindi with ‘Ankur’ in 1974. Other films he directedinclude Nishant , Manthan Bhumika, Junoon,Kalyug, Mandi , Making of Mahatma, Zubeida etc.

Besant, Annie: English theosophist was the movingspirit behind theosophical society in India.Shefounded central Hindu College at Benaras andIndian Home rule League in 1916. She became thefirst woman president of congress in 1917 atCalcutta.

Bhagawati, P.N.: Former Chief Justice of India. Hewas Appointed Chairman of the UN Human RightsCommittee, the first Indian to be given that post.

Bhatt, Ela (b. 1933): A champion of women’s rights.She has done pioneering work with the trade unionof poor women from the self-employed sector andwon the Magsaysay Award in 1977. She startedSEWA in 1974.

Bhatia, Sabeer: US - basedNRI entrepreneur, Mr. SabeerBhatia is credited withinvention of first free e-mailservice in the world-hotmail.He later sold it to Microsoftfor $ 400 million. He runs aconsultancy firm called‘Arzu’.

Bhattacharya, Kanchan Chawdhary: The 1973batch IPS officer became the first woman to head astate police force anywhere in India when she wasappointed as the Director General of police ofUttaranchal.

Bhave, Vinoba: Known for ‘Shramadan’ and‘Bhoodan’ movements. He was a Sarvodaya leader.His Ashram, Paramdhan, is at Pannar.

Bordoloi, Gopinath: Gopinath Bordoloi was a free-dom fighter and former Chief Minister of Assam.He was posthumously honoured with the BharatRatna on January 30, 1999.

Bose, Subhash Chandra: He is the founder of AzadHind Fauj (Indian National Army) and the ForwardBloc. He was called ‘Netaji’.

Baker, Laurie: British born Indian architect whohas pioneered innovative low cost, environment-friendly housing.

Bandopadhyay, Padmavati: On October 2004,Padmavathy Bandopadhyay took over as DirectorGeneral Medical Service, becoming the Airforce’sfirst woman three-star general officer.

Banerjee, Surendranath: One of the first Indiansto qualify the I.C.S. Examination. Held the president-ship of Indian National Congress twice.

Chand, Nek: Indian sculptor. Creator of the RockGarden in Chandigarh.

Chand, Prem: Born in Uttar Pradesh. He wrote inHindi and Urdu. His real name was Dhanpat Rai. Hisfamous works are Sevasadan, Rangabhumi, Kafan,Kayakalp, Godan, Nirmala etc.

Chandra, Bipin: Noted historian on modern IndianHistory. He was appointed as Chairman of NationalBook Trust. His major works are India’s Strugglefor Independence, Freedom Struggle, Nationalityand Empire etc.

Chatterji, Somnath: Adistinguished parliamentarianin the nine previous LokSabhas, the veteran Marxistleader became the speaker of14th Lok Sabha of India. Mr.Chatterji is the first communistleader to get the coveted postof the Lok Sabha speaker.

Chaudhuri, Nirad C.: The Indian author who be-came famous for his book The Autobiography of anUnknown Indian, a memoir of his childhood in co-lonial India. He died at Oxford, England, at the ageof 101.

Chelliah, Raja: Indian economist. He was Chair-man of National Institute of Public Finance and Pol-ity. Headed the Tax Reforms Committee.

Choudhary, Bula: Ace long-distance Indian swim-mer. She became the first Asianwoman to cross the EnglishChannel twice on 1999. In 2005she became first woman tocross all five continents.

Cariappa, Field MarshalK.M.: First Indian commander- in - chief of Indian Army, 1943-53.

Chand, Dhyan: Hockey Wiz-

Founded Hotmail Speaker of14th Lok Sabha

The Second FieldMarshal of India

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ard. Olympic gold in Amsterdam 1928, Los Angeles1932, Berlin 1936. Padmabhushan.

Chawla, Kalpana: The first Indian American Spacewoman. Travelled aboard space shuttle Columbia inNov’97.Died on her second space mission aboardColombia.

Dalmia, Jagmohan: He was the President of theBoard of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI); was thehead of the International Cricket Council (ICC) inmid-June 1997. He is credited with globalising andcommercialising the appeal of the cricket.

Damodaran, D: Chairman of Securities ExchangeBoard of India. He was previously the Chairman ofUnit Trust of India.

Dayal,Virendra: Former UN Under secretary Gen-eral Virendra Dayal has been appointed to head thecommission of Inquiry into reference of NatwarSingh in Paul Volcker report.

Dev, Kapil :Kapil Dev RamlalNikhanj is the only cricketer inthe world to have scored over5000 runs and taken more than400 wickets in test cricket. In2002, he was named ‘WisdenIndian Cricketer of the Cen-tury.’ He is nicknamedHaryana Hurricane.

Devi, Kunjarani: The ace Indian weightlifterearned the distinction of being listed among thetop 100 lifters of the century in the magazineWorld Weightlifting, published by the Interna-tional Federation of Weightlifting.

Devi, Mahasweta: The renowned Bengali writer isthe winner of the 32nd Jnanapith Award for 1996 forher outstanding contribution to the enrichment ofIndian literature through her creative writing inBengali between 1976 and 1995. She has worked forthe development of Shabar Tribe.

Dolma, Dicky (b. 1974): She became the youngestwoman to scale Mount Everest, she hails fromHimachal Pradesh.

Dutt, Nargis (1929-81): The greatest Hindi film ac-tress of her time. Paired in several immortal filmswith Raj Kapoor. Married actor Sunil Dutt; she hadwon Best Actress National award and Padma Shri.Sanjay Dutt, a leading Hindi film actor, is her son.

Dutt, Sunil: The actor-turned politician, who wasMember of Parliament three times. Passed away in

2005. He was then the Union Minister for Sportsand Youth Affairs.

Fathima Beevi, Meera Sahib: First woman judge ofthe Supreme Court of India (1989). Appointed Gov-ernor of Tamil Nadu on January 25, 1997 and re-signed from the post in 2001.

Gandhi, Indira: First woman Prime Minister of India(1966-77, 1980-84). She was Prime Minister of Indiafor 15 years. Mrs. Gandhi is the recipient of the 1971Bharat Ratna, and 1984 Jawaharlal Nehru Award forInternational Understanding. She was shot dead byher own security men.

Gandhi, M.K.: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Fa-ther of the Indian Nation, was also known as Ma-hatma Gandhi. He was trained as a lawyer in Englandand went to South Africa to practise law in 1893. Itwas there that he became active in defending therights of Asians against their white oppressors. Hereturned to India in 1914 and, after a brief spell as anambulance volunteer in World War I, led India to in-dependence. He was assassinated by a Hindu fa-natic on January 30, 1948. His auto-biographical workis titled My Experiments with Truth.

Gandhi, Rajiv: Prime Minister of India 1984-89. Hewas assassinated on May 21, 1991. Rajiv Gandhiwas posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna in1991.

Gandhi, Sonia: Chairperson of United ProgressiveAlliance and also heading National Advisory Coun-cil. Widow of former Indian Prime Minister, RajivGandhi. President of the Congress and opposi-tion leader in the 13th Lok Sabha.

Ganesan, Sivaji: The versatile and legendary actorof Tamil films who won the coveted Dada SahebPhalke Award for 1996 for his outstanding contribu-tion to the growth of Indian cinema. He is popularlyknown as ‘Natikar Tilakam’ (Star Among Stars).

Gavaskar, Sunil: Popularly known as ‘Little Mas-ter’, Gavaskar was captain of the Indian cricket team.Won Arjuna Award in 1977, Padma Bhushan in 1979and Wisden Cricketer of the Year 1980. He is thefirst cricketer in the world to score 10,000 runs inTests; He holds 34 test centuries. Sunny days,Idols are his books. He is currently the chairman ofthe I.C.C. Cricket Committee.

George, Anju Bobby: The Kerala athlete who wonthe silver medal in IAAF World Athletics Meet, 2005and Bronze Medal at World Athletic Championship,Paris, 2003 in the long jump event. She is the firstIndian to win a medal in a world championship in

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athletics. Ghosh, Aurobindo: Indian freedom fighter, poet and

a saint. He renounced politics and set up an ashramin Pondicherry. His philosophy is called ‘IntegralYoga’. Author of the well-known book, Essays onGita. Wrote the epic poem Savitri.

Gill, K.P.S: The President of Indian Hockey Fed-eration. He was formerly the police chief of Punjab.He was instrumental in wiping out terrorist and sepa-ratist activities in Punjab.

Giri, V.V. : Varshagiri Venkita Giri, the fourth Presi-dent of India, (1969-1974), was the Governor of Kerala(1960-1965). Won Bharat Ratna in 1975.

Gokhale, Gopalakrishna: Gokhale founded the Ser-vants of India Society in 1905. He was an outstand-ing Indian statesman and political guru of MahatmaGandhi. He was the Congress president in 1905. Ledthe Moderate faction of the Indian National Con-gress.

Gopalakrishnan, Adoor: AfterSatyajit Ray, his name repre-sented Indian cinema in mostof the major world film festi-vals. His film Swayamvaramstands along with Ray’sPather Panchali. His otherworks are Kodiyettam,Kathapurushan, Vidheyan,Nizhalkuthu andElippathayam. In 2005 he won the Dada SahebPhalke Award. He was honored by the French Gov-ernment with the ‘‘Commander of Arts and letters’the highest cultural honour.

Goswami, Indira: Assamese writer who writes un-der the pen-name Mamoni Raisom Goswami. Shewas given Jnanpith Award in 2000. She has beenmediator in talks with extremist organisation ULFA.Her major books are Daantal Hatir Une KhoaHoudah, Nilkanthi Broja, Ahiron, Adha LekhaDastabej.

Gowda, H.D. Deve: Former Karnataka Chief Minis-ter. He was the 11th Prime Minister of India fromJune 1, 1996 to April 21, 1997.

Gujral, I.K.: Inder Kumar Gujral, the ace diplomat,was the 12th Prime Minister of India (April 21, 1997– March 18, 1998) succeeding Deve Gowda, in whoseCabinet he was the Minister for External Affairs.

Gupta, Asim Das: The Finance Minister of West

Bengal headed the empowered committee of the Fi-nance Ministers of States for the implementation ofValue Added Tax.

Gupta, Modaduga V.: The Indian scientist who wasawarded the World Food Prize 2005. His achieve-ments are mainly in fresh water aquaculture.

Habibullah, Wajahat: The former Secretary of Min-istry of Panchayat Raj was appointed the Chief In-formation Commissioner under the new right to in-formation act.

Harikrishna P :The 1996 World Under-10 cham-pion and widely regarded as the country’s best chesstalent after Viswanathan Anand. He is the young-est Indian to become a Grand Master (15 years, 3months).

Harsha, Indira: India’s first scientifically docu-mented test-tube baby born at King Edward Memo-rial Hospital in Mumbai on August 6, 1987.

Hazare, Vijay: The legendary cricketer and formerIndian captain. He was the first Indian to scorecenturies in both innings of a test. He was thecaptain to lead India to its first test win.

Hazarika, Bhupen: Indian film producer-director,composer, lyricist, folksinger and actor from Assam.President of the Sangeet Natak Akademi. Won theDada Saheb Phalke Award, 1992.

Hrishikesh Yadav: Leader of first Indian civilian ex-pedition to Mt. Everest sponsored by the Tatas.

Husain, M.F.: Indian artist and a former nominatedmember of Parliament. His paintings, which were onsale by the Chester Davida Herwitz Charitable Trustin New York, in June 1995, included Lighting Horses,Shiva Nataraja and Mother Teresa.

Hussain, Zakir: Zakir Hussain is an Indian tablamaestro. He is among the 13 artists and craftspeopleto receive the 1999 National Heritage Fellowship,USA’s most prestigious honour in folk and tradi-tional arts.

Ilayaraja: Exponent of Carnatic music and well-known music director of Tamil films. He conducteda symphony (1993) with the Royal Philharmonic Or-chestra. He conducted another symphony(2005) ‘‘Thiruvasayam’.

Jafri, Ali Sardar: The renowned Urdu poet was therecipient of 33rd Jnanpith Award. His outstandingworks include Parwaz (1943), Khoon Ki Lakeer(1942), Asia Jag Utha (1951) and Lalu Pakarta Hai

Dada Saheb Phalke2005

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(1978). Jalan, Bimal: The former Governor of RBI. Bimal

Jalan was been elected President of the NationalCouncil of Applied Economics Research (NCAER).Jalan is at present a member of the Rajya Sabha.

Jaya Dev: Sanskrit poet. Author of the famous workGita Govindam. It is also known as Ashtapadi.

Joshi, Pandit Bhimsen: Internationally acclaimedHindustani vocalist, who has led the renaissance ofIndian classical music.

Kalmadi, Suresh: Congress politician and business-man. He is the President of Indian Olympic Asso-ciation, Asian Athletics Association, South AsianAthletic Federation and Athletic Federation of In-dia.

Karat, Brinda: First woman politburo member in theeighty year old history of communist movement inIndia. Married to party colleague and General Sec-retary Prakash Karat. She has been general secre-tary of All India Democratic Women’s associationfor the last ten years.

Karat, Prakash: Elected as the General Secretary ofthe CPI (M). He was politburo member from 1992.Plays important role in United Progressive Alliance.

Karnad, Girish: Indian playwright, actor and di-rector. Chairman of Sangeet Natak Akademi, NewDelhi (1988-93) and recipient of the 34th BharatiyaJnanpith Award in January 1999.

Karthikeyan, Narain: First In-dian to drive in formula-onecircuit by driving for Team Jor-dan. He is often given the title‘The fastest Indian in theworld’.

Khan, Alauddin: He isan eminent sarod player andinstrumentalist of seniaGharana. He established Mahiar Hand (1924) andreceived Padma Bhushan and Disikottana (ViswaBharati).

Khan, Amjad Ali: Indian classical musician. Sarodmaestro. On October 23, 1996 he was appointedUNICEF Ambassador for Children from the sphereof culture and creative art.

Khan, Bismillah: Indian shehnai maestro fromVaranasi. Awarded Bharat Ratna, India’s highestcivilian award on January 26, 2001. He died in 2006.

Khurana, Hargobind: Indian-born scientist. Migrated toUSA. Won the 1968 NobelPrize in Physiology/Medicinefor interpretation of the ge-netic code and its function inprotein synthesis.

Khusru, Amir: Medieval poetand musician assumed the title‘Parrot of India’. Intenslypatriotic, he wrote in Persian. Enjoyed the patronageof successive sultans of Delhi from Balban toGhiyazudhin Tughluq. Tughluq Nama, Tarikh-i alaietc main works.

Khusro, Prof. A.M.: Prof. A.M. Khusro, a notedeconomist, was the Chairman of the Eleventh FinanceCommission.

Kidwai, Naina Lal: The investment banking expertin HSBC was the first Indian woman to graduatefrom Harward business school in 1982. She wasselected in the list of influential global businesswoman by Time and Forbes Magazines.

Kizhakkemuri, D.C.: Dominic Chacko Kizhakkemuriis known as the Father of Modern Malayalam pub-lishing industry.

Kovilan: Kovilan is a Malayalam writer. He startedhis writing career with his military stories. He is con-sidered as the Grand Old man of Malayalam Litera-ture.

Krishnan, R.S: A disciple of C.V. Raman, ProfessorR.S. Krishnan was the discoverer of a new opticaleffect called ‘Krishnan Effect’.

Kumar, Dilip: The versatile actor who is the recipi-ent of the 1994 Dada Saheb Phalke Award for hisoutstanding contribution to Indian cinema. The firstsuperstar of the Hindi film world.

Kumble, Anil: Indian leg spinner. Became the sec-ond bowler in cricket history to bag all the ten wick-ets in an innings (against Pa-kistan in Delhi on February 7,1999) after England’s Jim Laker(1956). First Indian to take 400test wickets. He became thehighest test wicket taker forIndia by surpassing KapilDev’s 434 test wickets.

Kurien, Varghese: FormerChairman of the National Dairy

First Indian to driveFormula one car

Nobel Prize Medicine1968

Father of Indian WhiteRevolution

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Development Board, Anand (Gujarat). The brainbehind Operation Flood. Known as the Father ofIndia’s White Revolution.

Kutraleeswaran: A schoolboy from Chennai. En-tered the Guinness Book of World Records by swim-ming across six major waterways in a calendar year.He crossed Palk Strait, the English Channel, twowaterways off the Italian coast, Rottnest Channelin Western Australia and one more waterway in1994.

Kamal Hasan: India’s top film actor who won threenational awards and 15 filmfare awards in 37 years,Nayagan, Sadma, 16 Vayathinile, Indian, weresome of his great movies.

Kapoor, Raj: Indian film actor, director, producer,one of the greatest entertainers the country has pro-duced. Shri 420, Awara, Mera Naam Joker, Bobbywere his major works.

Krishnamurthy, Jiddu: Indian philosopher of In-ternational reputation. At 20, he headed a new sect“The order of the star of the East”. The songs of life.

Laxman, R.K.: Rasipuram Krishnaswamy Laxman isan Indian cartoonist, associated with The Times ofIndia. Author of 50 Years of Independence throughthe Eyes of R.K. Laxman. The famous novelist, R.K.Narayan, is his brother.

Madhavankutty, V.K.: Senior journalist, former edi-tor of Mathrubhumi and founder director of Asianetsatellite channel passed away. He wasPadmabhushan and Kerala Sahitya Academy Awardwinner. He died in 2005.

Mahopatra, Kalicharan:Trained and produced twogenerations of world - class dancers. MasteredOdissi dance form.

Maharaj, Birju: The most endearing and highlyrated Kathak exponent. He is credited withexpanding the reportoire of Kathak with poetry,music and elements such as modern lighting,costumes, stage design etc.

Malleswari, Karnam: Indian weightlifter fromAndhra Pradesh. First Indian woman to win an Olym-pic medal (bronze, Sydney), Rajiv Gandhi Khel RatnaAward.

Maneskshaw, Field Marshal Sam: Former ArmyChief and first Field Marshal of India. Played a key

role in 1971 war between India and Pakistan.

Mangeshkar, Lata: Melody Queen of India. Re-cipient of the 1989 Dada Saheb Phalke Award forher contribution to Indian film music. The world’smost recorded artiste, Lata figures in theGuinness Book of World Records. She wasawarded the Bharat Ratna in 2001.

Masani, Minoo: Minoo Masani was a renowned na-tionalist, author and fiery politician and one of themembers of the Constituent Assembly.

Mehta, Govardhan: Vice Chancellor of HyderabadUniversity and scientist was appointed as Presidentof International Council for Science based in Paris.

Mehta, Zubin: Indian born musician and conductorof world famous Israel Philharmonic Orchestra andthe 130-member New York Phiharmonic Orchestra.

Menon, Vallathol Narayana: Indian (Malayalam)poet, patriot, founder of Kerala Kala Mandalam.

Merchant, Ismail: Eminent film maker, IsmailMerchant of the famous Merchant Ivory Productionhouse died in May 2005. He was well known for theclassic literary adoptions like a Room with a View,Howards End, Remains of the day and The GoldenBowl.

Mirza, Sania: The teenagetennis player who won theWTA title at Hyderabad. Shealso reached third round in USand Australian Open in 2005.She was ranked 32 in the worldand is the most popularwoman sports person in India.

Mishra, Uma Sankar: CBI Di-rector Umasankar Mishra was elected as the ViceChairman of Interpol. He has one year term.

Mittal, Sunil: Sunil Bharati Mittal is the CEO ofBharati telephones of ‘Airtel’ brand. He was chosenas the Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2004 Awardby Earnst and Young.

Mohapatra, Sitakanta: Oriya poet. The third Oriyawriter to receive Jnanpith Award (1993) afterGopinath Mohanty and Sachi Raut Roy.

Mukherjee, Hrishikesh: The popular Hindi film di-rector was conferred the Dada Saheb Phalke Awardfor 1999. He passed away on 2006.

Mukhopadhyaya, Subhas: Bengali poet. Recipient

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of the 27th Bharatiya Jnanpith Award, 1991.

Munshi, Priya Ranjan Das: Union Information andBroadcasting Minister. He is also head of All IndiaFootball Federation.

Naidu, Sarojini : Known as the ‘Nightingale of In-dia’, Naidu was the first Indian woman President ofthe Indian National Congress (1925).

Nair, M.T. Vasudevan: Noted Malayalam writer . Re-cipient of the 31st Bharatiya Jnanpith Award in 1995for his outstanding contribution to the enrichmentof Indian literature.

Nair, Mira: Indian film direc-tor. Her films include SalaamBombay, Mississippi Masala,Kama Sutra, etc. Won theGolden Camera Award atCannes International Film Fes-tival in 1988. Her MonsoonWedding won the Golden LionAward in 2001 at the VeniceFilm Festival.

Nair, Murali : The Indian film director Murali Nairreceived the Golden Camera Award for hisMalayalam film Marana Simhasanam at the presti-gious Cannes International Film Festival in Cannes,France on May 23, 1999.

Nanda, Gulzarilal: Gulzarilal Nanda was twice in-terim Prime Minister of India. He died on January 15,1998.

Nanjundaswamy: Indian revolutionary agriculturist.President of Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha. Knownfor campaigns against multinationals, such as Ameri-can Cargil Seeds India Company, American KentuckyFried Chicken chain, etc.

Narayan, Jayaprakash: Indian freedom fighter, so-cialist and Sarvodaya leader was instrumental in theformation of Janata Party which defeated the Con-gress in 1977 general elections. Popularly known as‘Loknayak’, Jayaprakash was conferred RashtraBhushan in 1977. His works include Why Social-ism, Towards Struggle , From Socialism toSarvodaya, etc. won the Bharat Ratna.

Narayan, Sunita: The Director of Centre for Scienceand Environment published the much controversialstudy about pesticide residue in soft drinks. Shewas head of Tiger Task Force 2005 and was awarded2005 Stockholm Water Prize.

Narayanan, K.R.: India’s 10th President passedaway recently. He was a product of the London

School of Economics, Narayanan was formerlyUnion Minister and later vice Chancellor of theJawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). He had alsoserved as India’s Ambassador to the United States.He was awarded 13th Rajeev Gandhi SadbhavanaAward in 2005. He died in 2001.

Narayanan, M.K.: Appointed National SecurityAdvisor to Prime Minister after the demise of J.N.Dixit. He is also deputed to be the Prime Minister’sspecial representative for talks on the boundaryissue with China.

Narayan, R.K.: Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayanwas an Indian writer in English. He was awarded thePadmabushan in 2000. His autobiography, MalgudiDays, was selected for the 1974 English SpeakingUnion Book Abroad Literary Award. His novel, TheGuide, won him the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1960.His other famous works are Swami and Friends,The English Teacher, Waiting for the Mahatma, MrSampath, The Vendor of Sweets and Under the Ban-yan Tree.

Narayanamurthy, N.: Chief mentor of Infosys tech-nologies, the software major. He quit the position ofhead of Banglore International Airport Limited aftercriticism by former PM, Deve Gowda.

Naoroji, Dadabhai: He is known as the “Grand OldMan of India” and “Father of Indian Politics andEconomics”. He was a freedom fighter and one ofthe founders of the Indian National Congress.

Nayanar, E.K.: E.K. Nayanar was the former ChiefMinister of Kerala. He held the record of being thelongest serving Chief Minister of Kerala.

Nayar, Kuldip: Indian journalist. India’s High Com-missioner to UK under the National Front Govern-ment. Author of India – The Critical Years, Be-tween the Lines, Distant Neighbours, India afterNehru and The Judgement.

Nehru, Jawaharlal: The first Prime Minister of in-dependent India. Also known as the architect ofmodern India. The brain behind Non-AlignmentMovement and the Panchasheel agreement withChina.

Negi, Parimarjan: Twelve year old Parimarjan Negi,became the youngest international master in chessduring Hastings tournament in UK.

Nooyi, Indra: Indra Nooyi is the President and CEOof of Pepsico in India. She was ranked as 16thamong 50 global business woman list published byWall Street Journal. She was leading negotiator forPepsi in $ 13.9 billion acquisi tion of Quaker Oats.

Film Director

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Olappamanna: The famous Malayalam poetOlappamanna won the Kendra Sahitya AcademyAward for 1988-89.

Padukone, Prakash: Prakash Padukone is thepresent executive President of the Badminton As-sociation of India and the first Indian winner of AllEngland Badminton Championship in 1980 andWorld Cup (1981). Won Arjuna Award (1973) andPadma Shri (1982).

Paes, Leander: Tennis star from Kolkata. In 1996,Paes won a bronze medal at the Atlanta Olympics.After a brief spell of absence from the game due tosome medical ailment Paes is now actively back inaction.

Pal, Bachendri:The first Indian woman and the fifthwoman in the world to scale Mount Everest.

Pandit, Vijayalakshmi: Sister of Jawaharlal Nehru,first woman in India to become Minister (UP, 1937),India’s High Commissioner to the U.K. (1956-62);Ambassador to the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. First womanPresident of UN General Assembly (1954), Gover-nor, Maharashtra (1962-64).

Patel, Sardar Vallabhbhai: The ‘Iron Man of India’,leading freedom fighter. Worked closely with Ma-hatma Gandhi. Keyrole in the integration of India’sprincely states with the Union Dy. Prime Minister inNehru Govt. Bharat Ratna.

Pathak, Bindeshwari: Indian social worker. Dedi-cated to the cause of scavengers’ liberation. Knownfor Sulabh Shauchalayas (‘Pour flush toilets’).

Pathak, R.S: R.S.Pathak was appointed Chairmanof Committee enquiring Volcker Committee Reporton oil for food programme inducting Natwar Singh.

Patkar, Medha: Indian envi-ronmentalist and social activ-ist. Leader of Narmada BachaoAndolan (NBA).

Pawar, Sarad: The Union Ag-riculture Minister and Nation-alist Congress Party Chief. Hewas elected as the President ofBoard of Cricket Control of In-dia in 2005.

Phalke, Dhundiraj Govind: Father of Indian Cin-ema. He industrialised Indian film world. He pro-duced India’s first feature film Raja Harishchandrain 1913.

Pillai, Dhanraj:The star hockey player was con-ferred the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award for 1999-

2000 in recognition of his outstanding performance. Pillai, Thakazhi Sivasankara:Thakazhi

Sivasankara Pillai was one of the eminent literaryfigures of Kerala. A Jnanpith Award winner (1984),he dominated the Malayalam literary scene for fivedecades.

Popat, Aparna: National Champion in women’s bad-minton; became the first woman from India to winan international ranking tournament, French OpenChampionship in Paris on March, 1998.

Premji, Azim Hasham: The Chairman of Wipro Cor-poration was named by Forbes as the richest Indianin the world ‘Simplicity and Humbleness’ is his motto.

Poddar, S.K.: President elect of FICCI. Mr. Poddar isthe Chairman of Areva T & D India Ltd, Sri VishnuCements Ltd and Zuari Cement Ltd.

Pritam, Amrita: Punjabi poetess and novelist. Re-cipient of Bharatiya Jnanpith Award. (1981) for herautobiography Kagaz ke Kanvaz.

Pitroda, Sam: Pioneer of India’s telecommunicationrevolution. He headed telecommunicationtechnology mission during Rajiv Gandhi’sgovernment. In 2005, he was inducted as thechairman of National Knowledge Commission.

Rahman, A.R.: Celebrated film music director whoburst into scene with ‘Roja’ in 1992. Other majorworks include Bombay, Lagan, Kadhalan etc. Hecollaborated with Andre-Lloyd Webber for BombayDreams.

Rahman, Indrani: Eminent classical dancer and ex-ponent of the Bharatnatyam dance form. Recipientof Padma Shri.

Rai, Aishwarya: Bollywood actress and now an in-ternational celebrity. Crowned Miss World at SunCity, Johannesburg, in 1994. Third Indian to win aworld beauty contest.

Raj, K.N.: Dr. K.N. Raj, a famous economist, is awinner of the Padmabhushan. He took his Ph.D. in1947 from the London School of Economics. In 1950,he was selected for the first Finance Commission.

Raj Kumar, Dr.: The 67 year old, veteran Kannadaactor is the recipient of the prestigious Dada SahebPhalke Award for the year 1995. In 2000 he waskidnapped by the sandalwood smuggler, Veerappan,and held for 108 days before being released un-harmed. He passed away on 2006.

Founded NBA

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Ram, Kanshi: Indian socialist. A champion of lowercastes and socially backward classes. Founded theBahujan Samaj Party (1984), which has emerged as astrong force. Passed away in 2006.

Ramanna, Raja: The former Atomic EnergyCommission Chairman and former Union Ministerdied in 2004. Dr. Ramanna, an early disciple of HomiJ. Bhabha, was the brain behind India’s first nucleartest at Pokhran in 1974 when he was the Director ofBhaba Atomic Energy Research Centre (BARC).

Rangarajan, Chakravarthi: The Chairman ofthe 12th Finance Commission C. Rangarajan hasbeen appointed as the chairman of economic advi-sory committee to the prime minister.

Rao, P. V. Narasimha: Former Indian Prime Ministerand architect of economic reforms of 1991 passedaway on December, 2004. Mr Rao was the ChiefMinister of Andra Pradesh from 1971 to 1973. Raohas the distinction of leading first minoritygovernment at centre and being the first primeminister from the south. He wrote a novel calledInsider.

Rao, UR: Mr Rao the former chairman of theIndian Space Research Organisation has beenranked by the US magazine, Space News, amongthe top 10 international personalities who havemade a difference in civil, commerce and militaryspace in the world since 1989.

Rathode Rajyawardhan Singh:Ace shooter of the country,Major Rajyawardhan SinghRathode won the double trapevent silver medal in AthensOlympics (2004).

Ratnam, Mani: Indian film di-rector, best known for his con-troversial blockbuster Bombay(produced in Hindi, Tamil andTelugu). His film Nayakan was selected among the100 great films by Time Magazine. Other films in-clude Dalapathi, Roja, Alaipayuthe and Dil se.

Ray, Satyajit: Renowned film director who wonworld fame through his film Pather Panchali (1955).Aparajita, Apoor Sansar, and Pather Panchali areconsidered as Apu Trilogy. He received lifetimeachievement Oscar in 1992.

Reddy, Justice Jeevan: The former judge of SupremeCourt is the head of the five member committee to

examine the issue of Armed Force Special PowersAct in Manipur.

Roy, Arundhati: Social activ-ist and internationally re-nowned author of the BookerPrize winning novel, The Godof Small Things. She donatedthe entire proceeds of theaward – approximately Rs. 15lakhs – to support the tribalswho will be displaced by theSardar Sarovar Dam in the Narmada Valley.

Roy, Prannoy: Chairman of NDTV made psephologypopular in television media. The one time economicanalyst in Ministry of Finance was later popular TVhost of ‘The World This Week’.

Roy, Raja Rammohan: Founder of the Brahma Samaj,Roy worked for eradicating evils like Sati, child mar-riage and purdah. He published Samvad Kaumudi,Mirathul Akbar, Percepts of Jesus etc.

Radhakrishnan, Dr. Sarvepalli: Indian scholar, phi-losopher, writer and statesman. Second Presidentof India (1962-67), Chairman of UNESCO, BharatRatna, Templeton Award. The Hindu View of Life,Indian Philosophy.

Raman, Dr. C.V.: Indian Physicist who won Nobelprize for ‘Raman effect’ 1930. Founded Indian Insti-tute of Science, Bangalore. Lenin Peace Prize, BharatRatna.

Saki, Motilal: Motilal Saki was a noted Kashmiripoet and writer. He was also a scholar in Kashmiri,Urdu and English.

Sanghvi, Vir: Indian journalist. Editor of Sunday Weekly.First journalist to be selected as one of ‘100 Global Lead-ers of Tomorrow’ by the World Economic Forum.

Sen, Amartya: Amartya KumarSen is the Indian economistwho won the 1998 Nobel Prizefor Economics. His well knownbook is Poverty and Famine.Other books are CollectiveChoice and Social Welfare andOn Economic Inequality.

Sayeed, PadanathaMuhammad: Senior Congress Leader and Union

Silver Medal in AthensOlympics 2004

Winner of Booker Prize

Nobel Prize forEconomics 1998

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Energy Minister passed away in 2005. Though hewas defeated in last Lok Sabha election, he repre-sented Laksha dweep nine times before.

Sen, Aparna: Bengali actress and director. The di-rectorial ventures include 36 Chauranghee line, Mr& Mrs Iyer, Paromitar Ek din.

Sen Gupta, Arjun: Economist Arjun Sen Gupta, aformer member of the Planning Commission is theChairman of the National Commission for promo-tion of enterprises in unorganised / informal sector.He hold the rank of a Cabinet Minister.

Sen, Mihir: First Indian to swim the English Chan-nel, world record in long distance swimming.

Setalvad, Teesta: Indian social worker in 2004 wasaccused of pressuring Zahira Sheikh, the key wit-ness in Best Bakery Case. She started an NGO Nirantand has programme of parallel education called Khoj.

Seth, Roshan: Indian actor Roshan Seth, portrayedJawaharlal Nehru in Richard Attenborough’s filmGandhi.

Seth, Vikram: Indian writer of the twentiethcentury’s longest English novel, A Suitable Boy,An Equal music, Two lives etc.

Sethi, Geet: He was second Indian after MichealFerrera to win the World Billiards title. He playedcrucial role in popularising cue sports in India.

Sethi, Pramod Karan: A much decorated Indian pio-neer. His ‘Jaipur Foot’ is most suited to the lifestyleof the handicapped rural Indian. Winner of theGuinness Award, Ramon Magsaysay Award (1981),Padma Shri (1981) and Dr. B.C. Roy National Award(1979).

Seshan, T.N.: India’s controversial yet inspiringChief Election Commissioner 1990-96. Former De-fence Secretary (1998) and Cabinet Secretary (1989).Received Magsay say Award for public service.

Sequiera, Stephie: Stephie Sequiera was the firstwoman Arjuna awardee.

Shanta,Dr. V: Dr. V. Shanta, Chairperson of cancerinstitute, Adyar in Chennai, has won the RamonMagsaysay Award for public service for 2005. Dr.Shanta has poineered the research and treatmentof cancer, especially cervival cancer.

Shankar, Pandit Ravi: The internationally acclaimedsitar maestro was honoured with the Bharat Ratnaon 1999. His autobiography My Music, My life. Heis father to musicians Norah Jones and Anoushka.

Sharma, Rakesh: Patiala-born Indian test pilot.World’s 138th and India’s first cosmonaut to go tospace.

Shaw, Kiran Majumdar: Chairperson of Biocon In-dia, the biotech firm. Awarded Padmashri in 1989.She has been ranked the wealtheist woman entre-preneur in India.

Shyamalan, Manoj Night : Acclaimed Indian bornHollywood film director. The Signs, The Sixth Sense,Unbreakable, The Village.

Srinivas, Uppalapu: Mandolin player of India whobegan playing it at the age of six. The youngest toreceive the title ‘ Asthana Vidwan’. (1990)

Sreedharan, E: Man behind two of India’smilestones in Railway history – Konkan railway andDelhi Metro Rail Corporation. He was named Asianhero by Time magazine in 2003.

Singh, Rajnath: The former Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister was elected new President of BJP replac-ing Advani.

Singh, Natwar: Congress politician and currently aMinister without portfolio was forced to resign theoffice of Minister of External affairs after allegationof payoffs in Iraqi oil scam. He was formerly ForeignSecretary and high profile diplomat.

Singh, V.P.: Indian politician. Leader of the JanataDal. Seventh Prime Minister of India (1989-90).

Sivan, Santosh: Ace cinematographer and Filmmaker. His films include Terrorist, Hello, Ashoka,Navarasa and Anantha bhadram.

Subbulakshmi, M.S.: ‘Emperess of Carnatic music’according to Nehru. She passed away in 2005.Wonmany awards including the Magsaysay, PadmaBhushan, Kalidas Samman, Indira Gandhi Puraskarand the Bharat Ratna.

Subramanian, C.: The veteran Gandhian and free-dom fighter, member of the Constituent Assemblyand former Union Minister for Finance, Defence,Steel and Heavy Industry and Agriculture whoplayed a key role in bringing about agricultural pros-perity during the late 1960s. Recipient of BharatRatna, 1998.

Swaminathan, M.S.: Indian agricultural scientist andChairman of National Farmers Commission. He wasDirector-General of International Rice Research In-

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stitute, Manila, Director of theCentre for Research on Sus-tainable Agriculture and RuralDevelopment, Chennai. Hadestablished M.S.SwaminathanResearch Foundation, Chennaifor promoting sustainable ag-ricultural practices.

Tagore, Rabindranath: Poet,novelist, dramatist, philoso-pher, educationalist short story writer. Tagore wasborn in Bengal. In 1913 he became the first Indian(Asian) to win the Nobel Prize (for Literature). Hewrote the National Anthems of India andBangladesh.

Tagore, Sharmila: Yester year bollywood star andcharacter actress was selected as goodwillambassador of UNICEF in 2005. She also heads theCentral Board of Film Certification. (2005)

Tata, Ratan: The chairman of Tata group ofcompanies. He was heading committee on hydrogenenergy and the Chairman of Investment Commissionset up by the central government last year.

Tendulkar, Vijay: Marathi screenplay writer and jour-nalist. Doyen of Avant Garde Indian theatre. Re-cipient of K.K. Birla Foundation’s Saraswati Sammanfor his play Kanyadaan.

Tendulkar, Sachin: Indian Cricketer, former captain.At 16 played his first Test in Karachi. The fistbastsman to score 10,000 runs in one day cricketand only player in the world, to repeat the same inTest cricket too. Arjuna Award, Rajiv Gandhi KhelRatna Award-98. He currently the holds the recordfor highest number of test centuries (35) surpassingSunil Gavaskar’s 34 Test Centuries.

Teresa, Mother: Albanian born Indian settled Chris-tian saint, won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1979.She came to India in 1929 as a member of LaurettoMissionary. She founded theMissionaries of Charity fordown-trodden children. Shealso founded ‘Nirmal Hriday’for orphaned children.

Thapar, Romila: Famous his-torian on ancient India. Majorworks include Asoka and the

decline of Mauryas, Ancient Indian Social History,Early India etc. She rejected Padmabhushan in 2005.

Thapar, Amrita: In the Miss India pagaent held inMumbai, Amrita Thapar was elected as the MissIndia, 2005 and represents the country in Miss.Universe.

Tharoor, Shashi: Acclaimedauthor. Executive Assistant toUN Secretary General, KofiAnnan – was recently ap-pointed UN Director of Commu-nication (Public Relations) withthe responsibility of co-ordinating messages that it putsout to the public. Riot is hislatest book.

Thyagaraja: South Indiansaint and exponent of Carnaticmusic. One among the ‘trini-ties’ of Carnatic music-Thyagaraja, MuthuswamyDikshitar and Shyama Shastri.

Tilak, Balagangadhar: Popu-larly known as‘Lokamanya’,Tilak was an extremist duringIndia’s freedom struggle. Hewas also called the ‘Father of Indian Unrest”.

Usha, P.T.: Named sport person of the century byIndian Olympic Association. Four golds in SeoulAsiad, 1986. Arjuna Award (1983), Padma shree(1985). Autobiography Golden Girl.

Vallabhbhai Patel, Sardar: Known as the ‘Iron Manof India’, Patel was Minister of Home Affairs, Infor-mation and Broadcasting in the interim Government.He was also the first Deputy Prime Minister of In-dia.

Vajpayee, Atal Behari: Former Prime Minister ofIndia and senior BJP leader. He became Prime Minis-ter twice (1996; 1998-2004). A poet and orator, headdressed UN General assembly in Hindi as ForeignMinister.

Varma, Raja Ravi: One of the greatest early Indianartists, from the royal family of Kilimanoor, Kerala.

Vasudevan Nair, P.K.: Veteran CPI leader and formerChief Minister of Kerala passed away in 2005. Elected4 times as member of Lok Sabha.

Father of Indian GreenRevolution

Missed UN SecretaryGeneral Post

Famous Historian

FamousCarnatic Musician

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Venkataraman, R: President of India 1987-92. WasVice-President from 1984 to 1987. Author of the bookMy Presidential Years. Venkataraman was the old-est to become the President of India (at 78)

Vijayan, I.M: I.M. Vijayan was declared ‘Footballerof the Year 1999’ by the All India Football Federa-tion (AIFF). Winner of the 2002 Arjuna Award;Vijayan retired from the game recently. He started afirm selling sports goods with brandname ‘boxer’.

Visvesvaraya M: Mysore engineer, who built thedam across Cauveri in Mysore. Won the BharatRatna in 1955.

Vivekananda, Swami: A saint-philosopher who made India’sgreatness known to the world.He was the disciple of SaintRamakrishna Paramahams andfounder of the RamakrishnaMission. Vivekananda is fa-

mous for the speech he delivered at the World Par-liament of Religions at Chicago in USA in 1893.

Vyas, Girija: Congress politician and current chair-person of National Commis-sion for Women.

Yadav,Santosh: Deputy Super-intendent in Indo-TibetanBorder Police; only woman inthe world to climb MountEverest (8,848 metres high)twice.

Zakaria, Rafeeq: Freedomfighter and Gandhian. He re-ceived National Integration Award. Fared Zakaria,the editor Newsweek International is his son.Rafeeq books include The Price of Partition, Com-munal Rage in Secular India, Sardar Patel andSecular India.

Only woman in theworld to climb mount

everest twice

Founder ofRamakrishna Mission