Mohandas Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was a man considered one of the great sages and prophets. He was held as another Buddha, another Jesus, Indians called him the ¡®Father of the Nation¡¯. They showered their love, respect and devotion on him in an unprecedented measure. They thronged his way to have a glimpse of him, to hear one world from his lips. They applied on their foreheads the dust on the path he had trodden. For them, he was almost an incarnation of God, who had come to break the chains of their slavery. The whole world bowed to him in reverence. Even his opponents held him in great respect.
Mohandas Gandhi was, however, not a great scholar, nor was he a great warrior. He was not born with exceptional faculties. Neither was he a good orator, nor a great writer. He did not claim anything exclusively divine in him. He did not claim being a prophet or having superhuman powers. He considered himself an average man with average abilities. Born in a middle class Bania family in an obscure princely State in a corner of India, he was a mediocre student, shy and nervous. He could not muster courage to speak in public. His first attempt at legal practice miserably failed.
But he was a humble seeker of Truth. He was a man with exceptional sincerity, honesty and truthfulness. For him, understanding meant action. Once any principle appealed to him, he immediately began to translate that in practice. He did not flinch from taking risks and did not mind confessing mistakes. No opposition, scorn or ridicule could affect him. Truth was his sole guiding star. He was ever-growing; hence he was often found inconsistent. He was not concerned with appearing to be consistent. He preferred to be consistent only with the light within.
He sacrificed his all and identified himself with the poorest of the poor. He dressed like them, lived like them. In the oppressed and the depressed people, he saw God. For him, they too were sparks of the divine light. They might not have anything else, but they too had a soul. For Gandhi, soul-force was the source of the greatest power. He strove to awaken the soul-force within himself and within his fellowmen. He was convinced that the potentialities of the soul-force have no limit. He himself was a living example of this conviction. That is why this tiny and fragile man could mobilise the masses and defeat the mighty British empire. His eleven vows, his technique of Satyagraha, his constructive programme - all were meant to awaken and strengthen the soul-force. He awakened and aroused a nation from semi-consciousness. It was a Herculean task. For, India was not a united country, it was a sub-continent. It was a society divided in different classes, castes and races, in people with different languages, religions and cultures.
It was a society where almost half of the population i.e., women, was behind purdah or confined to the four walls of houses, where one-fourth of the population - the depressed classes - was living marginalised life, where many did not have a single full meal every day. Gandhi made the oppressed sections wake up and break their chains. He mobilised the people and united them to work for the cause of Swaraj, which gave them a sense of belonging, a sense of purpose. Gandhi wanted to win Swaraj for the masses. For him, Swaraj did not mean replacement of White masters by brown masters. Swaraj meant self-rule by all. He said: ¡±Real Swaraj will come, not by the acquisition of the authority by a few, but by the acquisition of the capacity by all to resist authority when it is abused.¡± He worked to develop such a capacity. Development of such a capacity involved transformation of the individual.
Transformation of the individual and transformation of the society - they were not separate, unrelated things for Gandhi. Revolutionary social philosophies had concentrated on changing the society. On the other hand, spiritual seekers had concentrated on the inner change. Gandhi not only bridged the gap between these extremes, he fused them together. Gandhi was thus both a saint and a social revolutionary. For Gandhi, unity of life was great truth. His principle of non-violence stemmed from this conviction. Non-violence was not a matter of policy for him; it was a matter of faith. He applied the doctrine to all the departments of individual and social life and in so doing revolutionized the doctrine, made it dynamic and creative. He believed that a true civilization could be built on the basis of such non-violence only.
He rejected the modern civilization. For him, it was a disease and a curse. This civilization leads to violence, conflicts, corruption, injustices, exploitation, oppression, mistrust and a process of dehumanisation. It has led the world to a deep crisis. The earth¡¯s resources are being cornered by a handful of people without any concern for others and for the coming generations. The conventional energy sources are getting depleted. Forests are being destroyed. Air, water, soil-everything has been polluted.
We are living under the shadow of nuclear war and environmental disasters. Thinking men the world over are looking to Gandhi to find a way out of this crisis and to build an alternative model of sustainable development. Gandhi knew that the earth has enough to satisfy everybody¡¯s need but not anybody¡¯s greed. He had called for the replacement of greed with love. Gandhi is, therefore, now a source of inspiration and a reference book for all those fighting against racial discrimination, oppression, domination, wars, nuclear energy, environmental degradation, lack of freedom and human rights- for all those who are fighting for a better world, a better quality of life. Gandhi is, therefore, no longer an individual. He is a symbol of all that is the best and the most enduring in the human tradition. And he is also a symbol of the alternative in all areas of life-agriculture, industry, technology, education, health, economy, political organisations, etc. He is a man of the future - a future that has to be shaped if the human race has to survive and progress on the path of evolution.
CODE:
http://www.mkgandhi.org/intro_autobio.htm
Aryabhata
Born: 476 in Kusumapura (now Patna), India
Died: 550 in India
CODE:
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/PictDisplay/Aryabhata_I.html
Aryabhata is also known as Aryabhata I to distinguish him from the later mathematician of the same name who lived about 400 years later. Al-Biruni has not helped in understanding Aryabhata's life, for he seemed to believe that there were two different mathematicians called Aryabhata living at the same time. He therefore created a confusion of two different Aryabhatas which was not clarified until 1926 when B Datta showed that al-Biruni's two Aryabhatas were one and the same person.
We know the year of Aryabhata's birth since he tells us that he was twenty-three years of age when he wrote Aryabhatiya which he finished in 499. We have given Kusumapura, thought to be close to Pataliputra (which was refounded as Patna in Bihar in 1541), as the place of Aryabhata's birth but this is far from certain, as is even the location of Kusumapura itself. As Parameswaran writes in [26]:-
... no final verdict can be given regarding the locations of Asmakajanapada and Kusumapura.
We do know that Aryabhata wrote Aryabhatiya in Kusumapura at the time when Pataliputra was the capital of the Gupta empire and a major centre of learning, but there have been numerous other places proposed by historians as his birthplace. Some conjecture that he was born in south India, perhaps Kerala, Tamil Nadu or Andhra Pradesh, while others conjecture that he was born in the north-east of India, perhaps in Bengal. In [8] it is claimed that Aryabhata was born in the Asmaka region of the Vakataka dynasty in South India although the author accepted that he lived most of his life in Kusumapura in the Gupta empire of the north. However, giving Asmaka as Aryabhata's birthplace rests on a comment made by Nilakantha Somayaji in the late 15th century. It is now thought by most historians that Nilakantha confused Aryabhata with Bhaskara I who was a later commentator on the Aryabhatiya.
We should note that Kusumapura became one of the two major mathematical centres of India, the other being Ujjain. Both are in the north but Kusumapura (assuming it to be close to Pataliputra) is on the Ganges and is the more northerly. Pataliputra, being the capital of the Gupta empire at the time of Aryabhata, was the centre of a communications network which allowed learning from other parts of the world to reach it easily, and also allowed the mathematical and astronomical advances made by Aryabhata and his school to reach across India and also eventually into the Islamic world.
As to the texts written by Aryabhata only one has survived. However Jha claims in [21] that:-
... Aryabhata was an author of at least three astronomical texts and wrote some free stanzas as well.
The surviving text is Aryabhata's masterpiece the Aryabhatiya which is a small astronomical treatise written in 118 verses giving a summary of Hindu mathematics up to that time. Its mathematical section contains 33 verses giving 66 mathematical rules without proof. The Aryabhatiya contains an introduction of 10 verses, followed by a section on mathematics with, as we just mentioned, 33 verses, then a section of 25 verses on the reckoning of time and planetary models, with the final section of 50 verses being on the sphere and eclipses.
There is a difficulty with this layout which is discussed in detail by van der Waerden in [35]. Van der Waerden suggests that in fact the 10 verse Introduction was written later than the other three sections. One reason for believing that the two parts were not intended as a whole is that the first section has a different meter to the remaining three sections. However, the problems do not stop there. We said that the first section had ten verses and indeed Aryabhata titles the section Set of ten giti stanzas. But it in fact contains eleven giti stanzas and two arya stanzas. Van der Waerden suggests that three verses have been added and he identifies a small number of verses in the remaining sections which he argues have also been added by a member of Aryabhata's school at Kusumapura.
The mathematical part of the Aryabhatiya covers arithmetic, algebra, plane trigonometry and spherical trigonometry. It also contains continued fractions, quadratic equations, sums of power series and a table of sines. Let us examine some of these in a little more detail.
First we look at the system for representing numbers which Aryabhata invented and used in the Aryabhatiya. It consists of giving numerical values to the 33 consonants of the Indian alphabet to represent 1, 2, 3, ... , 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100. The higher numbers are denoted by these consonants followed by a vowel to obtain 100, 10000, .... In fact the system allows numbers up to 1018to be represented with an alphabetical notation. Ifrah in [3] argues that Aryabhata was also familiar with numeral symbols and the place-value system. He writes in [3]:-
... it is extremely likely that Aryabhata knew the sign for zero and the numerals of the place value system. This supposition is based on the following two facts: first, the invention of his alphabetical counting system would have been impossible without zero or the place-value system; secondly, he carries out calculations on square and cubic roots which are impossible if the numbers in question are not written according to the place-value system and zero.
Next we look briefly at some algebra contained in the Aryabhatiya. This work is the first we are aware of which examines integer solutions to equations of the form by = ax + c and by = ax - c, where a, b, c are integers. The problem arose from studying the problem in astronomy of determining the periods of the planets. Aryabhata uses the kuttaka method to solve problems of this type. The word kuttaka means "to pulverise" and the method consisted of breaking the problem down into new problems where the coefficients became smaller and smaller with each step. The method here is essentially the use of the Euclidean algorithm to find the highest common factor of a and b but is also related to continued fractions.
Aryabhata gave an accurate approximation for ¦Ð. He wrote in the Aryabhatiya the following:-
Add four to one hundred, multiply by eight and then add sixty-two thousand. the result is approximately the circumference of a circle of diameter twenty thousand. By this rule the relation of the circumference to diameter is given.
This gives ¦Ð = 62832/20000 = 3.1416 which is a surprisingly accurate value. In fact ¦Ð = 3.14159265 correct to 8 places. If obtaining a value this accurate is surprising, it is perhaps even more surprising that Aryabhata does not use his accurate value for ¦Ð but prefers to use ¡Ì10 = 3.1622 in practice. Aryabhata does not explain how he found this accurate value but, for example, Ahmad [5] considers this value as an approximation to half the perimeter of a regular polygon of 256 sides inscribed in the unit circle. However, in [9] Bruins shows that this result cannot be obtained from the doubling of the number of sides. Another interesting paper discussing this accurate value of ¦Ð by Aryabhata is [22] where Jha writes:-
Aryabhata I's value of ¦Ð is a very close approximation to the modern value and the most accurate among those of the ancients. There are reasons to believe that Aryabhata devised a particular method for finding this value. It is shown with sufficient grounds that Aryabhata himself used it, and several later Indian mathematicians and even the Arabs adopted it. The conjecture that Aryabhata's value of ¦Ð is of Greek origin is critically examined and is found to be without foundation. Aryabhata discovered this value independently and also realised that ¦Ð is an irrational number. He had the Indian background, no doubt, but excelled all his predecessors in evaluating ¦Ð. Thus the credit of discovering this exact value of ¦Ð may be ascribed to the celebrated mathematician, Aryabhata I.
We now look at the trigonometry contained in Aryabhata's treatise. He gave a table of sines calculating the approximate values at intervals of 90degrees/24 = 3degrees 45'. In order to do this he used a formula for sin(n+1)x - sin nx in terms of sin nx and sin (n-1)x. He also introduced the versine (versin = 1 - cosine) into trigonometry.
Other rules given by Aryabhata include that for summing the first n integers, the squares of these integers and also their cubes. Aryabhata gives formulae for the areas of a triangle and of a circle which are correct, but the formulae for the volumes of a sphere and of a pyramid are claimed to be wrong by most historians. For example Ganitanand in [15] describes as "mathematical lapses" the fact that Aryabhata gives the incorrect formula V = Ah/2 for the volume of a pyramid with height h and triangular base of area A. He also appears to give an incorrect expression for the volume of a sphere. However, as is often the case, nothing is as straightforward as it appears and Elfering (see for example [13]) argues that this is not an error but rather the result of an incorrect translation.
This relates to verses 6, 7, and 10 of the second section of the Aryabhatiya and in [13] Elfering produces a translation which yields the correct answer for both the volume of a pyramid and for a sphere. However, in his translation Elfering translates two technical terms in a different way to the meaning which they usually have. Without some supporting evidence that these technical terms have been used with these different meanings in other places it would still appear that Aryabhata did indeed give the incorrect formulae for these volumes.
We have looked at the mathematics contained in the Aryabhatiya but this is an astronomy text so we should say a little regarding the astronomy which it contains. Aryabhata gives a systematic treatment of the position of the planets in space. He gave the circumference of the earth as 4 967 yojanas and its diameter as 1 5811/24 yojanas. Since 1 yojana = 5 miles this gives the circumference as 24 835 miles, which is an excellent approximation to the currently accepted value of 24 902 miles. He believed that the apparent rotation of the heavens was due to the axial rotation of the Earth. This is a quite remarkable view of the nature of the solar system which later commentators could not bring themselves to follow and most changed the text to save Aryabhata from what they thought were stupid errors!
Aryabhata gives the radius of the planetary orbits in terms of the radius of the Earth/Sun orbit as essentially their periods of rotation around the Sun. He believes that the Moon and planets shine by reflected sunlight, incredibly he believes that the orbits of the planets are ellipses. He correctly explains the causes of eclipses of the Sun and the Moon. The Indian belief up to that time was that eclipses were caused by a demon called Rahu. His value for the length of the year at 365 days 6 hours 12 minutes 30 seconds is an overestimate since the true value is less than 365 days 6 hours.
Bhaskara I who wrote a commentary on the Aryabhatiya about 100 years later wrote of Aryabhata:-
Aryabhata is the master who, after reaching the furthest shores and plumbing the inmost depths of the sea of ultimate knowledge of mathematics, kinematics and spherics, handed over the three sciences to the learned world.
RANMAL LAKHA The Greatest Gujarati Sea Hero
The story is taken from a book titled
THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE SOLAR RACE AND INTRODUCING A HISTORY OF
THE INDIANS OF EAST AFRICA by Vanoo Jivraj Somia.
ISBN number 1-898941-66-1
There is no web link.
This is a true life story of an Indian hero who ruled the seas back
in the 15th Century.
`One of the first recorded Indian travellers of the Oceans was Kanji
Maalam. He met Vasco de Gamma the Portuguese explorer. Vasco De
Gamma was lost in the Indian Ocean but was fortunate to meet up with
Kanji Maalam who took him to Calicut in India on 22 May 1498.
Gamma established himself in Goa. This led to Alfanso de Albuquerque
of Portugal in 1510 to invade and they occupied Goa for the next two
centuries. Portuguese pirates voyaging the coast of India had only
one purpose in mind, to plunder the gold ivory and whatever they
could lay their hands on.
Piracy was also done by some Arab travellers. They both continued
piracy across the India Ocean.
It was through these dangerous waters that the British Governor
Hornbys ship was rescued by one Ranmal Lakha. With the help of the
Governor, Ranmal Lakha established himself and became owner of a
boat and later fleets of ships. The British didn't care or couldn't
tackle the pirates in the Ocean. However one incidence brought an
end to the sea Piracy.
About 99 Indian women were abducted and shipped on an Arab boat.
Ranmal Lakha heard of this and with a handful of his brave men he
sailed after them. He stormed the ship and killed the pirates and
rescued all the women.
Overcome with emotion the women are said to have put kumkum powder
from their forehead onto his forehead.
Ranmal Lakha vowed there and then to make the pirate and bandit
ridden Indian Ocean safe. The British Governor was more then pleased
and supplied him with a fleet of ships and gunboats to wipe off the
buccaneers.
He sank many such boats and it was recorded that he was joined by
Haji Kassam Suleman and Padamsinh Shah.
The Indian Ocean was made safe for travel.'
CODE:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hinduinfo/message/194
Vinod Dahm
(creator of Pentium chip)
Vinod Dahm and the Pentium chip are synonymous with each other. It is so because Vinod Dahm is the creator of the Pentium chip, which runs almost 90% of the computers today. He is suitably known as the father of the Pentium processor. Vinod was born in Pune, India in 1950. He received his initial education at Pune. Vinod earned his bachelor's degree from the Delhi College of Engineering, in Electrical Engineering in the year 11971. After completing his engineering, Vinod worked briefly in Delhi for Continental Devices- a semiconductor company. To pursue advance studies, Vinod went to the US in the year 1975. There, he joined the University of Cincinnati to pursue a Masters in Electrical Engineering. After his masters, in 1977, Vinod joined the National Cash Register (NCR) at Dayton, Ohio. There, he worked as a team member of the NCR's memory design group. While working at the NCR, Vinod Dahm received many patents. It was during one of the presentations in Monterrey, California that Intel offered Vinod to work with it.
CODE:
http://www.indobase.com/indians-abroad/vinod-dahm.html
Rajiv Gupta
(GM of Hewlett Packard)
India born Rajiv Gupta is presently the GM of Hewlett Packard. Ever since his childhood, Rajiv Gupta aspired to do something which would have positive impact on the lives of the people. He wanted to something which could change the world for betterment. This dream of Rajeev Gupta could finally be in reach, Itanium, his dream, is coming to a reality. Rajiv Gupta had a chance to use his compiler know-how and expertise in new ways - the Itanium family architecture demands the highest level of interface between the compiler and the hardware and he had a unique opportunity to help found an instruction set that was based definitely on these principles.
Rajiv studied at the IIT Kharagpur, India, for his bachelor's degree. Thereafter Rajeev got one of the prestigious places at the California Institute of Technology (CalTech). At the Caltech, Rajiv earned his PhD, in a little less than a year, studying compilers and the methods to optimize them. Rajiv is an academic eccentric; he has a knack of working to get the desired, single mindedly.
CODE:
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Amartya Sen
Prof. Amartya Kumar Sen is one of the greatest intellectuals and economists of modern India. Amartya Sen is a philosopher, economist and a social thinker. At a time when the world was talking of globalization, liberalization and free market economy, Prof. Sen dared to differ. No wonder, he was awarded the Noble prize for welfare economics in the face of market oriented economics. Instead of the growth oriented economic path to prosperity, Amartya Sen has emphasized the need for giving a human face to development.
Why Is He Famous?
Amartya Kumar Sen is an economist best known for his work on famine, Human development theory, welfare economics, and the underlying causes of poverty and hunger. When the world was talking of free market economy, Prof. Sen emphasised the need for giving a human face to development. Amartya Sen is one of those few economists who talk of political economy of hunger. He received The Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences( Noble prize for economics), in memory of Alfred Nobel, for his work in mathematical economics in 1998. The government of India awarded him with the highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna in 1999.
Sen's best-known work is Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation, in which he established that famine occurs not from a lack of food, but from inequalities built into mechanisms for distributing food. In addition to his important work on the causes of famines, Sen's work in the field of development economics has had considerable influence in the formulation of the Human Development Report , published by the United Nations Development Program. The HDI ranks countries on a variety of economic and social indicators. Amartya Amartya Sen's other works are- "Choice of Techniques", "Collective Choice and Social Welfare", "Poverty and Famines", "Development as Freedom" etc.
Background
Amartya Kumar Sen was born on 3rd November 1933 at Shantiniketan, West Bengal. He received his initial education at Shantiniketan and then Presidency College, Calcutta. In his early childhood he was exposed to the plight of the poor. The sight of people dying during famine shocked him. It was, perhaps, this shocking experience that made him study the economic mechanism underlying famines and poverty. Sen first studied in India before moving to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he earned a BA in 1956 and then a Ph.D. in 1959. He has taught economics at Calcutta, Delhi School Of Economics (1963-71), Oxford, Harvard and was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, between 1997 and 2004.
Present Position
In January 2004, Prof. Amartya Sen returned to Harvard, where he currently teaches. With the Noble prize, Prof. Sen is now more determined about his old obsessions like literacy, basic health care and gender equity specifically in India and Bangladesh. He has set up the Pratichi Trust, with a part of the prize money, to take forward his work.
» Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sachin Tendulkar among TIME'S 'Asian Heroes'
Architects of modern India Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, steel baron Lakshmi Mittal and IT czar Narayana Murthy have been named among TIME magazine's "Asian heroes" in its forthcoming 60th anniversary issue.
» Lessons of 1857 'mutiny' for post-9/11 world
It is the story of a force out to destroy "the last bastion of the Prince of Darkness himself". Only that the bastion is not Kabul but Delhi, and the force not of the US but of East India Company.
CODE:
http://www.indobase.com/indians-abroad/amartya-sen.html
Amitav Ghosh
Why Is He Famous?
India born Amitav Ghosh is a world renowned novelist and author. In his writing, Amitav Ghosh demonstrates the mixture and interstitial nature of cultures, as expressed through language. Like many subaltern authors, Amitav Ghosh endeavors to recuperate the silenced voices of those not represented in the historical record. Amitav Ghosh has held academic positions at a number of universities, including the Delhi University and the Columbia University. At present Ghosh is a distinguished professor at the Queens College, New York University.
Amitav Ghosh has received numerous awards for his works. Some of these awards are Prix Medicis Etranger for The Circle of Reason (1986), the Sahitya Akademi Award for The Shadow Lines (1988), the Arthur C. Clarke Prize for science fiction for The Calcutta Chromosome (1996), the Pushcart Prize for his essay, "The March of the Novel through History: My Father's Bookcase" and the Grand Prize for Fiction at the Frankfurt International e-Book Awards for The Glass Palace
Amitav's latest work of fiction, The Hungry Tide was published in April 2004. Other prominent works of Amitav are - The Shadow Lines (1990), In An Antique Land (1994), The Circle of Reason (1986), The Calcutta Chromosome (1995), and The Glass Palace (2000). Ghosh also has written three works of non-fiction. They are Countdown (on India's nuclear policy) The Imam and the Indian (a collection of essays on different themes like fundamentalism, history of the novel, Egyptian culture and literature) and Dancing in Cambodia.
Background
Amitav Ghosh was born in Calcutta. His father was in the Indian army. It was mainly because of this reason that Amitav Ghosh got the chance to visit a number of countries including Sri Lanka, Iran and Bangladesh. Amitav Ghosh did schooling from the Doon school, Dehra Dun. He completed his graduation from St. Stephens College, Delhi University. After leaving St. Stephen's with a B.A. in History in 1976, he obtained an M.A. in Sociology from the Delhi University in 1978. He went to St. Edmund Hall, Oxford pursue postgraduate work and in 1979 obtained a diploma in social anthropology. He also spent some time at Tunis where he learnt Arabic. Amitav Ghosh was awarded his Oxford D. Phil. in Social Anthropology for his thesis on "Kinship in Relation to the Economic and Social Organization of an Egyptian Village Community" in 1981. Amitav Ghosh lives in New York with his wife, Deborah Baker, the author of In Extremis: The Life of Laura Riding (1993) and a senior editor at Little Brown and Co., and his children Leela and Nayan.
CODE:
http://www.indobase.com/indians-abroad/amitav-ghosh.html
Anita Desai
Why Is She Famous?
Indian novelist and short story writer, Anita Desai is specially noted for her insightful depiction of the inner life of the female characters in her writings. In many of her works Anita Desai has highlighted the tensions among the family members and estrangement of middle-class women. Anita Desai marked her debut as a novelist in the year 1963 with the Peacock. It was followed by Voices of the City; Fire on the Mountain (set in Kasuli, a hill station), "In Clear Light of Day, Where Shall We Go This Summer, and The Zigzag Way. Anita Desai's works were short listed for the Booker prize 3 times.
Anita Desai is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in London and she has been a member of the Advisory Board for English at the National Academy of Letters in Delhi and a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She has been a Visiting Fellow at Girton College, Cambridge, England and has taught writing at Smith College. Anita Desai has been the Purington Professor of English at Mount Holyoke College in the United States.
Background
Anita Desai was born in 1937, Mussoorie, India. Her father was a Bengali businessman whereas her mother was of German origin. Anita Desai began to write at the age of seven. When she was just 9 years old she published her first story. Anita Desai was educated in Delhi at Queen Mary's Higher Secondary School and Miranda House, Delhi University (B.A. in English literature). She married Ashvin Desai, a businessman.
» Indian American publisher to be honoured
Well-known Indian American publisher Gopal Raju will be honoured by the Taraknath Das foundation for fostering Indo-American understanding.
» Kiran Desai becomes youngest woman winner of Booker Prize
Kiran Desai, daughter of prominent Indian origin writer Anita Desai, created literary history by becoming the youngest ever woman to win the prestigious Man Booker Prize for her book "The Inheritance of Loss" at the age of 35.
CODE:
http://www.indobase.com/indians-abroad/anita-desai.html
Arun Netravali
Arun Netravali is an international scientist of Indian origin. Arun Netravali has made many fundamental contributions in the areas of digital communications technology. Presently Dr Arun Netravali is the President of the Bell Labs. Earlier Dr Arun Netravali was Executive Vice President of research, responsible for Bell Labs' basic research efforts in all areas involving communication, computing and physical sciences.
Dr. Arun Netravali has played an important role in making the Bell Labs the leader in telecommunications technology. Dr. Netravali's pioneering contributions in algorithms for the representation, synthesis, processing, and compression of images and image sequences has transformed television from analog to digital in broadcast TV, cable TV, DBS, HDTV, and enabled an entirely new set of products and services for the multimedia revolution over the Internet.
Dr. Netravali graduated from the IIT, Mumbai, India. He earned his master's and doctorate degrees from Rice University in Houston, Texas, in the field of electrical engineering. Dr. Arun C. Netravali was also an adjunct professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has taught graduate courses at City College (N.Y.), Columbia University and Rutgers University. He serves on the board of a number of organizations. He is a member of the Indo/U.S. Science and Technology Council, initiated by the former President Clinton and the then Indian PM, Mr. Vajpayee, and the NRI Advisory Committee for Telecommunications.
CODE:
http://www.indobase.com/indians-abroad/arun-netravali.html
Balamurali Ambati
Balamurali Ambati of India is the world's youngest doctor. Ambati graduated from the New York University at the age of 13. Ambati received his degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York in May 19, 1995. A National Merit Scholar and a winner in the Westinghouse Science Talent Search & the International Science & Engineering Fair, Balamurali Ambati Balamurali continued his education at Harvard, specializing in ophthalmology. Ambati developed plans and strategies to reverse corneal angiogenesis. Presently Balamurali Ambati is completing fellowship in cornea & refractive surgery at the Duke University.
Balamurali Ambati was born on 29th July, 1977 at Hollis Hills, New York State, USA. Balamurali Ambati has been a child prodigy. It led to many problems as his father had to fight school administration and management to allow his son to study the subject of his choice at an early age. Balamurali was twice as fast as other children of his age. His father taught Balamurali and his brother to remain focused and go for the desired goals. Balamurali wrote a book on AIDS with his brother, who is also a doctor. Balamurali's father is a doctor while his mother is a Tamil linguist and mathematician.
CODE:
http://www.indobase.com/indians-abroad/balamurali-ambati.html
Bhiku Parekh
Lord Bhiku Parekh is a Britain-based political scientist. Lord Parekh is a member of the House of Lords and has made significant contribution to the study of political systems in Britain and India. Lord Bhiku Parekh has made great contribution towards the promotion of a liberal and tolerant society. Bhiku Parekh has served as trustee of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and Anne Frank Trust and the Gandhi Foundation. Lord Parekh also held the position of the chairman of the Commission on Future of Multi-ethnic Britain. His service as the vice-chancellor of Baroda University, Gujarat, India reflects his deep and undying love for India.
Lord Parekh has set up a charitable foundation in memory of his father and endowed a chair in Indian politics at the University of Hull and visiting fellowship in Indian studies at the University of Oxford. Lord Bhiku Parekh won the Sir Isaiah Berlin Prize (2003) by the Political Studies Association, UK, Life Peer (2000) and BBC's Special Lifetime Achievement Award for Asians (1999). Well recognized for his social activism and liberal values, Lord Parekh has played an important role in increasing the understanding of India and its culture all over the world.
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http://www.indobase.com/indians-abroad/bhiku-parekh.html
Chitranjan S. Ranawat
Why Is He Famous?
Dr. Ranawat is one of the world's leading orthopedic and knee surgeons. Dr. Ranawat is Chairman, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Lenox Hill Hospital. He is also Chairman, Ranawat Orthopedic Center, and Ranawat Orthopaedic Research Foundation at Lenox Hill. He is serving as professor of Clinical Orthopedic surgery at many universities and hospitals. Through his pioneering research, Dr Ranawat has made many breakthroughs in total joint replacements. Dr. Ranawat has written numerous books related with orthopedics. He has also contributed several chapters on surgery of the knee, rheumatoid neck, wrist, foot and hips in text books.
As Dr. Ranawat has been a pioneer in his field, he has held numerous leading positions. In the year 2003, Dr. Ranawat was awarded the "Most Distinguished Physician Award" from the American association of physicians of Indian origin. He was awarded the Padma Blushan by the President of India (2001) for outstanding meritorious excellence. Dr. Ranawat also received the Colonel James Todd award by the Mewar foundation and Bharat Gaurav Samman in the year 2001. Dr. Ranawat Successfully operated on the Knee of the former PM of India, Atal Behari Vajpayee.
Background
Dr. Ranawat was born in Sarwania, India. He received his M.B.B.S and M.S. Degrees from M.G.M College, Indore. Dr. Ranawat moved to the United States in the Year 1963. In the United States he completed fellowships in hand surgery and rheumato-orthopedic reconstructive surgery at the Hospital for special surgery in New York. Since then there has been no looking back for this genius of Indian origin.
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Deepak Chopra
Why Is He Famous?
The world famous motivational speaker and best selling author, Deepak Chopra was a successful endocrinologist at Boston. A visit to India in the year 1981, where he met a prominent Ayurvedic physician, Dr. Brihaspati Dev Triguna, changed him. It was after this encounter that Chopra turned to the ancient healing methods of Ayurveda, so popular in Indian medical systems. It emphasized meditation, herbal medicine, yoga and massage. Dr. Deepak Chopra has written best-selling books like Ageless Body, Timeless Mind (1993) and The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success (1995). Applying his innovative mind and medical techniques, Deepak Chopra became a successful motivational speaker, with a series of multi-media programmes for healing mind, body and spirit.
Deepak Chopra wants to bridge the technological miracles of the West with the wisdom of the East. Chopra, along with his colleagues, conducts public seminars and workshops and provides training for health care professionals around the world. Deepak Chopra has written numerous books and is also the author of several audio and videotape series. Dr. Chopra currently serves as the director for educational programs at The Chopra Center for Well Being in La Jolla, California.
Background
Deepak Chopra was born in Delhi in the year 1947. His father, Krishan Chopra, was a famous cardiologist. The Chopra family presented a rare combination of western medicine and traditional Hindu beliefs and customs. Deepak's father was a British trained cardiologist whereas his grandfather practiced Ayurveda! Following his father's footsteps, he also decided to plunge into the field of medicine and graduated from the AIIMS in 1968. In the year 1970 Chopra went to the United States to serve an internship at a New Jersey hospital. In the early 1980s, Chopra became the chief of staff at New England Memorial Hospital
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Dipak C. Jain
Why Is He Famous?
India born Dipak C. Jain is the dean of the Kellogg School of Management since 2001. Dipak C. Jain had joined the Kellogg School of Management faculty in 1986 as an associate professor and later became an associate dean. In 1994 Dipak was named Kellogg school's Sandy and Morton Goldman Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies and professor of marketing.
As an educationist, Dipak Jain has achieved many feats. Besides his association with the Kellogg, Jain has served as visiting professor at many prestigious Universities including the Koblenz Business School, Germany; Nijenrode University, the Netherlands; Chulalongkorn University, Thailand; IIT Delhi, India; Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong; and Tel Aviv University, Israel. Jain received a bachelor's degree in statistics, and a master's in mathematical statistics from Gauhati University, India. Dipak Jain received a master's degree in operations research and a doctorate in marketing from the University of Texas, Dallas.
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http://www.indobase.com/indians-abroad/dipak-c-jain.html
Gurinder Chadha
Why Is She Famous?
Gurinder Chadha is an international filmmaker of Indian heritage. Gurinder started off from the BBC and later went on to make documentaries. Then Gurinder Chadha decided to enter the world of films. She has made some great films that South Asian-Americans could relate to. To her goes the credit of bringing the South Asian Diaspora films to the mainstream cinema. Gurinder Chadha's style of filmmaking is different from the traditional filmmakers. And not surprisingly she has achieved a lot of success at that.
Gurinder Chadha has proved to the world that it doesn't matter in life what you do as long as you are happy. Gurinder Chadha has made and produced some terrific movies. Nice Arrangement was Gurinder's first short movie through which she portrayed a British- Asian family on the morning of their daughter's wedding. It was followed by Acting Our Age, Bhajji on the beach, what's cooking, Bend It Like Beckham (this film established her as filmmaker) and finally "Bride and Prejudice".
Background
Gurinder Chadha was born in Kenya and shifted to Britain with her parents in 1961. She was brought up at Southall, London and studied at the University of East Anglia. Gurinder Chadha began her career as a news reporter with the BBC Radio, directed several award winning documentaries for the BBC, and began a fruitful alliance with the BFI and Channel Four who produced the 30-minute documentary, I'm English But... (1989). The film focused on young English Asians who, unlike their parents, listen to Acid Bhangra, a mix of Punjabi bhangra and rap.
Gururaj Deshpande
Why Is He Famous?
Dr. Gururaj Deshpande is the co-founder and chairman of the Sycamore networks Inc. He is a powerful technology entrepreneur and futurist. His innovative ideas and thinking have proved a landmark in reshaping the entire technology industry. Dr. Gururaj Deshpande has done pioneer work in the work and architecture of Optical fiber network. Dr. Deshpande is well known for his work in the field of education and community. It is mainly because of this reason that Dr. Deshpande is a keynote speaker at business, technology, education, and government conferences.
Prior to co-founding Sycamore Networks, Dr. Deshpande was founder and chairman of Cascade Communications Corp. Before Cascade, Dr. Deshpande co-founded Coral Network Corporation in 1988. Earlier, he served in various management capacities for Codex Corporation, a subsidiary of Motorola. Before joining Codex, Dr. Deshpande taught at the Queens University in Kingston, Canada. Dr. Deshpande serves as a member of the MIT Corporation. He helped develop the MIT's Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation. The Deshpande Center serves as a vehicle for innovation and entrepreneurship through research and collaboration among entrepreneurs, new companies and MIT students, alumni, and faculty.
Background
Dr. Gururaj Deshpande was born in India. Dr. Deshpande earned his bachelors degree from the Indian Institute of technology in Electrical Engineering. Afterwards, he took an M.E. in Electrical Engineering from the University of New Brunswick in Canada and a Ph.D. in Data Communications from the Queens University in Canada. Dr. Deshpande's services have been well recognized by the business and industry in both the United States and India.
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http://www.indobase.com/indians-abroad/gururaj-deshpande.html
The Hinduja Brothers
Why Are They Famous?
The Hinduja Brothers include Prakash, Srichand, Gopichand and Ashok. Srichand and Gopichand are based in Britain while Prakash resides in Geneva and Ashok in Mumbai. The Hindujas are Great Britain's one of the richest families and among the ten richest people in the country. The business empire of the Hinduja brothers is worth billion of dollars. Initially the Hinduja brothers set up their business in Iran and then they moved to London in 1979. The Hindujas are firm believers in traditional family values and all through their journey they have striven to instill the family concept in their business enterprises.
The business empire of the Hindujas include oil, banking, media, pharmaceuticals, trucks, textiles, dried fruits, tea, film industry and spices. The Hinduja group employs more than 25000 workers and has offices in many important cities of the world and all the major cities in India. The Hinduja brothers have been involved in several alleged scandals. The most recent was related to citizenship application and involved high profile Britons like Keith Vaz and Peter Mandelson. In addition to this the Hinduja brothers are also undergoing legal action in India for alleged corruption and bribery.
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http://www.indobase.com/indians-abroad/hinduja-brothers.html
Ismail Merchant
Why Is He Famous?
Born in India, Ismail Merchant is a director and producer of international repute. The Duo of Ismail Merchant and James Ivory have made several internationally acclaimed movies. The Merchant Ivory Productions has continued as one of the most productive collaborations in cinema. It has produced films such as The Europeans, Quartet, Heat and Dust, A Room with a View, Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, Howard's End, The Remains of the Day Jefferson in Paris and Surviving Picasso. Besides, Merchant has also directed two films for TV, "Mahatma and the Mad Boy" and "The Courtesans of Bombay" for Britain's Channel Four.
In his long carrier of more than 30 years, Merchant has made over 40 feature films. He has worked with the likes of Vanessa Redgrave, Isabelle Adjani, Christopher Reeve, Anthony Hopkins, Paul Newman, Emma Thompson and Paul Newman. Ismail Merchant is not only a filmmaker of international repute but also a renowned chef. He has authored a number of books on cookery. Some of them are Ismail Merchant's Indian Cuisine; Ismail Merchant's Florence; Ismail Merchant's Passionate meals, Ismail Merchant's Paris, Filming and Feasting in France. Besides, he has also authored several books on filmmaking.
Background
Ismail Merchant was born in Mumbai on 25th December, 1935. His original name was Ismail Noormohamed Abdul Reh. He graduated from St. Xavier's College, Bombay and then moved to the west. Merchant earned his Master's degree in Business Administration from the New York University. The Merchant Ivory team finds its name in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest partnership in independent cinema. Ismail Merchant is also an Honorary Doctor of Arts at Bard's College, New York. Merchant was also honored by the Mayor of New York and received the Marie des Paris for his outstanding contribution to cinema in France. Merchant Ivory's most recent autobiographical book is entitled, My Passage from India: A Filmmaker's Journey from Bombay to Hollywood and beyond. In 2002 Merchant was conferred the Padma Bhusan by the government of India.
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http://www.indobase.com/indians-abroad/ismail-merchant.html
Prof Jagdish N. Bhagwati
Why Is He Famous?
Jagdish Bhagwati is a renowned professor of economics and is regarded as one of the foremost international trade economist of modern times. Widely tipped as a future Nobel laureate, Prof Bhagwati enjoys immense reputation among his economist friends. Jagdish N. Bhagwati is presently University Professor at the Columbia University and Senior Fellow in International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. Earlier, Prof Jagdish Bhagwati was Economic Policy Adviser to the Director General, GATT (1991-93) and also served as Special Adviser to the UN on Globalization and External Adviser to the Director General, WTO.
Currently, he is a member of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's High-level Advisory Group of the NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa's Development) process in Africa. He presents himself as the human face of global laissez-faire economics. Jagdish Bhagwati has written or edited over 40 books and hundreds of articles on economics. Some of his famous books are 'In Defense of Globalization' (2004), 'Free Trade Today' (2002), 'The Wind of the Hundred Days' (2000), 'A Stream of Windows' (1998), 'India in Transition' (1993), 'World Trading System at Risk' (1991), 'Protectionism' (1988), 'Economics & Politics' (founder-editor), 'The Journal of International Economics' (founder-editor) etc.
Background
Jagdish Bhagwati was born in 1934, Mumbai, India. He graduated in Commerce from the Bombay University and went to the Cambridge to pursue post graduation in 1956. Afterwards, he did his PhD. at the MIT in 1967. After studying in England and the United States, Bhagwati returned back to India in 1961 and served as Professor of Economics at the Indian Statistical Institute, and then as Professor of International Trade at the Delhi School of Economics. He returned to the MIT in 1968. Twelve years later he left the MIT and joined the Columbia University.
Jagdish Bhagwati has received many prestigious awards including the Mahalanobis Memorial Medal (India), the Bernhard Harms Prize (Germany), the Kenan Prize (USA), the John R. Commons Award (USA), the Freedom Prize (Switzerland), and the Frank E. Seidman Distinguished Award in Political Economy (USA). Prof Jagdish Bhagwati works with several NGOs in the US and India. On the personal front, Bhagwati lives in America with his wife Padma Desai, who is also an economics professor at the Columbia University. Their daughter, Anuradha Kristina Bhagwati, is a U.S. Marine officer.
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http://www.indobase.com/indians-abroad/j-n-bhagavati.html
L.N. Mittal
Should Indian Government support Laxmi Mittal's bid for Arcelor
The steel tycoon, Laxmi Narayan Mitttal is a London based industrialist and a Forbes 100 billionaire. He is the richest Indian in the world and one of the richest persons in Britain. Such is the charisma of Mittal that his company is all set to become the world's largest producer of steel. Mittal holds steel assets in South Africa, Poland, Indonesia, and Kazakhstan.
Why Is He Famous?
The foreign operations of the family business were passed on to Laxmi Narayan Mittal at an early age. Starting from Ispat Indo in Indonesia, Mittal has become the steel king of the world. By his vision and hard work, Mittal has built the moderate business of his family into a global steel giant, which spans across many countries. The companies of the LNM Ispat group include Ispat international NV, Ispat Karmet and Indo Ispat. From the core business of steel manufacturing, his group is now diversifying into shipping, coal, power and oil enterprises. The most fascinating thing about this man is that he is said to have a knack of buying sick and rusted steel companies and turning them into gold!
Experts say that his capability to quote the cost of these sick companies make him winner all the way. It is no mean achievement that when the global steel industry is in its worst recession phase, Mittal's steel plants are churning huge profits! His zeal and fierceness for acquiring sick and closed steel plants is so intense that many times he has to jet from one country to another, in quick succession, to sign another takeover deal. It is no surprise that he turns all of them into gold. That's why the old saying, fortune favors the brave, applies to him in its entirety. Mittal, now owns 12 giant-sized steel plants that are part of a far-flung empire stretching from Canada to Trinidad & Tobago to Kazakhstan and Indonesia.
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http://www.indobase.com/indians-abroad/laxmi-mittal.html
Madhur Jaffrey
Why Is She Famous?
One of the versatile Indians abroad, Madhur Jaffrey is an actress, culinary expert, TV presenter, movie script and cook book writer. But it is for her cookery that Madhur is best known. Madhur Jaffrey began her carrier in films with the Ivory-Merchant production, Shakespeare Wallahs. This movie won her the best actress award at the Berlin Film festival in 1965. Some other noted films of Madhur are "Heat and Dust", "Autobiography of a Princess", "The Asian Garden", "The perfect murder", "Six Degrees of Separation" and "Wolf.
After Madhur was divorced from her husband, she turned to cooking as a new career. This field provided a wide scope to Madhur Jaffrey as the range of Indian dishes is unending. She wrote cookery books like 'Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking', 'A Taste of India 'and more recently 'World vegetarian'. By introducing genuine Indian cuisine to the British kitchen, Jaffrey has drastically changed the way British people cook, eat and think about Indian food. Later Madhur appeared on T.V. shows but acting always has been her first love. She has received tremendous accolades and awards for her versatility. Madhur Jaffrey has been awarded with Muse Award for Outstanding Vision & Achievement, NYWFTV 2000; Award for Excellence in acting & cookery, Gov. Pataki '99; Tarknath Das Award, Glenfiddich Award for Best Radio/TV Broadcasting 1982 etc
Background
Madhur Jaffrey was born in Delhi, India. She did her early studies in Delhi itself. Afterwards Madhur Jaffrey went to England on a scholarship to learn acting and after graduation married Jaffrey. Later she settled down in New York and gave birth to three daughters, Meera, Zia and Sakina. Unfortunately her marriage with actor Saeed Jaffrey did not work and she got divorced. Madhur Jaffrey got remarried and now lives in New York
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http://www.indobase.com/indians-abroad/madhur-jaffrey.html
M. Arunachalam
M. Arunachalam is a Hong Kong-based businessman. M. Arunachalam has played an important role in promoting trade and investment between Hong Kong and India as also between China and India. M. Arunachalam has held the post of chairman, Indian Chambers of Commerce and president of the Asia Pacific Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. M. Arunachalam has been part of several delegations of Indian and Chinese businessmen to India. He has also hosted several delegations from India.
M. Arunachalam was a member of the Trade and Industry Advisory Board, Hong Kong. M. Arunachalam has been continuously promoting Indian culture in Hong Kong by organizing performances of artists from India. In his capacity as a responsible businessman, M. Arunachalam has been liberally contributing to various organizations in India. Arunachalam is recognized for enhancing the image and understanding of India in Hong Kong and the adjoining regions.
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Mira Nair
Why Is She Famous?
Mira Nair is an Indian filmmaker of international repute. She started her carrier as an actor and then turned to directing documentaries. Her early documentaries included "So Far From India" and "India Cabaret". Mira Nair made a mark from her very first feature film, Salaam Bombay, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film Category in 1988. Salaam Bombay won the Camera D'Or (for best first feature) and the Prix du Publique (for most popular entry) at the Cannes Film Festival and 25 other international awards. Her next film, The Mississippi Masala won three awards at the Venice film festival. Mira Nair's subsequent films include the Perez Family, My own country, Kamasutra and the monsoon wedding. Winner of the Golden Lion at the 2001 Venice Film Festival, Monsoon Wedding also won a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Language Film and received tremendous critical and commercial success.
Background
Mira Nair was born in 1958, Bhubaneshwar, India. Her parents hail from the Punjab. Mira had her early education at a boarding school at Shimla. It was here that Mira developed passion for dramatics and theatre. Mira read the 'Vanity Fair' when she was just 16 and later adapted it into a film. Mira Nair studied in the Delhi University and then went to the United States to study sociology and later theatre at the Harvard University. Mira is married to Hehmood Mamdani; a Ugandan national.
Mira's greatest recognition came with her first feature film, Salaam Bombay! She was awarded the Best New Director at the Cannes Film Festival and also got a nomination for best foreign film at the Academy Awards. In the year 2002 she directed a section of the French-produced anthology film 11/09/01, featuring short films from 11 international filmmakers in response to September 11. Along with teaching at Columbia University, Nair would next direct the film Vanity Fair, based on the novel by W M Thackeray. Mira Nair was offered the job of directing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007).
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http://www.indobase.com/indians-abroad/mira-nair.html
Manoj Night Shyamalan
Why Is He Famous?
Manoj Night Shyamalan is a US based and internationally acclaimed Hollywood director, screenwriter and actor. Shyamalan was born in Pondicherry, India. Manoj Night Shyamalan had an intense passion for movies from an early childhood, when he used to make small films using his father's cam. It is interesting to know that by the age of 16 he had made more than 45 short films!
"The sixth Sense", his third directorial venture, was one of the biggest box office hits ever in Hollywood. It was released in the year 1999 and was nominated for 6 Academy Awards. The success of this film made him the most famous and most recognized Indian face in Hollywood. Other movies of Shyamalan are - "Unbreakable", "Signs" and "The Village". Presently, Shyamalan is working on a new project called "The Life of Pi". The most peculiar thing about Shyamalan is that he exhibits the image and understanding of India through his films.
Background
Manoj Night Shyamalan was born on 6th August 1970 in Pondicherry, India. His father, Nelliyate C Shyamalan and mother, Jayalakshmi were both doctors and moved to the United States when Shyamalan was still a young boy. Shyamalan had his early education at a Catholic School and Philadelphia's Episcopal Academy. Since his childhood, Shyamalan had shown an early aptitude for movies. It was because of this reason that he chose the Tisch School of Arts at New York University to study film-making. During his final year at the NYU, Shyamalan wrote, directed and starred in his first feature film, 'Praying with Anger'. He also wrote the script for 'Stuart Little' in 1995 and made his second movie 'Wide Awake' in 1997. Shyamalan now lives in Philadelphia with wife Bhavana and Selitha, their daughter.
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http://www.indobase.com/indians-abroad/m-n-shyamalan.html
Rohinton Mistry
Why Is He Famous?
Rohinton Mistry is a renowned novelist and author. Rohinton was born in India and presently settled in Canada. "One Sunday" was Mistry's first short story and won him the first prize in the Canadian Hart House Literary Contest. "Tales from Firozsha Baag" was Mistry's short story collection and was published for the first time in Canada in the year 1987. Rohinton Mistry's style of writing is distinct and has made a mark for itself. His notable novels are "Such a long journey", "A Fine Balance" (set during the State of Emergency in India in the 1970s), and "Family Matters". Such a Long Journey and A Fine Balance were both short listed for the Booker Prize for Fiction, and Family Matters was short listed for the 2002 Man Booker Prize for Fiction.
Background
Rohinton Mistry was born in Bombay, India, on 3 July, 1952, in a Parsi family. Rohinton had his undergraduate degree in mathematics and economics at the Bombay University. He moved to Canada in the year 1975. In Canada (Toronto), Mistry worked as clerk in a bank. But at the same time he studied English and Philosophy part time at the Toronto University. It was while he was a university student in Canada that Rohinton began to write and publish fiction.
Sabeer Bhatia
Why Is He Famous?
India born computer wizard, Sabeer Bhatia came into limelight when he created the web based e- mail- the Hotmail and later sold it to the software giant- the Microsoft for a staggering $ 400 million in 1998. This deal was struck after hectic negotiations between him and the Microsoft. After selling the hotmail to the Microsoft, Sabeer Bhatia worked with the Microsoft for about a year and then left it to start another venture- Arzoo Inc. It is an e-commerce firm with a revolutionary new way to shop on line. With the hotmail deal, Sabeer Bhatia became the Silicon Valley hero and is still basking in glory. Today, Sabeer Bhatia is an idol for all Indians who wish to make it big in the Silicon Valley.
Background
Sabeer Bhatia, an icon for the young and aspiring software professionals, was born in Chandigarh in 1969 and grew up in Bangalore. Sabeer had his early education at Bishop's Cotton School at Pune and then at St. Joseph's College, Bangalore. For his bachelor's degree, Sabeer went to the Birla Institute of Technology (BITS), Pilani. In the year 1988, he got a scholarship from the California Institute of Technology and moved to the Caltech. Later, Sabeer earned his masters degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University. After graduation, Sabeer worked for the Apple Computers for some time, as hardware engineer. It was here that Sabeer, along with his colleague Jack Smith, planned to set up the Hotmail. Rest all is history! A young man only with a few dollars in his wallet (when he left India) created software history.
» Hotmail founder to help build Nano City in Haryana
Hotmail founder Sabeer Bhatia Wednesday signed an agreement with the Haryana government to jointly set up Nano City, a knowledge hub modelled on the Silicon Valley of the US, at a cost of Rs.18.5 billion ($412 million).
http://www.indobase.com/indians-abroad/sabeer-bhatia.html
Salman Rushdie
The famous writer Salman Rushdie was born in Mumbai, India. In his writings, he uses tales from various genres - fantasy, mythology, religion and oral tradition. Though most of his books have been subject of controversies, in the year 1988 Salman Rushdie came in the eye of storm with the publication of the "Satanic Verses" for its alleged blasphemous remarks on Islam and the Prophet. The entire Muslim world was enraged at the publication of the Satanic Verses. This led to the declaration of death sentence on him by Ayatollah Khomeini, the then religious sovereign of Iran. Following this Salman Rushdie went into hiding in London.
Rushdie's work Midnight's Children was awarded the Bookers' prize in 1993 and brought him international fame. In 1996 Salman Rushdie received the European Union Literary Award in Denmark. His other famous works are Grimus, Shame, Essays and Criticism, Wizard of oz, The moor's last sigh, The ground beneath her feet, Fury, Step across this line etc.
Background
Salman Rushdie was born in 1947 in a Muslim family of Bombay. His father was a Cambridge-educated businessman. At the age of fourteen, Rushdie was sent to Rugby School in England. In 1964 Rushdie's parents moved to Karachi, Pakistan. Rushdie continued his studies at King's College, Cambridge, where he graduated in history with honors. After graduating in 1968 he worked for sometime in television in Pakistan. In between he also worked for Ogilvy and Mather and Charles Barker. Salman Rushdie made his debut as a novelist with "Grimus" in the year 1974. After remaining in hiding for many years, Salman Rushdie came out recently. In 2004, Rushdie married for the fourth time, this time to prominent Indian model and actress Padma Lakshmi.
» Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sachin Tendulkar among TIME'S 'Asian Heroes'
Architects of modern India Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, steel baron Lakshmi Mittal and IT czar Narayana Murthy have been named among TIME magazine's "Asian heroes" in its forthcoming 60th anniversary issue.
» Kiran Desai becomes youngest woman winner of Booker Prize
Kiran Desai, daughter of prominent Indian origin writer Anita Desai, created literary history by becoming the youngest ever woman to win the prestigious Man Booker Prize for her book "The Inheritance of Loss" at the age of 35.
» Salman Rushdie to join US varsity faculty
India-born British writer Salman Rushdie will join the faculty of Emory University in the United States.
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Sam Pitroda
Why Is He Famous?
The name, Sam Pitroda can better be explained by the yellow phone booths all across India. Yes, it was mainly because of the efforts of this inventor, technocrat, and social thinker that telecom revolution started in India. It is interesting to know that Sam Pitroda first used a telephone only after moving to the US! The biggest virtue of Sam Pitroda is that he has a definite vision to use technology for the benefit and betterment of society. Along with being a pioneer in telecom, Sam Pitroda has made strong case for food, clean water, and adequate shelter for the unprivileged section. Through his efforts, Sam Pitroda has brought telephones to some of the world's previously isolated regions. In the field of telecom, Sam's emphasis was on accessibility rather than density.
By providing public access to telephones, Mr. Sam Pitroda revolutionized the state of telecommunications in India. Currently, Mr. Pitroda is the Chairman and CEO of World-Tel Limited, an International Telecom Union (ITU) initiative. He is also the Chairman and Founder of Sevend high-technology. Sam Pitroda is also the founding Chairman of a non-profit Foundation for' Revitalization of Local Health Traditions in India. As a result of his pioneering works, Sam Pitroda holds more than 50 patents and has lectured extensively on Telecom, Technology and Development, in almost all parts of the world. Sam Pitroda has also featured in several newspapers, magazines, radio and TV programs.
Background
Satyanarayan Gangarm Pitroda, better known as Sam Pitroda was born in Titlagarh, Orissa, India. Sam Pitroda did his schooling at Anand Vallabh Vidyalaya in Gujarat and Masters in Physics and Electronics in Baroda. In the year1964, Sam Pitroda went to the US and did his Masters in Electrical Engineering in Chicago. Thereafter he worked at GTE and formed Wescom Switching, Inc. In the year 1984, Sam Pitroda returned to India and founded the Center for Development of Telematics (CDAC) and later became advisor to the PM of India on National Technology Missions. Mr. Pitroda lives in Chicago, Illinois with his wife Anu, son Salil and daughter Rajal.
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http://www.indobase.com/indians-abroad/sam-pitroda.html
Shashi Tharoor
Why Is He Famous?
Shashi Tharoor is prolific writer and UN Diplomat. Shashi has been with the UN since 1978 when he joined the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva. Shashi Tharoor served the UN in various capacities before assuming the office of the Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information of the United Nations in 2001. In this capacity, he is responsible for the communication strategy, enhancing the image and effectiveness of the UN. In 2003, the Secretary-General appointed him United Nations Coordinator for Multilingualism.
As a journalist, Tharoor has written many articles, short stories, literary reviews and commentaries. Shashi Tharoor has explored the diversity of the Indian culture. He is the winner of several journalism and literary awards, including Commonwealth Writers' prize. He was named the Global Leader of Tomorrow by the World Economic forum in Davos. Mr. Tharoor is also the author of several books, including 'Reasons of State' (1982), 'The Great Indian Novel (1989)', 'The Five-Dollar Smile & Other Stories' (1990), 'Show Business' (1992) 'India: From Midnight to the Millennium' (1997), 'Riot. A Love Story'(2001) and 'Nehru, the Invention of India'.
Background
Shashi Tharoor, was born in London in 1956. His father was a newspaper executive and mother a housewife. His family has roots in Palakkad, Kerala, India. Tharoor had most oh his schooling and under graduation in Mumbai (Bombay), Kolkata(Calcutta) and Delhi. He completed his honors degree in History from the prestigious St. Stephen's College, Delhi and won a scholarship to Tufts University, Boston. In the mid 1970's, Shashi went to the United States and acquired two master's degrees and a Ph.D. in Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University. When he completed his education he was just 22 years old! He was married to the journalist wife, Tillotma and has twin sons, Ishaan and Kanishk. It is remarkable that despite being out of India from such an early age, Tharoor retains a strong attachment to his Indian roots.
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http://www.indobase.com/indians-abroad/shashi-tharoor.html
Lord Swaraj Paul
Why Is He Famous?
Lord Swaraj Paul is a Britain based business magnate a philanthropist. He was born in 1931 in Jalandhar, India. Swaraj Paul founded the multinational company Caparo- the UK-based steel and engineering group. Swaraj Paul went to Britain in 1966 and started his business in 1968. From acquiring one steel unit, he went on to acquire more units and founded the Caparo group in the year 1978. Swaraj Paul's company developed into one of the leading producers of welded steel tube and spiral welded pipe in the UK. He was knighted by the British Queen in the year 1978 and became the Lord Paul of Marylebone and a member of the House of Lords.
Lord Paul has received various awards. He has written the biography of Indira Gandhi and was awarded the Padma Bhushan by her in 1983. He was also bestowed with many prestigious honors including the Pro-Chancellorship of the Thames University (1998) and its Governorship (1992-97), Chancellorship of Wolver Hampton University and the Bharat Gaurav award by the Indian Merchant's Chamber. He is a member of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's Foreign Policy Centre Advisory Council and MIT's Mechanical Engineering Visiting Committee.
Background
Swaraj Paul was born in Lalandhar in 1931. His father ran a small foundry, making steel buckets and farming equipments. Swaraj Paul was educated at the Punjab University and later obtained a Master's degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US. On his return to India, Swaraj joined the Appeejay Surendra Group, which his father had founded. It was a twist of fate that he had to visit London to get his daughter cured of Leukemia. But this trip made him to stay in London for ever. Lord Swaraj Paul stepped down from the management of the Caparo group in 1996, handing over his empire to his three sons.
Despite being one of the richest persons in the U.K, Lord Paul practices a very simple life. In his memoirs, Beyond Boundaries, Lord Paul reflects the main events of his life. It contains the details of his business career, including his run-in with DCM and Escorts and his association with the famous and the mighty- including Indira Gandhi, Sanjay and Rajiv. Beyond Boundaries is a window into the making of one of the most outstanding success stories of modern times.
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http://www.indobase.com/indians-abroad/swaraj-paul.html
Vikram Seth
Why Is He famous?
The world famous writer and poet Vikram Seth was born in Kolkata, India. Vikram Seth possesses the art of creating a living and breathing world that keeps the readers focused and engaged. Vikram Seth has published 6 books of poetry and 3 novels. In 1986, Vikram Seth wrote The Golden Gate, his first novel. The publication of "A Suitable Boy", the 1,349 page mega novel propelled Seth into the public limelight. "A suitable boy" won the W.H.Smith prize in 1993. 'An Equal music' by Seth deals with the troubled love life of a violinist. For his services to literature, Vikram Seth has received one of Britain's top honors. The award of the commander of the order 3 of the British Empire was given to Seth in February 2001. Vikram Seth's latest work is "Two Lives" (2005), a memoir of the marriage of his great uncle and aunt.
Vikram Seth has written some very fine poems also. His poetry includes Mappings (1980), From Heaven Lake (1983), The Humble Administrator's Garden (1985), All You Who Sleep Tonight: Poems (1990) and Three Chinese Poets (1992). His children's book, Beastly Tales from Here and There (1992) consists of ten stories about animals. Vikram Seth has also authored a travel book, From Heaven Lake: Travels through Sin kiang and Tibet (1983). It is an account of a journey through Tibet, China and Nepal. Vikram Seth was also commissioned by the English National Opera to write a libretto based on the Greek legend of Arion and the Dolphin. The opera was performed for the first time in June 1994.
Background
Vikram Seth was born in 1952, Kolkata, India. He is the son of Leila Seth, the first woman Chief Justice of India. He got his early education at the Doon school. Seth left India to study at Oxford University, earning a degree in philosophy, politics, and economics. He further enrolled at the Stanford University, intending to get a PhD in Economics, but never completed his study. During the period from 1980-1982, Vikram Seth studied classical Chinese poetry at Nanjing University, China. Vikram Seth has traveled widely and lived in Britain, California, India and China.
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http://www.indobase.com/indians-abroad/vikram-seth.html
Vinod Khosla
The India born Venture Capitalist, Vinod Khosla is one of the most influential persons of the Silicon Valley. Vinod Khosla is in Forbes magazine's list of America's richest 400 people. Vinod Khosla is a world renowned venture capitalist. Vinod is revolutionizing communications. He rose into fame at the age of 27 when he co-founded the Sun Microsystems with a German student Andreas Bechtolsheim, who was a multi millionaire. Khosla ran the Sun Microsystems until 1984. In 1986, he joined in Kleiner Perkins as a general Partner. Vinod Khosla was among the first venture capitalist to visualize that a combination of internet technology and fiber optics could make communications so fast, cheap and easy.
As a visionary, Khosla has played important role in starting and helping companies that are involved in the field of multimedia, semiconductors, video games, Internet software and computer networking. The biggest virtue of Khosla is that he doesn't just spread cash, but nurtures and supports beginners. Vinod Khosla has won accolades and admiration because of his ability to visualize business opportunities in right perspective. Khosla is not satisfied only in planning but takes active part in the implementation part as well. Vinod Khosla was instrumental in creation of Cerent Corp, juniper Networks, Viant, Extreme Networks, Lightera etc. Vinod Khosla is also one of the founding fathers of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE).
Background
Vinod Khosla was born in New Delhi in a family of army officers. He earned a B.Tech degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi. He attempted to start his own company but the venture failed. Vinod Khosla then went to the United States and earned his M. S. degree in Biomedical Sciences at the Carnegie Mellon and later did M B A from the Stanford University in 1979. Khosla was a big dreamer and ambitious from the very beginning. At the Stanford, Khosla found a business idea and partners from the Stanford Club. They founded a computer aided and design company- Daisy Systems. Vinod deeply believes in closeness of family and lives in Woodside, CA with his wife and four daughters.
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http://www.indobase.com/indians-abroad/vinod-khosla.html
Ayyappa Paniker
When Ayyappa Paniker, barely 30, published his masterpiece, Kurukshetram, in 1960, critics called him the 'T S Eliot of Malayalam' to denigrate him as a copycat.
Earlier, the doyen of Malayalam literature, the sentinel of traditional poetry and the editor of the leading weekly, Mathrubhumi, Krishna Warrier, had returned the poem as he found it lacking in features essential for poetic creations.
But by the time Paniker passed away last week, he had been recognised as 'the forerunner of Modernism in Malayalam poetry and an unblemished writer in Indian literature of all times.' He had taken Malayalam poetry beyond the oceans and introduced to Kerala readers poetic geniuses from as far away as Cuba, Senegal and Mexico.
He had also written a comprehensive history of Malayalam literature and an authoritative volume on Indian Narratology. For black humour in poetry and narration, he had no parallel in Malayalam or in any other language.
To me, Paniker was a teacher par excellence, not just when he taught me such unpoetic subjects as English phonetics and old English at the university, but also when he spoke to me on exotic subjects whenever we met in Tokyo, Moscow, New York, Thiruvananthapuram or elsewhere.
Every word he spoke was pregnant with meaning, often double meaning. It took me many years to follow his thoughts and to understand his black humour. He spoke haltingly and often left sentences incomplete, but no word was wasted.
After every conversation, there was much to think and laugh about, much to learn and comprehend. Without being a spokesperson of social issues like poverty and the environment, he made scathing attacks on social evils and unprincipled politics. The sharpness of his comments made up for his lack of activism.
At a time when Malayalam poetry was still in the grip of its most popular romantic figure, Changampuzha, and the classical masters, Asan, Vallathol and Ulloor, Paniker burst on the scene with his Kurukshetram, bold not only in terms of form, but also in terms of substance.
Initially, his poetic experiments were dismissed as imitations of English literature by an English teacher. It took some time for readers and critics to realise that the images in his poetry were rooted in Indian myths, legends and classics and that they were discovering an indigenous genius.
He used free verse and articulated the collective despair of a generation as T S Eliot had done before him, but his Kurukshetram was very Indian in its essence. Dhritarashtra's question to Sanjaya as to what the Pandavas and Kauravas were doing on the battlefield was a good starting point to Paniker to lay bare a different wasteland of his own. The anguish was intense:
"It is the bones that eat the marrow here
And the skin preys on the bones"
The poem that attracted me most in that early period in Paniker's poetic career was 'Hei Gagarin', another anguished lament, this time that science was striking at the very roots of poetic imagination. To him, Gagarin's journey into space jeopardised the dreams and flights of fancy, which characterised poetic creations over the centuries. He wanted Gagarin to get away from the path that he and his poetic colleagues had traversed as there was the grave danger of his discovering that the whole cosmos, as nurtured in the fertile imagination of poets and sages, was nothing but a huge void. At the same time, he called on poets to go even beyond the world explored by Gagarin to create new myths and new legends to give hope and solace to mankind:
"The pioneers have hoisted their flags on the heights
Break the idols, poets, to grow god enough to bless."
Paniker wrote on grave themes throughout his five decades of creation and delved deep into matters of life and death. There was no shortage of quotable quotes on death and life after death when he passed away. Here is a sample:
"A moment: it splits apart
To reveal infinity
Everything flows into that infinity,
One moment:
Eternity. Immortality. Death.
The moment comes together again."
Yet, Paniker will be remembered more for his own brand of humour, the black humour, which permeates his poetry from beginning to end. His cartoon poems dealt with serious issues with his characteristic wry humour. Consider this:
"Just because I have stolen a few things
Why should you call me a thief?"
He stole clothes to protect your sense of shame, he stole a chicken to fry it and eat it, he stole a cow to drink milk. He concludes:
"Whenever one steals something good, something good,
You people raise a clamour for nothing
And dub him a thief, a thief."
Also consider these two snippets:
"...this ancient newborn land
Where we grow corn and PL 480
And make colour tv sets in plenty
Till our chests are nearly empty
And brains spout tons of TNT"
"Do not ask about caste
Do not talk about caste
But do not do anything forgetting our caste."
This kind of humour was part of Paniker's very being. His conversations were studded with these gems, which could be easily missed if the listener did not have trained ears.
Paniker was not content with enriching Malayalam poetry with his own creations. He was acutely aware of the wealth of literature out there on other continents, which was largely unknown to Kerala audiences. He took care to translate a number of poets from abroad and also took his own poetry to distant lands. His mastery of both English and Malayalam placed him in a unique position to fulfill this important mission. He gave no interviews, but interviewed several poetic geniuses and provided insights into their personalities and poetry. He traveled extensively in search of great minds and great poetry.
I realised only after his death how many poets and writers are indebted to him for not just inspiration, but for encouragement and calls to create. He held workshops, published representative selections of new poetry and translated other Malayalam poets into English. He was the guru for modern poets, some directly and others indirectly. Those who came to offer obeisance to him after his death came from all walks of life as he had touched everyone deeply, even politicians, for whom he had scant respect.
When his first major poem was published, the editor remarked that Paniker had deliberately hidden himself away from fame. He did that for half a century thereafter, but his work could not be hidden and recognition came to him from far and near. He cared for some of them, I know, like the Saraswathi Samman, the last award he received, but he received others not to offend the award givers.
On one occasion at least, he declined an award altogether and literally closed his doors to those who went to give it to him. He may have declined some of the other honours like a state funeral Kerala accorded to him, but by then he had risen above all that to become a star to shine eternally on the literary firmament.
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
Indian poet, philosopher, and Nobel laureate, who tried to deepen mutual Indian and Western cultural understanding. His name in Bengali is Rav¨©ndran¨¡tha Th¨¡kura. He was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), into a wealthy family, the son of the philosopher Debendranath Tagore. He began to write poetry as a child; his first book appeared when he was 17 years old. After a brief stay in England (1878) to study law, he returned to India, where he rapidly became the most important and popular author of the colonial era, writing poetry, short stories, novels, and plays. He composed several hundred popular songs and in 1929 also began painting.
A dedicated internationalist and educator, Tagore established a school (1901) in his estate, Santiniketan, in Bengal, to teach a blend of Eastern and Western philosophies. In 1921 his school was expanded into an international university, Visva-Bharati. He also traveled and lectured throughout the world.
Tagore wrote primarily in Bengali, but translated many of his works into English himself; critics agree they are much more effective in the original. Tagore's writing is highly imagistic, deeply religious and imbued with his love of nature and his homeland. He was awarded the 1913 Nobel Prize in literature, and in 1915 he was knighted by the British king George V. Tagore renounced his knighthood in 1919 following the Amritsar massacre of nearly 400 Indian demonstrators by British troops. His Collected Poems and Plays was published in 1966.
Arun N. Netravali
Dr. Arun N. Netravali is President of Bell Laboratories, responsible for research and development across all of Lucent Technologies.
A leader and pioneer of many areas of digital technology, Dr. Netravali has led important research and development in high-definition television, switching and networking, image processing, computer graphics, facsimile and graphics communications, digital compression, signal processing, human interfaces to computers, and more. Dr. Netravali¡¯s contributions to image-sequence processing include repeated collaborations with Dr. Thomas S. Huang. Their seminal research has inspired significant developments in both industry and academia.
Born on 26 May 1946, in Bombay, India, Dr. Netravali received his undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India, and an M.S. and a Ph.D. from Rice University in Houston, Texas. He holds an honorary doctorate from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale, in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Prior to joining Bell Labs in 1972, Dr. Netravali worked on problems relating to filtering, guidance, and control for the space shuttle for NASA. Dr. Netravali has been an adjunct professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and has taught graduate courses at City College (N.Y.), ColumbiaUniversity, and RutgersUniversity. He has served on the editorial board of the IEEE, and is currently an editor of several journals. He serves on a number of boards and committees, including the New Jersey Governor¡¯s Committee on Schools program.
Dr. Netravali has authored more than 170 technical papers and co-authored three books: Digital Picture Representation and Compression, Visual Communications Systems, and Digital Video: An Introduction to MPEG-2. He holds more than 70 patents in the areas of computer networks, human interfaces to machines, picture processing, and digital television.
A Fellow of the IEEE and the AAAS, Dr. Netravali is also a member of the National Academy of Engineering, Tau Beta Phi, and Sigma Xi. He is an advisor to the Ecole Polytechnique Federale, in Lausanne, Switzerland, and to the Beckman Institute of the University of Illinois. For his scientific achievements, Dr. Netravali has received numerous awards, including the Alexander Graham Bell Medal, the L.G. Abraham Award, the Donald Fink Award, the Japanese C&C Prize, and the Thomas A. Edison Patent Award.
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http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/about/awards/bios/2001kilbyAN.html
Arun Netravali
Arun N. Netravali (b. May 26, 1946 in Bombay) is an Indian-American engineer and businessman who is a pioneer of digital technology including HDTV. He conducted seminal research in digital compression, signal processing and other fields, including important collaborative work with Thomas S. Huang. Netravali has been President of Bell Laboratories and Chief Scientist for Lucent Technologies.
He received his undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India, and an M.S. and a Ph.D. from Rice University in Houston, Texas. He has taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University, and Rutgers University. He has authored more than 170 technical papers and co-authored three books: Digital Picture Representation and Compression, Visual Communications Systems, and Digital Video: An Introduction to MPEG-2. He holds more than 70 patents relating to computer networks, human interfaces to machines, picture processing, and digital television.
Netravali is currently the managing partner of OmniCapital, a venture capital business, and is a director of various companies including Agere Systems. He has two children, Ravi, an avid tennis player, and Ilka, a student at Harvard Medical School.
He interacted with the students of IIT Bombay through a video conference during Techfest 2007.
Azim Premji
Azim Hashim Premji (born July 24, 1945) is an Indian businessman and Chairman & CEO of one of the largest software companies in India, Wipro Technologies (headquarters located at Bangalore). He was rated the richest person in the country from 1999 to 2005 by Forbes and is worth $17.1 billion.
Premji was just finishing his undergraduate engineering studies at Stanford University in 1966 at the age of 21 when he got word of his father¡¯s sudden death and was called upon to handle the family vegetable oil business. Premji started off in Wipro with a simple vision: to build an organization on a foundation of Values. Premji eventually sought ¡ª and received ¡ª permission to study arts courses by correspondence to complete the requirements for his bachelor¡¯s degree in Electrical Engineering.
In 2000, he was conferred an honorary doctorate by the Manipal Academy of Higher Education in India. He was also adjudged the Business Man of the Year 2000 by Business India. He is a member of the Prime Minister's Advisory Committee for Information Technology in India.
Premji is a Nizari Ismaili Muslim by religion and is ethnically Gujarati. He is currently a resident of Bangalore.
Azim H Premji
Chairman
Azim Premji is a graduate in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, USA. On the sudden demise of his father in 1966, Premji took on the mantle of leadership of Wipro at the age of 21. Premji started off in Wipro with a simple Vision ¨C to build an organization on a foundation of Values.
Under his leadership, the fledgling US$ 2 million hydrogenated cooking fat company has grown to a US$1.76 billion IT Services organization serving customers across the globe. Wipro is today ranked among the top 100 Technology companies globally (by Business Week). In the past two years Wipro has also become the largest BPO services provider, based in India. Wipro¡¯s growth continues be driven by its core Values.
Over the years, Azim Premji has received many honors and accolades, which he believes are recognitions for each person who has contributed to Wipro. He was adjudged the Business Man of the Year 2000 by Business India and as the Business Leader of the Year 2004 by the Economic Times. Financial Times included him in the list of top 25 billionaires who have done most to bring about significant and lasting social, political or cultural changes (November 2004). Time listed him (April 2004) as one amongst 100 most influential people in the world. He was named by Fortune (August 2003) as one of the 25 most powerful business leaders outside the US, Forbes (March 2003) listed him as one of ten people globally, who have the most ¡°power to effect change¡± and Business Week (October 2003) featured him on their cover with the sobriquet ¡°India¡¯s Tech King¡±.
The Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee and the Manipal Academy of Higher Education have both conferred honorary doctorates on him. He is also a member of the Prime Minister¡¯s Committee for Trade and Industry in India. In January 2005, the Government of India conferred upon him the Padmabhushana, one of the highest civilian awards in the country.
Premji firmly believes that ordinary people are capable of extraordinary things. He believes that the key to this is creating highly charged teams. He takes a personal interest in developing teams and leaders. He invests significant time as a faculty in Wipro¡¯s leadership development programs.
Premji has a fanatical belief in delivering Value to the Customer through world-class quality processes. This belief has driven Wipro¡¯s pioneering efforts on Quality. Wipro was the first Indian Company to embrace Six Sigma, the first Software Services Company in the world to achieve SEI CMM Level 5 and it also became the world¡¯s first organization to achieve PCMM Level 5 (People Capability Maturity Model). Premji equates Quality with Integrity ¨C both being non-negotiable.
In the year 2001, Premji established Azim Premji Foundation, a not-for-profit organization with a Vision of significantly contributing to quality universal education to build a just, equitable and humane society. This means every child receiving quality education. The financial resources to this foundation have been personally contributed by Premji. The current programs of the Azim Premji Foundation engage 1.8 million children under various programmes.
36 Indians in Forbes billionaires list
Steel magnate Lakshmi Niwas Mittal and Reliance`s Ambani brothers are among the 36 Indian corporate honchos featuring in the Forbes magazine`s 2007 billionaires list unveiled today. According to the magazine, the total worth of Indian billionaires, from among a total 946 billionaires across the globe, had a total worth of 191 billion dollars. Steel magnate Lakshmi Niwas Mittal sitting on a massive wealth of 32 billion dollars has been ranked fifth. RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani is at 14th slot with total assets of 20.1 billion dollars, while his brother Anil Ambani, holding 18.2 billion dollars is at number 18. Wipro`s Azim Premji with 17.1 billion dollars stands at 21st position. DLF`s K P Singh with 10 billion dollars is at 62nd position, followed by Sunil Bharti Mittal of Bharti Telecom and family at 69th slot with 9.5 billion dollars. Kumarmangalam Birla and Essar`s Shashi and Ravi Ruia both are at 86th place with a net worth of eight billion dollars each. In another remarkable achievement, India has overtaken Japan, which for two decades had held the top spot in Asia. Japan had 24 billionaires in the list worth 64 billion dollars, the magazine said. The world`s richest are getting younger and richer with more Russians and Indians cropping up, the magazine said. Microsoft Corporation chairman Bill Gates was the richest man for the 13th straight year, with 56 billion dollars, followed by Warren Buffett, chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, with 52 billion dollars. Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim remained at number three with 49 billion dollars. Other Indian billionaires in the list includes Ramesh Chandra, chairman and managing director Unitech, Pallonji Mistry, Adi Godrej and Shiv Nadar. The magazine says the number of billionaires rose 19 per cent compared to last year when there were 793 people listed, and their total net worth grew 35 per cent to 3.5 trillion dollars. The average billionaire`s age fell by two years to 62, and 60 per cent started with very little. Two-thirds of those on the list were richer, with net worth up for nearly everyone in the top 50.
CODE:
http://www.indiafirstfoundation.org/Currrent%20Affairs/01%20C&Affairs_m.htm#cur&a55
India develops devices for Deepwater Exploration
India has developed devices to search the depths of the ocean - to as deep as over 5,000 meters (5 km) - for economic exploration, joining a league of nations that are developing such capability to exploit ocean wealth. "The technology and know-how developed and proved by Indian scientists will help to explore greater depths in the deep ocean in future for economic exploration of non-living resources," said Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Kapil Sibal here Friday. Developed and tested successfully by Chennai-based National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), the technical arm of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, the devices include a world-class Remotely Operable Vehicle (ROV), a deep sea mining machine or Underwater Crawler, and a deep sea soil testing machine or In-Situ Soil Property Measurement System. Some of the components have been acquired from the Experimental Design Bureau of Oceanological Engineering of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Designed to work in most extreme conditions, NIOC has already harnessed potato shaped nodules called Polymetallic Nodules, at depths greater than 4,000 metres in the deep sea.
"These nodules contain manganese (27-30 percent), copper(1-2 percent), nickel (1-2 percent) and cobalt (0.2-0.3 percent), apart from traces of other minerals," said P.S. Goel, secretary to the ministry of earth sciences. Copper and nickel are strategically important elements, as these are not available from terrestrial resources in the Indian sub-continent and hence it is essential that India develops technology to mine these nodules from the deep sea. Being a pioneer investor in polymetallic nodules exploration, a site of 150,000 sq km was allotted to India in the Central Indian Ocean Basin by the International Seabed Authority (ISBA) of the United Nations. The mining site is located about 2,000 km south of Kanyakumari with the nearest island being 500 km away. Today India is the only country with mining site allocated in the Central Indian Ocean Basin, the others being in the Pacific Ocean. "Once fully tested, we will be able to demonstrate and study what is available at depths of 5,000 metres and more. This will help us know how the mineral wealth can be exploited," said Dr M.A. Atmanand, project director at NIOT. Deep sea mining is a technologically challenging field as the depth of water and weather conditions are major constraints. At 5,000 metres depths, the pressure is extremely high - 500 times the atmospheric pressure, and the seabed is extremely soft comparable to thick grease. Developed with an investment of Rs.350 million over the last few years, NIOT Director Dr. S. Kathiroli said it will take a couple of years before the devices are available for commercial use for exploration of oil and gas, gas hydrates and other valuable ocean wealth and studies. "The ROV will be able to provide drilling support and also for laying pipelines," he said. ROV can operate at depths where human beings cannot go to undertake repairs or change tools. This equipment has been successfully tested at a depth of 205 metres in October.
Courtesy: www.teluguportal.net, December 15, 2006
A TRIBUTE TO INDIA'S FORGOTTEN HEROS !
http://video.google.com/videopla ... earch&plindex=3
Remembering Gandhi: Indian Freedom Movement
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3733574776065383628
King Porus
King Porus (also Raja Puru), was the King of Pauravaa, a Kingdom in Punjab located between the Jhelum and the Chenab (in Greek, the Hydaspes and the Acesines) rivers in the Punjab and dominions extending to Hyphasis[1]. Its capital may have been near the current city of Lahore [2].
Bhera is the historical town to which Porus or Purushotthama of the Puru tribe belonged. Purushotthama (c.325 BC) was the king of Kekaya the land of the Puru tribe, one of the Janapadas (kingdoms) that originated from Aryan settlements in ancient India. Its location was in what is now middle Punjab, the areas between the rivers Jhelum and Chenab and its extent varied from time to time.
Chandragupta Maurya
Chandragupta Maurya was the first emperor of the Mauryan empire. Chandragupta came to rule much of North India and parts of south between 320 to 290 BC.
Chandragupta Maurya was born 340 BC. He ruled from 320 BC to 293 BC.
Chandragupta succeeded in bringing together almost all of the Indian subcontinent. As a result, Chandragupta is considered the first unifier of India and the first genuine emperor of India.
Prior to Chandragupta's consolidation of power, small regional kingdoms dominated Northern and Eastern India.
Kulke, Hermann, Rothermund, Dietmar [1986] (1998). A History of India, Third Edition, London: Routledge, 59. ISBN 0-415-15481-2.
Chandragupta Maurya was born c. 340 BCE, Ruled c. 320 BCE to 293 BCE was the founder of the Mauryan Empire.
Indian stamp depicting Chandragupta Maurya.
Gautama Buddha
Siddh¨¡rtha Gautama (Sanskrit; Pali: Siddh¨¡ttha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from ancient India and the historical founder of Buddhism. He is universally recognized by Buddhists as the Supreme Buddha of our age. The time of his birth and death are uncertain; a majority of historians in the 20th century dated his lifetime from circa 563 BCE to 483 BCE, but more recently, some scholars have advocated dates around 410 or 400 BCE for his passing away,[1] but this alternative chronology not yet been accepted by other historians.[2]
Gautama, also known as Shakyamuni (¡°sage of the Shakyas¡±, in Pali "śakamuṇi"), is the key figure in Buddhism, and accounts of his life, discourses, and monastic rules were summarized after his death and memorized by the saṅgha. Passed down by oral tradition, the Tripiṭaka, the collection of discourses attributed to Gautama, was committed to writing about 400 years later.
Standing Buddha sculpture, ancient region of Gandhara, northern Pakistan, 1st century CE, Mus¨¦e Guimet.
Vishnu Bhikaji Gokhale (1825-1871)
Vishnu Bhikaji Gokhale was born in 1825, the tenth child of a modestly placed Konkanastha (Chitpawan) Brahmin family residing in a village, Shiraval, near Mahad in the Thana (now Kolaba) district. His education appears to have consisted only of a few years in a village school along with some of study of the Vedas in preparation for his sacred thread ceremony. At the age of fourteen he worked at the customs office at Sangamseshvar Bandar, leading in a few months to appointment with pay at Thana in the Customs Department. The young Vishnu seemed safely on the path of the laukika (secular) brahmin, secure in "service". Yet this bureaucrat-in-becoming seems to have spent his own time engaged in religious exercises and disciplines, memorizing stotras and mingling with sadhus. His custom service postings were at several places in the Thana area - Vasai, Bhiwandi, and Kalyan - each of which was also in close proximity of Bombay.
It was while posted at Uran, a small port on the harbor opposite to Bombay, that Vishnu Gokhale sensed that other work awaited him. As he was drowsily emerging from sleep one morning, he heard what he took to be a divine voice calling: " Are, Vishnu. If you live in the company of beast, are you therefore one? Take a decision - who am I? Abandon service, go into the wilderness lost in philosophic meditation. Inspired, Vishnu resigned his appointment, retained but a loin cloth and a staff, and commenced several years of penance and meditation at the sacred hill of Saptashringiri near Nasik.
There, he had further visions giving him a mandate to propagate dharma throughout the land. In 1852 he moved first to Nasik and then on to Pandharpur. He stayed on at this great pilgrimage center for three years during which time he learned traditions of the varkari panth, studying Eknath's Bhavartharamayana. Subsequently the young ascetic, now known as Brahmachari Bawa or Vishnubawa Brahamachari, published his own book. Bhavarthasindhu (sea of devotion), which gave emphais to dyan or "special knowledge". Dynan, he explained could be found only in Vedic religion and realized through devotion (bhakti) as expressed by the saint-poets of Maharashtra. Apparently, he also heard Christian missionaries at Pandarpur criticizing Hinduism and resolved that he would answer them.
In September 1856, Vishnubawa Brahmachari went to Bombay to step upon a wider stage. Having forsworn marriage, abandoned worldly employment, and absorbed the available teachings of regional and Sanskritic religious knowledge, Vishnubawa stood poised to combat the Christian missionaries and to defend dharma. Yet, his defense by no means excluded the possibility of, even the necessity for, that Hindu society and culture could themselves be reformed.
Christians had been proselytizing in Western Maharashtra since the days of the Portuguese conquests.
(For more refer to chapter on European Imperialism and FirstIndologists:
http://www.hinduwisdom.info/European_Imperialism.htm
http://www.hinduwisdom.info/FirstIndologists.htm ).
However, the nineteenth century saw the entry of a new element - the British and American Protestant missionaries fired with a zeal for bringing India to Christ and doing it rather quickly, too. Relying upon the sympathy of the Governor, Sir Evan Neapean, they ultimately established residence in the city. Initially utilizing the Serampore Press Marathi grammar, dictionary, and New Testament, these missionaries commenced a vigorous campaign of street preaching near Hindu temples in Bombay. The American Congregationalist Gordon Hall, spoke in hostile tones about Hinduism. He called Hinduism, " a shapeless mass of cruelties."
In 1829, Dr. John Wilson, a Scottish missionary arrived in Bombay along with his evangelical ambitions. In May 1830, public debates were inaugurated at Bombay. In the following year, Morobhat Dandekar debated with Wilson for six successive evenings. He published a tract setting forth his views, Shri Hindudharmasthapana (Foundations of Hindu Religion) which in turn called forth rebuttals published by Wilson.
Dandekar entered the fray with a new broadside against Christianity, Upadesha Chandrika (Moonlight of Admonition), which a missionary journalist in Dnyanodaya asserted even went so far as to use arguments of the "books of infidels like Voltaire and Tom Paine. Hindus were beginning to use the same technologies employed by their Christian antagonists. Now oral debates were being recorded and printed, and additional polemics were published.
In this context of over a quarter of a century of Christian-Hindu disputation and polemic, and with the intensification of missionary endeavors provoking greater apprehension and hostility among Hindus, Vishnubawa Brahmachari was not the first Maharashtrian Hindu to enter the lists against Hinduism's critics. Rather, he was the first to launch a widely recognized defence of Hindu dharma, using an effective style reinforced by an aggressive counterattack against Christian doctrines. Even his missionary opponents had to concede that he possessed "an agreeable manner, remarkable fluency and ease, a fine command of the Marathi language, (and) an air of sincerity and piety."
At the same time, Vishnubawa decried the fact that because Hindus were ignorant of their own religion, they consequently could not defend it against missionary critiques. Yet Vishnubawa recognized that Hindus had to go beyond denigrating other religions, turning instead to a clear exposition of what was essential in their own system of belief. Thus he began writing his magnum opus, a survey of what he called the ultimate kernel of Hindu faith. entitled the Light of Vedic Religion or Vedoktadharmaprakasha. This work opens quite simply: "Dharma mhange kay?" "what does dharma mean?"
Vishnubawa Brahmachari died in the Viththal Mandir at Bombay on Mahashivaratri, February 18, 1871.
To many of his large circle of admirers, Hindus, both Gujarati and Maharastrian and some Parsis, he had triumphed and turned back the tide of conversion. He became a symbol of resistance to the criticism launched against Hinduism by evangelizing missionaries, and his considerations of what dharma truly means, he contributed to the objective survival of the ancestral faith. In his vigor, his polemics did defend dharma without foreclosing on the desirability or possibility of reform.
True to his given name, he remained Vishnu - the preserver.
Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com
http://video.yahoo.com/video/pla ... b77daf703c92.703761
Arumuga Navalar of Jaffna (1822-1879)
Arumuga Navalar is regarded as the "father" of modern Tamil prose and a staunch defender of Shaivism against Christian missionary attacks. Less known are his attempts to reform Shaivism itself. He worked within the heritage of Shaiva scholars as he responded to the newer challenges of an intrusive Western Civilization. A Hindu of Hindus, affectionately called the 'Champion Reformer of the Hindus', author of numerous treatises on Saiva Literature, was a pioneer prose writer and publisher of rare books of the Sangam Age.
Arumuga Pillai, Navalar's original name, belonged to a high-status caste known as Vellalas, a class that along with Brahmins had produced most of the Tamil literati for centuries, perhaps millennia. Born in 1822, he grew up in the Tamil regions of Sri Lanka. Because his father was a Tamil poet, Arumuga Pillai received a solid foundation in Tamil literature at an early age. Like many high-status boys of the second generation to live under British rule, he entered a Christian mission school to study English. Arumuga was twelve when he attended this school as a day student. He did so well that he was asked to stay on the Jaffna Wesleyan Mission School to teach English and Tamil. Peter Percival, the principal asked him to serve as his own Tamil pandit, to assist him in writing and editing hymns and translating the prayer book and Bible. Arumuga Pillai worked with Percival for eight years in his late teens and early twenties, when he wrestled seriously with the questions, What does it mean to be a Hindu?
Background
At the time of Arumuga Pillai's birth, Protestants from England and America, had established stations in nine villages on the Jaffna peninsula from whence they conducted vigorous campaigns to convert the Hindus and Muslims into Christians. The first significant Hindu opposition to these efforts emerged in 1828 when the teachers of the American Missionary Seminary at Batticotta (Vattukkottai) began to stress the Shaiva scripture Skanda Purana (Kanta Purana) in their school. The decision angered Jaffna Hindus, who doubted that in such a foreign setting the sacred quality of this Tamil story of Murugan, the warrior son of Shaiva, would be respected or that its esoteric meanings would receive a sympathetic hearing.
Christians had their portions translated from poetry into prose. The classes immediately created a stir. Though they were voluntary, social pressures caused attendance to gradually dwindle until they were abandoned. From the Shaiva point of view, this act by Christian educators had pulled a text from sacred center (akam) of dahrma out into the darkness of the wilderness (purappuram), stripping it of its ritual context and laying it bare for profanation. Indeed this is what the educators had intended, as the end of the report said:
"Enough, however, was read to convince all who would reflect, that the book is filled with the most extravagant fictions, many of which are of an immoral tendency, (just as the Bible says,) "for the people will walk everyone in the name of his god."
Two long anti-Christian poems appeared around this time in Jaffna. They reflected an increasingly vocal opposition.
The Vellala poet, Muttukumara Kavirajar (1780-1851), wrote the "Kummi Song on Wisdom (jnanakkummi) and "Abolition of the Jesus Doctrine" (Yesumataparikaram). The timing of their publication suggests a connection with this opposition. The "Kummi Song on Wisdom," moreover attacked the Christian Bible and Christians just as the Christians had criticized the Skanda Purana and Shaivas. In Jaffna, the Christian assault on Shaivism intensified.
In September of 1842 over two hundred Hindu men of high status gathered at the monastery (matam) of the Shiva temple in Jaffna to discuss plans for establishing a Veda and Agama school to teach Shaivism. They also agreed to purchase a printing press, if possible, in collaboration with "the white men of this place," and to publish tracts on the absurdities of the Christian religion, "which would effectually shut the mouths of the missionaries and stop their abuse."
In October of 1842, when the Veda school opened Arumuga Pillai had been teaching Tamil and English at the Wesleyan Mission School and working with the British missionary Percival for a year. Sympathetic to the Christian arguments, he studied the Bible regularly, but while doing so began to have questions about it. Soon he turned away from it in favor of his own heritage. In 1848, he quit to devote himself fully to his own projects. He had studied in depth the Agamic literature forming the scriptural Sanskrit. He was now adept in the three literary languages of modern religious discourse in the Tamil world: Tamil, Sanskrit, and English. Not surprisingly, his reputation had been growing among local Shaivas as a man who knew more about obscure Agamic literature than anyone else.
The Veda and Agama school had not survived and a printing press was still a dream. In 1846 Arumuga Pillai began night and early morning classes in the primary and secondary literature of Shaivism. His students were a few of his friends, young Vellala, Brahman, and Chettiyar men. The classes were free and informal. Soon he crossed the Palk Strait and to Madras, his first trip to India. A Shaiva school was clearly on his mind. Struggling against Christians and some Hindu reformers as well as orthodox priests, he made a dramatic move at the end of 1847 to spread the "Splendor of Shiva" (Sivaprakasam) and disperse the "darkness" shared by Hindus and Christians. He believed that if the people knew the rudiments of Agamic Shaivism acted on them, they would strengthen dharma and weaken the Christians.
In 1849, He set out for Madras, with his colleague, Sadashiva Pillai, to purchase a printing press. While waiting for a press, Arumuga Navalar published two texts he had been editing from various copies. One was an important educational tool the Cudamani Nikantu, a sixteenth-century lexicon of 1,197 easily remembered verses giving approximately eleven thousand words, in both their verse and prose forms. The other text, Saundaryalahari, a poem in praise of the goddess, was important for devotion, and was published with comments (urai). He had laid out the lines of his work he would continue for the rest of his life: writing, publishing, preaching, teaching and reform. He openly disputed with the claims and refuted the abuses of the Christians.
The Impact of Navalar
His literary production was amazing. Among his approximately ninety-seven Tamil publications, twenty-three were his own creations, eleven were his commentaries (urai), and forty were his editions of those works of grammar, literature, liturgy, and theology he thought Tamils should know. With his recovery, editing, and publishing of ancient works, Navalar, laid the foundations for the recovery of lost Tamil classics, a task his successors continued.
The religious revival among the Hindus in Sri Lanka was largely due to the pioneering efforts of Arumuga Navalar (1822-1879). This is not the place to narrate in detail the crucial and seminal role played by him in kindling a consciousness among the Tamils in Sri Lanka and South India about their spiritual heritage. In many ways Navalar could be compared to Dayananda Saraswathi (1824-1883) who founded the Arya Samaj in North India. What Dayananda did for the Vedic religion in the North, Navalar accomplished for the Saiva-Agamic faith in South India and Sri Lanka.
Arumugam Navalar, Great Saiva Revivalist of Jaffna, Sri Lanka, Honored on 181st Birthday
Many Tamils in South India and Sri Lanka are Saivaites. Sri Arumugam Navalar was born on 18th December 1822 in Nallur in Jaffnapeninsula at a time when several elite and middle class Tamils in Jaffna felt that Ceylon's British rulers were promoting Christianity and the English language at the expense of Saivisim and Tamil.
Navalar's original name was Arumugam. For his services rendered to Saivaism and Tamil language and culture, the head of the great Tamil monastery/temple complex in South India, Dharmapuram Aadheenam, conferred on him the title "Navalar" in recognition of his literary and debating skills. Since then he was known as Arumugam Navalar. At the age of twelve he completed his Tamil education under the traditional, non-formal education "Guru-Shisya" mode of learning. He later joined Jaffna Methodist English School, currently known as Jaffna Central College for his English education when Rev Peter Percival was its Principal.
Navalar emerged the champion of the Saiva renaissance movement of the nineteenth century, both in Jaffna and South India. He published several ancient Sangam literary works, which were found in Palmyra (Ola) leaf manuscripts. He also wrote learned commentaries to ancient and medieval Tamil grammars Navalar was versatile writer, eloquent speaker and efficient debater. Navalar wrote several books on Saivaism such as Saiva Vina Vidai, which is a Saivite catechism. Navalar developed a prose style even laymen could understand. Arumugam Navalar established schools in several parts of Jaffna peninsula to propagate Saivaism.
(source: Arumugam Navalar, Great Saiva Revivalist of Jaffna, Sri Lanka, Honored on 181st Birthday).
http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=10692
Swami Dayanand Saraswati (1824-1883)
Rightly described as a human dynamo, Swami Dayananda shook the structure of established Hinduism to its foundations and infused into it new blood and fresh vigor. The founder of Arya Samaj, was a prophet with a difference. Dayanand is the father of both Renaissance (he brought to life world¡¯s supreme knowledge, the Vedas, with his slogan ¡®Back to Vedas) and Reformation.
Background: The Punjab, after centuries of Hindu rule followed by over five hundred years of Islamic dominance and half a century of Sikh control, contained three religions. Two of these converted, Islam and Sikhism while the third Hinduism, had neither the concepts nor the rituals necessary for conversion. In 1849, the British annexation of Punjab, introduced the aggressive conversion of faith of Christianity. In time, Christianity threatened each of the coexisting religions. Christian missionaries brought with them new forms of organization and techniques of proselytism. Proponents of each religious ideas sought to defend their beliefs and to discredit those of the opposing groups. It was a struggle of mandan-khandan, of disseminating one's "true" ideas and rejecting others "false" concepts. Exponents of Hinduism and Sikhism struggled to defend their religions in general and sectarian ideologies in particular against the missionary attempts to proclaim the superiority of Christianity.
Swami Dayanand Saraswati was born in Tankara, a small town on the Kathiawar peninsula of Gujarat in 1824. He ran away from home in search of his release from the cycle of rebirth and in the process became a sanyasi, taking the name of Dayanand Saraswati. He passionately advocated a return to the pristine purity of Vedic Hinduism, and denounced with intolerant indignation of the post-Vedic Hindu scriptures such as the Puranas. He also condemned idol worship and caste distinctions, advocated full equality for women, initiated a widespread educational campaign with special emphasis on female education, and launched a crusade against untouchability.
Rightly described as a human dynamo, Swami Dayananda shook the structure of established Hinduism to its foundations and infused into it new blood and fresh vigor.
(source: Religious Controversy in British India - Edited by W. Jones Suny 1992)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obido ... 002-4281118-9367406
Essays on Hinduism - By Karan Singh 1993).
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obido ... 002-4281118-9367406
Sri Madhavarao Sadasivarao Golwalkar (1906-1973)
Ever since the dawn of history, Bharat Varsha has always produced great saints and sages in every age, who have made the same supreme discovery - that the God they sought for so many years was no different than their own selves. Each generation has been blessed by these enlightened souls who spread only goodness throughout the length and breadth of India and who had the power to grant a divine boon - the boon of perfect wisdom.
Sri Madhavarao Sadasivarao Golwalkar (1906-1973), Sri Guruji as he came to be affectionately called, belonged to this great tradition.
Through his glorious life of selfless service and supreme sacrifice, Sri Guruji gave this message to all his countrymen: 'When the mysterious Unity between the soul and the Divine becomes clear, you will realise that you are none other than God. You will see all your actions as His actions; all your features as His features; all your breaths as His breath'. This was the vision of Sri Guruji who was a perfect human being and this was the vision he imparted to all the Swayamsevaks of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
Our great nation has been celebrating the birth centenary of Sri Guruji Golwalkar, the II Sarsanghachalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, during the last one year.
Sri Guruji succeeded the founder of the RSS and epoch-maker Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar (1889-1940). Under Sri Guruji's inspiring and outstanding leadership, the RSS grew rapidly from 1940 to 1947. However, unfortunately for the country, Islam-embracing, Christianity-coveting and Hindu-hating Congress party in power under the effete leadership of an effeminate Prime Minister like Nehru viewed the growing popularity of the RSS among the people of India as a potential challenge to its monopoly of power after 15 August, 1947. It was a moment of infamy in our national history when the anti-Hindu Congress Working Committee requested the Government to ban the RSS. This was three months prior to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.
The aim of the Government of India in political collusion with the Congress Party was to isolate the RSS as a cultural organization against the background of the popular sentiments and emotions that were aroused following Mahatma Gandhi's assassination. Sri Guruji was illegally detained without any charge from February 1948 to August 1948. Later, when he requested the Government of India to lift the ban on the RSS, Nehru and Patel covered themselves with eternal disgrace when they told Sri Guruji that they would 'consider lifting of the ban only if Sri Guruji agreed to merge the RSS with the Congress Party.' Sri Guruji, as a true and ardent Hindu, firmly rooted in the traditions of Sanatana Dharma, politely refused to get himself baptised in the holy (!) waters of Nehruvian pseudo-secularism. On his refusal to join the Congress, he was again illegally arrested in November 1948 and detained without a trial till 13 July, 1949. The government of India unconditionally and unilaterally lifted the ban only on 12 July, 1949. In short, Nehru and Patel endeavoured to use the indomitable might of the State to crush the heroic spirit of a great spiritual personality like Sri Guruji Golwalkar and finally kissed the dust with pseudo-secular shamelessness. They stood permanently shamed before the higher court of the world and of Time.
When Nehru and his sworn anti-Hindu fellow Congressmen were boasting in 1949 about the creation of a 'secular' State in India after independence, one of the leading correspondents of an English newspaper put this question to Sri Guruji Golwalkar, after he had just come out of illegal detention for more than eight months:
'How do you view our leaders proclaiming our State as 'secular?' Sri Guruji gave a fitting reply with firmness and dignity marked by great emotional understanding of India 's political and cultural history. He said: 'Emphasising a State as 'secular,' from the point of view of a Hindu, is superfluous. All these centuries in the past, we have been able to maintain religious harmony in the country. The State was only keeping a close watch to see that the people did not fall out and thus render the State weak. Otherwise, all had their freedom of worship, etc. That was the concept followed by Hindu ideology.... Therefore, the qualifying word 'secular' is superfluous and unwanted from our point of view.'
At the end of the I Five Year Plan in 1956, when there was a government-sponsored artificial euphoria about the great success of the Plan, Sri Guruji came out with the right warning: 'The I Five Year Plan talked of achieving food self-sufficiency. But today nobody even talks of attaining it. In ancient Bharat the Kings always strove during harvest to store grains to last for three years. And now, we don't have enough even for current consumption. A Plan which does not plan for food self-sufficiency is no Plan.'
When the Government of India was waxing eloquent on the proposal for the establishment of a new steel plant in Bilai, Sri Guruji observed: 'They have requisitioned some 100 sq. miles of the best rice lands to build the steel city. Had they built it near the iron ore mines some 30 miles away -where land is uncultivable - this fertile track could have been spared. There is not even elementary coordination between industry and agriculture.'
Against this sad and sordid background, when Sri Guruji was asked by the correspondent of The Statesman in 1959: 'How shall we improve matters?, Sri Guruji replied: 'By giving up this craze for show, and canalising the patriotic feelings of the people. ...The country is being given the wrong lead. There is no glow of freedom. Nobody feels the incentive to work. Thousands go out every year for higher education, but few come back with any original idea. ... Only activised and canalised patriotism of the people can carry the country forward. No foreign aid or show pieces are going to do that for us.... We are beginning from the wrong end. Our emphasis is on 'gigantism.' The worst part of the so called 'socialist planning' is Statism and end of individual liberty. Statism is not the road to socialism. It is the way to authoritarianism at the top and serfdom at the bottom.'
Saint, sage, seer, venerable, profound and irrepressible, Sri Guruji was a Titan among men. With his finger constantly on the nation's pulse, with his unceasing concern for the resuscitation and regeneration of the country and its highest life-values, Sri Guruji functioned as a supreme leader to guide the people of India for 33 years from 1940 to 1973. Rising above the lures of position or power or personal glory, his single-minded devotion was to Bharat Mata and Bharat Varsha as a whole. His prophetic utterances always carried the ring and spirit of prophetic truth. He was known for his courageous and fearless espousal of the nation's cause, making no concession to any individual or party. Sri Guruji was fluent in all the 15 languages recognised by the Constitution and made it a point to converse with people and Swayamsevaks from different parts of India in their own mother tongue. Starting from 1943 till 1973, Sri Guruji traversed the country 72 times with tireless energy and Himalayan enthusiasm. No other great man in our nation's history has, it can be safely asserted, toured the country as extensively and as intensively as Sri Guruji. Soon after his last tour of the country, he passed away on the 5th of June, 1973.
Sri Guruji stood for Hindu unity, Hindu solidarity, Hindu cohesion and above all Hindu brotherhood at all costs, in spite of all terror and however long and hard the road may be. For Sri Guruji, without strong Hindu solidarity, there could be no national survival. In short, he was a matchless symbol and spearhead of the mighty movement of National Renaissance - the RSS � for well over three decades. Every moment of his life and in every thought, word and deed, he inhaled and exhaled the values of Sanatana Dharma.
Sri Guruji's time-defying message to all of us is this: 'Our existence as embodied beings is purely temporary; what are a hundred years in eternity; but if we shatter the chains of egotism, and melt into the ocean of Bharat Mata (representing humanity), we share its dignity. To feel that we are something is to set up a barrier between the Goddess of Bharat Mata and ourselves, to cease feeling that we are something is to become one with the Goddess of Bharat Mata. A drop in the ocean partakes of the greatness of its parent, although it is unconscious of it. But it is dried up as soon as it enters upon an existence independent of the ocean. As soon as we become one with the ocean in the shape of Bharat Mata, there is no more rest for us, nor indeed do we need rest any longer. Our very sleep is action. For we sleep with the thought of Bharat Mata in our hearts. This restlessness constitutes true rest. This never-ceasing agitation holds the key to peace ineffable.'
(source: A great harbinger of Hindu renaissance - By V Sundaram - newstodaynet.com).
http://www.newstodaynet.com/2007sud/feb07/1302ss1.htm
Pandurang Vaijnath Athavale Shastri (1920-2003)
The inspiration and founder of Swadhyay Parivar and Swadhyay work is Rev. Pandurang Vaijnath Athavale affectionately known by millions of Swadhyayees as "Dada", a reverential common name for an elder brother.
Rev. Dada was born of Brahmin parents in the village of Roha near Bombay on October 19, 1920. His father and grandfather were great scholars of Vedic literatures. From childhood Dada was inclined towards Vedic scriptures as Geeta. He mastered many languages like Sanskrit, English and several local dialects. At very early age, he acquired a deep and clear understanding of scriptures, logic, grammer, Greek and European philosophy, Sanskrit and English literature, comparative religions, history and various social sciences.
In 1954, Rev. Dada was invited to attend the Second World Religion Congress held at Shimizu City near Tokyo, Japan. This was truly a historic event where religious leaders, philosophers and scholars from many nations had gathered to discuss the question of human happiness. People were concerned about the atomic power which destroyed Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Dada spoke on Vedic philosophy and asserted that Geeta was capable of resolving the dilemmas of man and the general welfare of mankind. He emphasised the necessity of religion in human life.
In 1956, he established a residential school of philosophy - "Tattva Jnana Vidhyapith". This institute was to give importance to nothing except God.
In 1958, Rev. Dada began devotional visits - "Bhaktiferi". This became one of the basic practices of Swadhyay participants. They travelled from door to door to meet people, and since that time Swadhyay has spread across 100,000 Indian villages and the world. It has transformed the lives of over 20 million people.
When Pope Paul VI visited India in 1964, he requested a meeting with Dada to hold philosophical discussions.
In 1982, Rev. Dada was the honored chief guest speaker at the celebration of the 15th century saint, St. Nicholas's 500th birthday held in Trier, West Germany. To the delight of those in attendance , he spoke in a scholarly way of the affinity between the doctrines of the Upanishad and Geeta, with the views of Saint Nicholas regarding the theory of human knowledge, mysticism and God. Rev. Dada emphasised that the Hindu doctrine too is not only a view life, but also a way of life, much in common with Christian doctrine.
In 1986, at the meeting of world - religion leaders at 'Tirthraj Milan', India, German philosophers Rudolf Haubst and Helmut Pfeiffer dedicated their translation of Nicholas of Cusa's "Vision of God" to Dada.
The Awards and Prizes:
* Rev. Dada was given an award in 1987 by the National Wasteland Board of India for the extraordinary success in preserving soil and developing soil and planting forests.
* In 1988, Rev. Dada was also awarded the prestigious Mahatma Gandhi Prize, the first time in 14 years.
* Rev. Dada received the 'Lokmanya Tilak Sanman Paritoshik' Award in 1992 for selfless work for the good of humanity.
* In 1996, Dada received the Ramon Masaysay Prize in the Philippines for demonstrating an outstanding community leadership.
* And in 1997, Pandurang Shastri Athavale received the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. This prize is valued at $1.21 million, the world's largest monetary award.
For the last fifty years Dada has single handedly spearheaded a silent revolution, which aims at social and cultural transformation of man. While treading this path, he had to fight against the deep-rooted tradition, beliefs, rituals and negative thinking prevalent in the Indian society, some of which are inborn in human mind. His work has brought forth a revolution on five fronts.
(source: http://www.swadhyay.org/inspirer.htm).
http://www.swadhyay.org/inspirer.htm
For more refer to Swadhyaya: A Global Indic Phenomenon - Contributed to this site By Pankaj Jain).
http://www.hinduwisdom.info/articles_hinduism/285.htm
Tipu Sultan: 1750-99 A.D.
Tipu Sultan was the son of Haider Ali and Fakhr-un-Nissa born on 20th November 1750 A.D. at Devanahalli. Haider Ali named his son after a great Sufi saint namely Tipu Mastan Aulia.
Academic & Military Education
Though Haider Ali was an illiterate, he gave good education to his son Tipu Sultan. He was well versed in Kannada, Urdu, Persian, and Arabic languages. He received military education from Ghazi-Khan who was a great warrior and also a military officer in the army of Haider Ali. Apart from the formal education, he got military education, participating in the wars that were fought by his father. Tipu Sultan helped his father both in the First and the Second Mysore Wars. He was also a brave soldier and great general.
Ruler of Mysore
After the death of Haider Ali, Tipu Sultan was enthroned as the ruler of Mysore on 4th May 1783 A.D. in a simple ceremony at Bednur. He continued the Second Mysore War against the English. He defeated many English generals like Brithwhite & Col. Bailey. Tipu Sultan signed the treaty at Mangalore on 11th March 1784 A.D. which was known as the Mangalore treaty.
http://www.tipusultan.org/
Painting depicting Tipu Sultan as young Prince
Artist: John Zoffany - 1780 AD
Indra Nooyi
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/11/06women_Indra-Nooyi_1S5D.html
PepsiCo names first woman CEO
CFO Indra Nooyi to succeed Steve Reinemund, putting her among the leading women in corporate America.
Individually, the best of the Indians are up there with the Jewish folks - no question about that.
But their leaders made a crucial mistake after WW II. They bought into this "world's biggest democracy" crap. So the nation is forever condemned to be 2nd rate at best.
And now you cast aspersions on India!
This is the perfect comparison. Both China and India started on about the same basis right after WW II. Same level of development, same approximate population, etc. India supposedly have a leg up, since it has the "civic institutions" supposedly prebuilt by the Brits, and the Indians spoke English. So by all Western logic, India must do at least as well as China - especially per Schreiber, all that a country needs to grow fast is cheap labor.
History proved Schreiber wrong, as usual. Today, after 60 years, India lags far behind.
The only big difference is the performance of the form of government. Western style parliamentarian democracy simply is a disaster for developing nations, as India proves it to the world.
This is not casting aspersions. Perhaps spoken with wistful sentiments though, of what waste that was.
Tong,
India's problem is that it threw out the free market when it threw out the British and succumbed to the "self-reliance" ideology popular in much of the world at that time (just as North Korea had).
Take Care of It?
The West has for 60 years pitched that nothing other than "DEMOCRACY" works.
So no excuses. Any good political system (like SWCC) must be self adjusting and flexible, to take care of problems. India conclusively proved that democracy, as preached by the West (parliamentarian style, mutliple party politics), does not work, or at least does not work as well as SWCC, for big developing countries.
QUOTE:
Originally posted by tongluren at 2007-8-5 06:58
Individually, the best of the Indians are up there with the Jewish folks - no question about that.
But their leaders made a crucial mistake after WW II. They bought into this "world's bigg ...
So you want totalitarian regime likes of STALINISM AND MAOISM WHO THRIVE ON MURDER, MAYHEM AND TOTAL DESTRUCTION DEVOID OF ANY DECENCY OF CIVILIZED WORLD.
SWCC is just and efficient, and cares for the people. It is the ONLY political system proven capable of bettering the lives of hundreds of millions of the most destitute, even whilst capitalism and democracy failed.
Our Indian friends are free to choose whatever system they want. It is a competitive world out there. I am merely pointing out the obvious, that their choice to be the "Biggest Democracy in the World" had cost their people too much.
Indians most proud of their culture: Survey
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-2278942,prtpage-1.cms
NEW DELHI: A survey conducted by AC Nielsen found that one-sixth of the young identified infrastructure as a key area of focus if real progress is to be achieved.
Only a little less than the 24% who saw education as the key, while 20% felt poverty eradication must be the top priority.
So, what is it that makes Indians so proud to be Indians and why are they so keen to be reborn in this country?
In response to a question on what are the best aspects of living in India, the top answer was the culture of this country. Almost half the respondents, 45% to be precise, gave this as the best thing about India. That included factors like India's diversity and multi-culturalism, its long tradition and so on.
Next in line was the fact that ours is a free, democratic country, one that gives individuals multifarious freedoms and is essentially a country living in harmony. A little under one-fifth of the respondents felt this was the best aspect of life in India.
For an almost equal proportion, the answer was simple ¡ª India is their motherland, it's the place where they can be among their own people on their own soil. About one-seventh said family bonding was the best thing about life in India.
Again, it is noticeable that almost all the reasons cited lie in the realm of civil society. There is little in this list of the best aspects of life in India that can be credited to good governance. If anything, the implication seems to be that life in India is good, but it's no thanks to our political leaders.
The same angst about governance is evident in the responses to more detailed questions on what are the important factors influencing progress in various areas ¡ª business, science, education, sports and so on. In area after area, corruption, bureaucracy, judicial delays and political interference came up as the most important impediments cited by the respondents.
Jagdish Chandra Bose
USA based IEEE has proved what has been a century old suspicion in the world scientific community that the pioneer of wireless communication was Prof. Jagdeesh Bose and not Marconi.
Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose (1858 ¨C 1937) was a Bengali physicist and science fiction writer, who pioneered the investigation of radio and microwave optics, made extremely significant contributions to plant science, and laid the foundations of experimental science in the Indian subcontinent.
He is considered the father of radio science, and is also considered the father of Bangla science fiction.
He was the first Indian to get a US patent, in 1904, although Bose was himself critical of patents earlier on.
Radio research
The British theoretical physicist James Clerk Maxwell mathematically predicted the existence of electromagnetic waves of diverse wave lengths, but he died in 1879 before his prediction was experimentally verified. British physicist Oliver Lodge demonstrated the existence of Maxwell¡¯s waves transmitted along wires in 1887-88. The German physicist Heinrich Hertz showed experimentally, in 1888, the existence of electromagnetic waves in free space. Subsequently, Lodge pursued Hertz¡¯s work and delivered a commemorative lecture in June 1894, a few months after Hertz¡¯s death and published it in book form. Lodge¡¯s work caught the attention of scientists in many countries including Bose in India.
The first remarkable aspect of Bose¡¯s follow up microwave research was that he reduced the waves to the millimetre level (about 5 mm wavelength). That was within a few octaves of visible light. He knew that long waves were advantageous because of their great penetrative power but realised their disadvantages for studying the light like-properties of those electric waves.
In November 1894 (or in 1895 according to some sources) in a public demonstration in Kolkata, J.C. Bose ignited gunpowder and rang a bell at a distance using microwaves in wavelength in milimetre of range.[9] The demonstration was held in the Town Hall of Calcutta, in the presence of Sir William Mackenzie, the Lieutenant Governor, and Bose wrote in a Bengali essay, Adrisya Alok {Invisible Light), ¡°The invisible light can easily pass through brick walls, buildings etc. Therefore, messages can be transmitted by means of it without the mediation of wires.¡± This was one year after Nikola Tesla made the first public demonstration of radio communication in 1893. In Russia, Popov was performing similar experiments, but had recorded in December 1895 that he was hoping for distant signalling with radio waves.
Bose¡¯s first scientific paper, ¡°On polarisation of electric rays by double-refracting crystals¡± was communicated to the Asiatic Society of Bengal in May 1895, within a year of Lodge¡¯s paper. His second paper was communicated to the Royal Society of London by Lord Rayleigh in October 1895. In December 1895, the London journal the Electrician (Vol 36) published Bose¡¯s paper, ¡°On a new electro-polariscope¡±. At that time, the word ¡®coherer¡¯, coined by Lodge, was used in the English-speaking world for Hertzian wave receivers or detectors. The Electrician readily commented on Bose¡¯s coherer. (December 1895). The Englishman (18 January 1896) quoted from the Electrician and commented as follows:
QUOTE:
¡±Should Professor Bose succeed in perfecting and patenting his ¡®Coherer¡¯, we may in time see the whole system of coast lighting throughout the navigable world revolutionised by a Bengali scientist working single handed in our Presidency College Laboratory.¡±
Bose planned to ¡°perfect his coherer¡± but never thought of patenting it.
By the end of 1895, Bose ranked high among Hertz¡¯s successors.
The 1895 public demonstration by Bose in Kolkata was before Marconi's wireless signalling experiment on Salisbury Plain in England in May 1897. Bose went to London on a lecture tour in 1896 and met Marconi, who was conducting wireless experiments for the British post office. In an interview, Bose said he was not interested in commercial telegraphy and others can use his research work. In 1899, Bose announced the development of a "iron-mercury-iron coherer with telephone detector" in a paper presented at the Royal Society, London.
It appears that Bose's demonstration of remote wireless signalling has priority over Marconi. He was the first to use a semiconductor junction to detect radio waves, and he invented various now commonplace microwave components. In 1954 Pearson and Brattain gave priority to Bose for the use of a semi-conducting crystal as a detector of radio waves. Further work at millimeter wavelengths was almost nonexistent for nearly 50 years. J.C. Bose was at least this much ahead of his time. Just one hundred years ago, J.C. Bose described to the Royal Institution in London his research carried out in Kolkata at millimeter wavelengths. He used waveguides, horn antennas, dielectric lenses, various polarizers and even semiconductors at frequencies as high as 60 GHz; much of his original equipment is still in existence, now at the Bose Institute in Kolkata. Some concepts from his original 1897 papers have been incorporated into a new 1.3-mm multi-beam receiver now in use on the NRAO 12 Meter Telescope, Arizona, U.S.A.
Neville Francis Mott, Nobel Laureate in 1977 for his own contributions to solid-state electronics, remarked that "J.C. Bose was at least 60 years ahead of his time" and "In fact, he had anticipated the existence of P-type and N-type semiconductors."
Bose and patents
Bose was not interested in patenting his invention. In his Friday Evening Discourse at the Royal Institution, London, he made public his construction of the coherer. Thus The Electric Engineer expressed "surprise that no secret was at any time made as to its construction, so that it has been open to all the world to adopt it for practical and possibly moneymaking purposes." Bose declined an offer from a wireless apparatus manufacturer for signing a remunerative agreement. One of Bose's American friends, Sara Chapman Bull, succeeded in persuading him to file a patent application for "detector for electrical disturbances". The application was filed on 30 September 1901 and it was granted on 29 March 1904 (US patent No. 755,840.
Speaking in New Delhi in August 2006, at a seminar titled Owning the Future: Ideas and Their Role in the Digital Age, the Chairman of the Board of Governors of IIT Delhi Dr V S Ramamurthy stressed the attitude of Bose towards patents.
Ramamurthy said: "His reluctance to any form of patenting is well known. It was contained in his letter to (Indian Nobel laureate) Rabindranath Tagore dated May 17, 1901 from London. It was not that Sir Jagadish was unaware of patents and its advantages. He was the first Indian to get a US Patent (No: 755840) in 1904. And Sir Jagadish was not alone in his avowed reluctance to patenting. Roentgen, Pierre Curie and many others also chose the path of no patenting on moral grounds."
He noted that Bose also recorded his attitude towards patents in his inaugural lecture at the foundation of the Bose Institute, on November 30, 1917.
Legacy
Bose¡¯s place in history has now been re-evaluated, and he is credited with the invention of the first wireless detection device and the discovery of millimetre length electromagnetic waves and considered a pioneer in the field of biophysics.
Many of his instruments are still on display and remain largely usable now, over 100 years later. They include various antennas, polarizers, and waveguides, all of which remain in use in modern forms today.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagdish_Chandra_Bose
Amar Bose
Amar Gopal Bose (born November 2, 1929) is the chairman and founder of Bose Corporation. An Indian American electrical engineer of Bengali descent, he was listed on the 2007 Forbes 400 with a net worth of $1.8 billion.
Bose was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father, Noni Gopal Bose, was an Indian freedom revolutionary from Bengal who having been imprisoned for his political activities, fled Kolkata (Calcutta) in the 1920s in order to avoid further prosecution by the British colonial police.
Bose Corporation was founded in 1964 by Dr. Amar G. Bose, then professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While doing graduate work at MIT in the 1950s, Dr. Bose decided to purchase a new stereo system. He was disappointed to find that speakers with impressive technical specifications failed to reproduce the realism of a live performance.
This led to extensive research in the fields of speaker design and psychoacoustics�the human perception of sound. Dr. Bose's findings resulted in significantly new design concepts that help deliver the emotional impact of live music.
Bose Corporation established itself by introducing the 901 Direct/Reflecting speaker system in 1968. With this introduction, Bose achieved international acclaim by setting a new standard for lifelike sound reproduction.
The list of major technologies emerging from Bose continues to grow. Fourteen years of research led to the development of acoustic waveguide speaker technology, found in our award-winning Wave radio, Wave radio/CD and Acoustic Wave music systems.
The introduction of Acoustimass speaker technology reshaped conventional thinking about the relationship between speaker size and sound. Speakers small enough to fit in the palm of your hand produced sound quality previously thought impossible from small speakers.
For arenas and other large venue applications, Auditioner audio demonstrator technology removes the historical guesswork from sound system design. It allows builders, architects and facility managers to hear precisely what a Bose system will sound like in their building, before any equipment is installed, even if the building only exists as a blueprint.
The proprietary, integrated system design found in Bose Lifestyle systems has set new standards for complete home audio solutions. They have been engineered to be the best-sounding, easiest-to-use music and home theater systems ever.
Today, you can hear Bose wherever quality sound is important. From the Olympic games to the Sistine Chapel. From NASA space shuttles to the Japan National Theatre. In the home and on the road, from large outdoor arenas to intimate neighborhood stores and restaurants, you can hear the realism of the most respected name in sound Bose.
http://www.bose.com/about/history/index.jsp
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
NASA's premier X-ray observatory was named the Chandra X-ray Observatory in honor of the late Indian-American Nobel laureate, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. Known to the world as Chandra (which means "moon" or "luminous" in Sanskrit), he was widely regarded as one of the foremost astrophysicists of the twentieth century.
http://chandra.harvard.edu/about/chandra.html
However, that site fails to outline the psy-ops played on Chandra by the Engligh dude Sir Arthur Eddington.
Read this site for more details:
http://www.iitk.ac.in/phy/New01/eigenspace/personality.htm
QUOTE:
Chandra's ideas were strongly opposed by Arthur Eddington, England's leading astrophysicist. Chandra worked very hard as a research student and was awarded the doctorate degree in 1933. He was elected a fellow at Trinity College. Chandra, now more relaxed and confident, returned to the problem of white dwarfs. By a more complete calculation, he confirmed his earlier result there is an upper limit to the mass of a white dwarf. He was invited to give a talk on this subject at the Royal Astronomical Society in January 1935. But after his lecture, Eddington stood up and rejected Chandra's results, not by scientific argument but by ridiculing the combination of special relativity theory with quantum statistics.
However, Chandra was right and Eddington was just a crummy racist!
Satyendra Nath Bose
Satyendra Nath Bose (January 1, 1894 ¨C February 4, 1974) was an Indian Bengali physicist, specializing in mathematical physics. He is best known for his work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920s, providing the foundation for Bose-Einstein statistics and the theory of the Bose-Einstein condensate. He is honored as the namesake of the boson.
Although more than one Nobel Prize was awarded for research related to the concepts of the boson, Bose-Einstein statistics and Bose-Einstein condensate¡ªthe latest being the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics, which was given for advancing the theory of Bose-Einstein condensates, Bose himself was never awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. Among his other talents, Bose spoke several languages and could also play the Esraj, a musical instrument similar to a violin.
In his book, The Scientific Edge, the noted physicist Jayant Narlikar observed:
"S.N.Bose¡¯s work on particle statistics (c. 1922), which clarified the behaviour of photons (the particles of light in an enclosure) and opened the door to new ideas on statistics of Microsystems that obey the rules of quantum theory, was one of the top ten achievements of 20th century Indian science and could be considered in the Nobel Prize class."
Narinder Singh Kapany
(Widely acknowledged as the father of optical fiber)
Narinder Singh Kapany was born in Moga and is of Punjabi Sikh origin. As a scientist, Dr. Kapany is acknowledged by many to be the father of fiber-optics. His research and inventions have encompassed fiber-optics communications, lasers, biomedical instrumentation, solar energy and pollution monitoring. He has over one hundred patents.
He was named as one of the seven 'Unsung Heroes' by Fortune magazine in their ¡®Businessmen of the Century¡¯ issue (1999-11-22)
http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/attachment.php?aid=78926
C.R. Rao
Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao was born in Hadagali, in the state of Karnataka, India.
Professor C.R. Rao is among the world leaders in statistical science over the last six decades. His research, scholarship and professional services have had a profound influence in theory and applications of statistics.
Technical terms such as, Cramer-Rao inequality, Rao-Blackwellization, Rao's Score Test, Fisher-Rao Theorem, Rao distance and orthogonal arrays (described as "new manthra" for industries) appear in all standard books on statistics. Two of his papers appear in Breakthroughs in Statistics in the last century. Other areas he worked in include multivariate analysis, estimation and differential geometry.
Dr. Rao is a Wilks and Mahalanobis medalist; a member of eight National Academies in India, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Italy; he has received dozens of medals, citations, awards, and other honors for his contributions to statistics and science. Dr. Rao was awarded the United States National Medal of Science, that nation's highest award for lifetime achievement in fields of scientific research, in June 2002
C. Kumar N. Patel
(Inventor of the Carbon dioxide laser)
http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/patel.html
There are many types of lasers, which vary in strength, efficiency and utility. Perhaps the most useful of them all is the carbon dioxide laser, invented by Kumar Patel in 1964.
C. Kumar N. Patel was born in Baramati, India in 1938. He received his bachelor's degree in Telecommunications from Poona University at the age of 19 (1958), then came to the US for graduate school. In short order, he earned an MS (1959) and PHD (1961) in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. He was then hired by AT&T Bell Labs, where he worked for over 30 years.
Upon joining Bell Labs in 1961, Patel began doing fundamental research in laser action in the pure rare gasses. This led him to discover laser action in carbon dioxide (1963). Patel added to this discovery his invention of efficient vibrational energy transfer between molecules, and the combination allowed him to invent the nitrogen carbon dioxide (CO2) laser --- the first gas laser to produce high power radiation continuously (1964).
Due to Patel's unceasing efforts to find new uses for his device, the CO2 laser has more practical applications today than any other type of laser. In the hard sciences, it has improved high-resolution and saturation spectroscopy; contributed to laser-induced fusion and nonlinear optics; and is even used for the optical pumping that has made possible newer types of lasers (e.g., far-infrared and x-ray).
In industry, the CO2 laser is used in many forms of welding, cutting and drilling, including those at the micromechanical level, of materials ranging from diamonds to cigarette filters. In medicine, its primary use is in laser surgery, including the removal of tumors and various noncontact and noninvasive procedures. In the environment, it is used to analyze the chemical compositionof the upper atmosphere, which aids in weather prediction, and specifically to detect pollutants existing there in ultra-low concentration (as little as one part per trillion). In communications, it forms the basis of a number of optoelectronic subsystems, some developed by Patel himself, such as infrared acoustic detection. Among military applications, its most striking contribution has been to the "Star Wars" system once promoted by Ronald Reagan and still being developed today. In fact, scientists find further uses for Patel's CO2 laser all the time.
The CO2 laser was not the only type of laser that Patel invented. For example, Patel's research in nonlinear optics led to the creation of the "spin-flip" Raman laser---the first tunable infrared laser (1969). In total, Patel has earned 36 US patents for lasers and their applications.
In the early 1980s, Patel was appointed Director of AT&T Bell Labs' Electronics Research Lab. While he never broke off his own research, Patel earned a reputation for energetic support of others' work and for opening new areas of innovation. In 1993, the University of California at Los Angeles recruited Patel to be its Vice Chancellor for Research. At UCLA, where he is now also Professor of Physics, Patel has overseen the improvement, modernization and expansion of the school's many scientific research programs. In the national academic and scientific communities as well, Patel's enthusiasm and vision have won him a number of leadership positions and honors. Most notably, Kumar Patel won the National Medal of Science in 1996.
Ram Krishnamurthy
(ECE Alumnus & Winner of Intel Achievement Award)
In 2004, Krishnamurthy and his team won an Intel Achievement Award, the company's highest honor for personal or team accomplishments, for their research on novel high-performance execution core arithmetic circuit technologies. Krishnamurthy is a senior member of the IEEE and recently served as the technical program chair/general chair for the 2005/2006 IEEE International System-on-Chip (SoC) Conference.
http://www.ece.cmu.edu/news/story/2006/06/ece_alumnus_and/
Vinod Dham
(Father of the Pentium)
Vinod Dham (born 1950 in Pune, India).
Vinod Dham is popularly known as the father of the Pentium processor. Born in 1950 in Pune, he had his initial schooling in Pune. He did his Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering in 1971. Thereafter he had a brief stint with Continental Devices, a Delhi based semiconductor company.
In 1975, Vinod Dham went to the US and did his Masters in Electrical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati. After completing his Masters in 1977, Vinod Dham joined the National Cash Register (NCR) at Dayton, Ohio. Vinod was a team member of the NCR's memory design group. He received many patents for his work at NCR.
While making a presentation at the IEEE conference in Monterrey, California on re-programmable memory, Vinod Dham received an offer from the Intel to work with them. In January 1990, Vinod was in-charge of developing the 586 or Pentium processor. He worked relentlessly on the project and the Pentium processor was a big hit in the market. Vinod Dham rose up the corporate ladder and reached the position of the Vice President of the Intel's Microprocessor Products Group. He quit Intel in 1995.
Thereafter, Vinod joined NexGen, a start-up firm as Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President.. When Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) acquired NexGen in 1996, Vinod Dham looked after the development of AMD's famous K6 Processor, world's fastest personal computer microprocessor. Later on he quit AMD.
Presently, Vinod Dham is the chairman, president and chief executive officer of Silicon Spice, a communications technology development firm.
Vasantha Erraguntla.
Vasantha Erraguntla leads the silicon prototyping and circuit research teams for Intel India¡¯s Corporate Technology Group in Bangalore.
She joined Intel in Oregon in 1991. Prior to moving to Intel India, She was engaged in various departments and participated in a variety of activities such as high router technology development for the Intel Teraflop machine and later in the design and development of various silicon prototypes to validate research in the areas of high-performance and low-power circuits and high speed signalling.
She started out her career as a component design engineer and had the opportunity to gain exposure to a wide variety of chip designs and development activities such as routers, processors with high-speed execution units, communication processors and high performance computing machines and most recently on the Terascale research chip.
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