Justice Markandey Katju

Justice Markandey Katju is the Chairman, Press Council of India. He was formerly a Judge of the Supreme Court of India. Before being elevated as a judge to Supreme Court, he had earlier served as the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, Madras High Court and as acting Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court.

Early life and Education

Justice Markandey Katju was born on 20 September 1946 in Lucknow, India, in a Kashmiri Pandit family. Justice Katju topped the merit list of the Allahabad University's LL.B. examination in 1967, after which he practised law in the Allahabad High Court specializing in Labour Law, Taxation and Writ Petitions. He was awarded Honoris Causa a Doctor of Philosophy from Lal Bahadur Shastri Sanskrit University, New Delhi, for his book Mimansa Rules of Interpretation, and a Doctorate of Law from Amity University. He is an Honorary Professor of Law at the National Law University, Delhi and Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University, Lucknow. Katju's background is related to law and politics. Justice Katju is the son of late Justice S. N. Katju, formerly a Judge of the Allahabad High Court. His grandfather Dr. Kailash Nath Katju, was one of India's leading lawyers and participated in the country's freedom movement. Dr. K. N. Katju was the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, the Governor of West Bengal and Odisha, as well as the Union Law, Home and Defence Minister. Justice Katju's uncle, Justice B.N.Katju, was the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court.

Baba Ramdev

Baba Ramdev (born as Ramkrishna Yadav in Haryana) is a spiritual leader known for his contributions in yoga, ayurved, politics and agriculture. He is best known for popularizing yoga among health conscious Indians through his mass yoga camps and TV shows. He has been the inspiration and guide for the Patanjali group of institutions (including some firms). Ramdev has more recently become a vocal advocate on Indian political issues.

Early life 

Baba Ramdev was born as Ramkrishna Yadav to Ram Nivas Yadav and Gulabo Devi in the Alipur village of Mahendragarh district in Haryana state of India. He had a formal education until 8th standard in school. He then studied Indian scriptures, Yoga and Sanskrit in various gurukuls. Eventually, he became sanyasi, renouncing worldly life & took his present name as Baba Ramdev. While living in Kalva Gurukul of Jind district in Haryana, he offered free yoga training to villagers for some time. Then he moved to Haridwar, Uttarakhand and spent several years studying ancient Indian scriptures at Gurukul Kangri Vishwavidyalaya. This included a rare book of Aurobindo Ghosh, Yogik Sadhan, translated from Bengali into Hindi by Ram Prasad Bismil. After reading this small booklet योगिक साधन he went to the caves of Himalaya and practised intense self-discipline and meditation.

Anurag Kashyap

Anurag Singh Kashyap (born 10 September 1972) is an Indian film director and screenwriter. Kashyap made his directorial debut with as yet unreleased Paanch, with Kay Kay Menon as the lead. As a filmmaker, he is known for Black Friday (2004), a controversial and award-winning Hindi film about the 1993 Bombay bombings, followed by No Smoking (2007), Dev D (2009), Gulaal (2009), That Girl in Yellow Boots (2011) and Gangs of Wasseypur (2012). As a screenwriter, he wrote the scripts for the Filmfare Award-winning Satya (1998) and the Academy Award-nominated Canadian film Water (2005).

In 1999, Kashyap won the Best Screenplay award for Satya at the Star Screen Awards. The next year, his short film Last Train to Mahakali won the Special Jury Award at the same awards. His feature film debut Black Friday won the Grand Jury Prize at the 3rd Annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (2005), and was a nominee for the "Golden Leopard" (Best Film) at the 57th Locarno International Film Festival (2004). In 2010, he announced his association withTumbhi where he and his team will make six short films for Tumbhi and start his blog with them, as well He was listed on the The DNA power list: Top 50 influentials, a list of 50 most influential Indians in 2011. Kashyap currently serves on the board of Mumbai-based NGO, Aangan Trust, which helps protect vulnerable children around India. He is one of the most influential and important directors in India.

Adi Gogrej

Adi Godrej ; born 3 April 1942) is an Indian industrialist and philanthropist. As of 2012, he is one of the richest Indians with net worth of US$9 billion. He is also the second richest person of Parsi descent in the world after Pallonji Mistry.

Godrej received his undergraduate degree from MIT and his MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, and a member of Tau Beta Pi. After his return to India, he joined the family business. He modernized and systematized management structures and implemented process improvements. Adi Godrej took the Godrej Group to great height during controlled economy era.

Under Adi Godrej's leadership, the group is also involved in philanthropic activities. Godrej is major supporter of the World Wildlife Fund in India, it has developed a green business campus in the Vikhroli township of Mumbai, which includes a 150-acre (0.61 km2) mangrove forest and a school for the children of company employees.

He is the chairman of the Indian School of Business since April 2011.

He was elected as the president of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for the year 2012-13.

In April 2013 Godrej was awarded the Entrepreneur of the Year Award at The Asian Awards.

He was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian award, in 2013.

Chetan Bhagat

Chetan Bhagat (born 22 April 1974), is an Indian author, columnist, and speaker. Bhagat is the author of bestselling novels, Five Point Someone (2004), One Night @ the Call Center (2005), The 3 Mistakes of My Life (2008), 2 States (2009), Revolution 2020 (2011), and What Young India Wants (2012). All the books have remained bestsellers since their release and three have inspired Bollywood films (including the hit film 3 Idiots). In 2008, The New York Times called Bhagat "the biggest selling English language novelist in India's history". Bhagat, an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi and Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, is seen more as a youth icon than as an author. Time magazine named him as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. Bhagat writes op-ed columns for popular English and Hindi newspapers, including the The Times of India and Dainik Bhaskar, focusing on youth, career and issues based on national development. Bhagat voices his opinion frequently at leading events. He quit his investment banking career in 2009, to devote his entire time to writing.

Bhagat was born in New Delhi to a middle-class family. His father was in the army and his mother was a government employee in the agricultural department.

Bhagat's education was mostly in Delhi. He attended the Army Public School, Dhaula Kuan, New Delhi (1978–1991). He studied Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT-D)(1991–1995). He graduated from the Indian Institute of Management (1995–1997). After graduation he worked as an investment banker in Hong Kong. He had been working in Hong Kong for 11 years before shifting to Mumbai to pursue his passion for writing. He has written six books, all of which are bestsellers. His first three novels were written during his tenure as an investment banker. Before writing Revolution 2020, Chetan Bhagat lived in Varanasi for a year for background research.

Ekta Kapoor

Ekta Kapoor is the daughter of actor Jeetendra and Shobha Kapoor. Her brother Tusshar Kapoor is also a Bollywood actor. She did her schooling at Bombay Scottish School, Mahim and attended college at Mithibai College.

She has produced numerous soap opera, television series and movies. Her most popular path breaking soaps being Hum Paanch, Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii, Kasautii Zindagii Kay, Kaahin Kissii Roz, Kabhii Sautan Kabhii Sahelii, Kahiin to Hoga, Kis Desh Mein Hai Meraa Dil, Kasamh Se, Kkusum, Kutumb, Bandini, Kitani Mohabbat Hai, Tere Liye, Pyaar Kii Ye Ek Kahaani, Parichay—Nayee Zindagi Kay Sapno Ka, Gumrah – End Of Innocence and many others. She is currently producing Pavitra Rishta, Bade Achhe Lagte Hain, Mera Tera Rishta Purana and Jodha Akbar.

She ventured into Bollywood movie production in 2001 beginning with Kyo Kii... Main Jhuth Nahin Bolta . Kucch To Hai and Krishna Cottage based on supernatural themes followed in 2003 and 2004. Kyaa Kool Hai Hum starring her brother Tusshar Kapoor proved to be her breakout hit and went on to become one of the highest earners of 2005. She then went on to co-produce Shootout at Lokhandwala with Sanjay Gupta which became her profitable venture at the box office. Mission Istanbul and EMI – Liya Hai Toh Chukana Parega in collaboration with Sunil Shetty followed. The years 2010 and 2011 proved to be important for her with critical and commercial successes such as Love Sex aur Dhokha, Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai, Shor in the City, Ragini MMS, Kyaa Super Kool Hai Hum and The Dirty Picture.[5] Her upcoming productions include Ek Thi Daayan, Shootout at Wadala, Kuku Mathur Ki Jhand Ho Gayi, Lootera, Once Upon a Time in Mumbai Again, Ragini MMS 2, Shaadi Ke Side Effects, Milan Talkies, Main Tera Hero and The Villian

Arun Shourie

Arun Shourie (born 2 November 1941) is an Indian journalist, author and politician. He served as an economist with the World Bank (1968–72 and 1975–77), a consultant to the Planning Commission, India, editor of the Indian Express and Times of India and a minister in the government of India (1998–2004). He was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1982. He is an agnostic.

Arun Shourie was born in Jalandar, India. He was the first child of father Hari Dev Shourie and mother Dayawanti Devasher. He considers himself being born into a close-knit Punjabi family as one good accident that defined his style and direction. He studied at Modern School, Barakhamba and St. Stephen's in Delhi. He obtained his doctorate in Economics from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University in the United States.

In a series of exposés, many of which he wrote himself, Shourie and the Indian Express, where he became Executive Editor in January 1979, uncovered corruption in the highest echelons of the government and exposed several major scandals, including what has been dubbed “India’s Watergate.” Shourie started a one-man crusade in 1981 against Abdul Rehman Antulay, the then Chief Minister of Maharashtra State, who allegedly extorted millions of dollars from businesses dependent on state resources and put the money in a private trust named after Indira Gandhi. The story caused the eventual resignation of the chief minister and great embarrassment to Gandhi and her ruling Congress Party.

Subhash Chandra

Mr. Subhash Chandra is rightly referred to as the Media Moghul of India. He revolutionized the television industry by launching the country's first satellite television channel Zee TV in 1992 and later the first private news channel, Zee News. The ZEE Family, today has over 670 million viewers in 168 countries with over 1 lakh hours of television content spread across 32 channels in general entertainment, sports, lifestyle, movies, english and regional genres and alternative lifestyles having both, local and international presence. Mr. Chandra’s bouquet of businesses includes television network (ZEE), a newspaper chain (DNA), cable systems (Wire and Wireless Ltd), direct-to-home (Dish TV), theme parks (EsselWorld and Water Kingdom), online gaming (Playwin), education (Zee Learn), flexible packaging (Essel Propack), infrastructure development (Essel Infraprojects Ltd), family entertainment centres (Fun Cinemas), precious metals (Shirpur Gold Refinery) and healthy lifestyle & wellness (Veria Living).

Credited with tremendous business astuteness, Mr. Chandra has charted a course of growth and success, unparalleled in business history. All of his ventures are path-breaking in nature, be it Essel Propack, the largest specialty packaging company in the world; Asia's largest amusement park Essel World; or the first satellite television in India Zee TV.

G.M. Rao

Grandhi Mallikarjuna Rao, a mechanical engineer from andhra university is the Founder Chairman of GMR Group, a global infrastructure developer and operator based in India. Started in 1978, GMR Group is now present in 7 countries, active in Energy, Highways, Large Urban Development and Airports sectors, known for building and operating world class national assets.

Born in a small town of Rajam in the Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh, G M Rao established the GMR business empire starting from a single jute mill in Rajam in 1978. A visionary businessman, G M Rao recognised the huge business potential in entering the infrastructure space, with the opening up of the power sector in the 90s in India. Within a decade, he successfully established three greenfield power plants in the country, one each in the state of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Under his guidance, the Group is now developing several power projects in various parts of India & abroad and is also expanding its presence globally. The Group has thirteen power projects of which three are operational with a capacity of 808 MW and ten projects are under various stages of implementation both in Hydel and Thermal Power. Going forward the Energy sector will have a capacity of 8448 MW.

Prashant Bhushan

Prashant Bhushan (born 1956) is an advocate practicing in the Supreme Court of India in Delhi and a social activist. He has been involved in many Public Interest Litigation cases and is a senior member of "Team Anna", which supports Anna Hazare in his anti-corruption campaign. He has drawn controversy over various statements, including accusing chief judges of corruption and supporting a plebiscite for Kashmir separatists.

Prashant is the son of Shanti Bhushan, who was union minister for law in the government of Morarji Desai between 1977 and 1979. Bhushan dropped out of studying mechanical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras after a semester. He then studied first economics and then philosophy of science at Princeton University but left before graduating and returned to India where he received a law degree from Allahabad University .

Naresh Trehan

Naresh Trehan is an Indian surgeon and medical administrator. He has served as personal surgeon to the President of India since 1991, has received numerous awards, including the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan.

Trehan was the founder, executive director and chief cardiovascular surgeon of Escorts Heart Institute and Research Center (EHIRC), which opened in New Delhi, India in 1988. Presently, Trehan is the Founder Chairman of Medanta - The Medicity one of the largest multi-specialty hospital at Gurgaon, on the outskirts of Delhi, established in 2009. Trehan has been president of the International Society for Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery.

As chairman of Global Health Private Ltd., Trehan is overseeing the building of an integrated health care facility in Gurgaon, India, currently referred to as MediCity. MediCity will spread across 43 acres (170,000 m2) of land and is fashioned after institutions such as Mayo Medical School and Johns Hopkins Hospital. Collaborating with Siemens and other financial partners, MediCity aims to combine modern medicine with traditional medicine and holistic therapies.

Sam Pitroda

Satyanarayan Gangaram Pitroda popularly known as Sam Pitroda (born 4 May 1942) is an Indian innovator, entrepreneur and policymaker. Currently Advisor to the Prime Minister of India on Public Information Infrastructure & Innovations. As Advisor, he will be looking into creating information infrastructure for enhancing delivery of services to the citizens in various areas and will also be working on creating a road map for a ‘Decade of Innovation’ in India. He is also the chairman of National Innovation Council.

He has served as Chairman of the National Knowledge Commission (2005–2009), a high-level advisory body to the Prime Minister of India, set up to give policy recommendations for improving knowledge related institutions and infrastructure in the country. During its term, the National Knowledge Commission submitted around 300 recommendations on 27 focus areas covering a range of aspects of the knowledge paradigm. Mr. Pitroda holds around 100 key technology patents, has been involved in several start ups, and lectures extensively around the world.

He is also the founder & Chairman of C-SAM. The company maintains its headquarters in Chicago with offices in Singapore, Tokyo, Mumbai and Vadodara. Following the development of core technologies in the U.S. and Europe, C-SAM's development centers in India now focus on innovation, customization and cost effective deployment for its customers.

He has also served as an advisor to the United Nations and in 1992, his biography Sam Pitroda: A Biography was published and became the bestseller on the The Economic Times list for five weeks.

As technology Advisor to the Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi in the 1984s, Mr. Pitroda not only heralded the telecom revolution in India, but also made a strong case for using technology for the benefit and betterment of society through several missions on telecommunications, literacy, dairy, water, immunization, oilseeds etc.. He has continued to redefine the role technology can play in a society like India by linking it to better delivery of services for the underprivileged in the country.

Mr. Sam Pitroda's claim of heralding the Telecom Revolution in India has been disputed in an article by Rajeev Mantri and Harsh Gupta published by LiveMint 

He has lived mainly in Chicago, Illinois since 1964 with his wife and two children.

Nandan Nilekani

Nandan Nilekani is an Indian entrepreneur and the Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). After a successful career at Infosys, he is now heading the Government of India's technology committee, TAGUP.

Early life

Nandan Manohar Nilekani was born in 1955 in the town of Sirsi in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka. His parents are Durga and Mohan Rao Nilekani. His father worked as a General Manager of Mysore and Minerva Mills and subscribed to Fabian Socialist ideals that influenced Nilekani in his early years. Nilekani's elder brother, Vijay, works in the Nuclear Energy Institute.

Nilekani studied at the Bishop Cotton Boys' School and St. Joseph High School Dharwad, and later at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai.

Career

Nilekani is a co-founder of Infosys and served as its CEO from March 2002 to April 2007. He is chair of the Unique Identification Authority of India, a cabinet-ranking position that he entered in 2009 under the invitation of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.

Nilekani received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in 1978 and joined Mumbai-based Patni Computer Systems, where he met and was interviewed by N.R. Narayana Murthy. In 1981, Mr. Nilekani, Mr. Murthy, and five others left Patni to start their own company, Infosys. Nilekani became the Chief Executive Officer of Infosys in March 2002 and served as CEO of the company through April 2007, when he relinquished his position to his colleague Kris Gopalakrishnan and became co-chairman of the board of directors. Before assuming leadership as CEO in 2002, Mr. Nilekani held various posts, including managing director, president, and chief operating officer.

Nilekani left Infosys in July 2009 to serve as the chairperson of the Unique Identification Authority of India,. As chair of the UIDAI he is responsible for implementing the envisioned Multipurpose National Identity Card, or Unique Identity card (UID Card) project in India. This initiative aims to provide a unique identification number for all residents of India and will be used primarily as the basis for efficient delivery of welfare services.

He is a member of the board of governors of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) and the president of NCAER (the premier independent applied economics research institute in India). He also sits on several advisory boards, including those of the World Economic Forum Foundation and the Bombay Heritage Fund.

Nilekani has appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to promote his book Imagining India: The Idea of a Renewed Nation  and spoke at a TED conference in 2009 on his ideas for India's future.

Nilekani has an estimated net worth of $1.4 billion.

Honours and awards

• He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Law degree by the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto on 31 May 2011.
• He received NDTV Indian of the Year's Transformational Idea of the Year Award in 2011
• He was named Corporate Citizen of the Year at the Asia Business Leaders Award (2004) organized by CNBC.
• Joseph Schumpeter Prize for innovative services in economy, economic sciences and politics – 2005.
• In 2009, Time magazine placed Nilekani in the Time 100 list of 'World's Most Influential People'
• Was presented the 'Legend in Leadership Award' by the Yale University in November 2009. He is the first Indian to receive the top honour.
• In January 2006, Mr. Nilekani became on the youngest entrepreneurs to join 20 global leaders on the World Economic Forum (WEF) Foundation Board.
• Nilekani was awarded one of India's highest civilian honours, the Padma Bhushan, in 2006.
• Also in 2006, he was named Businessman of the Year by Forbes Asia.

D. Subbarao

Duvvuri Subbarao was born on 11 August 1949 is an Indian economist, central banker, and civil servant. He is the 22nd and current Governor of Reserve Bank of India, serving under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Subbarao is a 1972 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre. On 5 September 2008, he was appointed the twenty-second Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI); his term was to end in September 2011. But breaking from tradition, the Prime Minister's Office extended his term by two years and put out a statement announcing that Subbarao, a former finance secretary would now retire on September 4, 2013.

Early life

Subbarao's hometown is Eluru in West Godavari district, a city near Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh. He did his schooling from the Sainik School in Korukonda, Andhra Pradesh. He graduated in Physics B.Sc Hons. from Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (class of 1969) where he was the recipient of Director's Gold Medal.

He received a M.Sc degree also in Physics from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. Subbarao topped the Civil Services Examination in 1972 and was assigned the Andhra Pradesh cadre.

In 1978, he did a Masters degree in economics from Ohio State University, United States. After a few years, Subbarao joined the Humphrey Fellowship program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study Quantitative Economic Modelling. He became a Humphrey Fellow at MIT in 1982. He later received a Ph.D. in Economics from Andhra University. His doctoral thesis was titled "Fiscal reforms at the sub-national level" (1998).

Career

Dr.Subbarao worked as the joint secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India between 1988 and 1993. Subsequently he became the Finance Secretary to the Government of Andhra Pradesh between 1993 and 1998. On completion of his term, he was deputed as lead economist in the World Bank from 1994 to 2004. On completion of his term, he was appointed to the Prime Ministers’ Economic Advisory Council from 2005 to 2007 before he was elevated as the Finance Secretary in 2007.On 5 September 2008, he was appointed the twenty-second Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI and Arun Ramanathan was appointed as Finance Secretary on September 21, 2008 in his vacancy. His term was extended for two more years in 2011.

Dr.Subbarao was involved in the initiation of fiscal reforms at the state level and had managed a flagship study on decentralisation across major countries of East Asia including China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines and Cambodia.He is credited with financial turnaround of Andhra Pradesh in late nineties when the state had slipped into an unprecedented fiscal crisis

Montek Singh Ahluwalia

Montek Singh Ahluwalia (born 24 November 1945) is an Indian economist and civil servant. He is currently the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission of the Republic of India. He was previously the first Director of the Independent Evaluation Office at the International Monetary Fund.

Montek Singh Ahluwalia was born in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. He studied at St. Patrick's High School, Secunderabad, Delhi Public School, Mathura Road, and Bishop Cotton School Shimla, then graduated with a B.A. (Hons) degree from St. Stephen's College, Delhi, University of Delhi. He received the BA (Hons) degree as a Rhodes scholar from the University of Oxford having studied at Magdalen College, Oxford. He also studied for a BPhil in Economics at Oxford University, which the university later reclassified as an MPhil. While at Oxford, he was the president of the prestigious Oxford Union. The 164-year-old Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, conferred him with the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Honoris Causa) at the 11th Convocation Ceremony of the institute held on 12 November 2011.

Ahuluwalia, after graduating from University of Oxford, joined the World Bank during the tenures of Hollis Chenery and Robert MacNamara. At the age of 28, he became the youngest "Division Chief" in the World Bank's bureaucracy.

Prior to taking up his position at the IMF, Ahluwalia was a Member of the Planning Commission in New Delhi as well as a Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister.

In spite of not being a member of the Indian Civil Service, he held the following positions of civil servants in the central government:

• Secretary, Ministry of Finance
• Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs
• Secretary, Ministry of Commerce
• Special Secretary to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, and
• Economic Advisor to the Ministry of Finance.

He has also been the member of the influential Washington-based financial advisory body, the Group of Thirty.

Awards and honours

Year of Award or Honor	Name of Award or Honor	Awarding Organization
2011	Honoris Causa Doctorate of Science	IIT Roorkee.
2011	Padma Vibhushan	President of India.
2008	Doctor of Civil Law	University of Oxford.

Deepak Parekh

A Chartered Accountant, Deepak Parekh began his career with Ernst & Young Management Consultancy Services in New York. After returning to India, he worked with Grindlays Bank and also Chase Manhattan Bank as its assistant representative for South Asia. Parekh joined HDFC in 1978. He was promoted to Managing Director in 1985 and appointed as Chairman in 1993. He was instrumental in making the HDFC one of India's premier housing finance institutions. Parekh also became the Non-Executive Chairman of Infrastructure Development Finance Company Ltd (IDFC), a Government of India enterprise for infrastructure projects in 1997. He is also the Non-Executive Chairman of Glaxo India Ltd & Burroughs Wellcome (India) Ltd and on the Board of Castrol India Limited, Hindustan Unilever, Siemens Ltd, Mahindra & Mahindra, Indian Hotels Company and SingTel. Mr. Parekh is also extremely supportive of youth leadership and thus is a proactive advisory board member of the world's largest student driven organization AIESEC India.

Parekh has been a member of various Committees set up by the Government of India. He was appointed Chairman of the high level expert committee formed to recommend measures for strengthening the Unit Scheme in 1964. The Reserve Bank of India appointed him Chairman of the Advisory Group for Securities Market Regulation, which was tasked to compare the level of adherence to international standards in India with that in other countries. He was also Chairman of the Expert Committee constituted by the Ministry of Power to look into the reform efforts in the power sector.

Deepak Parekh has won several awards including Businessman of the Year 1996 from Business India and the JRD Tata Corporate Leadership Award by All India Management Association (AIMA). He was the first recipient of the Qimpro Platinum Award for Quality for his contributions to the services sector, and the youngest recipient of the prestigious Corporate Award for Life Time Achievement by the Economic Times. Padma Bhushan was conferred on him by the Government of India. In 2010 he was the first international recipient of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales’ Outstanding Achievement Award, for his contribution over many years to the finance and accountancy profession.

Subrata Roy Sahara

Subrata Roy Sahara (born 10 June 1948) also known as Saharasri is an Indian businessman who is the founder and chairman of the Sahara India Pariwar. He also owns Pune Warriors India, London's Grosvenor House, Newyork's Plaza Hotel, Aamby Valley City and has 42.5% stake in Force India.

He is named among the 10 Most Powerful People of India by India Today. His residence is in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Subrata Roy Sahara founded Sahara India Pariwar in 1978. In 2004, the group was termed by the Time magazine as ‘the second largest employer in India' after the Indian Railways.

Early life

Subrata Roy was born in Bihar in 1948 to Sudhir Chandra Roy and Srimati Chhabi Roy. Subrata Roy studied at Holy Child School in Kolkata and later studied diploma in mechanical engineering from Government Technical Institute, Gorakhpur. Sahara started his first business in Gorakhpur.

Philosophy of work

He has propounded the corporate philosophy of ‘Collective Materialism’, that advocates collective growth through collective sharing and caring. Roy promotes sports at international to regional level. The Sahara group is a sponsor of Indian Cricket Team, Indian Hockey Team, Bangladesh Cricket Team and has adopted 91 sportsmen belonging to the four Indian Olympic disciplines of Boxing, Wrestling, Archery, Shooting and Track & Field. The Group also organizes ‘Sahara India Sports Awards' to felicitate the achievement and efforts of Indian sportspersons in their respective fields and provide recognition to the upcoming young talents.

Amitabh Bachchan

Amitabh Harivansh Bachchan (11 October 1942) is an Indian film actor. He first gained popularity in the early 1970s as the "angry young man" of Hindi cinema, and has since appeared in over 180 Indian films in a career spanning more than four decades. Bachchan is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential actors in the history of Indian cinema. So total was his dominance of the movie scene in the 1970s and 1980s that the French director Francois Truffaut called him a "one-man industry”. He occupied the top slot of Box Office India's Top Actors list for a record (shared with Dilip Kumar) sixteen consecutive years.

Bachchan has won numerous major awards in his career, including three National Film Awards as Best Actor he shares with Mammootty and Kamal Hassan, a number of awards at international film festivals and award ceremonies and fourteen Filmfare Awards. He is the most-nominated performer in any major acting category at Filmfare, with 37 nominations overall. In addition to acting, Bachchan has worked as a playback singer, film producer and television presenter. He also had a stint in politics in the 1980s. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri in 1984 and the Padma Bhushan in 2001 for his contributions towards the arts.

Salman Khan

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

In 1999, Khan won the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor for his extended guest appearance in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998). In 2011, he won the Screen Award for Best Actor for his performance in Dabangg and in 2012, he won the Best Actor Popular Choice for his performances in Ek Tha Tiger and Dabangg 2. Eight of the films he has acted in, have accumulated gross earnings of over 100 crore (US$18 million) worldwide. He played leading roles in five consecutive blockbusters including Dabangg, Ready, Bodyguard, Ek Tha Tiger, and Dabangg 2. He has starred in more than 80 Hindi films and thus far has established himself as a leading actor of Hindi cinema.

Harish Salve

Harish Salve is one of India's leading lawyers, who primarily practices at the Supreme Court of India. He also appears in various high courts and in international arbitral disputes, sometimes as a counsel and other times as an adjudicator. Salve served as the Solicitor General of India from November 1, 1999 to November 3, 2002. He succeeded Santosh Hegde, after the latter was appointed as a judge to the Supreme Court. Salve is a well-known practitioner of constitutional, commercial 

and taxation laws.

Salve qualified as a Chartered Accountant in the CA Examination, and practiced on the taxation side before qualifying as a lawyer and moving to the legal profession. He was inspired by Nani Palkhivala, an eminent tax lawyer from Bombay. Salve was later designated as a Senior Counsel by the Delhi High Court. He began his career at J. B. Dadachandji & Co first as an intern in and later as a full-time lawyer by 1980. During this time he assisted Palkivala in the Minera Mills case. Salve worked with former Attorney General, Soli Sorabjee from 1980–1986. He declined to be nominated for a second 3-year term due to "personal reasons" when his first term ended in November 2002. He later clarified that his wife was unhappy about him bringing work home and continuing to be worried as he watched the evening news. He was appointed Amicus Curiae by the Supreme Court in cases mostly relating to the preservation of the environment. However, in 2011, he recused himself from this position during a hearing on illegal mining, on the grounds that he had previously appeared for one or more of the parties.

Shiv Nadar

Shiv Nadar (born 14 July 1945) is an Indian industrialist and philanthropist. He is the founder and chairman of HCL and the Shiv Nadar Foundation. As of 2012, his personal wealth is US$ 6.2 billion. Nadar founded HCL in the mid-1970s and transformed the IT hardware company into an IT Enterprise over the next three decades by constantly reinventing his company's focus. In 2008, Nadar was awarded Padma Bhushan for his efforts in the IT industry. Nadar, nicknamed by friends as Magus (Old Persian for Wizard), since mid-1990s has focused his efforts in developing the educational system of India through the Shiv Nadar Foundation.

Nadar was born in 1945 in Moolaipozhi village, about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) from Tiruchendur in Thoothukudi district, Tamil Nadu, India. His parents wereSivasubramaniya Nadar and Vamasundari Devi in 1945.

His mother, Vamasundari Devi and S. P. Adithanar, founder of Dina Thanthi were siblings. He was a student of Town Higher Secondary School, Kumbakonam. Nadar received a pre-University degree in The American College, Madurai and degree in Electrical And Electronics Engineering from PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore. He began his career at Walchand group's Cooper Engineering in Pune in 1967.

Amir Khan

Aamir Khan (born:Aamir Hussain Khan on 14 March 1965) is an Indian film actor, director, and producer who has established himself as one of the leading actors of Hindi cinema.

Starting his career as a child actor in his uncle Nasir Hussain's film Yaadon Ki Baaraat (1973), Khan began his professional career eleven years later with Holi (1984) and had his first commercial success with Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988). He received his first National Film Award as a Special Jury Award for his roles in the films Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988) and Raakh (1989). After eight previous nominations during the 1980s and 1990s, Khan received his first Filmfare Award for Best Actor for his performance in the major grosser Raja Hindustani (1996) and later earned his second Best Actor award for his performance in the Academy Award-nominated Lagaan, which also marked the debut of his own production company.

Following a four-year break from acting, Khan made his comeback playing the title role in the historical drama Mangal Pandey: The Rising (2005), and later won a Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor for his role in Rang De Basanti (2006). The following year, he made his directorial debut with Taare Zameen Par, for which he received the Filmfare Award for Best Director. This was followed by the thriller Ghajini (2008), which became the highest grossing film of that year, and the comedy 3 Idiots (2009), which became the highest-grossing Bollywood film of all-time.

On 30 November 2011, Khan was appointed as national brand ambassador of UNICEF to promote child nutrition. He is part of the government organised IEC campaign to raise awareness about malnutrition.

Anil Ambani

Anil Dhirubhai Ambani born on 4 June 1959, is an Indian businessman. He is the chairman of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, one of the largest private conglomerates in India. Anil's elder brother Mukesh Ambani, who heads as the chairman of Reliance Industries. The Ambani family is the richest family in India and one of the richest in the world, their wealth inherited from Dhirubhai Ambani, founder of largest Indian conglomerate Reliance Group. He is a member of the Board of Overseers at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is also the member of the Board of Governors of the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur; Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He is a member of the Central Advisory Committee, Central Electricity Regulatory Commission. In March 2006, he resigned. He is also the Chairman of Board of Governors of DA-IICT, Gandhinagar.

Gautam Adani

Gautam Adani (Gujarati:ગૌતમ અદાણી ; born 24 June 1962) is an Indian entrepreneur and self-made billionaire who is the Chairman of Adani Group. The Adani Group is a globally integrated infrastructure player with businesses spanning coal trading, coal mining, oil & gas exploration, ports, multi-modal logistics, power generation & transmission and gas distribution. With a business experience of more than 33 years, Gautam Adani is a first generation entrepreneur who has led the Adani group from a modest background to create a $8 billion professionally-managed empire in a relatively short period of time. He is said to be among the 100 most influential businessmen worldwide in shipping trade and developing shipping related infrastructure. He has also been recognized for establishing the modern Mundra port which was selected as the best port in 2006 by the oldest and the most influential British publication for shipping business, Lloyd. 

Azim Hashim Premji

Azim Hashim Premji (born 24 July 1945) is an Indian business tycoon and philanthropist who is the chairman of Wipro Limited, guiding the company through four decades of diversification and growth to emerge as one of the Indian leaders in the software industry. According to Forbes, he is currently the third wealthiest Indian, and the 41st richest in the world, with a personal wealth of $12.2 billion in 2012. In 2000, he was voted among the 20 most powerful men in the world by Asiaweek. He has twice been listed among the 100 most influential people by TIME Magazine, once in 2004 and more recently in 2011. Premji owns 79 percent of Wipro and also owns a private equity fund, Premji Invest, which manages his $1 billion personal portfolio.

Sunil Bharti Mittal

Sunil Bharti Mittal (born 23 October 1957) is an Indian telecom mogul, philanthropist and the founder, chairman and Group CEO of Bharti Enterprises. The US$8.3 billion turnover company runs India's largest GSM-based mobile phone service and world's fifth largest wireless company with over 190 million customers across 19 countries in Asia and Africa. He is the son of SatPal (former MP) and Lalita.

In 2007, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honor.

Sunil Mittal was born in Ludhiana, Punjab (India). His father, Sat Paul Mittal, had been the Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha (Indian National Congress) from Punjab, he was elected from Punjab for two terms (1976 & 1982) and nominated to the Rajya Sabha once (1988). He first joined the Wynberg Allen School in Mussoorie, but later attended Scindia School at Gwalior and he graduated in 1976 from Punjab University, Chandigarh, with a Bachelor of Arts and Science for which he studied in Arya College for Boys, a local college in Ludhiana. His father died of cardiac arrest in 1992.

Entrepreneurial ventures

A first generation entrepreneur, Mittal started his first business in April 1976 at the age of 18, with a capital investment of 20000 (US$370) borrowed from his father. His first business was to make crankshafts for local bicycle manufacturers.

Cyrus Pallonji Mistry

Cyrus Pallonji Mistry (born 4 July 1968) is an Irish businessman and Chairman of India's leading business conglomerate, Tata Group. He succeeded the previous chairman of the group, Ratan Tata, with effect from 28 December 2012. He is the youngest son of Indian construction magnate Pallonji Mistry. Mistry will be the sixth Chairman of the group and the second not named Tata after Sir Nowroji Saklatvala.

Mistry studied at the Cathedral & John Connon School in Mumbai. He graduated from the Imperial College, London with a BE in civil engineering and holds a Master of Science in management from the London Business School. He is a fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

Cyrus Mistry is the youngest son of Pallonji Mistry, an Irish-Parsi construction tycoon. Mistry's grandfather first bought shares in Tata Sons in the 1930s, a stake that, as of November 2011, stood at 18.5 percent, which is in the hands of Mistry's father, the largest single shareholder in a firm mostly controlled by trusts. He has an elder brother Shapoor Mistry who is married to Behroze Sethna, the daughter of lawyer Rusi Sethna. Cyrus has two sisters: Laila and Aloo. His sister, Aloo, is married to Noel Tata, the half-brother of Ratan Tata. Laila is married to Rustom Jehangir. 

Mistry is married to Rohiqa Chagla, the daughter of lawyer Iqbal Chagla and the granddaughter of renowned jurist M.C. Chagla. Together, Mistry and his wife have two sons.

Mistry considers himself to be of Irish nationality because although his father is Indian-born, his mother is Irish.

Cyrus Mistry has been managing director of Shapoorji Pallonji & Company, which is part of the Rs 15,000-crore Shapoorji Pallonji Group (SP Group). He got the chance to join Tata Sons' board a year after his father retired as director in 2005 and has been serving in the capacity of a director of Tata Sons since 1 September 2006. He served as a Director of Tata Elxsi Limited, from 24 September 1990 to 26 October 2009 and was a Director of Tata Power Co. Ltd until 18 September 2006.

In 2012 Mistry was appointed as the chairman of the Board of Tata Sons. In addition to being Chairman of Tata Sons, Mr. Mistry is also chairman of all major Tata companies including Tata Industries, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Power, Tata Teleservices, Indian Hotels, Tata Global Beverages and Tata Chemicals.

Kumar Manglam Birla

Kumar Manglam Birla is an Indian industrialist and the Chairman of the aditya birla Group, one of the largest conglomerate corporations in India. The groups is India's third largest business house. He is also the Chancellor of the Birla Institute of Technology & Science.

Kumar Mangalam Birla is a fourth generation member of the Birla family from the state of Rajasthan. He spent his childhood in Kolkata and Mumbai.He has BCom degree from University of Bombay(HR College of Commerce&Economics,Mumbai)& is CA(Chartered Accountant)(India)from ICAI(India)& MBA from LBS(London Business School);London;UK,where he is an Honorary Fellow.

Kumar Mangalam Birla took over as Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group in 1995, at the young age of 28, after sudden death of his father, Aditya Birla, after whom the group is named. Many doubts were raised about his ability to lead the group with varied interests in textile and garments, cement, aluminum,fertilizers etc. but KM Birla not only proved his skeptics wrong, but also has grown to become one of the most respected industrialists in the country. Under his leadership the Aditya Birla group has expanded to Telecom, Software, BPO and other areas while consolidating its position in existing businesses.

When Kumar Manglam Birla took over the reins of the group in 1995, the turnover was only $2 bn and overseas operations accounted for a very small part of the overall business with Egypt, Thailand and Indonesia being major centers. Under KM Birla's strong leadership the group's turnover has spiraled to $33bn and it has expanded operations to more than 40 countries including Australia, Dubai, and reaching out to North America, Canada, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Spain, Hungary and China. 60 percent of the group's revenues now come from abroad and 130,000 people are being hired globally for their business operations.

Anand Mahindra

Anand Mahindra (born 1 May 1955) is the Chairman and Managing Director of Mahindra & Mahindra. His grandfather KC Mahindra co-founded the company from his hometown Ludhiana, Punjab. Keshub Mahindra is the uncle of Anand Mahindra.

Early life

Anand Mahindra graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1977  and completed his MBA from Harvard Business School, Boston, Massachusetts in 1981. According to October 26, 2011 rankings of Forbes, his net worth is US $825 million and is ranked #68 in India's rich list.

Career

In 1991, he was appointed Deputy Managing Director of Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. He became the Managing Director in 1997 and took charge from Keshub 14 years ago in 1997. Mahindra was a co-promoter of Kotak Mahindra Finance Ltd, which was converted into a bank in 2003.

Under Anand Mahindra's leadership, the Mahindra group has grown rapidly through both acquisitions and greenfield business development with several high-profile mergers in the past few years, including the acquisition of Satyam Computer Services in 2009, Reva Electric Vehicles in 2010, and Ssangyong Motor Company in 2010. In 2002, the company launched an indigenous developed SUV, the Scorpio, which today has gone global.

Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani

Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani (born on 19 April 1957) is an Indian business magnate who is the chairman and CEO of the Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), a Fortune Global 500 company and India's most valuable company by market value. Ambani remains the largest individual shareholder, with 44.7 percent stake in RIL. Mukesh Ambani, the elder son of the founder of Reliance Industries late Dhirubhai Ambani is the largest Shareholder in RIL. He holds a 44.7 percent stake in the company. The Headquarters of RIL is situated in Mumbai, India. The company deals in mainly refining, Petrochemical and oil & gas sectors. Reliance Retail Ltd is a Subordinate firm of RIL. It was founded in 2006 and it is also based in the financial Capital of India i.e. Mumbai. The company is considered as the largest Retailer in the country.

In 2010, he was included in Forbes's list of "68 people who matter most". As of 2013, he is India's richest man and second richest man in Asia. Ambani is listed as the 22nd richest person in the world with a personal wealth of $21.5 billion. He has retained his position as the world's richest Indian for the sixth year in a row. He is a member of the board of directors of Bank of America Corporation and the international advisory board of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is also the chairman of the board of Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, one of the premier business schools in the country.

In 2012, Forbes named him the richest sports owner in the world. He co-owns the Indian Premier League franchise Mumbai Indians.