Sonia Gandhi

Sonia Gandhi, born Edvige Antonia Albina Maino [1]on 9 December 1946, is an Indian politician, the President of the Indian National Congress and the widow of former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi. She is the Chairperson of the ruling United Progressive Alliance in the Lok Sabha, and the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party. She was named the third most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine in the year 2004 [2] and currently ranks 6th [3]. She was also named among the Time 100 most influential people in the world for the years 2007 [4] and 2008 [5]. She was returned to Parliament by a margin of over 400,000 votes in the by-election for Rae Bareilly after the office of profit controversy.

Born to Stefano and Paola Maino in Lusiana, a little village 50 km from Vicenza, Italy, she spent her adolescence in Orbassano, a town near Turin being raised in a Roman Catholic family and attending a Catholic school. Her father, a building contractor, died in 1983. [7] Her mother and two sisters still live around Orbassano.[8]


UK
In 1964, she went to study English at The Bell Educational Trust's language school in the city of Cambridge. While enrolled in this certificate course she met Rajiv Gandhi, who was enrolled at the time in Trinity College at the University of Cambridge.


India
Sonia and Rajiv were married in 1969, after which she moved into the house of her mother-in-law and then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. [9] The couple had two children, Rahul Gandhi (born 1970) and Priyanka Gandhi (born 1972). Despite the family's heavy involvement in politics (her mother-in-law Indira Gandhi, daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, was Prime Minister), Sonia and Rajiv avoided all involvement - Rajiv worked as an airline pilot, and Sonia took care of her family. [10]When Indira was ousted from office in 1977 and when Rajiv entered politics in 1982, Sonia continued to focus on her family and avoided all contact with public.[11] She acquired Indian citizenship in 1983 [12] after 14 years of her marriage

Sonia Gandhi's involvement with Indian public life began after the assassination of her mother-in-law and her husband's election as Prime Minister. As the Prime Minister's wife she acted as his official hostess and also accompanied him on a number of state visits.[citation needed] In 1984, she actively campaigned against her sister-in-law Maneka Gandhi who was running against Rajiv in Amethi. At the end of Rajiv Gandhi's five years in office the Bofors Scandal broke, and Ottavio Quattrocchi an Italian business man believed to be involved, was said to be a friend of Sonia Gandhi, having access to the Prime Minister's official residence.

Following her husband's assassination on May 21, 1991, there was tremendous pressure on her to accept the leadership of the party. However, Sonia refused and was vehement in her denunciation of politics and politicians. She is said to have stated that she would have rather seen her children beg than enter into the maelstrom of Indian political life.[15] After her refusal, the party settled on the choice of P V Narasimha Rao who became leader and subsequently Prime Minister. Over the next few years, however, the Congress fortunes continued to dwindle and it lost the 1996 elections. Several senior leaders such as Madhavrao Scindia, Rajesh Pilot, Mamata Banerjee, G K Moopanar, P.Chidambaram, Jayanthi Natarajan were in open revolt against the incumbent President Sitaram Kesri and quit the party, splitting the Congress into many factions.

In an effort to revive the party's sagging fortunes, she joined the Congress Party as a primary member in the Calcutta Plenary Session in 1997 and became party leader in 1998[16].

Within 62 days of joining of a primary member, she became the party president - a record for any Indian politician.

She contested Loksabha elections from Bellary, Karnataka in 1999 and Rai Bareli, Uttar Pradesh in 2004. She won both the seats. In Bellary she defeated veteran BJP leader, Sushma Swaraj.

She was elected the Leader of the Opposition of the 13th Lok Sabha in 1999.

Despite her party not having a majority, she made the claim to the President that she had the numbers to form the government. However, the final numbers fell short of the halfway mark of 272.[17] When the BJP-led NDA formed a government under Atal Behari Vajpayee, she took on the office of the Leader of Opposition. As Leader of Opposition she called a no-confidence motion against the NDA government led by Vajpayee in 2003.

She holds a record of serving as Congress President for consecutive 10 years.
In the 2004 general elections, Gandhi launched a nationwide campaign, criss-crossing the country on the Aam Aadmi (ordinary man) slogan in contrast to the 'India Shining' slogan of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) alliance. She countered the BJP asking "Who is India Shining for?" In the election, she won by a large margin in the Rae Bareilly constituency in Uttar Pradesh. Following the unexpected defeat of the NDA, she was widely expected to be the next Prime Minister of India. On May 16, she was unanimously chosen to lead a 15-party coalition government with the support of the left, which was subsequently named the United Progressive Alliance (UPA).

After the election result, the defeated NDA protested once again her 'foreign origin' and senior NDA leader Sushma Swaraj threatened to shave her head and "sleep on the ground", among other things, should Sonia become prime minister [18]. The NDA also claimed that there were legal reasons that barred her from the Prime Minister's post, and, indeed, from Parliament.[19] They pointed, in particular, to Section 5 of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1955, which they claimed implied 'reciprocity'. This was contested by others[20] and eventually the suits were dismissed by the Supreme Court of India.

A few days after the election, Gandhi declined the leadership of the Congress Parliamentary Party in the Lok Sabha, and by doing so, rejected the post as prime minister. Her supporters and some in the media compared it to the old Indian tradition of renunciation[21], while her opponents attacked it as a political stunt. If she had accepted the post, she would have been India's first Roman Catholic prime minister[22].

While Congress could register wins in her tenure as a Congress president, in states like Haryana and Assam,there was a huge loss of Congress when it lost 11 states, including Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Karnataka in same period.


UPA Chairperson
On May 18, she recommended noted economist Dr. Manmohan Singh for the Prime Minister's post.

On March 23, 2006, Gandhi announced her resignation from the Lok Sabha and also as chairperson of the National Advisory Council under the office-of-profit controversy and the speculation that the government was planning to bring an ordinance to exempt the post of chairperson of National Advisory Council from the purview of office of profit.She was re-elected from her constituency Rae Bareilly in May 2006 by a huge margin of over 400,000 votes.

As chairperson of the National Advisory Committee and the UPA chairperson, she played an important role in making the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and the Right to Information Act into law.[23][24]

She addressed the United Nations on October 2, 2007, Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary which is observed as the International day of non-violence after a UN resolution passed on July 15, 2007[25].

Gandhi's foreign birth has sparked intense debate and opposition[26][27][18]. Although Sonia Gandhi is actually the fifth foreign-born person to be leader of the Congress Party, she is the first since independence in 1947 [28].

There has also been opposition from within the Congress Party, however. In May 1999, three senior leaders of the party (Sharad Pawar, Purno A. Sangma and Tariq Anwar) challenged her right to try to become India's Prime Minister because of her foreign origins. In response, she offered to resign as party leader, resulting in a massive outpouring of support and the resignation from the party of the three rebels who would go on to form the Nationalist Congress Party

Her son, Rahul Gandhi, was elected to Parliament for the Amethi constituency in 2004. Priyanka Gandhi has not stood for office, though she has worked as a Congress campaign manager. There has been considerable media speculation about their futures in the Congress. Sonia and her children are estranged from Maneka Gandhi, the widow of Rajiv's younger brother Sanjay Gandhi, and her son Varun Gandhi, who are both members of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP

Shahrukh Khan

Shahrukh Khan (Hindi: शाहरुख़ ख़ान, Urdu: شاہ رخ خان), born 2 November 1965, is a highly acclaimed Indian actor who works in Bollywood films, as well as film producer and television host.

Khan started out his career appearing in several television serials in the late 1980s. He made his film debut with the commercially successful Deewana (1992). Since then, he has been part of numerous commercial successes, as well as having delivered a variety of critically acclaimed performances. During his years in the Indian film industry, he has won seven Filmfare Best Actor Awards and has had significant box office success. While films such as Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (1995), Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), Chak De India (2007), and Om Shanti Om (2007), remain some of Bollywood's biggest hits, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001), Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003), Veer-Zaara (2004) and Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006) have been hits in the overseas market. Since 2000, Khan branched out into film production and television presenting as well.

Khan was born to Muslim parents of Pathan ethnicity in New Delhi, India.[1] His father, Taj Mohammed Khan was a freedom activist from Peshawar, British India. His mother Lateef Fatima was the adopted daughter of Major General Shah Nawaz Khan of the Janjua Rajput clan, who served as a General in the Indian National Army of Subash Chandra Bose.[2]

Khan's father came to New Delhi from Qissa Khawani Bazaar in Peshawar before the Partition of India,[3] while his mother's family came from Rawalpindi, also in present-day Pakistan.[4] Khan has an elder sister named Shehnaz.[5] Khan attended St. Columba's School where he was accomplished in sports, drama and academics. He won the Sword of Honour, an annual award bequeathed to the student who embodies most the spirit of the school. He later attended the Hansraj College (1985-1988) to earn an Honors degree in Economics. After this, he studied for a Masters Degree in Mass Communications at Jamia Millia Islamia.[6]

After the death of his parents, Khan moved from New Delhi to Mumbai in 1991.[7] In that same year, before any of his film releases, he married Gauri Khan in a Hindu wedding ceremony on October 25, 1991.[8] They have two children, son Aryan Khan (b. 1997) and daughter Suhana (b. 2000).

In 2005, Nasreen Munni Kabir produced a two-part documentary on Khan, titled The Inner and Outer World of Shah Rukh Khan. Featuring his 2004 Temptations concert tour, the film contrasted Khan's inner world of family and daily life with the outer world of his work. The book Still Reading Khan, which details his family life, was released in 2006. Another book by Anupama Chopra, "King of Bollywood: Shahrukh Khan and the seductive world of Indian cinema", was released in 2007. This book described the world of Bollywood through Khan's life.

Khan's life-size wax statue is available in Madame Tussauds wax museum, London, installed in April 2007.[9] Khan has been chosen for the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of the Arts and Literature) award of the French government for his “exceptional career”.[
As an actor
Khan studied acting under celebrated Theatre Director Barry John at Delhi's Theatre Action Group (TAG). In 2007, John commented thus on his former pupil:

The credit for the phenomenally successful development and management of Shah Rukh's career goes to the superstar himself.[11]

Khan made his acting debut in 1988 when he appeared in the television series, Fauji, playing the role of Commando Abhimanyu Rai.[12] He went on to appear in several other television serials, appearing most notably in the 1989 serial, Circus[13] (directed by Aziz Mirza), which depicted the life of circus performers. The same year, Khan also had a minor role in the made-for-television English-language film, In Which Annie Gives it Those Ones, which was based on life at Delhi University and was written by Arundhati Roy.

After the death of his parents, Khan moved from New Delhi to Mumbai in 1991.[14] He made his Bollywood movie debut in Deewana (1992). The movie was a box office hit, and launched his career in Bollywood.[15] His performance won him a Filmfare Best Male Debut Award. His second movie, Maya Memsaab, generated some controversy because of his appearance in an "explicit" sex scene in the movie.[16]

In 1993, Khan won acclaim for his performances in villainous roles as an obsessive lover and a murderer, respectively, in the box office hits, Darr and Baazigar.[17] Darr marked his first collboration with renowned film-maker Yash Chopra and his banner Yash Raj Films, the largest production company in Bollywood. Baazigar, which saw Khan portraying an ambiguous avenger who murders his girlfriend, shocked its Indian audience with an unexpected violation of the standard Bollywood formula,[18] yet his performance won him his first Filmfare Best Actor Award. In that same year, Khan played the role of a young musician in Kundan Shah's Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa, a performance that earned him a Filmfare Critics Award for Best Performance. Khan himself maintains that this is his all-time favorite among the movies he has made.[19] In 1994, Khan once again played an obsessive lover/psycho's role in Anjaam. Though the movie was not a box office success, Khan's performance earned him the Filmfare Best Villain Award.[20]

In 1995, Khan starred in Aditya Chopra's directorial debut Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, a critical and commercial success, for which he won his second Filmfare Best Actor Award[21] which entered its twelfth year in 2007 in Mumbai theaters. By then the movie had grossed over 12 billion rupees, making it as one of the biggest movie blockbusters.[22]

1996 was a disappointing year for Khan as all his movies released that year failed to do well at the box office.[23] His first 1997 release, Yash Chopra's Dil to Pagal Hai, however, became that year's second highest grossing movie, and he won his third Filmfare Best Actor Award.[24] Earlier that year, he saw success with Subhash Ghai's Pardes -- one of the biggest hits of the year-- and Aziz Mirza's Yes Boss.[24]

In 1998, Khan starred in Karan Johar's directoial debut, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, which was the biggest hit of the year.[25] His performance won him his fourth Best Actor award at the Filmfare. He won critical praise for his performance in Mani Ratnam's Dil Se. This movie did not do well at the Indian box office, but was a commercial success overseas.[26] Khan's only release in 1999, Baadshah, was an average grosser.[27]

In 2000, Khan starred in Aditya Chopra's second film, Mohabbatein, co-starring Amitabh Bachchan. The film did well at the box office, and Khan's performance won him his second Critics Award for Best Performance at the Filmfare. He also starred in Mansoor Khan's Josh, which was also a box office success.[28] In that same year, Khan set up his own production house, Dreamz Unlimited with Juhi Chawla. Both Khan and Chawla starred in the first movie of their production house, Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani.[28]

In 2001, Khan collaborated with Karan Johar for the second time in the family drama, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham which was the second biggest hit of the year. He also received favorable reviews for his performance as Emperor Asoka in the historical epic, Asoka.[29]

In 2002, Khan received acclaim for playing the title role in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's award-winning period romance, Devdas. It was the third Hindi movie adaptation of Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay's well-known novel of the same name, and surfaced as one of the biggest hits of that year.[30] Khan also starred opposite Salman Khan and Madhuri Dixit in the family-drama Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam, which did well at the box office.[30]

In 2003, Khan starred in the moderately successful romantic drama, Chalte Chalte.[31] That same year, he starred in the romantic drama movie, Kal Ho Naa Ho, written by Karan Johar and directed by Nikhil Advani. Khan's performance in this movie as a man with heart disease was appreciated. The movie proved to be one of the year's biggest hits in India and the biggest Bollywood hit overseas.[

2004 was a good year for Khan, commercially as well as critically. He starred in Farah Khan's directorial debut, Main Hoon Na. The movie did well at the box office. He then played the leading role of Veer in Yash Chopra's Veer-Zaara, which was the biggest hit of 2004 in both India and overseas.[32] Khan's performance in the film won him awards at several award ceremonies. In that same year, he received critical praise for his performance in Ashutosh Gowariker's Swades, which won him the Filmfare Best Actor Award for the sixth time, although the movie was a box office failure. He was nominated for the Filmfare Best Actor Award for all three of his releases in 2004, winning it for Swades.[32]


Khan's only movie release in 2005 was the fantasy film, Paheli. It was a box office failure, but won him acclaim.[33] The movie was India's nomination for the Oscars.

In 2006, Khan collaborated with Karan Johar for the fourth time with the melodrama movie, Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna. It did well in India and much more so in the overseas market, becoming the biggest Bollywood hit in the overseas market ever.[34] His second release in that saw him playing the title role in the action film Don, a remake of the 1978 hit Don. The movie was a success.[34]

Khan's first release in 2007 was a film about the Indian women's national hockey team, Chak De India. Earning over Rs 639 million, Chak De India became the third highest grossing movie of 2007 in India[35] and was critically acclaimed.[36] In addition, Khan received his seventh Filmfare Best Actor Award for his performance as the coach of the team.

Khan also starred in Farah Khan's 2007 film, Om Shanti Om. The film emerged as the year's highest grossing film in India and the overseas market,[35] as well as earned him another nomination for Best Actor at the Filmfare ceremony

Khan turned producer when he set up a production company called Dreamz Unlimited with Juhi Chawla and director Aziz Mirza in 1999. The first two of the films he produced and starred in: Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani (2000) and Asoka (2001) were box office failures.[29] However, his third film, as a producer and star, Chalte Chalte (2003), was the first box office hit from his production house.[31]

In 2004, he set up another production company called Red Chillies Entertainment and produced and starred in Main Hoon Na which was another hit at the box office.[32] In 2005 he produced and starred in the fantasy film Paheli, which was a box office failure.[33] It was India's official entry to the Oscars for a nomination for Best Foreign Film, but it did not pass the final selection. That same year he also co-produced the supernatural horror film Kaal with Karan Johar and performed an item number for the film with Malaika Arora Khan. Kaal was moderately successful at the box office.[33] The latest film Om Shanti Om, which he produced as well as starred in, has done very well at the box office. In 2008, The Red Chillies Entertainment became the owner of Kolkata Knight Riders in the BCCI backed IPL cricket league
In 2007, Khan replaced Amitabh Bachchan as the host of the third series of the popular game show Kaun Banega Crorepati, the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.[37] The previous had hosted the show for five years from 2000-05. On January 22, 2007, Kaun Banega Crorepati aired with Khan as the new host and later ended on April 19, 2007.[38]

On April 25, 2008, Khan began hosting the game show Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hain?, the Indian version of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

Warren Edward Buffett

Warren Edward Buffett (born August 30, 1930, in Omaha, Nebraska) is an American investor, businessman and philanthropist. He is regarded as one of the world's greatest stock market investors, and is the largest shareholder and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.[3] With an estimated net worth of around US$62 billion,[4] he was ranked by Forbes as the richest person in the world as of February 11, 2008.[5]

Often called the "Oracle of Omaha,"[6] Buffett is noted for his adherence to the value investing philosophy and for his personal frugality despite his immense wealth.[7] His 2006 annual salary was about $100,000, which is small compared to senior executive remuneration in other comparable companies.[8] and when he spent $9.7 million of Berkshire's funds on a business jet in 1989, he jokingly named it "The Indefensible" because of his past criticisms of such purchases by other CEOs.[9] He lives in the same house in the central Dundee neighborhood of Omaha that he bought in 1958 for $31,500, today valued at around $700,000.[10]

Buffett is also a noted philanthropist. In 2006, he announced a plan to give away his fortune to charity, with 83% of it going to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.[11] In 2007, he was listed among Time's 100 Most Influential People in The World.[12] He also serves as a member of the board of trustees at Grinnell College.[13]

Warren Buffett was born in Omaha, Nebraska on August 30, of 1930 from Howard and Leila (Stahl). As the son of a local stock broker, he was likely exposed to markets at a young age. One of his influential mentors was Benjamin Graham. Graham’s philosophy had such an impact on Buffett that he enrolled in Columbia Business School to study directly under him. In Buffett’s own words: “I’m 15 percent Fisher and 85 percent Benjamin Graham.”[14] As Buffett would often say about Graham’s teachings: “The basic ideas of investing are to look at stocks as business, use the market's fluctuations to your advantage, and seek a margin of safety. That’s what Ben Graham taught us. A hundred years from now they will still be the cornerstones of investing.

Buffett:

repeatedly criticized the financial industry for what he considers to be a proliferation of advisers who add no value but are compensated based on the volume of business transactions which they facilitate. He has pointed to the growing volume of stock trades as evidence that an ever-greater proportion of investors' gains are going to brokers and other middlemen.
emphasized the non-productive aspect of gold in 1998 at Harvard: "It gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or someplace. Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their head."
stated that he only paid 19% of his income for 2006 ($48.1 million) in total federal taxes, while his employees paid 33% of theirs despite making much less money.[16]
believes that the U.S. dollar will lose value in the long run. He views the United States' expanding trade deficit as an alarming trend that will devalue the U.S. dollar and U.S. assets. As a result it is putting a larger portion of ownership of U.S. assets in the hands of foreigners. This induced Buffett to enter the foreign currency market for the first time in 2002. However, he substantially reduced his stake in 2005 as changing interest rates increased the costs of holding currency contracts. Buffett continues to be bearish on the dollar, and says he is looking to make acquisitions of companies which derive a substantial portion of their revenues from outside the United States. Buffett invested in PetroChina Company Limited and in a rare move, posted a commentary[17] on Berkshire Hathaway's website why he would not divest from the company despite calls from some activists to do so. (He did, however, sell this stake, apparently for purely financial reasons.)
believes that the world is nearing its maximum capacity of oil production, and that gradually depleted oil fields could reduce the amount produced.[18]
believes government should not be in the business of gambling. He believes it is a tax on ignorance.[19]
Buffett's speeches are known for mixing business discussions with humor. Each year, Buffett presides over Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholders' meeting in the Qwest Center in Omaha, Nebraska, an event drawing over 20,000 visitors from both United States and abroad, giving it the nickname "Woodstock of Capitalism".[20]

Berkshire's annual reports and letters to shareholders, prepared by Buffett, frequently receive coverage by the financial media. Buffett's writings are known for containing literary quotes ranging from the Bible to Mae West,[21] as well as Midwestern advice and numerous jokes. Various websites extol Buffett's virtues while others decry Buffett’s business models or dismiss his investment advice and decisions.


Buffett also:

favors the inheritance tax, saying that repealing it would be like "choosing the 2020 Olympic team by picking the eldest sons of the gold-medal winners in the 2000 Olympics".[22] In 2007, Buffett testified before the Senate and urged them to preserve the estate tax so as to avoid a plutocracy. Some critics, including John Berlau writing in the August 23, 2004 issue of the National Review, have pointed out that Buffett (through Berkshire-Hathaway) has a personal interest in the continuation of the estate tax, since they have benefited from the estate tax in past business dealings and are also involved in developing and marketing insurance policies which protect policy holders against future estate tax payments.[23]
has been recognized as most responsible[citation needed] for FASB 123 (r), or Stock Option Expensing on the GAAP Income Statement. When asked about the subject at Berkshire Hathaway's 2004 annual meeting, he compared the United States Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission's decision to override FASB, who wanted to consider company-issued stock-option compensation as an expense, to a bill proposed in the Indiana house for Pi to be changed from its real value of about 3.14159 to 4.
has called the 2007—present downturn in the financial sector "poetic justice".[24]
was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1997.
Mr. Buffett married Susan Thompson in 1952. They had three children, Susie, Howard, and Peter. The couple began living separately in 1977, though they remained married until her death in July 2004. His daughter Susie lives in Omaha and does charitable work through the Susan A. Buffett Foundation and is a national board member of Girls, Inc.

In 2006, on his 76th birthday, he married his never-before-married longtime-companion, Astrid Menks, who was age 60 and had lived with him since his wife's departure in 1977 to San Francisco.[35] Interestingly, it was Susan Buffett who arranged for the two to meet before she left Omaha to pursue her singing career. All three were close, and holiday cards to friends were signed "Warren, Susie and Astrid" (as per Roger Lowenstein's book, Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist). Susan Buffett briefly discussed this relationship in an interview on the Charlie Rose Show shortly before her death, in a rare glimpse into Buffett's personal life.[36]

He remains an avid player of the card game bridge, and has said that he spends 12 hours a week playing the game.[37] He often plays with Bill Gates and Paul Allen.

In 2006, he sponsored a bridge match for the Buffett Cup. In this event, modeled on the Ryder Cup in golf (and held immediately before it and in the same city), a team of twelve bridge players from the United States took on twelve Europeans.

In 2006, he auctioned his 2001 Lincoln Town Car[38] on eBay to raise money for Girls Inc.[39]

Warren Buffett is currently working with Christopher Webber on an animated series with DiC Entertainment chief Andy Heyward. According to information presented by Buffett at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting on May 6, 2006, the series will feature Buffett and Munger in roles and the series will teach children healthy financial habits for life. Cartoon drawings of Buffett and Munger were displayed throughout the events during the weekend and the special movie before the meeting began was in animation form by Heyward.

In December 2006 it was reported that Mr. Buffett does not carry a cell phone, does not have a computer at his desk, and drives his own car,[40] a Cadillac DTS.[41]

Buffett's DNA report revealed that his paternal ancestors hail from northern Scandinavia, while his mother's side most likely has roots in Iberia or Estonia

In June 2006, Buffett gave approximately 10 million Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (worth approximately USD 30.7 billion as of June 23 2006)[43] making it the largest charitable donation in history. The foundation will receive 5% of the total donation on an annualized basis each July, beginning in 2006. Buffett will also join the board of directors of the Gates Foundation, although he does not plan to be actively involved in the foundation's investments.

Both Warren Buffett and Bill Gates have been ardent supporters of planned parenthood, a non-profit organization that receives financial support from the Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates foundations. Planned parenthood performs approximately 20% of all abortions in the United States. Planned Parenthood receives almost a third of its money in government grants and contracts ($336.7 million in FY 2007) with the rest coming from clinic income and donations from wealthy individuals such as Warren Buffett.[44][45][46]

He also announced plans to contribute additional Berkshire stock valued at approximately $6.7 billion to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and to other foundations headed by his three children. This is a significant shift from previous statements Buffett has made, having stated that most of his fortune would pass to his Buffett Foundation. The bulk of the estate of his wife, valued at $2.6 billion, went to that foundation when she died in 2004.[47]

His children will not inherit a significant proportion of his wealth. These actions are consistent with statements he has made in the past indicating his opposition to the transfer of great fortunes from one generation to the next. Buffett once commented, "I want to give my kids just enough so that they would feel that they could do anything, but not so much that they would feel like doing nothing."[48]

The following quotation from 1988, respectively, highlights Warren Buffett's thoughts on his wealth and why he long planned to reallocate it:

"I don't have a problem with guilt about money. The way I see it is that my money represents an enormous number of claim checks on society. It's like I have these little pieces of paper that I can turn into consumption. If I wanted to, I could hire 10,000 people to do nothing but paint my picture every day for the rest of my life. And the GNP would go up. But the utility of the product would be zilch, and I would be keeping those 10,000 people from doing AIDS research, or teaching, or nursing. I don't do that though. I don't use very many of those claim checks. There's nothing material I want very much. And I'm going to give virtually all of those claim checks to charity when my wife and I die. (Lowe 1997:165–166)

On June 27, 2008, Zhao Danyang, a general manager at Pure Heart China Growth Investment Fund, won the 2008 5-day online "Power Lunch with Warren Buffett" charity auction on eBay with high bid of $ 2,110,100. Zhao had the right to dine with 76-year-old Buffett, at New York's Smith & Wollensky Steakhouse, may invite up to 7 companions for the private lunch and can ask Buffett anything at all, except what he's buying or selling. Auction proceeds benefit the San Francisco Glide Foundation. In 2007 Mohnish Pabrai dined with Buffett.[49][50]

Buffett donated 512,169 Class B shares of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. stock to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (451,250 shares) and 2 charitable foundations. At $ 3,999 each, the shares are worth $ 2.05 billion.[51][52]

Buffett also helped Dow Chemical to help pay for its $ 18.8bn takeover of Rohm & Haas. He thus became the single largest shareholder in the enlarged group with his Berkshire Hathaway, which provided $ 3bn, underlining his instrumental role during the current crisis in debt and equity markets.[53


Warren Buffett's writings include his annual reports and various articles. In his article The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville, Buffett condemned the academic position that the market was efficient and that beating the S&P 500 was "pure chance" by highlighting a number of students of the Graham and Dodd value investing school of thought. In addition to himself, Buffett named: Walter J. Schloss, Tom Knapp, Ed Anderson (Tweedy, Brown Inc.), Bill Ruane (Sequoia Fund, Inc.), Charles Munger, Rick Guerin (Pacific Partners, Ltd.), and Stan Perlmeter (Perlmeter Investments) as having beaten the S&P500, "year in and year out".

William Henry Gates III

William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955)[3] is an American business magnate, philanthropist, the world's third richest person (as of 2008),[2] and chairman[4] of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of CEO and chief software architect, and remains the largest individual shareholder with more than 9 percent of the common stock.[5] He has also authored or co-authored several books.

Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. Although he is admired by many, a large number of industry insiders criticize his business tactics, which they consider anti-competitive, an opinion which has in some cases been upheld by the courts.[6][7] In the later stages of his career, Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors, donating large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, established in 2000.

Bill Gates stepped down as chief executive officer of Microsoft in January, 2000. He remained as chairman and created the position of chief software architect. In June, 2006, Gates announced that he would be transitioning from full-time work at Microsoft to part-time work at Microsoft and full-time work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He gradually transferred his duties to Ray Ozzie, chief software architect and Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer. Gates's last full-time day at Microsoft was June 27, 2008. He remains at Microsoft as a part-time, non-executive chairman.

Gates was born in Seattle, Washington, to William H. Gates, Sr. and Mary Maxwell Gates. His family was wealthy; his father was a prominent lawyer, his mother served on the board of directors for First Interstate BancSystem and the United Way, and her father, J. W. Maxwell, was a national bank president. Gates has one older sister, Kristi (Kristianne), and one younger sister, Libby. He was the fourth of his name in his family, but was known as William Gates III or "Trey" because his father had dropped his own "III" suffix.[8] Early on in his life, Gates's parents had a law career in mind for him.[9]

At thirteen he enrolled in the Lakeside School, an exclusive preparatory school.[10] When he was in the eighth grade, the Mothers Club at the school used proceeds from Lakeside School's rummage sale to buy an ASR-33 teletype terminal and a block of computer time on a General Electric (GE) computer for the school's students.[11] Gates took an interest in programming the GE system in BASIC and was excused from math classes to pursue his interest. He wrote his first computer program on this machine: an implementation of tic-tac-toe that allowed users to play games against the computer. Gates was fascinated by the machine and how it would always execute software code perfectly. When he reflected back on that moment, he commented on it and said, "There was just something neat about the machine."[12] After the Mothers Club donation was exhausted, he and other students sought time on systems including DEC PDP minicomputers. One of these systems was a PDP-10 belonging to Computer Center Corporation (CCC), which banned four Lakeside students—Gates, Paul Allen, Ric Weiland, and Kent Evans—for the summer after it caught them exploiting bugs in the operating system to obtain free computer time.[13]

At the end of the ban, the four students offered to debug CCC's software in exchange for free computer time. Rather than use the system via teletype, Gates went to CCC's offices and studied source code for various programs that ran on the system, including FORTRAN, LISP, and machine language. The arrangement with CCC continued until 1970, when it went out of business. The following year, Information Sciences Inc. hired the four Lakeside students to write a payroll program in COBOL, providing them computer time and royalties. After his administrators became aware of his programming abilities, Gates wrote the school's computer program to schedule students in classes. He modified the code so that he was placed in classes with mostly female students. He later stated that "it was hard to tear myself away from a machine at which I could so unambiguously demonstrate success."[12] At age 17, Gates formed a venture with Allen, called Traf-O-Data, to make traffic counters based on the Intel 8008 processor.[14]

Gates graduated from Lakeside School in 1973. He scored 1590 out of 1600 on his SATs, the standardized test for college admissions in the United States,[15] and subsequently enrolled at Harvard College in the fall of 1973.[16] While at Harvard, he met his future business partner, Steve Ballmer, whom he later appointed as CEO of Microsoft. He also met computer scientist Christos Papadimitriou at Harvard, with whom he collaborated on a paper about algorithms.[17] He did not have a definite study plan while a student at Harvard, and eventually took a leave of absence in 1975.[18] After Intel released the Intel 8080 CPU, Gates realized that this was the first computer chip which cost less than $200 that could run BASIC, making it the most affordable chip at the time to run inside a personal computer.[16] He figured that this was the only chance he would get to take advantage of the timing, and decided to start a computer software company with Paul Allen.[19] He had talked this decision over with his parents, who were supportive of him after seeing how much Gates wanted to start a software company.[18]

After reading the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics that demonstrated the Altair 8800, Gates contacted Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), the creators of the new microcomputer, to inform them that he and others were working on a BASIC interpreter for the platform.[20] In reality, Gates and Allen did not have an Altair and had not written code for it; they merely wanted to gauge MITS's interest. MITS president Ed Roberts agreed to meet them for a demo, and over the course of a few weeks they developed an Altair emulator that ran on a minicomputer, and then the BASIC interpreter. The demonstration, held at MITS's offices in Albuquerque, was a success and resulted in a deal with MITS to distribute the interpreter as Altair BASIC. Paul Allen was hired into MITS,[21] and Gates took a leave of absence from Harvard to work with Allen at MITS in Albuquerque in November 1975. They named their partnership "Micro-soft" and had their first office located in Albuquerque.[21] Within a year, the hyphen was dropped, and on November 26, 1976, the trade name "Microsoft" was registered with the USPTO.[21]

Microsoft's BASIC was popular with computer hobbyists, but Gates discovered that a pre-market copy had leaked into the community and was being widely copied and distributed. In February 1976, Gates wrote an Open Letter to Hobbyists in the MITS newsletter saying that MITS could not continue to produce, distribute, and maintain high-quality software without payment.[22] This letter was unpopular with many computer hobbyists, but Gates persisted in his belief that software developers should be able to demand payment. Microsoft became independent of MITS in late 1976, and it continued to develop programming language software for various systems.[21] The company moved from Albuquerque to its new home in Bellevue, Washington on January 1, 1979.[20]

During Microsoft's early years, all employees had broad responsibility for the company's business. Gates oversaw the business details, but continued to write code as well. In the first five years, he personally reviewed every line of code the company shipped, and often rewrote parts of it as he saw fit.[23]

In 1980 IBM approached Microsoft to make the BASIC interpreter for its upcoming personal computer, the IBM PC. When IBM's representatives mentioned that they needed an operating system, Gates referred them to Digital Research (DRI), makers of the widely used CP/M operating system.[24] IBM's discussions with Digital Research went poorly, and they did not reach a licensing agreement. IBM representative Jack Sams mentioned the licensing difficulties during a subsequent meeting with Gates and told him to get an acceptable operating system. A few weeks later Gates proposed using 86-DOS (QDOS), an operating system similar to CP/M that Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products had made for hardware similar to the PC. Microsoft made a deal with SCP to become the exclusive licensing agent, and later the full owner, of 86-DOS. After adapting the operating system for the PC, Microsoft delivered it to IBM as PC-DOS in exchange for a one-time fee of $80,000. Gates insisted that IBM let Microsoft keep the copyright on the operating system, because he believed that other hardware vendors would clone IBM's system.[25] They did, and the sales of MS-DOS made Microsoft a major player in the industry.

Gates oversaw Microsoft's company restructuring on June 25, 1981, which re-incorporated the company in Washington and made Gates President of Microsoft and the Chairman of the Board.[20] Microsoft launched its first retail version of Microsoft Windows on November 20, 1985, and in August, the company struck a deal with IBM to develop a separate operating system called OS/2. Although the two companies successfully developed the first version of the new system, mounting creative differences undermined the partnership. Gates distributed an internal memo on May 16, 1991 announcing that the OS/2 partnership was over and Microsoft would shift its efforts to the Windows NT kernel development.[27]

From Microsoft's founding in 1975 until 2006, Gates had primary responsibility for the company's product strategy. He aggressively broadened the company's range of products, and wherever Microsoft achieved a dominant position he vigorously defended it. Many decisions that led to antitrust litigation over Microsoft's business practices have had Gates's approval. In the 1998 United States v. Microsoft case, Gates gave deposition testimony that several journalists characterized as evasive. He argued with examiner David Boies over the contextual meaning of words like "compete," "concerned," and "we."[28] BusinessWeek reported:

Early rounds of his deposition show him offering obfuscatory answers and saying 'I don't recall,' so many times that even the presiding judge had to chuckle. Worse, many of the technology chief's denials and pleas of ignorance were directly refuted by prosecutors with snippets of e-mail Gates both sent and received.[29]

Gates later said that he had simply resisted attempts by Boies to mischaracterize his words and actions. As to his demeanor during the deposition, he said, "Did I fence with Boies? ... I plead guilty. Whatever that penalty is should be levied against me: rudeness to Boies in the first degree."[30] Despite Gates's denials, the judge ruled that Microsoft had committed monopolization and tying, blocking competition, in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.[30]

As an executive, Gates met regularly with Microsoft's senior managers and program managers. Firsthand accounts of these meetings describe him as verbally combative, berating managers for perceived holes in their business strategies or proposals that placed the company's long-term interests at risk.[31] He often interrupted presentations with such comments as, "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!"[32] and, "Why don't you just give up your options and join the Peace Corps?"[33] The target of his outburst then had to defend the proposal in detail until, hopefully, Gates was fully convinced.[32] When subordinates appeared to be procrastinating, he was known to remark sarcastically, "I'll do it over the weekend."[4][34][35]

Gates's role at Microsoft for most of its history was primarily a management and executive role. However, he was an active software developer in the early years, particularly on the company's programming language products. He has not officially been on a development team since working on the TRS-80 Model 100 line, but he wrote code as late as 1989 that shipped in the company's products.[34] On June 15, 2006, Gates announced that he would transition out of his day-to-day role over the next two years to dedicate more time to philanthropy. He divided his responsibilities between two successors, placing Ray Ozzie in charge of day-to-day management and Craig Mundie in charge of long-term product strategy
Gates married Melinda French from Dallas, Texas on January 1, 1994. They have three children: Jennifer Katharine Gates (1996), Rory John Gates (1999) and Phoebe Adele Gates (2002). Bill Gates' house is a 21st century earth-sheltered home in the side of a hill overlooking Lake Washington in Medina, Washington. According to King County public records, as of 2006, the total assessed value of the property (land and house) is $125 million, and the annual property tax is $991,000. Also among Gates's private acquisitions is the Codex Leicester, a collection of writings by Leonardo da Vinci, which Gates bought for $30.8 million at an auction in 1994.[37] Gates is also known as an avid reader and the ceiling of his large, home library is engraved with a quotation from The Great Gatsby.[38]

Gates was number one on the "Forbes 400" list from 1993 through to 2007 and number one on Forbes list of "The World's Richest People" from 1995 to 2007. In 1999, Gates's wealth briefly surpassed $101 billion, causing the media to call him a "centibillionaire".[39] Since 2000, the nominal value of his Microsoft holdings has declined due to a fall in Microsoft's stock price after the dot-com bubble burst and the multi-billion dollar donations he has made to his charitable foundations. In a May 2006 interview, Gates commented that he wished that he were not the richest man in the world because he disliked the attention it brought.[40] Gates has several investments outside Microsoft, which in 2006 paid him a salary of $616,667, and $350,000 bonus totalling $966,667.[41] He founded Corbis, a digital imaging company, in 1989. In 2004 he became a director of Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company headed by long-time friend Warren Buffett.[42] He is a client of Cascade Investment Group, a wealth management firm with diverse holdings.[43]

Gates began to realize the expectations others had of him when public opinion mounted that he could give more of his wealth to charity. Gates studied the work of Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller and in 1994 sold some of his Microsoft stock to create the William H. Gates Foundation.[44] In 2000, Gates and his wife combined three family foundations into one to create the charitable Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is the largest transparently operated charitable foundation in the world.[45] The foundation is setup to allow benefactors access how its money is being spent, unlike other major charitable organizations such as the Wellcome Trust.[46][47] The generosity and extensive philanthropy of David Rockefeller has been credited as a major influence. Gates and his father have met with Rockefeller several times and have modeled their giving in part on the Rockefeller family's philanthropic focus, namely those global problems that are ignored by governments and other organizations.[48]

The foundation's grants have provided funds for:

Farming/Agriculture[49]
college scholarships for under-represented minorities
AIDS prevention
diseases prevalent in third world countries
other causes
In 2000, the Gates Foundation endowed the University of Cambridge with $210 million for the Gates Cambridge Scholarships. The Foundation has also pledged over $7 billion to its various causes, including $1 billion to the United Negro College Fund. According to a 2004 Forbes magazine article, Gates gave away over $29 billion to charities from 2000 onwards. These donations are usually cited as sparking a substantial change in attitudes towards philanthropy among the very rich, with philanthropy becoming the norm.[50] Buffett, who was the world's second richest person,[51] announced on June 25, 2006 that he has pledged to give the foundation 10 million Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares, spread over multiple years through annual contributions.[52]

Gates announced on June 15, 2006 that he would move to a part-time role within Microsoft, leaving day-to-day operations management in July 2008 to begin a full-time career in philanthropy, but would remain as chairman and advisor.[36] Gates credited Buffett with influencing his decision to commit himself to charitable causes.[53] Days later, Buffett announced that he would begin matching Gates's contributions to the Gates Foundation of up to $1.5 billion per year in stock.[54] Buffett helped to guide the foundation to give its endowment away quickly. It became one of the few charitable organizations with a lifespan, promising to spend all of its resources and to close within 50 years of the deaths of its founders.[55]

Both Warren Buffet and Bill Gates have been ardent supporters of Planned Parenthood, a non-profit organization that receives financial support from the Buffet and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations. Planned Parenthood performs approximately 20% of all abortions in the United States. Planned Parenthood receives almost a third of its money in government grants and contracts ($336.7 million in FY 2007) with the rest coming from clinic income and donations from wealthy individuals such as Bill Gates. [56][57][58]


Recognition
Time magazine named Gates one of the 100 people who most influenced the 20th century, as well as one of the 100 most influential people of 2004, 2005, and 2006. Time also collectively named Gates, his wife Melinda and alternative rock band U2's lead singer Bono as the 2005 Persons of the Year for their humanitarian efforts.[59] In 2006, he was voted eighth in the list of "Heroes of our time".[60] Gates was listed in the Sunday Times power list in 1999, named CEO of the year by Chief Executive Officers magazine in 1994, ranked number one in the "Top 50 Cyber Elite" by Time in 1998, ranked number two in the Upside Elite 100 in 1999 and was included in The Guardian as one of the "Top 100 influential people in media" in 2001.[61]

Gates has received honorary doctorates from Nyenrode Business Universiteit, Breukelen, The Netherlands in 2000,[62] the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden in 2002, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan in 2005, Harvard University in June 2007,[63] and from Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, in January 2008.[64] Gates was also made an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) from Queen Elizabeth II in 2005,[65] in addition to having entomologists name the Bill Gates flower fly, Eristalis gatesi, in his honor.[66]

In November 2006, he and his wife were awarded the Order of the Aztec Eagle for their philanthropic work around the world in the areas of health and education, particularly in Mexico, and specifically in the program "Un país de lectores".[67]

Manmohan Singh

Manmohan Singh (Punjabi: ਮਨਮੋਹਨ ਸਿੰਘ) (born 26 September 1932) is the 17th and current Prime Minister of India. Singh is a member of the Indian National Congress party, and became the first Sikh Prime Minister of India on May 22, 2004. He is considered one of the most influential figures in India's recent history, mainly because of the economic reforms he had initiated in 1991 when he was Finance Minister under Prime Minister Narasimha Rao.[1]

He was born on 26 September 1932, in Gah, Punjab (now in Chakwal District, Pakistan). He has an Undergraduate (1952) and a Master's degree (1954) from Panjab University, Chandigarh; an Undergraduate degree (1957) from Cambridge University (St. John's College) and a Ph.D (1962) from Oxford University (Nuffield College). In 1997, the University of Alberta presented him with an Honorary Doctor of Laws. The University of Oxford awarded him an honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree in June 2005, and in October 2006, the University of Cambridge followed with the same honour. St John's College and the University of Cambridge further honoured him by naming a PhD Scholarship after him, the Dr Manmohan Singh Scholarship.

Singh married Gursharan Kaur in 1958, and they have three daughters
Singh, an economist by profession, worked for the International Monetary Fund in his younger days.[2] Dr. Singh is known to be an unassuming politician, enjoying a formidable, highly respected and admired image.[3] Due to his work at the UN, International Monetary Fund and other international bodies, he is highly respected around the world. He was awarded the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award in 2002. Before becoming Prime Minister, he served as the Finance Minister under Narasimha Rao. He is credited with transforming the economy in the early 1990s during the financial crisis. He served as Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha (upper house) from March 1998 to May 2004, when the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government was in office.

His economic policies - which included getting rid of several socialist policies, especially the License Raj - were popular. He enjoys strong support among the middle classes of India due to his education. Singh lost the election in the Lok Sabha from South Delhi constituency in the 1999 general elections. He is thus the only Indian Prime Minister never to have been an elected member of the Lower House of Parliament. In fact he has not won a direct election. He has been a member of the Rajya Sabha from Assam since 1995. He was re-elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2001 and 2007.

Singh served as Governor of the Reserve Bank of India from 1982 to 1985, and was hand picked as finance minister in cabinet of then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao in 1991.

Singh is widely regarded as the architect of India's original economic reform programme, which was enacted in 1991 under Rao's administration. The economic liberalization package pushed by Singh and Rao opened the nation to foreign direct investment. The liberalization was prompted by an acute balance-of-payments crisis whereby the Indian government, left without sufficient reserves to meet its obligations, had begun preparations to mortgage its gold reserves to the Bank of England in order to obtain the cash reserves needed to run the country.

Many see the 1991 liberalization as the first of a series of economic restructuring efforts throughout the 1990s and 2000s that have raised India's growth rates to amongst highest in world. Despite its liberal economic policies, Rao's government was voted out in the next general election in 1996.

Singh became leader of opposition in upper house of Indian Parliament, and stayed with the Congress Party during a major split in 1999, when three senior Congress leaders objected to Sonia Gandhi's rise as Congress President. Being touted as the Congress choice for the PM's job, Gandhi had become a target of nationalists who objected to her Italian birth.

An alliance led by the Congress Party won a surprisingly high number of seats in the Parliamentary elections of 2004. The Left Front decided to support a coalition government led by the Congress Party from the outside. Sonia Gandhi was elected leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party and was expected to become the Prime Minister. In a surprise move, she declined to accept the post and instead nominated Dr. Singh. He secured the nomination for prime minister on 19 May 2004 when the then President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam officially asked him to form a government. Although most expected him to head the Finance Ministry himself, he entrusted the job to P. Chidambaram.

His appointment is notable as it comes 20 years after India witnessed significant tensions between the Indian central government and the Punjabi Sikh community. After Congress Party Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the mother-in-law of Sonia Gandhi, ordered central government troops to storm the Golden Temple (the holiest site of Sikhism) in Amritsar, Punjab to quell a separatist movement, she was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards. The result was a genocidal campaign against Sikhs and many innocent Sikhs lost their lives during riots promoted by the Congress Party[citation needed] immediately after the assassination.

Singh's image is generally regarded as intellectual, honest but cautious, attentive to working class people (on whose votes he was elected), and technocratic. Although legislative achievements have been few and the Congress-led alliance is routinely hampered by conflicts, Singh's administration has focused on reducing the fiscal deficit, providing debt-relief to poor farmers, extending social programs and advancing the pro-industry economic and tax policies that have launched the country on a major economic expansion course since 2002. Singh has been the image of the Congress campaign to defuse religious tensions and conflicts and bolster political support from minorities like Muslims, Christians and Sikhs.

The Prime Minister's foreign policy has been to continue the new peace process with Pakistan initiated by his predecessor, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Exchange visits by top leaders from both countries have highlighted this year, as has reduced terrorism and increased prosperity in the state of Kashmir.

China and European nations. The Government suffered a setback when it lost the support of a key ally, several African Union members, for its bid for a permanent membership to the U.N. Security Council with veto privileges[citation needed]. One of the biggest achievements[citation needed] of Manmohan Singh's Government has been a nuclear deal between India and the U.S.A. Under Dr. Singh, an economist and Finance minister P. Chidambaram, India's economic growth has continued, with the GDP growing at a very fast rate of 9%. This has resulted in India becoming a trillion dollar economy.
The important NREGA act and the RTI act were passed by the Parliament in 2005 during his tenure. While the effectiveness of the NREGA has been debated, the RTI act has proved crucial in India's fight against corruption

Manmohan Singh is often criticized by opposition parties (mainly BJP) by portraying him as the "weakest Prime Minister until now". The comment was made by Lal Krishna Advani after Manmohan Singh made a statement in which he implied that the "nuclear deal is not a big issue". [4] [5] Dr. Manmohan Singh responded by saying that Advani's astrologers "have misled him." He also accused Advani of being the inspiration behind the destruction of the Babri Masjid.[6]
Communist Parties (notably Somnath Chatterjee) have been criticising him since he was elected as Rajya Sabha member in 1991 from Assam. Their main argument was that he is not eligible to become a Member of Parliament from a state where he does not reside.
His statement about losing sleep on Hanif's arrest in Australia was also criticised.[7]. Opposition asked whether he lost sleep when hundreds of people were killed in Hyderabad, Varanasi and Ajmer blasts.
He is also the target of opposition due to accusations of "Muslim appeasement" leveled by critics from other political parties.[citation needed]
His statements like "minorities, particularly the Muslims, have first right over the national resources" have also invited much discussion in Indian print media [8][9]
On 22 July 2008 the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) faced it's first confidence vote in the Lok Sabha after the Communist Party of India (Marxist) led Left Front withdraw support from the government over India approaching the IAEA for Indo-US nuclear deal. The President had asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to prove the majority. The UPA won the trust vote with 275-256.

The historic win was marred when 3 BJP lawmakers waved bundles of cash, 30 million rupees (715,000 dollars) amid accusations of vote-buying. Speaker Somnath Chatterjee asked New Delhi's police chief to investigate the bribery issues.[10]

"We will have to devise innovative plans to ensure that minorities, particularly the Muslim minority, are empowered to share equitably in the fruits of development. They must have the first claim on resources"
"I could not sleep thinking about Hanif"
"Rahul Gandhi is the future of you people" (While addressing a rally in Uttar Pradesh assembly elections).
"India happens to be a rich country inhabited by very poor people."
"Life is never free of contradictions"
"Together with international unity and resolve we can meet the challenge of this global scourge and work to bring about an international law of zero tolerance for terrorism."
"We are a coalition government, and that limits our options in some ways. Privatization happens to be one such area."
"We need bipolar democracy like United States. Multiparty system has its own disadvantages."
"In this increasingly interdependent world in which we live in we have an obligation to explore areas of convergence."
"By appointing me as Prime Minister of India, Soniyaji (Sonia Gandhi) has proved her sacrifice. I will continue to work on her footsteps."
"Jawaharlal Nehru wanted India to develop close ties with Japan and learn from its experience."[11]
"As the largest and most developed democracies of Asia (India and Japan), we have a mutual stake in each other’s progress and prosperity."

First Class Honours degree in Economics, University of Cambridge, St John's College, Cambridge (1957)
Panjab University, Chandigarh, India
Senior Lecturer, Economics (1957-1959)
Professor of International Trade (1969-1971)
Reader (1959-1963)
Professor (1963-1965)
D. Phil in Economics, Nuffield College at University of Oxford, (1962)
Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi
Honorary Professor (1996)
Chief, Financing for Trade Section, UNCTAD, United Nations Secretariat, New York
1966 : Economic Affairs Officer 1966
Economic Advisor, Ministry of Foreign Trade, India (1971-1972)
Chief Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance, India, (1972-1976)
Honorary Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (1976)
Director, Reserve Bank of India (1976-1980)
Director, Industrial Development Bank of India (1976-1980)
Secretary, Ministry of Finance (Department of Economic Affairs), Government of India, (1977-1980)
Governor, Reserve Bank of India (1982-1985)
Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission of India, (1985-1987)
Advisor to Prime Minister of India on Economic Affairs (1990-1991)
Finance Minister of India, (21 June 1991 - 15 May 1996)
Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha (1998-2004)
Prime Minister of India (22 May 2004 - Present)

Pranab Kumar Mukherjee

Pranab Kumar Mukherjee (Bengali: প্রণব কুমার মুখার্জী Pronob Kumar Mukharji) (born December 11, 1935, West Bengal, India) is the Minister for External Affairs of India in the Dr.Manmohan Singh government. The leader of the Indian National Congress in the 14th Lok Sabha, he is known to be a competent party apparatchik, "a prominent Gandhi family loyalist who did not win a popular election until 2004".[1]

He has a degree in law from the University of Calcutta and has been an advocate and college teacher at some time. He also holds Masters degree in both History and Political Science, and an honorary D. Litt.

Pranab Mukherjee was born in Mirati village near Kirnahar town, District Birbhum, West Bengal, on December 11, 1935, the son of Kamada Kinkar Mukherjee and Rajlakshmi Mukherjee. His father was active in the Congress party from 1920, was a member of AICC, and West Bengal Legislative Council (1952-64), and President, District Congress Committee, Birbhum (WB)[2]. His father was also a respected freedom fighter who had been sent to prison for more than 10 years for his opposition to the British rule. He attended the Suri Vidyasagar College, Suri (Birbhum), then affiliated with the University of Calcutta.

He married Suvra Mukherjee on July 13, 1957 and has two sons and a daughter
Pranab Mukherjee has a parliamentary career of nearly four decades, having first become a Rajya Sabha (upper house) member from the Congress Party in 1969; he was re-elected in 1975, 1981, 1993 and 1999. In 1973, he joined the cabinet as Union Deputy Minister, Industrial Development. His initial inclusion was an accident, having gone to witness the swearing in of ministers at Rashtrapathi Bhavan, when the number to be sworn in was found inauspicious, the spectator Pranab was added on to make it auspicious.

He rose through a series of cabinet posts to become the Finance Minister of India from 1982 to 1984. In 1984, he was rated as the best Finance Minister of the World according to a survey of Euromoney magazine.[3] His term was noted for India not withdrawing the last US$ 1.1 billion instalment of an IMF loan. Dr. Manmohan Singh was serving RBI as Governer during Pranab's term as Finance Minister. Sources suggests that Pranab was having hesitation to take over as Finance Minister at 2004 in the cabinet of Dr.Manmohan Singh, who served under him a couple of decades ago.

He was also president of West Bengal state unit of Congress in 1985
Pranab Mukherjee has been a member of the Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund, of the World Bank, of the Asian Development Bank, and of the African Development Bank. In 1900, he chaired the Group of 24 attached to the IMF and World Bank. Between May and November 1995, he presided over the SAARC Council of Ministers ConferenceMukherjee is well respected within the party; according to Sonia Gandhi biographer Rasheed Kidwai, "Congress leaders regard him as a living encyclopedia. He is an authority on all subjects from food processing to culture to diplomacy to social policies."[5] Other media accounts describe him as having "a reputation as a number-crunching politician with a phenomenal memory and an unerring survival instinct."[1]

After Sonia Gandhi reluctantly agreed to join politics, Pranab Mukherjee was one of her key mentors, guiding her through difficult situations with examples of how her mother-in-law, Indira Gandhi would have done things.[6] Mukherjee's unfailing loyalty and competence have led to his closeness to Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh, and helped him gain the prestigious position of Defence Minister of India when the party came to power in 2004.

He has also held the position of Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission from 1991 to 1996.

His talents were on display during the negotiations for the Patent's Amendment Bill in early 2005. The Congress was committed to passing an IP bill, but their allies in the United Progressive Alliance from the Left front had a long tradition of opposing some of the monopoly aspects of intellectual property. Pranab Mukherjee, as Defence Minister, was not formally involved but was roped in for his negotiation skills. He drew on many old alliances including the CPI-M leader Jyoti Basu, and formed new intermediary positions, which included product patent and little else. Then he had to convince his own colleagues including commerce minister Kamal Nath, at one point saying: "An imperfect legislation is better than no legislation."[7] Finally the bill was approved on March 23, 2005.

Pranab Mukherjee himself appears to have a clean image, but is a pragmatist. In an interview to rediff.com in 1998, he was asked about the sleaze in the P.V. Narasimha Rao government, in which he was the Minister for External Affairs. He replied:

Corruption is an issue. We have dealt with it in the manifesto. But I am sorry to say that these scams are not confined to the Congress or the Congress government alone. There are so many scams. So many leaders of various political parties are involved in them. So it would be too simplistic to say that the Congress government was involved in scams

On 24 October 2006, he was appointed as the External Affairs Minister of India. His replacement in the Defence Ministry is A.K. Antony, a senior Congress Party politician and former Chief Minister of the southern state of Kerala.

On the evening of the 7 April 2007 he was admitted to Army Research and Referral hospital in Delhi following a car accident in West Bengal. The accident occurred when he was on his way from Murshidabad to Kolkata together with several other senior members of the Congress Party. The car collided with a meeting van, and four other passengers were also reported injured. Mukherjee soon recovered from the accident and resumed the normal duties of his office.

Azim Premji

Azim Premji (Gujarati:અઝીમ પ્રેમજી) (born July 24, 1945), an Indian businessman, is the Chairman & CEO of Wipro, one of the largest software companies in India. Its headquarters is in Bangalore, "the Indian Silicon City". Azim Premji was rated the richest person in the country from 1999 to 2005 by Forbes[2]. His wealth in 2006 was estimated at $14.8 Billion [3] which places him as the Fifth Richest Indian. He is now considered to be worth closer to 17.1 billion.

Azim H Premji was born to M.H. Hasham Premji. He attended St. Mary's School I.C.S.E. in Mazagaon, Mumbai. Premji was just finishing his undergraduate engineering studies at Stanford University in 1966 when his father passed away. He immediately returned to India where he took over the family's fledgling vegetable oil business, Western Indian Vegetable Products Limited (now called Wipro). Premji started off with a simple vision: to build an organization on a foundation of values. Premji eventually received permission to take correspondence art courses to complete the requirements for his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering.

Premji has been recognized by BusinessWeek as one of the "Greatest Entrepreneurs of All Time" for his vision and leadership that has been responsible for Wipro emerging as one of the world’s fastest growing companies. Premji is the only Indian to make it to the list.

In 2000, he was conferred an honorary doctorate by the Manipal Academy of Higher Education. He was also declared the Businessman of the Year 2000 by Business India and is featured in the Business Weeks all-time top 30 entrepreneurs of the world in 2007. He is a member of the Prime Minister's Advisory Committee for Information Technology in India.[4]

As of October 6, 2007, he is the 5th richest Indian, with a net worth of $13.6 billion. Though Fortune Magazine estimated his wealth as over 17 billion USD just 2 months earlier...[5]

He was awarded a Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.), an honorary degree , from the Aligarh Muslim University on the 18th of June, 2008 on the occasion of 58th Convocation Ceremony of the
Premji is married to Yasmeen, the couple have two children, Rishad and Tariq. Rishad is married to Aditi.

Premji is known for his modesty and frugality in spite of his wealth. He drives a Toyota Corolla and flies economy class, prefers to stay in company guest houses rather than luxury hotels and even served food on paper plates at a lunch honouring his son's wedding. [1]

The Azim Premji Foundation says it "Aims at making a tangible impact on identified social issues by working in active partnership with the Government and other related sectors of society". The Foundation was set up with financial resources contributed by Azim Premji. Programmes of the Azim Premji Foundation focus on "creating effective and scalable models that significantly improve the quality of learning in the school and ensure satisfactory ownership by the community in the management of the school". Azim Premji Foundation says it "dedicates itself to the cause of Universalization of Elementary Education in India". The organisation has over the years been instrumental in improving the quality of general education, particularly in rural schools.

Citing a technology initiative, the Foundation reported: "Think of a single PC with three display terminals, three keyboards and three 'mouses', which can be simultaneously used as if they are three independent computers". This innovative idea from the Azim Premji Foundation is being deployed in the computer aided learning centre at the Byatarayanapura Higher Primary School in Bangalore South District and in another school.

Five new titles of educational CDs for Indian schools were produced earlier in 2005. They are: Friendly Animals and Journey on the Clouds (English), Swatantra Divas, Fun with Chinchoo in Mathematics and Khel-Mel (Hindi), released in February 2005. With these, the total number of master titles available is 70.

There are now 68 titles in Karnataka, 42 for Andhra Pradesh, 35 for Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, 18 for Urdu medium schools, six for Orissa, 14 for Gujarat, 3 for Punjab and 1 for Kerala.

This Foundation is also involved in computer-based assessment in Andhra Pradesh (50,000 students took part in early 2005), a learning guarantee programme, and a policy planning unit in Karnataka.

Mukesh Ambani

Mukesh Ambani (born April 19, 1957 in Yemen) is an Indian businessman and the world's fifth richest man, with a net worth of approximately $43 billion. He is the chairman, managing director and the largest shareholder of Reliance Industries, India's largest private sector enterprise and a Fortune 500 company. [2] His personal stake in Reliance Industries is 48%.[3] His wealth is valued at US$43 billion (according to Forbes), making him the richest man in Asia. [4]

Mukesh and younger brother Anil are sons of the late founder of Reliance Industries, Dhirubhai Ambani. Mukesh also owns the Indian Premier League team Mumbai Indians.


Mukesh Ambani was educated at abaay morischa school in Mumbai and completed his graduation with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the UDCT. Mukesh later pursued an MBA from Stanford University but dropped out after his first year.[5].

Mukesh Ambani joined Reliance in 1981 and initiated Reliance's backward integration from textiles into polyester fibres and further into petrochemicals. In this process, he directed the creation of 60 new, world-class manufacturing facilities involving diverse technologies that have raised Reliance's manufacturing capacities from less than a million tonnes to twelve million tonnes per year.

He directed and led the creation of the world's largest grassroots petroleum refinery at Jamnagar, Gujarat, India, with a present capacity of 660,000 barrels per day (33 million tonnes per year) integrated with petrochemicals, power generation, port and related infrastructure, at an investment of Rs 100000 crore (nearly $26 billion USD).

Mukesh Ambani set up one of the largest telecommunications companies in India in the form of Reliance Communications (formerly Reliance Infocom) Limited. However, Reliance Infocom now is under Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group post the brothers' split.Had the two brothers not split, and Mukesh being the president , his net worth would have been around $85 billion ,making him the richest man on earth ever by a huge margin. Under Ambani's leadership, Reliance has entered retail business through its wholly owned subsidiary Reliance Retail.

Under him Reliance Retail has also launched a new chain called Delight stores and also signed a letter of intent with NOVA Chemicals to make energy-efficient structures for Reliance Retail.

Ambani owns the Indian Premier League team Mumbai Indians which unfortunately couldn't make it to the finals this year. He has also set up the Dhirubhai Ambani International School in Mumbai.

Mukesh Ambani is son of one of the most prominent businessmen in India, the late Dhirubhai Ambani, an Indian entrepreneur and founder of Reliance Industries.

His brother Anil Ambani heads Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group with interests in telecom, power, natural resources, infrastructure and financial services. The Ambani brothers had a well-publicized spat after their father's death, which led to the Reliance Group being split between the two.

Mukesh Ambani is married to Nita Ambani, who looks after the social and charitable arm of Reliance Industries. They have three children: Akash, Isha and Anant.

Mukesh Ambani is currently building the world's most expensive home (valued at $2 billion).[1] This will be a 60-story skyscraper (with only 27 floors) in downtown Mumbai. It may be called Antilia.

His family belongs to Modh Bania, a trading community in Gujarat, a coastal province of India. His mother is Kokilaben Ambani
Chosen the businessman of the year 2007 by a public poll in India conducted by NDTV
Conferred the United States-India Business Council (USIBC) leadership award for "Global Vision" 2007 in Washington.
Ranked 42nd among the World's Most Respected Business Leaders and second among the four Indian CEOs featured in a survey conducted by Pricewaterhouse Coopers and published in Financial Times, London, November 2004.
Conferred the World Communication Award for the Most Influential Person in Telecommunications in 2004 by Total Telecom, October, 2004.
Chosen Telecom Man of the Year 2004 by Voice and Data magazine, September 2004.
Ranked 13th in Asia's Power 25 list of The Most Powerful People in Business published by Fortune magazine, August 2004.
Conferred the Asia Society Leadership Award by the Asia Society, Washington D.C., USA, May 2004.
Ranked No.1 for the second consecutive year, in The Power List 2004 published by India Today, March 2004.
Recorded as the first Trillionaire in India, June 2007.
Awarded the "Chitralekha Person of the Year Award -- 2007" by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi

Anil Ambani

Anil Ambani(born June 4, 1959) is an Indian businessman. As of October 6th 2007, he has a net-worth of US$42 billion, making him the 6th richest person in the world. His was the world's fastest-growing multi-billion-dollar fortune in percentage terms as his wealth tripled in 1 year. [1]

Ambani is the chairman of Reliance Capital, Reliance Communications and Chairman & Managing Director, Reliance Energy, and was formerly Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries Limited. His personal stake in Reliance Communications is 66%.[1]. Reliance group is India's largest business house, founded by Anil's late father Dhirubhai Ambani (1938-2002). His mother is Kokilaben Ambani. He is married to Tina Ambani (Munim) who was a well known Indian Actress in early 80's, and with whom he has two sons, Jai Anmol and Jai Anshul.

The total investors' wealth in the four Anil Ambani Group firms -- Reliance Communications (RCOM), Reliance Capital (RCL), Reliance Energy (REL) and Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) has reached 1,42,384 crore rupees, while total promoter holding is estimated at about Rs 87,000 crore. Anil's wealth comes mostly from his over 65 per cent stake in RCOM, which has a market cap of about Rs 1,03,000 crore. He also has over 50 per cent in RCL (market cap of Rs 24,000 crore), 35 per cent in REL (market cap of Rs 12,700 crore) and close to 54 per cent in RNRL, which has a market cap of about Rs 2,600 crore.[2].

Ambani holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Mumbai and an MBA degree from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Currently, he serves as a member of the Wharton Board of Overseers.

Ambani joined Reliance in 1983 as Co-Chief Executive Officer and is credited with having pioneered many financial innovations in the Indian capital markets. For example, he led India's first forays into overseas capital markets with international public offerings of global depositary receipts, convertibles and bonds. He directed Reliance in its efforts to raise, since 1991, around US$2 billion from overseas financial markets; with a 100-year Yankee bond issue in January 1997 being the high point, after which people regarded him as a financial wizard[citation needed]. He has steered the Reliance Group to its current status as India's leading textiles, petroleum, petrochemicals, power, and telecom company.

Anil was the member of Uttar Pradesh Development Council (This council has now been scrapped) He is also the Chairman of Board of Governors of DA-IICT, Gandhinagar and a member of the Board of Governors of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He is member of the Board of Governors, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He is also a member of the Central Advisory Committee, Central Electricity Regulatory Commission. In June 2004, Anil was elected as an Independent Member of the Rajya Sabha - Upper House, Parliament of India with the support of the Samajwadi Party. In March 2006, he resigned. Recently after his brother Mukesh Ambani he also has his name in the books of Trillionaires.[citation needed]

Anil has been linked with several starlets in his long career including his current wife of more than 15 years. He is a close friend of movie star Amitabh Bachchan[citation needed] . One of his major achievements in the entertainment industry is the takeover of Adlabs, the movie production to distribution to multiplex company that owns Mumbai's only dome theatre.

Indra K Nooyi

PepsiCo Inc said on Monday that its president and chief financial officer Indra K Nooyi will become chief executive officer of the world`s second-largest soft-drink maker.

Nooyi, 50, is slated to replace CEO Steven Reinemund on October 1.

Reinemund, 58, will continue as chairman of the board until his retirement in May 2007. Reinemund has worked for PepsiCo for 22 years, serving as chairman and CEO for five. He said in a statement he is retiring to spend more time with his family.

Nooyi`s CFO responsibilities will be divided between PepsiCo International CFO Richard Goodman and Senior Vice President Hugh F Johnston.

Goodman, 57, will become CFO for the corporation overseeing tax, treasury, control, risk management and audit and investor relations. Johnston,44, will be named executive vice president, adding global procurement and information technology to his duties. Both will report to Nooyi.

The role of president will not be filled at this time, a Pepsi spokesman said.

Nooyi: Indian zing behind American fizz

Success and power may be second nature to Indra K Nooyi, named the 28th most powerful woman globally by Forbes in 2005, but being the smartest is all that counts for the mother of two who is set to lead the world`s second largest soft drinks maker - PepsiCo.

"Being a woman, being foreign-born, you`ve got to be smarter than anyone else," Nooyi, 50, had said reacting to the recognition of her corporate exploits by Forbes, which also named her as the highest-ranking Indian-born woman in corporate America.

The Madras Christian College alumnus started her career from India, as a low-profile product manager at Johnson & Johnson and textile firm Mettur Beardsell Ltd. After her graduation, she did her management from Indian Institute of Management and also picked up a masters degree in public and private management from Yale University.

Known to often attend PepsiCo events wearing a sari, Nooyi served as senior vice-president in-charge of strategy and strategic marketing for Asea Brown Boveri before joining PepsiCo in 1994.

Outgoing PepsiCo CEO Steve Reinemund aptly summed up Nooyi`s 12-year service with Pepsi: "Indra`s record of transforming PepsiCo speaks for itself, and she has been an invaluable partner and ally throughout my time as CEO.

"She not only co-authored our vision and drafted our strategic blueprint, she has a sharp talent for turning insightful ideas and plans into realities and for developing and replenishing our talent base."

The 50-year-old is credited with being instrumental in some of the "bold risks" taken by PepsiCo, which include acquisition of Tropicana in 1998 and starting the company`s fast-food chains in 1997.

Nooyi`s biggest elevation at PepsiCo came in May 2001 when she took over as its president and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and was also elected to the board of directors.

She has also had a stint with Motorola, with whom she served in the capacity of vice-president and director of corporate strategy and planning from 1986 to 1990 after joining the company as business development executive for its automotive and industrial electronics group.

Before joining Motorola, she spent six years directing international corporate strategy projects at the Boston Consulting Group.

Nooyi has lent her expertise to the boards of numerous companies. In addition to the PepsiCo board of directors, Nooyi serves as a member of the board of the Federal Reserve bank of New York, Motorola, the International Rescue Committee and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

She is also a successor fellow of Yale corporation and on the advisory board of the Yale School of Management, the board of trustees for the Eisenhower Fellowships and Asia Society and member of the executive committee of the Trilateral Commission.

Commenting on her new appointment, she said: "I am humbled by the opportunity to lead PepsiCo, and profoundly grateful to follow in the footsteps of Steve Reinemund, Roger Enrico, Wayne Calloway and Don Kendall.

"Steve has steered the company to a strong and enviable position, and he will be a continuing source of wisdom and perspective. I am equally fortunate to have amazing partners, not only on the board and executive team, but in the 157,000 bright, talented colleagues around the world, who deliver the results every day and are as committed as I am to continue capturing every growth opportunity."

Sunil Bharti Mittal

Sunil Bharti Mittal, born October 23, 1957 is an Indian businessman. He is the chairman and managing director of the Bharti group. The US$5 billion turnover company runs India's largest GSM-based mobile phone service.

The son of a politician, Sunil Mittal is from the town of Ludhiana in Punjab. He has built the Bharti group, along with two siblings, into India's largest mobile phone operator in just ten years. The UK based telecommunication giant, Vodafone and Singapore's SingTel both own stakes in the recently renamed flagship company Bharti Airtel. The group also has partnerships with Axa for insurance and with the Rothschild family for exporting fruits and vegetables.

He has been Chairman & Managing Director of Bharti Group since October 2001.

Residing in Delhi, he is married, with three children. A first generation entrepreneur, he started his first business in 1976 at the age of 18, with a capital investment of Rs 20,000 (U$1500) borrowed from his father. His first business was to make crankshafts for local bicycle manufacturers. [1]

In 1980 he sold his bicycle parts and yarn factories and moved to Mumbai. [2]

In 1982 he became the exclusive dealer for Suzuki Motors's portable electric-power generators imported from Japan. The importing of telecom equipment were banned by the Indian Government as ITI (Indian Telecom Industry ) monopoly practices & sole OEM for Department of Telecommunication.[citation needed]

He established the first company to manufacture push button telephones in India. He was one of the first Indian entrepreneurs to identify the mobile telecom business as a major growth area and launched services in the city of Delhi and the National Capital Region in the year 1995.

Bharti Enterprises joined hands with the All India Football Federation and pumped in over a hundred crore rupees to help the country attain global standards in the sport. Bharti signed a MoU with the AIFF, which aims to create a comprehensive National Football Development Programme and working for globalisation of Indian football, in an attempt to make it to a World Cup finals. As a first step, the telecom company will start a world-class football academy, to be named 'Bharti-AIFF Academy' with an investment of more than Rs.100 crores, to be set-up either in Haryana or Goa. Mr. Mittal said he wants a "football revolution" in the country and is ready to invest "any amount of money" necessary for providing a world-class academy in India

November 2006, he struck a joint venture deal with Wal-Mart, the US retail giant, to start a number of retail stores across India.

In July 2006, he attracted many key executives from Reliance ADAG, NIS Sparta and created Bharti Comtel

Lakshmi Mittal

Lakshmi Mittal[1] (or Lakshmi Narayan Mittal) (born June 15, 1950) is a London-based Indian billionaire industrialist, born in Sadulpur village, in the Churu district of Rajasthan, India, and resides in Kensington, London.

Early years
Born in a Rajasthan Agrawal family, Lakshmi spent his intial years in India, living with his extended family on bare floors and rope beds in a house built by his grandfather. His family was from humble roots; his grandfather worked for the Tarachand Ghanshyamdas Poddar firm, one of the leading industrial firms of pre-independence India. His father started a steel Mill in Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh, and nearly 80% of the Mill's production used to be sold through the firm owned by Lala Gulab Chand. They eventually moved to Calcutta where his father, Mohan, became a partner in a steel company and made a fortune.

He graduated from St. Xavier's College in Calcutta (now known as Kolkata) with a Bachelor of Commerce degree[5] in Business and Accounting in 1969 [6].


[edit] Career
Lakshmi Mittal began his career working in the family's steelmaking business in India, and in 1976, when the family founded its own steel business, Mittal set out to establish its international division, beginning with the buying of a run-down plant in Indonesia. Shortly afterwards he married Usha, the daughter of a well-to-do moneylender. In 1994, due to differences with his father and brothers, he branched out on his own, taking over the international operations of the Mittal steel business, which was already owned by the family. Mittal's family never spoke publicly about the reason that caused the split.


[edit] The Mittal Affair: "Cash for Influence"
Main article: Mittal Affair
Controversy erupted in 2002 as Plaid MP Adam Price exposed the link between UK prime minister Tony Blair and Mittal in the Mittal Affair, also known as 'Garbagegate' or Cash for Influence.[7][8] [9] Mittal's LNM steel company, registered in the Dutch Antilles and maintaining less than 1% of its 100,000 plus workforce in the UK, sought Blair's aid in its bid to purchase Romania's state steel industry. [10] The letter from Blair to the Romanian government, a copy of which Price was able to obtain, hinted that the privatisation of the firm and sale to Mittal might help smooth the way for Romania's entry into the European Union.[11]

The letter had a passage in it removed just prior to Blair's signing of it, describing Mittal as "a friend."[12]

In exchange for Blair's support Mittal, already a Labour contributor, donated £125,000 more to Labour party funds a week after the 2001 UK General Elections, while as many as six-thousand Welsh steelworkers were laid off that same year, Price and others pointed out. As well as this, Mittal is a non resident Indian residing in the United Kingdom for over 14 years. Because of this, he has been included on many unofficial Wealth-indicative lists as the richest man in the United Kingdom, when in actuality, the List held by the UK and Channel Island Treasury Authority lists no mention of name "Lakshmi(or derivatives) Mittal." Corus Group and Valkia Limited were two of the primary employers in south Wales, particularly in Ebbw Vale, Llanwern, and Port Talbot.[13].


[edit] Today
Since 2005, Mittal has been the richest person residing in the United Kingdom, the richest person in Asia and the fourth richest person on the planet. He is the President of the Board of Directors and CEO of ArcelorMittal; ArcelorMittal is the world's largest producer of steel, with assets in France, Belgium, Romania, Spain, Italy, Bosnia-Herzegovina, South Africa, Poland, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Canada, Bulgaria, United States, Trinidad, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico. On July 13, 2005 it was announced that he had donated £2 million to the Labour Party, and on January 16, 2007 it was announced that he had donated a further £3 million.[citation needed]

Mittal, the chairman and chief executive of the world's largest steelmaker ArcelorMittal (ISPA.AS), joined Goldman Sachs' 13-member board on Saturday 28 June 2008 as an independent director, the firm said in a statement. Mittal is also joint-owner of the B4U international Bollywood television network.


[edit] Queens Park Rangers
Recently, Mittal had emerged as a leading contender to buy Barclays Premiership clubs Wigan and Everton. However on 20 December 2007 it was announced that the Mittal family had purchased a 20 per cent shareholding in Queens Park Rangers football club joining Flavio Briatore and Mittal's friend Bernie Ecclestone.[14] [15] As part of the investment Mittal's son-in-law, Amit Bhatia, took a place on the board of directors. The combined investment in the struggling club sparked suggestions that Mittal might be looking to join the growing ranks of wealthy individuals investing heavily in English football and emulating other similar benefactors such as Roman Abramovich.[16]


[edit] Charity
After witnessing India win only one medal, bronze, in the 2000 Olympics, and one medal, silver, at the 2004 Olympics, Mittal decided to set up Mittal Champions Trust with US$9 million to support 10 Indian athletes with world-beating potential.[17]

For Comic Relief 2007, he matched the money raised (~£1 million) on the celebrity special BBC programme, The Apprenti