Bharat Ratna Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam born 15 October 1931) usually referred to as Dr. A. P. J.

Abdul Kalam, is an Indianscientist and administrator who served as the 11thPresident of India from 2002 to 2007. Kalam was born and raised in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, studied physics at the St. Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli, andaerospace engineering at the Madras Institute of Technology (MIT), Chennai.Before his term as President, he worked as an aerospace engineer with Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).[1] Kalam is popularly known as the Missile Man of India for his work on the development of ballistic missile and launch vehicletechnology.[2] He played a pivotal organizational, technical and political role in India's Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998, the first since the original nuclear test by India in 1974. Some scientific experts have however called Kalam a man with no authority over nuclear physics but who just carried on the works of Homi J. Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai.[3]Kalam was elected the President of India in 2002, defeating Lakshmi Sahgal and was supported by both theIndian National Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, the major political parties of India. He is currently a visiting professor at Indian Institute of Management Shillong, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad andIndian Institute of Management Indore, honorary fellow ofIndian Institute of Science, Bangalore,[4] Chancellor of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology Thiruvananthapuram, a professor of Aerospace Engineering at Anna University (Chennai), JSS University (Mysore) and an adjunct/visiting faculty at many other academic and research institutions across India.Kalam advocated plans to develop India into a developed nation by 2020 in his book India 2020. Books authored by him have received considerable demands in South Korea for the translated versions.[5] He has received several prestigious awards, including the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour. Kalam is known for his motivational speeches and interaction with the student community in India.[6] He launched his mission for the youth of the nation in 2011 called the What Can I Give Movement with a central theme to defeat corruption in India. Early life and education[ A. P. J. Abdul Kalam was born on 15 October 1931 in a Tamil Muslim family to Jainulabdeen, a boat owner and Ashiamma, a housewife, at Rameswaram, located in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.[7][8][9][10] He came from a poor background and started working at an early age to supplement his family's income. [11] After completing school, Kalam distributed newspapers in order to financially contribute to his father's income.[11][12] In his school years, he had average grades, but was described as a bright and hardworking student who had a strong desire to learn and spend hours on his studies, especially mathematics.[12] "I inherited honesty and self-discipline from my father; from my mother, I inherited faith in goodness and deep kindness as did my three brothers and sisters." A quote from Kalam's autobiography[9] Career as scientist After graduating from Madras Institute of Technology (MIT Chennai) in 1960, Kalam joined Aeronautical Development Establishmentof Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) as a scientist. Kalam started his career by designing a smallhelicopter for the Indian Army, but remained unconvinced with the choice of his job at DRDO.[17] Kalam was also part of the INCOSPAR committee working under Vikram Sarabhai, the renowned space scientist.[10] In 1969, Kalam was transferred to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) where he was the project director of India's first indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-III) which successfully deployed the Rohini satellite in near earth orbit in July 1980. Joining ISRO was one of Kalam's biggest achievements in life and he is said to have found himself when he started to work on the SLV project. Kalam first started work on an expandable rocket project independently at DRDO in 1965.[1] In 1969, Kalam received the government's approval and expanded the program to include more engineers.[16] Presidency Kalam served as the 11th President of India, succeeding K. R. Narayanan. He won the 2002 presidential election with an electoral vote of 922,884, surpassing 107,366 votes won by Lakshmi Sahgal. He served from 25 July 2002 to 25 July 2007.On 10 June 2002, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) which was in power at the time, expressed to the leader of opposition, Indian National Congress president Sonia Gandhi that they would propose Kalam for the post of President.[27] The Samajwadi Party and the Nationalist Congress Party backed his candidacy.[28][29] After the Samajwadi Party announced its support for him, President K. R.

Narayanan chose not to seek a second term in office and hence left the field clear for Kalam to become the 11th President of India.[30] I am really overwhelmed. Everywhere both in Internet and in other media, I have been asked for a message. I was thinking what message I can give to the people of the country at this juncture. Kalam responding to the announcement of his candidature by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee[31] On 18 June, Kalam filed his nomination papers in the Parliament of India, accompanied by Vajpayee and his senior Cabinet colleagues P. J. Abdul Kalam's 79th birthday was recognised as World Students' Day by United Nations.[90]He has also received honorary doctorates from 40 universities.[91][92] The Government of India has honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 1981 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1990 for his work with ISRO and DRDO and his role as a scientific advisor to the Government.[93] In 1997, Kalam received India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, for his immense and valuable contribution to the scientific research and modernisation of defence technology in India.[ MOTHER TERESA The Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, commonly known as Mother Teresa (26 August 1910 5 September 1997), was an Albanian born, Indian Roman Catholic Religious Sister.Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious congregation, which in 2012 consisted of over 4,500 sisters and is active in 133 countries. They run hospices and homes for people withHIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis; soup kitchens; children's and family counseling programmes; orphanages; and schools. Members of the order must adhere to the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, and the fourth vow, to give "Wholehearted and Free service to the poorest of the poor".Mother Teresa was the recipient of numerous honours including the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. In late 2003, she was beatified, the third step toward possible sainthood, giving her the title "Blessed Teresa of Calcutta". A second miracle credited to her intercession is required before she can be recognised as a saint by the Catholic Church.[1] Admired and respected by many, she has also been accused of failing to provide medical care or painkillers, misusing charitable money, and maintaining positive relationships with dictators.[2][3]She was bornAnjez Gonxhe Bojaxhiu(Albanian: (gonxhameaning "rosebud" or "little flower" in Albanian) on 26 August 1910. She considered 27 August, the day she was baptised, to be her "true birthday".[4] Her birthplace was Skopje, now capital of the Republic of Macedonia, but at the time part of the Ottoman Empire to ethnic Albanian parents.[4][5]She was the youngest of the children of Nikoll and Dranafile Bojaxhiu (Bernai).[6] Her father, who was involved in Albanian politics, died in 1919 when she was eight years old.[4][7] After her father's death, her mother raised her as a Roman Catholic. Her father, Nikoll Bojaxhiu, may have been from Prizren, Kosovo[a] while her mother may have been from a village near akovica, Kosovo.[8]According to a biography written by Joan Graff Clucas, in her early years Agnes was fascinated by stories of the lives of missionaries and their service in Bengal, and by age 12 had become convinced that she should commit herself to a religious life.[9] Her final resolution was taken on 15 August 1928, while praying at the shrine of theBlack Madonna of Letnice, where she often went on pilgrimage.[10]She left home at age 18 to join the Sisters of Loreto as a missionary. She never again saw her mother or sister.[11]Agnes initially went to the Loreto Abbey in Rathfarnham,Ireland, to learn English, the language the Sisters of Loreto used to teach school children in India.[12] She arrived in India in 1929, and began her novitiate inDarjeeling, near the Himalayan mountains,[13] where she learnt Bengali and taught at the St. Teresas School, a schoolhouse close to her convent.[14] She took her firstreligious vows as a nun on 24 May 1931. At that time she chose to be named after Thrse de Lisieux, the patron saint of missionaries,[15][16] but because one nun in the convent had already chosen that name, Agnes opted for the Spanish spelling Teresa.[17]She took her solemn vows on 14 May 1937, while serving as a teacher at the Loreto convent school in Entally, eastern Calcutta.[4][18][19] Teresa served there for almost twenty years and in 1944 was appointed headmistress.[20]Although Teresa enjoyed teaching at the school, she was increasingly disturbed by the poverty surrounding her inCalcutta (Kolkata).[21] The Bengal famine of 1943 brought misery and death to the city; and the outbreak ofHindu/Muslim violence in August 1946 plunged the city into despair and horror.[22]

Missionaries of Charity On 10 September 1946, Teresa experienced what she later described as "the call within the call" while travelling by train to the Loreto convent inDarjeeling from Calcutta for her annual retreat. "I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them. It was an order. To fail would have been to break the faith."[23] As one author later noted, "Though no one knew it at the time, Sister Teresa had just become Mother Teresa".[24]She began her missionary work with the poor in 1948, replacing her traditional Loreto habit with a simple white cotton sari decorated with a blue border. Mother Teresa adopted Indian citizenship, spent a few months in Patna to receive a basic medical training in theHoly Family Hospital and then ventured out into the slums.[25][26]Initially she started a school in Motijhil (Calcutta); soon she started tending to the needs of the destitute and starving.[27] In the beginning of 1949 she was joined in her effort by a group of young women and laid the foundations to create a new religious community helping the "poorest among the poor". Mother Teresa said "By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus."[42]In 1982, at the height of the Siege of Beirut, Mother Teresa rescued 37 children trapped in a front line hospital by brokering a temporary cease-fire between the Israeli army and Palestinian guerrillas.[43]Accompanied by Red Cross workers, she travelled through the war zone to the devastated hospital to evacuate the young patients.[44]Mother Teresa travelled to assist and minister to the hungry in Ethiopia, radiation victims at Chernobyl, and earthquake victims in Armenia.[47][48][49] In 1991, Mother Teresa returned for the first time to her homeland and opened a Missionaries of Charity Brothers home in Tirana, Albania.By 1996, Mother Teresa was operating 517 missions in more than 100 countries.[50] Over the years, Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity grew from twelve to thousands serving the "poorest of the poor" in 450 centres around the world. The first Missionaries of Charity home in the United States was established in the South Bronx, New York; by 1984 the order operated 19 establishments throughout the country.[51] Mother Teresa was fluent in five languages: Bengali,[52] Albanian, Serbo-Croatian,English, and Hindi.[53]
]

Saina Nehwal born 17 March 1990 in Dhindar, Hisar, Haryana) is an Indian badminton player who attained a career best ranking of 2 in December 2010 by Badminton World Federation.[2] She is the first Indian to win a medal in Badminton at the Olympics.[3] She achieved this feat by winning the Bronze medal at the London Olympics 2012 on 4 August 2012.[4]She is the first Indian to win the World Junior Badminton Championships and was also the first Indian to win a Super Series tournament, by clinching the Indonesia Open with a victory over higher-ranked Chinese Wang Lin in Jakarta on 21 June 2009. Saina is supported by the Olympic Gold Quest.[5]Saina won her second career Super Series title by winning the Singapore Open title on 20 June 2010. She completed a hat-trick in the same year by winning the Indonesian Open on 27 June 2010. This win resulted in her rise to 3rd ranking and subsequently to No. 2. Later in the same year she also wonHong Kong Super Series on 12 December 2010. After experiencing a poor 2011 season, Saina became the first Indian singles player to reach the summit stage of year-ending Super Series Finals defeating two-time All England champion and former World No. 1 Tine Baun in the semi-finals, a feat she repeated in the quarterfinals in the London Olympics 2012. Though she lost in the semi-finals of London Olympics 2012 to Wang Yihan, she secured the bronze medal against Wang Xin. After Xin won the first game 2118, Xin had to walk out of the match due to aggravation of her knee injury, thus making Saina the winner.Previously coached by S. M. Arif, a Dronacharya Award winner, Saina is the reigning Indian national junior champion and is currently coached by Indonesian badminton legend Atik Jauhari since August 2008,[6] with the former All England champion and national coach Pullela Gopichand being her mentor.Saina Nehwal was born in a Jat[7] family at Hisar in Haryana and completed first few years of her schooling from Campus School. Her Father Harvir Singh originally hails from village "Dhindar" which falls under Modinagar Tehsil in Ghaziabad district(U.P). Harvir Singh initially worked in CCS HAU and they then had their residence in the University Campus.[8] He later shifted to Hyderabad & so Saina spent her growing years in Hyderabad, India. Her foray into the world of badminton was influenced by her father Dr. Harvir Singh, a scientist at the Directorate of Oilseeds Research, Hyderabad and her mother Usha Nehwal,[9] both of whom were former badminton champions in Haryana. She is the top ranked

player (women) in Indian Badminton history.[10] In 2012, journalist and former NDTV editor T. S. Sudhir wrote a biography on Saina.[11] She is Indias highest-paid non-cricketing sportsperson as on September 2012.[12][13] Currently Saina Nehwal is the icon player of Hyderabad Hotshots, this is the winning team in IBL 2013 which captured the trophy. She was unbeatable in IBL 2013.[14] Childhood and early training Saina completed her schooling at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan's Vidyashram, NIRD campus,Rajendranagar, Hyderabad. Nehwal has a brown belt in Karate. However, she quit Karate at the age of 8, when she was asked to have a motorcycle run over her stomach.[15] She practised Badminton in Badminton Court of Faculty Club of CCS HAU located in the University itself.[16] Career Saina was the under-19 national champion. Saina created history by winning the prestigious Asian Satellite Badminton tournament (India Chapter) twice, becoming the first player to do so.Saina was named "The Most Promising Player" in 2008.[19] She reached the world super series semifinals in the month of December 2008On 21 June 2009, she became the first Indian[21] to win a BWF Super Series title, the most prominent badminton series of the world by winning the Indonesia Open Ratan Tata, KBE (Born Ratan Naval Tata on 28 December 1937) is an Indian businessman of the Tata Group, a Mumbai-based conglomerate. He was the chairman of the group from 1991-2012. He stepped down as the chairman on 28 December 2012 and now holds the position of Chairman Emeritus of the group which is an honorary and advisory position. He will continue as the chairman of the groups charitable trusts[2 Early life Tata is the adoptive great-grandson of Tata group founderJamshedji Tata. His father, Naval Tata, had been adopted from the family of a distant relative by Jamsetji's childless younger son, also named Ratan Tata, and his wife Navajbai. Tata's parents (Naval and his first wife Sooni) separated in the mid-1940s when Ratan was seven and his younger brother Jimmy was five years old. Both he and his brother were raised by their grandmother Lady Navajbai.[3] Many years later, Naval Tata took a second wife, Simone, and fathered another son, Noel Tata.Tata began his schooling in Mumbai at the Campion School and the Bishop Cotton School in Shimla, and finished his secondary education at the Cathedral and John Connon School.[4] He completed his B.S. in architecture with structural engineering from Cornell University in 1962, and the Advanced Management Program from Harvard Business School in 1975.[5] Tata is a member of the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity. Career Tata began his career in the Tata group in 1962; he initially worked on the shop floor of Tata Steel, shovelling limestone and handling the blast furnace.[6]In 1991, J. R. D. Tata stepped down as Tata Industries chairman, naming Ratan as his successor.In 1991, Tata was appointed as the chairman of the Tata group. Under his stewardship, Tata Tea acquired Tetley, Tata motors acquired Jaguar Land Rover and Tata Steel acquired Corus, which have turned Tata from a largely India-centric company into a global business, with 65% revenues coming from abroad. He also pushed the development of the Tata Indica and the Tata Nano.Ratan Tata retired from all executive responsibility in the Tata group on December 28, 2012 which is also his 75th birthday and he is succeeded by Cyrus Mistry, the 44-year-old son of Pallonji Mistry and managing director of Shapoorji Pallonji Group.[7][8]He is chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, Tata Motors, Tata Steel and a few other group companies. He is also the chairman of the main two Tata trusts Sir Dorabji Tata and Allied Trusts and Sir Ratan Tata Trust which together hold 66% of shares in the group holding company Tata Sons. Honours and awards Ratan Tata's foreign affiliations include membership of the international advisory boards of theMitsubishi Corporation, the American International Group, JP Morgan Chase and Booz Allen Hamilton. He is also a

member of the board of trustees of the RAND Corporation, University of Southern California and Cornell University.[10][11][12] He also serves as a board member on South Africa's International Investment Council and is a member of the Asia-Pacific advisory committee for the New York Stock Exchange. He received the Padma Bhushan in 2000 and Padma Vibhushan in 2008 andLifetime Achievement Award awarded by Rockefeller Foundation in 2012. In 2009, Tata was given an honorary knighthood, the Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (K.B.E.).[1 Venkatraman "Venki" Ramakrishnan (born: 1952) is an Indian-born American and British structural biologist, who shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Thomas A. Steitz and Ada E. Yonath, "for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome".[1] He currently works at the MRCLaboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England.[2][3] Early life Ramakrishnan was born in Chidambaram inCuddalore district of Tamil Nadu, India[4] to C. V. Ramakrishnan and Rajalakshmi. Both his parents were scientists and taught biochemistry at the Maharaja Sayajirao University in Baroda.[5] He moved to Vadodara (previously also known as Baroda) inGujarat at the age of three, where he had his schooling at Convent of Jesus and Mary, except for spending 196061 in Adelaide, Australia. Following his Pre-Science at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, he did his undergraduate studies in the same university on a National Science Talent Scholarship, graduating with a BSc degree in Physics in 1971.In a January 2010 lecture at the Indian Institute of Science, he revealed that he failed to get admitted to any of the Indian Institutes of Technology or the Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil NaduImmediately after graduation he moved to the U.S.A., where he obtained his PhD degree in Physics from Ohio University in 1976.[7][8] He then spent two years studying biology as a graduate student at the University of California, San Diego while making a transition from theoretical physics to biology.[9] Career Ramakrishnan began work on ribosomes as a postdoctoral fellow with Peter Moore at Yale University.[3] After his post-doctoral fellowship, he initially could not find a faculty position even though he had applied to about 50 universities in the U.S.[6] He continued to work on ribosomes from 1983-95 as a staff scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory. In 1995 he moved to the University of Utah as a Professor of Biochemistry, and in 1999, he moved to his current position at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology inCambridge, England, where he had also been a sabbatical visitor during 1991-92. In 1999, Ramakrishnan's laboratory published a 5.5 Angstrom resolution structure of the 30S subunit. The following year, his laboratory determined the complete molecular structure of the 30S subunit of the ribosome and its complexes with several antibiotics. This was followed by studies that provided structural insights into the mechanism that ensures the fidelity of protein biosynthesis. More recently, his laboratory has determined the atomic structure of the whole ribosome in complex with its tRNAand mRNA ligands. Ramakrishnan is also known for his past work on histone and chromatin structure. Ramakrishnan was knighted in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to Molecular Biology,[12] but does not generally use the title. Personal life. Ramakrishnan is married to Vera Rosenberry, an author and illustrator of children's books. His stepdaughter Tanya Kapka is a doctor in Oregon, and his son Raman Ramakrishnan is a cellist based in New York.