Shashi Tharoor

Why Is He Famous?
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Shashi Tharoor is prolific writer and UN Diplomat. Shashi has been with the UN since 1978 when he joined the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva. Shashi Tharoor served the UN in various capacities before assuming the office of the Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information of the United Nations in 2001. In this capacity, he is responsible for the communication strategy, enhancing the image and effectiveness of the UN. In 2003, the Secretary-General appointed him United Nations Coordinator for Multilingualism.

On June 15, the Government of India announced its backing for Tharoor's candidacy as Kofi Annan's successor for the post of UN Secretary General.

Tharoor came second (behind Ban Ki-moon) in each of the four straw polls conducted by the UN Security Council
Ban emerged as the only candidate with the support of all five permanent members, each of whom has the power to veto candidates. After the vote, Tharoor withdrew his candidacy, telling reporters he was “confident that Ban will win”.

Tharoor has written numerous books in English. Most of his literary creations are centered around Indian themes and they are markedly "Indo-nostalgic". Perhaps his most famous work is The Great Indian Novel
Tharoor's latest work, which commemorates the 50th anniversary of India's independence provides analysis of both India's past and future. In writing, Tharoor felt that a book was needed which explored what Independence really meant for India . Tharoor's themes include India's rich cultural heritage, India's contribution to the Western world, and the far-reaching role of past in present day problems. He explores these through a variety of issues such as affirmative action, the caste system, governmental corruption, and the strength of Indian democracy.

Tharoor's observations about India are extremely optimistic. Tharoor provides this assessment: "[India has] tremendous strengths...energy, dynamism, skills, and great will to work and to achieve, and astonishing capacity to save and invest, perhaps, above all, the freedom to express our views, change our leaders and determine our own fates"
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A. R. Rahman

Mozart from Madras

A.R. Rahman, The Music Genius
oooooooooh what to say about him. he is a genious in creating music.
When Rahman arrived on the Indian music scene with his first film Roja, he brought about a transformation of film music. Roja was a massive hit, in its original and dubbed versions, and Rahman followed it up with a number of other extremely popular films, including Bombay, Kadhalan, Indira, Minsaara Kanavu, Muthu and Love Birds. His soundtracks gained him recognition and notice in the Tamil film industry and across the country for his versatality in classical, folk, jazz, reggae, soft rock and other styles. Rangeela, directed by Ram Gopal Varma, marked Rahman's debut in Hindi films. Many popular albums for films including Dil Se and Taal followed. The huge sales of these albums prompted movie producers to take film music more seriously. Rahman's playback singing in several of his albums was also widely admired.

these words are not enough to discribe about ar rahman ...... but there is only littile time for me

In 1995, his sound track for "Bombay" crossed sales of 5 million units signalling A.R. Rahman's arrival as the "King of Indian Pop" with sales of more than 40 million albums over a period of three years. Today, A.R. Rahman is the heart throb of the music world and all time great music directors in the field. He, in "ROJA" proved that the traditional tunes too could touch the hearts. And songs as "Thiruda Thiruda", "Gentleman", "Rangeela", "Kaghal Desam" and "Minsara Kanavu" established him as a prodigy.

As A.R. Rahman takes his project, Vande Mataram, to the world, he reflects on his immense popularity on the sub-continent and the globe as he says, "music is international - only cultures are different". A.R. Rahman, 30 years now, has still a long way to go ahead.

DETERMINATON

In 1883, a creative engineer named John Roebling was inspired by an idea to build a spectacular bridge connecting New York with the Long Island. However bridge building experts throughout the world thought that this was an impossible feat and told Roebling to forget the idea. It just could not be done. It was not practical. It had never been done before.

Roebling could not ignore the vision he had in his mind of this bridge. He thought about it all the time and he knew deep in his heart that it could be done. He just had to share the dream with someone else. After much discussion and persuasion he managed to convince his son Washington, an up and coming engineer, that the bridge in fact could be built.

Working together for the first time, the father and son developed concepts of how it could be accomplished and how the obstacles could be overcome. With great excitement and inspiration, and the headiness of a wild challenge before them, they hired their crew and began to build their dream bridge.

The project started well, but when it was only a few months underway a tragic accident on the site took the life of John Roebling. Washington was injured and left with a certain amount of brain damage, which resulted in him not being able to walk or talk or even move.
 

"We told them so."
"Crazy men and their crazy dreams."
"It`s foolish to chase wild visions."

Everyone had a negative comment to make and felt that the project should be scrapped since the Roeblings were the only ones who knew how the bridge could be built. In spite of his handicap Washington was never discouraged and still had a burning desire to complete the bridge and his mind was still as sharp as ever.

He tried to inspire and pass on his enthusiasm to some of his friends, but they were too daunted by the task. As he lay on his bed in his hospital room, with the sunlight streaming through the windows, a gentle breeze blew the flimsy white curtains apart and he was able to see the sky and the tops of the trees outside for just a moment.

It seemed that there was a message for him not to give up. Suddenly an idea hit him. All he could do was move one finger and he decided to make the best use of it. By moving this, he slowly developed a code of communication with his wife.

He touched his wife's arm with that finger, indicating to her that he wanted her to call the engineers again. Then he used the same method of tapping her arm to tell the engineers what to do. It seemed foolish but the project was under way again.

For 13 years Washington tapped out his instructions with his finger on his wife's arm, until the bridge was finally completed. Today the spectacular Brooklyn Bridge stands in all its glory as a tribute to the triumph of one man's indomitable spirit and his determination not to be defeated by circumstances. It is also a tribute to the engineers and their team work, and to their faith in a man who was considered mad by half the world. It stands too as a tangible monument to the love and devotion of his wife who for 13 long years patiently decoded the messages of her husband and told the engineers what to do.

Perhaps this is one of the best examples of a never-say-die attitude that overcomes a terrible physical handicap and achieves an impossible goal.

Often when we face obstacles in our day-to-day life, our hurdles seem very small in comparison to what many others have to face. The Brooklyn Bridge shows us that dreams that seem impossible can be realised with determination and persistence, no matter what the odds are.

Even the most distant dream can be realized with determination and persistence.

Nancy Cox

In her lab at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, virologist Nancy Cox is engineering a nightmare public-health scenario: growing the bird-flu virus together with a highly contagious human influenza strain. No, she's not crazy. She figures a merger of those two microbes—which could happen in any person anywhere in the world and trigger a deadly pandemic—is too important to leave to chance. So she's putting the microbes together in a controlled way, under strict safety conditions, to see whether all the hand wringing is justified. "The goal is to see if these gene combinations are actually viable or not," she says.

There may be no better person to oversee the study than Cox, 57. A soft-spoken native of Iowa who chooses her words carefully because they carry such weight in the medical community, Cox is analyzing blood samples from patients around the world infected with bird flu, looking for clues that would help her design a vaccine. "When you work with an organism like influenza that's ever changing, you learn something new every year, so it never gets dull," she says. Already she has learned enough to suspect that one vaccine won't be enough; Cox believes we'll likely need at least two different vaccines tailor-made against specific viral strains. So far, the virus is winning; it mutates too quickly to be pinned down. But if anyone can do it, it's Cox.

Nandan Nilekani

In the past 15 years, India's identity has undergone one of the biggest transformations that any country has ever experienced. It was once synonymous with poverty, snake charmers and the Taj Mahal. But stop someone on the street in the West today and say "India," and the words that come back at you are "brainy," "software engineers,'' "call centers" and "the country most likely to take my job." One of the Indian engineer-entrepreneurs most responsible for creating the new reality that has produced this new Indian image is Nandan Nilekani.

Seattle has Bill. Bangalore has Nandan. He is a founder, and currently president, of Infosys Technologies Ltd., based in Bangalore—India's Silicon Valley. Infosys, Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services are the Microsoft, IBM and Sun Microsystems of India. What makes Nilekani unique? For me it comes down to one phrase: great explainer. Yes, he and N.R. Narayana Murthy, Infosys' legendary chairman, have built a great global company from scratch. But the reason Nilekani, 50, is so sought out is that he has a unique ability not simply to program software but also to explain how that program fits into the emerging trends in computing, how those trends will transform the computing business and how that transformation will affect global politics and economics. It was his insight that the global playing field was being "leveled" by technology that inspired me to write the book The World Is Flat.

In this era of mounting complexity—with more people, systems and products entwined in a bewildering web of global networks—explaining is an enormously valuable skill. And it explains why, if you sit outside his office for a day, you notice that half the people going in are employees looking for instructions or customers looking for deals; the other half are politicians, journalists and ministers from around the world looking for an explanation of what it all means.

Vikram Akula

SKS Microfinance empowers the poor to become economcally self - reliant by providing financial
services in a subtainable manner

Loaning a few bucks to third World entrepreneurs may not sound like cutting-edge banking. Indeed, microfinance might attract more investors, as "actorvist" Tim Robbins suggested at a recent U.N. gala, if it had a hipper name, like "MiFi" or "MiPod." But Vikram Akula is using advanced technology—smart cards—to make venture capital available to more of the 800 million people in India who live on less than $2 a day. In the hinterland, where there are few landlines, let alone ATMs, the founder of SKS Microfinance is starting to dispense loans, typically $116, on smart cards, which its loan officers had been using to record repayments electronically. The plastic approach intrigued Visa International, which is now pairing SKS with cell phone-based card readers. The cash-free system is more efficient and safer too. As Visa's emerging-markets chief, Debbie Arnold, put it, a cash-laden loan officer "might as well carry a big bull's-eye on his back." Akula, 37, has already made SKS one of the fastest-growing microlenders, having dispensed $52 million to 221,000 clients since 1998. SKS keeps its default rate below 2% by using software that provides real-time data. When he spots a red flag, he says, "we're on it like a swat team." Such transparency has attracted Silicon Valley types, with David Schappell of Unitus, a nonprofit venture-capital firm devoted to microfinance, likening SKS to the little coffee shop that became Starbucks. Microccino, anyone?

George Clooney

Some handsome men are like diamond bracelets. They show up on some woman's arm, and you admire them, but they never really seem worth what you'd have to pay. Others are like Swatches: cute, disposable and interchangeable. In this taxonomy, George Clooney is a family heirloom.

First, he has the elegant patina of age. Second, as man and movie star, he's more of a talking point than a bauble. Third, and most crucially, if he's not yours already, short of murder, he never will be.

Onscreen (and by many reports off) Clooney, and Hollywood's hardiest bachelor, is one of those guys who's charming to everyone and close to few. If that is deliberate, it's genius. Nothing makes a star plummet to earth quicker than overfamiliarity. It's no accident that many of Clooney's most successful roles are men with a history. He plays a lot of ex-cons (Out of Sight; O Brother, Where Art Thou?; Ocean's Eleven; et al.), and won an Oscar for his portrayal of the controversial spy Robert Baer in Syriana. This is a guy with secrets. Secrets the right woman—whom every woman in the audience thinks is she—could unpack.

Frankly, with that air of mischief (which he earned) and those looks (which he didn't), he could coast. But he seems driven to do more. To direct. To fight poverty with the One campaign and one.org. Thus he gains that final thing heirlooms have over other gems: gravitas. Makes him almost worth killing for.

Bill & Melinda Gates

Bill & Melinda Gates foundation
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Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to reduce inequities and improve lives around the world.
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Every year malaria kills 1 million people—most of them African children under age 5. When Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and his wife Melinda, were looking for ways to give away their prodigious wealth, they assumed that such monumental problems were being worked on. Instead, Melinda says, they found a "vacuum that does need to be stepped into."

Step they did: the Gates Foundation now provides more than a third of the world's entire malaria-research funding, and it's paying off. The most effective drug to treat the disease, naturally occurring artemisinin, is in devastatingly short supply. But last month Gates-funded scientists announced that they had created the technology to manufacture artemisinic acid synthetically. Within five years, the cost of a lifesaving supply is expected to drop from $2.40 to 25 cents. Lead researcher Jay Keasling says it would not have been possible without a $43 million Gates grant. "I had companies call me and say, 'This is great, but we can't give you any money. We can't make a profit on this,'" he says.

But even if millions are saved from malaria, there will be more diseases and more death. The Gateses' most profound influence has been to change expectations. Their belief that every life should have equal value, backed by their $29 billion endowment in the foundation, has injected hope not only into global health but also into their other priorities: public education, public libraries and at-risk families. The couple demands from grantees the same relentless focus on results expected of Microsoft employees and takes away the classic excuse for failure: not enough money. They have inspired others—from medical students, who are entering global-health fields in unprecedented numbers, to governments, which are putting billions into Gates initiatives.

Will Smith

He has become our designated Wise Guy—the cool dude confronting aliens, villains and wary, foxy chicks while armored in nothing more than a knowing attitude and an enviable wardrobe. But Will Smith, 37, is something more than clothes and quips. What we always sense about the Wise Guy is that he's essentially a Sweet Guy, eager to learn, eager to please, eager to be heroically helpful and romantically obliging. He may be our most insinuating movie star and, amid all his studly competitors, the one with the lowest profile. Mostly he lives quietly (with wife Jada Pinkett Smith and his three kids) and works hard.

It could have been otherwise, for he began his public life as a rapper at age 12 and was TV's Fresh Prince of Bel-Air when barely in his 20s. Youthful stardom can be toxic to a performer, but his ambition for better things paradoxically kept him centered. His performance as a kid pretending to be Sidney Poitier's son in the movie version of Six Degrees of Separation made him an actor to be reckoned with, while such roles as the smooth street cop opposite Martin Lawrence in Bad Boys and the edgy rookie to Tommy Lee Jones' seen-it-all alien chaser in Barry Sonnenfeld's great Men in Black, made him a star. Last year's megahit Hitch, in which love—and Smith—conquered all, even the critics, proved his durability. He once said he wanted his career to be both "dazzling" and "eclectic." It's a goal he has pretty much achieved

Daddy Yankee

sold 2 million copies of his album Barrio Fino
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Any visitor clicking on a link on Daddy Yankee's website, daddyyankee.com, is greeted with the jingle of a cash register ringing up sales. There couldn't be a better metaphor for the meteoric success of Puerto Rico's supreme ambassador of reggaeton, Latin music's latest thing. Yankee has sold 2 million copies of his album Barrio Fino in the U.S. He has a $20 million record contract with Interscope and a lucrative endorsement deal with Pepsi. And he—with his many diamonds—has graced various U.S. magazine covers, from the Source to Latina.

It's an impressive resume for a kid raised in the rough-and-tumble barrios outside San Juan. Born Raymond Ayala at some point in the 1970s (he refuses to reveal his age), Yankee has been at the forefront of a two-decades-long musical movement that is a stew of Jamaican, Panamanian and Puerto Rican styles. The music is hardly subtle (sample lyric: "My [woman] doesn't stop when it's time to work her bum bum"). But it's infectiously danceable. And Yankee's rapid-fire rapping, boyish good looks and exceptional work ethic have helped turn what is basically club music into an international phenomenon. Although some critics have already heralded the end of the reggaeton craze, Yankee believes that it's a form that is just being born. Other stars in the genre, such as Tego Calderon and Ivy Queen, have also attracted the attention of the major labels. Expect a lot more registers to be ringing.

Pope Benedict XVI

"God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him."

He was not called John Paul the Adequate. And so that was the challenge for Pope Benedict XVI in the first year of his pontificate: how to fill the shoes of the last man who filled the shoes of the fisherman. Benedict's first encyclical, issued on Christmas Day 2005, took some by surprise. It began with thoughts on ... love. In his first words he quoted the Apostle John: "God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him." With unself-conscious clarity, Benedict wrote, "Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction." You shall love your neighbor as yourself, he is saying. Love brings—is—charity. Look to the Good Samaritan for how to live. Look to St. Martin of Tours giving his cloak to a beggar.

This is God's Rottweiler? John Paul's enforcer? The man who bluntly told the Cardinals last year that they must clean the stables of the "filth" that had entered the church? According to those who have followed the work and life of Joseph Ratzinger—now Pope Benedict—this is the real him: the teacher, the thinker, the ponderer of deepest meanings. Benedict does not have the effortless theatricality and charisma of the young John Paul. But at his weekly audiences, Benedict, 79, has drawn larger crowds, and as John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter has noted, people came to "see" John Paul; they come to "hear" Benedict.

Noonan's most recent book is John Paul the Grea

Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum

Tourism are increasing around the world but Dubai is taking the lead in Inclusive Development Development by inviting 3 million ...

Sheik Mo's bold vision of transforming Dubai (pop. 240,000, not including a million or so foreign workers) into another Singapore and raising gdp from $8 billion to $37 billion in 15 years is urban planning on a cosmic scale. A man of many guises—poet; champion horseman; United Arab Emirates Vice President, Prime Minister and Defense Minister—Sheik Mo, 57, above all sees himself as CEO of Dubai Inc. His family-run city-state is no democracy, yet it has become a model of business-style governance in a region known for kleptocracies. His realm includes a blossoming financial center, regional headquarters for global brands, mega shopping malls, amusement parks, a world-class airline and an airport to go with it, luxurious hotels that play host to 7 million tourists annually and the world's largest man-made islands. "What he is trying to do," says confidant Mohammed al-Gergawi, "is to build an Arab and Muslim success story." In case anyone misses the point, Sheik Mo has broken ground on the Burj Dubai skyscraper, intended to be the planet's tallest building.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

"We can do it,"
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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a President unlike any other Iran has known: belligerent, naive, at once a fundamentalist and nationalist, and a dark genius at mobilizing Iranian public opinion. In the first year of his presidency, he has risen out of obscurity to become one of the most troublesome and noteworthy leaders in the world. His uncompromising stand on his country's right to enrich uranium has increased the threat of further turmoil in the Middle East and edged the U.S. and Iran closer to a military confrontation than ever before in recent times.

Iranians elected Ahmadinejad, 49, with the clear mandate of improving their economic lives. His campaign slogan, "We can do it," implied fighting corruption, not building the Bomb. Often the President's rhetoric—like his suggestion that Israel be moved to Alaska or maybe Europe—seems outrageous to Iranians, who are more interested in engaging the world than in eliciting its condemnation. But the former mayor of Tehran and Revolutionary Guards commander has formulated a message that the majority of Iranians agree with: it's time for Iran to be strong again, and no time is better than now. He has made nuclear power an issue of national pride, and so far, his position that the U.S. "can't do a thing" is proving true. It's a dangerous gamble, though, because it may force America to flex its military muscle to prove him wrong

Steven Spielberg

The most commercially successful filmmaker in Hollywood history.
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Steven Spielberg's first films were made at a time when directors were the most important people in Hollywood, and his more recent ones at a time when marketing controls the industry. That he has remained the most powerful filmmaker in the world during both periods says something for his talent and his flexibility. No one else has put together a more popular body of work, yet within the entertainer there is also an artist capable


Spielberg's most important contribution to modern movies is his insight that there was an enormous audience to be created if old-style B-movie stories were made with A-level craftsmanship and enhanced with the latest developments in special effects. Consider such titles as Raiders of the Lost Ark and the other Indiana Jones movies, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. and Jurassic Park. Look also at the films he produced but didn't direct, like the Back to the Future series, Gremlins, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Twister. The story lines were the stuff of Saturday serials, but the filmmaking was cutting edge and delivered what films have always promised: they showed us something amazing that we hadn't seen before.

Steven Spielberg is hailed as one of the most influential and commercially successful film directors in motion picture history. Through his role in developing, directing, and driving the special effects of many of the biggest blockbusters in movie history, includingJaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T., Saving Private Ryan, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, and Minority Report, Spielberg changed the way movies are made and left an indelible mark on popular culture. This biography traces his rise from shooting films as a shy young boy with the family's 8 mm camera to his first unpaid job at Universal Studios, to the rise of DreamWorks, the studio Spielberg founded and quickly turned into a filmmaking powerhouse. While Spielberg's best work may lie ahead, . Whether about an alien lost in suburbia or the battles of World War II, Spielberg has directed and produced many of the most talked about movies of the past 30 years.

.With "A Steven Spielberg Film," it's for his directorial outings. For the productions, it's always been "A Steven Spielberg Production" or, as Amblin and Spielberg's name became a brand element, "Steven Spielberg Presents."

Lalu Prasad Yadav

Former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad, is credited with the financial turnaround of the Indian Railways which was on the verge of bankruptcy when he took over the office.
Lalu represents Saran constituency in Bihar in the 15th Lok Sabha.
Born in an agrarian family in Gopalganj district in Bihar on 11th June, 1948, Lalu graduated in law from Patna University.
He is married to Rabri Devi and the couple has two sons and seven daughters.
Lalu began his political career as General Secretary of Patna University Students Union in 1970-71. He became a Member of Parliament at the age of 29. He was Chief Minister of Bihar from March 1990 July 1997.
After he resigned as Chief Minister, Lalu was succeeded by his wife Rabri Devi.
He was elected to Rajya Sabha in April 2002. Lalu was also member Consultative Committee of the Ministry for Rural Development.

An ardent lover of football and cricket, Lalu has been President of the Bihar Cricket Association and associated with various sports associations in Chapra and Patna.

Manmohan Singh

Manmohan Singh is widely regarded as the cleanest politician in India.

Dr. Manmohan Singh (Punjabi: ਮਨਮੋਹਨ ਸਿੰਘ, Hindi: मनमोहन सिंह, literal translation: Charming Lion) is the 17th and current Prime Minister of India. Singh is a member of the Indian National Congress party and became the first Sikh to become Prime Minister of India on May 22, 2004. He is one of the most qualified and influential figures in India's recent history, because of the economic liberalisation he started in 1991 when he was Finance Minister.


One of the more non-political faces of Indian politics, Dr Manmohan Singh is best known as the "liberator" of Indian economy. As the Union Finance Minister in the Narasimha Rao government (1991-96), he liberalised the economy to put India on the path of globalisation.
He worked as the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission from 1985 to 1987 and as the Governor of the Reserve Bank for three years before that. He has also been the Central government's Advisor on Economic Affairs, besides taking international assignments at the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank.
He was first elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1991, and has represented the Congress there since. In 1999, he contested the Lok Sabha elections from South Delhi, but lost. He was the Leader of the Opposition in the Upper House until becoming the Prime Minister of India.|

He has won several awards for his work and contribution to society, including the Padma Vibhushan in 1987, the Euromoney Finance Minister of the year award in 1993 and the Asiamoney Finance Minister of the year award in 1993 and 1994.

Singh was born in Gah in West Punjab (now in Pakistan) in September 1932, and studied economics in Chandigarh and later went to Cambridge & Oxford UK for higher studies. He later taught the subject at the Punjab University. He has authored a book on Indian export trends.


Mr Singh slashed red tape, simplified the tax system and removed stifling controls and regulations to try create an environment conducive to business.

The economy revived, industry picked up, inflation was checked, and growth rates remained consistently high in the 1990s.

The economy, under Mr Singh's stewardship, grew at a steady 7% per annum.

In recent years, he has lamented that the economy was not growing "fast enough" under the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party-led government, which lost the recent elections.

Mixed model

He is a strong advocate of a "mixed economy model" with an important role for government-owned companies, especially in infrastructure and agriculture.


Mr Singh believes that economic reforms mean the modernisation of state-run companies, not the selling off of profit-making government-owned enterprises.

His unexpected anointment as the finance minister in 1991 capped a long and illustrious career as an academic and civil servant.

He has taught economics in universities in India and abroad, including the prestigious Delhi School of Economics and Oxford University.

In his role as a technocrat, Mr Singh headed India's central bank, advised the government on managing the economy and was a governor with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).



Mr Singh has often talked about the "privilege" of being taught by such eminent economists as Joan Robinson and Maurice Dobb.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar *****Art of Living

Ravi Shankar is a Indian spiritual master (Guru) born in 1956, in a Tamil Iyer family in Papanasam, Tamil Nadu, India. He is often referred to by the self-chosen double-honorific "Sri Sri".[1] He is considered a spiritual leader by his disciples and is the founder of the international Art of Living Foundation that aims to globalise traditional Indian wisdom in ways that are compatible with modern life. Ravi Shankar is also a driving force behind charitable organizations such as the International Association for Human Values, which conducts the 5H program.


Thought and Philosophy
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Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's key message is that human beings are nourished, like a banana, by the spiritual values common to all world religions and to most individual spiritual paths, which collectively constitute the "quest for truth" and the knowledge "deep within us that we are part of divinity," while the "symbols and practices" of the different religions constitute only the "banana skin." He admonishes people for having "thrown away the banana" while still holding on to the skin. "Fanatacism flourishes," he writes, "when religious concepts are put before human values." His aim is to foster a secularized, humanized, non-exclusive spirituality that will help people recognize the good in every human being and accept each other for who they are, allowing people to be nourished by "human values." [All quotations taken from "One God, One Truth, One World" by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a booklet published in 2000 by the Art of Living Foundation]

Ravi Shankar emphasizes breath as the subtle link between body and mind, and many of his techniques use the breath as a tool to relax the mind. He also places emphasis on service and volunteers are encouraged to serve others in addition to meditating. According to Ravi Shankar, science and spirituality are linked and not in conflict.


Current Activities
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Every year Sri Sri Ravi Shankar travels around the globe to reinforce the message that all religions and spiritual traditions share common goals and values. His stated vision is to create a world that is free of stress and violence by globalising wisdom, and his programs aim to offer practical tools to accomplish this.


Official website of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

http://www.srisriravishankar.org/

MINISTER FOR WORKS *** M.K Muneer

Shri. M.K. Muneer, medical practitioner turned political leader, was born on 26th August, 1962 as the son of Shri. C.H. Mohammed Koya, former Chief Minister and Smt. Amina Mohammed Koya.

He started political activity while a student and had served as the President of Student’s Organisation of Muslim League. Subsequently, he got elected also as the Councillor of Kozhikode Corporation. Dr. Muneer became elected to 9th KLA from Calicut –II constituency, contesting as a Muslim League Member. He got elected to the 10th and 11th KLA as well, from the Malappuram constituency.

In the Ministry headed by Shri. A.K. Antony, he was the Minister for Public Works from 26.5.2001 to 29.8.2004. He is handling the same portfolio since 5.9.2004 in the Ministry of Shri. Oommen Chandy. As one associated with cultural activities, he had received C. Achutha Menon Award for Literature in 1998 and in the Inter Medicos Competition, he was selected as Best Singer, Best Painter, Best Actor and Best Cartoonist.

As one who has a literary flair as well, he has published a book “Fascisavum Sangha Parivarum” besides essays for various publications. Shri. Muneer has been the President of State Muslim Youth League and State Secretariat Member of Muslim League. He is also the Chairman of India Vision Television Channel.

His wife is Smt. Nafeesa and they have 2 sons.

K.B. Ganesh Kumar

K B Ganesh Kumar is currently the Minister for Forests & Environment, Sports and Cinema in the Government of Kerala. He has won three consecutive elections to the State Legislative Assembly from the Pathanapuram constituency in Kollam district.

Born in 1966 with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth, this young man studied Commerce at the Government Arts College, Trivandrum, while embarking on a film career in Mollywood. He made his debut in the 1985 film "Erakal" directed by K G George. A man of great versatility and impeccable taste, Ganesh Kumar has acted in a variety of Malayalam films and television serials. In May 2008, he performed a daring fire escape act at Kozhikode for the telefilm “Agnisakshiyay." In November 2008 he won the State Award for Best Television Actor (2007) for his role in the serial "Madhavam", aired on Surya TV.

In 2001, Ganesh Kumar was elected to the Kerala Assembly from Pathanapuram on the Kerala Congress (B) ticket. This was the first time in the history of Kerala that a cine artiste had been elected to the Assembly. His father and former Minister, R Balakrishan Pillai had also been elected from the neighbouring constituency of Kottarakara, which he had represented for several decades. The father-son duo made history by becoming the first such pair to adorn the Kerala Assembly simultaneously.

Ganesh Kumar was appointed as Transport Minister in the A K Antony cabinet in May 2001. He surprised many by his political acumen and went on to give a good account of himself. Though only 34 years old and a political novice, he turned around the ailing KSRTC (Kerala State Road Transport Corporation) in record time and earned a reputation for providing a clean and efficient administration. In March 2003, he stepped down from his ministerial post to facilitate his father’s induction into the Cabinet.

In the 2006 Assembly elections, Ganesh Kumar was once again elected from Pathanapuram. This time he was the only UDF candidate elected from Kollam district, where the LDF won 11 out of 12 seats. His increased victory margin clearly indicated that his popularity remained undiminished.

Ganesh Kumar’s hat-trick win from Pathanapuram in the 2011 elections saw him increasing his lead to 20,402 votes. This time the CPI had surrendered the ticket to the CPM, but the candidate, K Rajagopal, Kollam District Secretary and veteran Marxist proved to be no match for the immensely popular sitting MLA.

Ganesh Kumar went on to become a Minister in the Oomen Chandy cabinet in May 2011. He has diverse interests and his over-riding fascination for vehicles includes transport buses and even pachyderms.                

President Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

"Dreams float on an impatient wind, A wind that wants to create a new order. An order of strength and thundering of fire." -- from a poem written by Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam is the undisputed father of India's missile program. He has breathed life into ballistic missiles like the Agni and Prithvi, which put China and Pakistan well under India's missile range. It is too exhausting to track Dr Abdul Kalam's achievements to date. In the '60s and '70s he was a trail blazer in the space department. In the '80s he transformed the moribund Defence Research and Development Laboratory in Hyderabad into a highly motivated team. By the '90s Kalam emerged as the czar of Indian science and technology and was awarded the Bharat Ratna. His life and mission is a vindication of what a determined person can achieve against extraordinary odds. Even at 71, he is indefatigable and dreams of making India into a technological superpower. More importantly, he is still capable of acting on it.

Born on 15th October 1931 at Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu, Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam studied at Schwartz High School in Ramanathapuram. After graduating in science from St. Joseph's College in Tiruchi, he did his DMIT in Aeronautical Engineering at the MIT, Madras, during 1954-57.

During 1963-82, he served the Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO) in various capacities. Here Kalam initiated Fibre Reinforced Plastics(FRP) activities, then after a stint with the aerodynamics and design group, he joined the satellite launch vehicle team at Thumba, near Trivandram and soon became Project Director for SLV-3. As Project Director, he was responsible for carrying out the design, development, qualification and flight testing of 44 major sub systems. The project managed to put Rohini, a scientific satellite, into orbit in July 1980. He was honoured with a Padma Bhushan in 1981.

On November 10, 2001, Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam quit as principal scientific advisor to the government. Sources close to Kalam, said he quit because of "lack of executive authority". However Kalam had been for quite some time keen on pursuing academic interests and helping scientists across the country in developing their research capabilities. Thats why after quitting he took over the job as distinguished professor at Anna University.

Dr Kalam has spent the past few years developing the concept of "India Millennium Missions 2020" - a blueprint for transforming India into a developed nation. He calls it "the second vision of the nation" and says he wants to focus on the children of India to ignite in their minds a love for science and the nation's mission: a developed India.

On July 25, 2002, Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was sworn in as the 11th President of India by Chief Justice of India B.N. Kirpal in the Central Hall of Parliament at an impressive function telecast live across the country. Kalam took the oath in the name of God as a 21-gun salute boomed in the background.