Showing posts with label Great Personalities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Great Personalities. Show all posts

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Who is Benito Mussolini ?

Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (July 29, 1883 – April 28, 1945) was an Italian who embraced the Fascist dictator.

He was the dictator of Italy in the period 1922-1943. He was forced to resign from his position as Prime Minister of Italy on July 28, 1943 after a series defeat of Italy in Africa. After his arrest, he was isolated. Two years later, he was executed in Como, northern Italy. Mussolini end to a decade as the German dictator Adolf Hitler committed by his Nazi.Early LifeMussolini was born in Predappio, Forlì (Emilia-Romagna). His father was a blacksmith Alessandro Rosa and her mother a schoolteacher. Like his father, he became a heavy socialist. In 1902 he emigrated to Switzerland. Because it is difficult to find a permanent job, he eventually moved to Italy. In 1908 he joined the newspaper in the Austrian town of Trento.Get out of there, he became editor of a socialist newspaper in la Lotta Class (Class Conflict). Here his enthusiasm at the Karl Heinrich Marx bigger. In 1910, he was the secretary of the socialist party in Forlì regional level and develop into antipatriot personality. When Italy declared war on the Ottoman Empire in 1911, he was jailed for peace propaganda. This is in contrast to its performance later.Once appointed to be editor of the socialist newspaper Avanti, he moved to Milan, where he was establishing itself as an influential force on the Italian socialist labor leader. He believed, the proletariat can dibuhul in fascio movement. Presumably this is the embryo of a fascist movement, who was born in Italy when the economy soured by the war, and unemployment are rampant everywhere.In March 1919, fascism became a political movement when he formed the Group for the Fight, known as black clothes, which is a collection of thugs, criminals, and thugs who act as bouncers bosses. Their performance was spooky and every day getting into fights in the streets.After failing in Election 1919, he developed an understanding of the group, so start getting the effect. They, the fascists, rejected the parliament and promoting physical violence. Anarchy broke out everywhere. Liberal government powerless to deal. He brought a “gang” her, a large number of the fascists are looking grim, to do Line up to Rome.Seeing a group of thugs entered the haunted faces of Rome, King Victor Emmanuel III shrink afraid. Mussolini was invited to the palace and given the position of the Leader. In October 1922, the King asked him to form a new government. Be Italy’s fascist government managed.His first breakthrough after taking office, was attacked Ethiopia with reference to the racist views of Charles Robert Darwin, “Ethiopia’s low class people, because it included blacks. If ordered by a superior race like the Italians, it was a natural result of evolution. “Indeed, he insists that nations evolve through battle. So be Italian then the dreaded nation.
What is troubling, when he occupied the Abbesinia in 1937, the world gasped in cash. Best friends in Europe was Adolf Hitler, and they make alliances, who dragged Italy into World War II on the side of Germany in 1940. However, his army was defeated in Greece and Africa, and Italy itself was invaded by forces of the United Kingdom and the United States in 1943. At that time Mussolini had descended from his throne and detained. German paratroopers freed and returned to power in Northern Italy. End of history arrived shortly afterwards. When Italy finally defeated, he was shot by enemy Italian and his body hung upside down in the Piazza Loreto in Milan.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Amartya Sen

Amartya Sen

Prof. Amartya Kumar Sen is one of the greatest intellectuals and economists of modern India. Amartya Sen is a philosopher, economist and a social thinker. At a time when the world was talking of globalization, liberalization and free market economy, Prof. Sen dared to differ. No wonder, he was awarded the Noble prize for welfare economics in the face of market oriented economics. Instead of the growth oriented economic path to prosperity, Amartya Sen has emphasized the need for giving a human face to development.

Why Is He Famous?
Amartya Kumar Sen is an economist best known for his work on famine, Human development theory, welfare economics, and the underlying causes of poverty and hunger. When the world was talking of free market economy, Prof. Sen emphasised the need for giving a human face to development. Amartya Sen is one of those few economists who talk of political economy of hunger. He received The Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences( Noble prize for economics), in memory of Alfred Nobel, for his work in mathematical economics in 1998. The government of India awarded him with the highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna in 1999.

Sen's best-known work is Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation, in which he established that famine occurs not from a lack of food, but from inequalities built into mechanisms for distributing food. In addition to his important work on the causes of famines, Sen's work in the field of development economics has had considerable influence in the formulation of the Human Development Report , published by the United Nations Development Program. The HDI ranks countries on a variety of economic and social indicators. Amartya Amartya Sen's other works are- "Choice of Techniques", "Collective Choice and Social Welfare", "Poverty and Famines", "Development as Freedom" etc.

Background
Amartya Kumar Sen was born on 3rd November 1933 at Shantiniketan, West Bengal. He received his initial education at Shantiniketan and then Presidency College, Calcutta. In his early childhood he was exposed to the plight of the poor. The sight of people dying during famine shocked him. It was, perhaps, this shocking experience that made him study the economic mechanism underlying famines and poverty. Sen first studied in India before moving to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he earned a BA in 1956 and then a Ph.D. in 1959. He has taught economics at Calcutta, Delhi School Of Economics (1963-71), Oxford, Harvard and was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, between 1997 and 2004.

Present Position
In January 2004, Prof. Amartya Sen returned to Harvard, where he currently teaches. With the Noble prize, Prof. Sen is now more determined about his old obsessions like literacy, basic health care and gender equity specifically in India and Bangladesh. He has set up the Pratichi Trust, with a part of the prize money, to take forward his work.

Kumar Mangalam Birla

Kumar Mangalam Birla

Born: June 14, 1967

Achievement: Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group; Vhosen as Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year - India in 2005

Kumar Mangalam Birla is the Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group. The group is India's third largest business house. Major companies of Aditya Birla Group in India are Grasim, Hindalco, UltraTech Cement, Aditya Birla Nuvo and Idea Cellular. Aditya Birla Group's joint ventures include Birla Sun Life (Financial Services) and Birla NGK (Insulators). The group also has its presence in various countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Egypt, Canada, China and Australia.

Born on June 14, 1967, Kumar Mangalam Birla spent the early of his life in Calcutta and Mumbai. He is a Chartered Accountant and did his MBA (Masters in Business Administration) from the London Business School, London. Kumar Mangalam Birla took over as Chairman in 1995, at the age of 28, after sudden demise of his father, noted industrialist Aditya Birla, after whom the group is named.

When Kumar Mangalam Birla assumed the mantle at the Aditya Birla Group, Doubts were raised about his ability to handle a giant business house with interests spanning viscose, textiles and garments on the one hand and cement, aluminium and fertilisers on the other. But Kumar Mangalam proved his skeptics wrong. He brought in radical changes, changed business strategies, professionalised the entire group and replaced internal systems. Kumar Mangalam reduced his group's dependence on the cyclic commodities sectors by entering consumer products.

Under Kumar Mangalam Birla's leadership, the Aditya Birla Group, apart from consolidating its position in existing businesses, also ventured into sunrise sectors like cellular telephony, asset management, software and BPO.

Kumar Mangalam Birla also holds several key positions on various regulatory and professional boards, including chairmanship of the advisory committee constituted by the ministry of company affairs for 2006 and 2007, membership of the prime minister of India's advisory council on trade and industry, chairmanship of the board of trade reconstituted by the union minister of commerce and industry, and membership of the Central Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank of India.

Kumar Mangalam Birla has won several honors. Major among them include The Business Leader of the Year (2003) by The Economic Times, Business Man of the Year - 2003 by Business India, and The Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year - India in 2005.

Mukesh D. Ambani

Mukesh D. Ambani

Born: April 19, 1957

is a Chemical Engineer from University Institute of Chemical Technology (earlier University Department of Chemical Technology), University of Mumbai (earlier University of Bombay). He has pursued MBA from Stanford University, USA.

Mukesh D. Ambani, son of Dhirubhai H. Ambani, Founder Chairman of the Company joined Reliance in 1981. He initiated Reliance's backward integration journey from textiles into polyester fibres and further into petrochemicals, petroleum refining and going up-stream into oil and gas exploration and production. He created several new world class manufacturing facilities involving diverse technologies that have raised Reliance's petrochemicals manufacturing capacities from less than a million tonnes to about twenty million tonnes per year.

Working hands-on, Mukesh D. Ambani led the creation of the world's largest grassroots petroleum refinery at Jamnagar, India, with a current capacity of 660,000 barrels per day (33 million tonnes per year) integrated with petrochemicals, power generation, port and related infrastructure. Further, he steered the setting up of another 27 million tonnes refinery next to the existing one in Jamnagar. An aggregate refining capacity of 1.24 million barrels of oil per day has transformed "Jamnagar" as the 'Refining Hub of the World'.

In September 2008, when the first drop of crude oil flowed from the Krishna-Godavari basin, Mukesh D. Ambani's vision of energy security for India was being realized. Under his leadership, RIL is set to transform India's energy landscape from the oil & gas flowing from Dhirubhai 1 & 3 Natural gas - a low carbon, low polluting green fuel that will flow from these will create value and be beneficial to a large section of India's society.

Mukesh D. Ambani had set up one of the largest and most complex information and communications technology initiative in the world in the form of Reliance Infocomm Limited (now Reliance Communications Limited).

Mukesh D. Ambani is also steering Reliance's development of infrastructure facilities and implementation of a pan-India organized retail network spanning multiple formats and supply chain infrastructure.

Mukesh D. Ambani's achievements have been acknowledged at national and international levels. Over the years, some of the awards and recognition bestowed on him are :
  • Conferred the 'Indian Corporate Citizen of the Year' by the India Leadership conclave 2009.
  • Bestowed the US-India Business Council (USIBC) 'Global Vision' 2007 Award for Leadership in 2007.
  • Conferred 'ET Business Leader of the Year' Award by The Economic Times (India) in the year 2006.
  • Conferred the Degree Honoris Causa, Honorary Doctorate by the Maharaja Sayajirao University in 2007.
  • Conferred the India Business Leadership Award by CNBC-TV18 in 2007.
  • Received the first NDTV-Profit 'Global Indian Leader Award' from Hon'ble Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh in New Delhi in the year 2006.
  • Had the distinction and honour of being the Co-chair at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in 2006.
  • 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, in 2004.
  • Conferred the World Communication Award for the 'Most Influential Person' in Telecommunications by Total Telecom, in 2004.
  • Conferred the 'Asia Society Leadership Award' by the Asia Society, Washington D.C., USA, in 2004.
Mukesh D. Ambani is a member of the Prime Minister's Council on Trade and Industry, Government of India and the Board of Governors of the National Council of Applied Economic Research, New Delhi.

On invitation to Mukesh D. Ambani,Reliance Industries Limited, became a Council Member of World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) in 2007. Ambani has been elected as Vice Chairman of WBCSD Executive Committee in 2008.

Further, he is a member of the Indo-US CEOs Forum, the International Advisory Board of Citigroup, International Advisory Board of the National Board of Kuwait, Advisory Council for the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, International Advisory Board of Brookings, International Advisory Board of Council on Foreign Relations, Member of The Business Council, and McKinsey Knowledge Advisory Council.

He is the Chairman, Board of Governors of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, Chairman of Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, Gandhinagar, Co-Chair of India-Russia CEO Council, Co-Chair of Japan-India Business Leader's Forum and a member of the Advisory Council of the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai.

Mukesh D. Ambani is the Chairman of Reliance Retail Limited and a Director of Reliance Europe Limited and a Private Limited Company.

At RIL, Mukesh D. Ambani is the Chairman of the Finance Committee and the Employees Stock Compensation Committee.

Sunita L. Williams

Sunita L. Williams

Name: Sunita L. Williams (Commander, USN)
NASA Astronaut
Personal Data: Born September 19, 1965 in Euclid, Ohio, but considers Needham, Massachusetts to be her hometown. Married to Michael J. Williams.
Although they have no children, Labrador retrievers and a crazy Jack Russell Terrier named Gorby have added their share of excitement to their lives. Recreational interests include running, swimming, biking, triathlons, windsurfing, snowboarding and bow hunting. Her parents, Dr. Deepak and Mrs. Bonnie Pandya, reside in Falmouth, Massachusetts.
Education: Needham High School, Needham, Massachusetts, 1983. B.S., Physical Science, U.S. Naval Academy, 1987.
M.S., Engineering Management, Florida Institute of Technology, 1995.
Organisation: Society of Experimental Test Pilots, Society of Flight Test Engineers, American Helicopter Association.
Special Honors: Awarded Navy Commendation Medal (2), Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, Humanitarian Service Medal and various other service awards.
Experience: Williams received her commission as an Ensign in the United States Navy from the United States Naval Academy in May 1987.
After a six-month temporary assignment at the Naval Coastal System Command, she received her designation as a Basic Diving Officer and then reported to Naval Aviation Training Command. She was designated a Naval Aviator in July 1989. She then reported to Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 3 for initial H46, Seaknight, training.
Upon completion of this training, she was assigned to Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 8 in Norfolk, Virginia, and made overseas deployments to the Mediterranean, Red Sea and the Persian Gulf in support of Desert Shield and Operation Provide Comfort.
In September 1992 she was the Officer-in-Charge of an H-46 detachment sent to Miami, Florida for Hurricane Andrew Relief Operations onboard USS Sylvania. Williams was selected for United States Naval Test Pilot School and began the course in January 1993.
After graduation in December 1993, she was assigned to the Rotary Wing Aircraft Test Directorate as an H-46 Project Officer, and V-22 Chase Pilot in the T-2. While there she was also assigned as the squadron Safety Officer and flew test flights in the SH-60B/F, UH-1, AH-1W, SH-2, VH-3, H-46, CH-53 and the H-57.
In December 1995, she went back to the Naval Test Pilot School as an Instructor in the Rotary Wing Department and the school's Safety Officer. There she flew the UH-60, OH-6 and the OH-58. From there she was assigned to the USS Saipan (LHA-2), Norfolk, Virginia, as the Aircraft Handler and the Assistant Air Boss. Williams was deployed onboard USS Saipan when she was selected for the astronaut program.
She has logged over 2770 flight hours in more than 30 different aircraft.
NASA Experience: Selected by NASA in June 1998, she reported for training in August 1998.
Astronaut Candidate Training included orientation briefings and tours, numerous scientific and technical briefings, intensive instruction in Shuttle and International Space Station systems, physiological training and ground school to prepare for T-38 flight training, as well as learning water and wilderness survival techniques.
Following a period of training and evaluation, Williams worked in Moscow with the Russian Federal Space Agency on the Russian contribution to the International Space Station and with the first Expedition crew to the ISS.
Following the return of Expedition 1, Williams has worked within the Robotics branch on the ISS Robotic Arm and the follow on Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator. As a NEEMO 2 crewmember she lived underwater in the Aquarius habitat for 9 days. She is currently assigned to the Expedition-14 crew. She will join Expedition 14 in progress, to serve as a flight engineer, after traveling to the International Space Station with the crew aboard STS-116.

N. R. Narayana Murthy

N. R. Narayana Murthy

Mr. N. R. Narayana Murthy is the Chairman of the Board and Chief Mentor of Infosys Technologies Limited. He founded Infosys in 1981 along with six other software professionals and served as the CEO for 21 years before handing over the reins of the company to co-founder Nandan M. Nilekani in March 2002. Under his leadership, Infosys was listed on NASDAQ in 1999. He served as the Executive Chairman of the Board and Chief Mentor from 2002 to 2006.
Mr. Murthy articulated, designed and implemented the Global Delivery Model, which has become the foundation for the success of IT services outsourcing from India. He has also led key corporate governance initiatives in India.
Mr. Murthy is an IT advisor to several Asian countries. He serves as an independent director on the boards of several global companies including Unilever, London and DBS Bank, Singapore. He is also a member of the advisory boards and councils of several educational institutions including Wharton, Cornell, INSEAD, Stanford, Tokyo University, SMU - Singapore, Indian Institute of Information Technology-Bangalore (IIIT-B) and ESSEC, Paris.
Mr. Murthy is the recipient of numerous awards and honors. The Economist ranked him 8th on its list of 15 most admired global leaders in 2005. He was ranked 28th among the world's most respected business leaders by The Financial Times in 2005. In 2004, TIME magazine identified him as one of ten global leaders who are helping shape the future of technology. He was featured in BusinessWeek’s “The Stars of Asia” consecutively from 1998 to 2000. He was voted the “World Entrepreneur of the Year” by Ernst & Young in 2003 and as India's most powerful CEO for three consecutive years (2004 to 2006) by The Economic Times. He received the Ernst Weber Engineering Leadership medal from The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2007 for his pioneering role in the globalization of IT services.
Mr. Murthy holds a B. E. (Electrical) from the University of Mysore (1967) and M. Tech. (Electrical) from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (1969). He has been conferred honorary doctorate degrees by leading universities across the world.

Bill Gates

Bill Gates

William (Bill) H. Gates is chairman of Microsoft Corporation, the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. Microsoft had revenues of US$51.12 billion for the fiscal year ending June 2007, and employs more than 78,000 people in 105 countries and regions.
On June 15, 2006, Microsoft announced that effective July 2008 Gates will transition out of a day-to-day role in the company to spend more time on his global health and education work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. After July 2008 Gates will continue to serve as Microsoft’s chairman and an advisor on key development projects.
In his junior year, Gates left Harvard University to devote his energies to Microsoft, a company he had begun in 1975 with his childhood friend Paul Allen. Guided by a belief that the computer would be a valuable tool on every office desktop and in every home, they began developing software for personal computers. Gates' foresight and his vision for personal computing have been central to the success of Microsoft and the software industry.
Under Gates' leadership, Microsoft's mission has been to continually advance and improve software technology, and to make it easier, more cost-effective and more enjoyable for people to use computers. The company is committed to a long-term view, reflected in its investment of approximately $7.1 billion on research and development in the 2007 fiscal year.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Ban Ki-Moon

Ban Ki-Moon

Ban Ki-moon of the Republic of Korea, the eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations, brings to his post 37 years of service both in government and on the global stage. 

Career highlights

At the time of his election as Secretary-General, Mr. Ban was his country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade. His long tenure with the ministry included postings in New Delhi, Washington D.C. and Vienna, and responsibility for a variety of portfolios, including Foreign Policy Advisor to the President, Chief National Security Advisor to the President, Deputy Minister for Policy Planning and Director-General of American Affairs. Throughout this service, his guiding vision was that of a peaceful Korean peninsula, playing an expanding role for peace and prosperity in the region and the wider world. 
Mr. Ban has longstanding ties with the United Nations, dating back to 1975, when he worked for the Foreign Ministry’s United Nations division. That work expanded over the years, with assignments as First Secretary at the ROK’s Permanent Mission to the UN in New York, Director of the UN Division at the ministry’s headquarters in Seoul, and Ambassador to Vienna, during which time, in 1999, he served as Chairman of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization. In 2001-2002, as Chef-de-Cabinet during the ROK’s Presidency of the General Assembly, he facilitated the prompt adoption of the first resolution of the session, condemning the terrorist attacks of 11 September, and undertook a number of initiatives aimed at strengthening the Assembly’s functioning, thereby helping to turn a session that started out in crisis and confusion into one in which a number of important reforms were adopted.
Mr. Ban has also been actively involved in issues relating to inter-Korean relations. In 1992, as Special Advisor to the Foreign Minister, he served as Vice Chair of the South-North Joint Nuclear Control Commission following the adoption of the historic Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. In September 2005, as Foreign Minister, he played a leading role in bringing about another landmark agreement aimed at promoting peace and stability on the Korean peninsula with the adoption at the Six Party Talks of the Joint Statement on resolving the North Korean nuclear issue. 

Education

Mr. Ban received a bachelor's degree in international relations from Seoul National University in 1970. In1985, he earned a master's degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. 

Prizes and awards

Mr. Ban has received numerous national and international prizes, medals and honours. In 1975, 1986 and again in 2006, he was awarded the ROK’s Highest Order of Service Merit for service to his country. 

Personal

Mr. Ban was born on 13 June 1944. He and his wife, Madam Yoo (Ban) Soon-taek, whom he met in high school in 1962, have one son and two daughters. In addition to Korean, Mr. Ban speaks English and French.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama

Born to a Kenyan father and an American mother, he spent most of his early life in Honolulu, Hawaii. From ages six to ten, he lived in Jakarta, Indonesia with his mother and Indonesian stepfather. A graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, Obama worked as a community organizer, university lecturer, and civil rights lawyer before running for public office and serving in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004. After an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000, he announced his campaign for U.S. Senate in 2003.

The following year, while still an Illinois state legislator, Obama delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in November 2004 with 70% of the vote. As a member of the Democratic minority in the 109th Congress, he co-sponsored bipartisan legislation for controlling conventional weapons and for promoting greater public accountability in the use of federal funds. He also made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. In the current 110th Congress, he has sponsored legislation on lobbying and electoral fraud, climate change, nuclear terrorism, and care for returned U.S. military personnel.

Since announcing his presidential campaign in February 2007, Obama has emphasized ending the Iraq War, increasing energy independence, and providing universal health care as his top three priorities. He married in 1992 and has two daughters. He has written two bestselling books: a memoir of his youth titled Dreams from My Father, and The Audacity of Hope, a personal commentary on U.S. politics.

Obama's Books
• Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance 
• The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream 
• Change We Can Believe In: Barack Obama's Plan to Renew America's Promise 
• Three Wishes by Barack Obama by Barack Obama 

Children/Illustration
• Yes, We Can! A Salute To Children From President Obama's Victory Speech 
• Our Enduring Spirit: President Barack Obama's First Words to America (Illustrator: Greg Ruth)
• Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters by Barack Obama 

AudioBook
• The Essential Barack Obama: The Grammy Award-Winning Recordings