Suhas Gopinath:World's Youngest CEO!

Starting his own company at the young age of 14 years, Suhas Gopinath himself would not have imagined the heights of success that his company would kiss. Suhas Gopinath started Globals Incten ten years back from a small cyber café in Bengaluru. With that venture, Suhas became the youngest CEO in the world. The day he turned 18, he registered his company as Globals, opened his office and recruited four people as part of the team. In fact, he opened his office next to that very internet café from where he had started his career.

Today, his company Globals is a multi-million dollar company. The offices of Globals are spread all over the world in places like USA, India, Canada, Germany, Italy, UK, Spain, Australia, Singapore and the Middle East and employs close to 100 people in India and around 56 abroad.

Several prestigious honours have been bestowed on this young man, with the most prestigious being an invitation to become a member of the Board of the ICT Advisory Council of the World Bank. Suhas has also been invited to address the European Parliament and many other important business dignitaries at the EU Parliament. The European Parliament and International Association for Human Values conferred the “Young Achiever Award” on him back in 2007.

Suhas is the youngest member ever in the World Economic History’s Forum, whose other members include Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio, the famous Indian musician AR Rehman, among others.

Suhas hails from a middle class family and his father used to work as a scientist for the Indian army. A student of Air Force School in Bengaluru, Suhas became interested in computers listening to his friends. As his family couldn’t afford a computer at home, he located a local internet café near his home and started working there part time, taking care of the customers during lunch hours and using the internet for free in return. That was his first successful business bargain, with many more to come!!

Mark Zuckerberg

He took the world by storm by launching the biggest and the most successful social networking site that brought families, friends and old acquaintances nearer. Mark Zuckerberg is just 26 years old and he is already a billionaire!! Zuckerberg has proved to the world that age doesn’t matter when it comes to being original and having faith in yourself.

Zuckerberg co-founded the social networking site Facebook with his fellow classmates from Harvard. As of the year 2010, he was a 24% shareholder of Facebook. Born in White Plains, New York to a psychiatrist mother and a dentist father, he along with his three sisters, was brought up in Dobbs Ferry, New York. Raised a Jewish, Mark also became a Bar Maitzvah as a child, even though he considers himself an out and out atheist.

Zuckerberg was never short of talent and he launched Facebook from his Harvard dormitory room on February 4, 2010. A graduate from the Phillips Exeter Academy, a private high school, Zuckerberg might have got inspired from their student directory, “The Photo Address Book” which was often called ‘The Facebook” by fellow students. It listed their class years, proximities to friends and their telephone numbers and formed an important part of the student life in many schools.

Zuckerberg started Facebook as just a “Harvard” thing while it college. However, he decided to spread it to other schools as well, enlisting the help of his roommate Dustin Moskovitz. Initially starting it at Stanford, Dartmouth, Columbia, New York University, Cornell, Brown and Yale, Zuckerberg soon spread it across to other schools as well who had social contacts at Harvard. It has been well reported that Facebook reached the 500 million-user mark on July 21, 2010. Undoubtedly, this young man brought about a success on the social platform which is unparalled and seems to stop@nothing to become bigger ever passing day.

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey, the name says it all! Winfrey was originally named Orpah after the famous Biblical character in the Book of Ruth. Winfrey was born to unmarried teenage parents. She had confessed later on that her conception was due to a single sexual encounter and the couple broke up not long after!

After Winfrey was born, her mother traveled north and Winfrey spent her first six years living in rural poverty with her grandmother who was so poor that Winfrey often wore dresses made of potato sacks. Local children made fun of her because of this very reason. Her grandmother taught her to read before the age of three. When Winfrey was a child, her grandmother used to take a switch and hit her with it whenever she didn't do her chores or if she misbehaved in any manner whatsoever. At the age of 6, Oprah went to stay with her mother who was less supportive and encouraging than her grandmother had been due in large part to the long hours of working as a maid.

Winfrey had a traumatic childhood besides being brought up in dire poverty. Winfrey has stated that she was molested by her cousin, her uncle, and a family friend, starting when she was nine years old. At 13, after suffering years of abuse, Winfrey ran away from home and gave birth to a baby boy when she was just 14 years old. Her son died shortly thereafter and Winfrey was sent away to Nashville where she became an Honors student, besides being voted the Most Popular Girl.

Winfrey went on to become an American television host, actress, producer, and philanthropist. She is best known for her self-titled award-winning talk show, which became the highest-rated program of its kind in history. Oprah Winfrey has been ranked the richest African American of the 20th century, the greatest black philanthropist in American history,and was once the world's only black billionaire. A woman who faced so many struggles in life yet didn’t give up, Oprah has often been called the most influential woman in the world.

Sunita Ramnathkar

Four months after the birth of her second daughter, Sunita Ramnathkar launched ‘Fem’ fairness bleach, which went on to become a major brand in itself! Over the next 27 years, the skin fairness company held its head high over and above all the large multinationals, selling out to Dabur only recently.

She had everything. A beautiful house, car, servants, every comfort one desires in life. However, what she did not have was some work to devote her time to. And being the independent woman she was, she was not content to just play the housewife. So along with her brother, Sunita started her business of providing fairness products to the beauty conscious Indian women. 25 years later, the super cool Sunita and her brother had converted the business into a 100 crore empire which had gone on to become a world famous brand.

Fem is easily the “made in India and for India” cosmetics company which strived for success and got it, without buckling down in front of multinational brands. Sunita is one of those women who wanted to do something in her own right and carved a niche for herself in the world. Her understanding of the female psyche- what women want and what sells- is razor sharp! Along with the technical genius and intelligence of her aeronautical engineer brother, Fem has given the biggest brands in the market a run for their money and how!

Fem is not just a cosmetic brand but the story of a woman who built a career for herself on her own, especially at a time when women did not even think of having careers for themselves, not at all those who had all the luxuries of life at their disposal. What’s even more striking about her success is that she gave brought into the world a child and a company, in a span of 6 months. Sunita Ramnathkar is surely someone who gives weight to the belief that you can dream and make your dreams come true.

Swami Vivekananda

“The world is the great gymnasium where we come to make ourselves strong.” ~Swami Vivekananda

Swami Vivekananda has always been looks upon as one of the most respected spiritual leaders in India. He was the chief disciple of the 19th century mystic Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and the founder of the Ramakrishna Mission. Swami Vivekananda is considered to have played a key role in the introduction of Hindu philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga in Europe and America. He is also credited with bringing forth and raising interfaith awareness, bringing Hinduism to the status of a world religion during the end of the 19th century.

Vivekananda was considered to be a major force, who played an important role in the revival of Hinduism in modern India. His famous speech beginning with “Sisters and brothers of America” is considered by many as one of the most inspiring speeches ever, through which he introduced Hinduism at the ‘Parliament of the World Religions’ in Chicago in 1893.

Born in an aristocratic Bengali family in Kolkata in 1863, Vivekananda’s parents played a huge role in influencing his thinking. He got a rational bent of mind from his father whereas a religious temperament from his mother. His father was an attorney of Kolkata High court and was considered a generous gentleman who had a liberal and progressive outlook towards social and religious matters.

Vivekananda was reportedly adept in meditation. During his childhood, he had a great fascination for wanderings monks and ascetics. He had varied interests and received scholarships in a variety of subjects like philosophy, history, social sciences, art, literature, to name a few. He also showed great interest in spiritual texts. Even as a young boy, he questioned the validity of superstitious rituals and discrimination based on caste. He refused to accept anything without proof and rational logic.

Vivekananda spent nearly two whole years lecturing in various parts of eastern and central United States, appearing chiefly in Chicago, Detroit, Boston, and New York. He left quite an impression in America, Europe and other countries and had quite a few renowned followers.

Sanjay Khan

Bollywood is a land of dreams. Some dreams come true, some don’t. However, often we come across on-screen heroes who turn out to be real-life heroes as well. Among those, one name which stands out is surely that of filmmaker Sanjay Khan. Forty-five years, a young boy from Bengaluru, dazzled the audiences on the silver screen with Rajshri Productions’ social drama-Dosti. That young actor is a successful filmmaker today who has come a long way, overcoming struggles that have been peppered throughout his life. Sanjay Khan’s is a story that is bound to inspire one all, with the courage and attitude Sanjay Khan has shown in his life.

Sanjay Khan received the Lifetime Achievement Award this year and is considered to be quite a meticulous man, stylish yet unpretentious! He lost his mother while he was still young and his mother had to bring up her large brood of 5 sons and two daughters all on her own.
Although Sanjay and his siblings studies in Convent schools, they had a very conservative upbringing.

Sanjay was barely 12 when the cinema bug caught him and after finishing his school, he came to Mumbai along with his brother Feroz Khan, with dreams of making it big in the film industry. Feroz soon shot to fame whereas it took a lot of struggle for Sanjay to gain a foothold in the industry. With Feroz’s help, he landed the job of 13th assistant to the famous director John Guillermin (of The Towering Inferno fame).

However, once he settled in he enjoyed quite a few good roles and movies like Dhund, Ek Phool Do Maali,etc. Soon he turned to filmmaking and got burned, literally! His famous pet tele-serial caught fire on the sets and Sanjay received 95% burn injuries. However, he kept his faith and went on to become a successful filmmaker.

Homi Jehangir Bhabha

Homi Jehangir Bhabha was an Indian Nuclear physicist who has probably been one of the most well-respected and revered scientist in our country. He has played a very important role in shaping and development of the Indian atomic energy program. He is often referred to as the ‘Father of India’s nuclear program’.

Born into a prominent Parsi family, he received his early education at different schools in Bombay and at the Royal Institute of Science. He pursued his degree in mechanical engineering from the Caius College of Cambridge University. Later on, he also pursued his doctorate in theoretical physics. In the meanwhile, he also embarked on a ground-breaking research into the absorption of cosmic rays and electron shower production. He also published a string of widely-accepted papers on his theories regarding cosmic ray showers.

Homi Bhabha as in India during the second-world war and he was offered an esteemed position at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, under Nobel laureate C.V.Raman. While working there, he established the Cosmic Ray Research and worked on many important theories and research papers. In 1945, he established the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Bombay, and the famous Atomic Energy Commission of India three years later.

Homi Bhabha is widely held as a scientist of excellence and he is renowned throughout the world for his vision and contribution to the field of atomic research. In the 1950’s Bhabha represented India in International Atomic Energy Forums. He has also served as the President of the United Nations Conference. His brilliance has also been recognized by the Indian government. In 1954, Homi Bhabha was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India. Apart from all of these appreciations, he also set up the Indian National Commission of Space Research with Vikram Sarabhai. Seldom has any scientist contributed to Indian aspirations such effectively.