A crore ( /ˈkrɔər/; abbreviated cr; Hindi: करोड़, Nepali: करोड, Urdu: کروڑ) is a unit in the South Asian numbering system equal to ten million (10,000,000; 10⁷), or 100 lakhs. It is widely used in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan.

Usage[link]

Money[link]

Large amounts of money in India are often written in the form "23 cr", that is, 23,00,00,000 rupees (230,000,000 in Western notation). Although lakhs are used in Sri Lanka, most Sri Lankans do not use the term crore when referring to money, but they use the word "koatiya" (කෝටිය) to indicate 100 lakhs or ten million.

Very large amounts of money are often written or spoken in terms of "lakh crore", e.g. one lakh crore rupees (or Rs.1 lakh cr) = Rs.(1,00,000 × 1,00,00,000) = Rs. 1 trillion; 1,000,000,000,000 in Western notation = 10¹² rupees. This amount is also equal to ten kharab rupees according to the South Asian numbering system, but such terms are rare in common usage.

Other[link]

The term is used wherever large numbers are involved: e.g. India is a country with a population of over a 100 crores. and other e.g. is "world population is over 700 crores"

Etymology and regional variants[link]

The word "crore" is derived from the Prakrit word krodi ,^[1] denoting "ten million" in the Indian numbering system, which has separate terms for most powers of ten from 10⁰ up to 10¹⁹. The crore is known by various regional names in modern languages, all derived from the Sanskrit word कोटि koṭi.

South Asian languages[link]

• Assamese: কোটি koṭi, কৌটি kouṭi
• Bengali: কোটি koṭi
• Gujarati: કરોડ karoḍ
• Hindi: करोड़ karoṛ
  • Bombay Hindi: खोका khokā (which in Marathi means a 'box'. That is the amount of money in Rs. 100 notes that can fit into a khoka.)
• Kannada: ಕೋಟಿ koṭi
• Konkani: कोटि koṭi or karoṛ
• Malayalam: കോടി koḍi (often written koti)
• Marathi: कोटि koṭi
• Oriya: କୋଟି koṭi
• Pashto: خبری korur
• Punjabi: کروڑ/ਕਰੋੜ karoṛ (often written karor)
• Sindhi: kiroṛu
• Sinhala කෝටිය koṭiya
• Tamil: கோடி koṭi (often written koti)
• Telugu: కోటీ koṭī
• Urdu: کروڑ karoṛ

Translation of crore into non-South Asian languages[link]

• Arabic: الكرور عشرة ملايين al-krūr ('ashra malāyyin)
• Burmese: ကုဋေ [ɡədè] (increasingly archaic)
• Chinese: 千万 qiānwàn
• Japanese: クロー kurō (but 千万 senman is more normally used)
• Korean: 천만 cheonman
• Persian: خبری khbri
• Tagalog: karora (also called kotiha or kotiya / but often called sampung milyon)
• Thai: โกฏิ kot or kot̩i (from Pali koti, obsolete)

See also[link]

• Lakh (= 0.01 crore)
• Indian numbering system
• Names of numbers in English
• Names of large numbers

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Encyclopædia Britannica 11th Edition s.v. crore full text of article
• Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. crore

This number article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

D

Anurag Kashyap
Born	(1972-09-10) 10 September 1972 (age 39) Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India
Occupation	film director, producer, screenwriter and actor
Years active	1996–present
Spouse	Aarti Bajaj (divorced) Kalki Koechlin (2011–present)

Anurag Singh Kashyap (born 10 September 1972) is an Indian film director and screenwriter. As a filmmaker, he is known for Black Friday (2004), a controversial^[1][2][3] and award-winning Hindi film about the 1993 Bombay bombings, followed by No Smoking (2007), Dev D (2009) and Gulaal (2009). As a screenwriter, he wrote the scripts for the Filmfare Award-winning Satya (1998) and the Academy Award-nominated Canadian film Water (2005).

In 1999, Kashyap won the Best Screenplay award for Satya at the Star Screen Awards. The next year, his short film Last Train to Mahakali won the Special Jury Award at the same awards.^[4] His feature film debut Black Friday won the Grand Jury Prize at the 3rd Annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (2005),^[5] and was a nominee for the "Golden Leopard" (Best Film) at the 57th Locarno International Film Festival (2004).^[6] In 2010, he announced his association with Tumbhi where he and his team will make six short films for Tumbhi and start his blog with them, as well.^[7][8][9] He was listed on the The DNA power list: Top 50 influentials, a list of 50 most influential Indians in 2011.^[10]

Early life[link]

Anurag Kashyap was born in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, where his father worked for the state electricity board. He grew up in several cities, including Varanasi, Saharanpur, and Obra. He did his early schooling in Dehradun and, age eight onwards, at the Scindia School in Gwalior.^[11][12][13]

He was fascinated with films right from childhood. Even at age five, would watch Hindi films like Kora Kagaz and Aandhi at a nearby club and open-air theater. This came to an end once he began his schooling.^[14]

Due to Kashyap's desire to become a scientist, he went to Delhi for his higher studies and enrolled himself into a zoology course at the Hansraj College (University of Delhi); he graduated in 1993.^[15][16][17] During his college days, he started watching films again and also got involved with drugs and alcohol. He was confused and depressed and had joined a street theater group, Jana Natya Manch; he ended up doing a lot of street plays.^[12][14][17] The same year, a couple of friends introduced him to world cinema; they "urged [him] to catch a de Sica retrospective" at the International Film Festival of India.^[11][12] In ten days, he saw 55 films at the festival,^[17][18] and de Sica's Bicycle Thieves was the film that influenced him the most; watching it "was an epiphany."^[15]

"from all different perspectives and in a way you can say that these films changed my life and it’s meaning completely for me. Just that one film festival and I decided that this is what I want to be a part of — in next five months I was in Mumbai".^[17]

Career[link]

The film festival and de Sica made a deep impact on Kashyap — he wanted to do something with films — so he landed in Mumbai in June 1993 with INR 5,000– 6,000 in his pocket.^[14][19] The money ran out after he stayed for a couple of days in a "good hotel." He spent the next eight months on the streets, staying in lofts, "sleeping on beaches," "under a water tank and in the St Xavier's [college] boys hostel."^[12] He managed to find work at Prithvi Theatre, but his first play remained incomplete because the director died. He then joined Makrand Deshpande's troupe — Samrangan — but left because he "could not face life. [He] wanted to act but [he] couldn't act with all that frustration."^[16]

Kashyap then wrote an "eight-page drama" — Main (I) — which did well at college drama festivals. People advised him to pursue a career in writing. Kashyap's play was appreciated by directors like Govind Nihalani and Saeed Mirza. Nihalani was working on a television series based on classic works, and he gave Kashyap a couple of books—a play by Henrik Ibsen, and Franz Kafka's The Trial—so that he could write scripts based on them. Kashyap read The Trial and told Nihalani that the book could only be made into an animation film, not a regular one. Nihalani asked him to reconsider. But the books had "confused [Kashyap] so much that [he] started thinking that [he] didn't know anything!" Kashyap started avoiding Nihalani; he went into "hibernation for a year and a half, and kept reading."^[14][16]

In 1995, an acquaintance introduced Kashyap to Shivam Nair, director of the 2006 film Ahista Ahista. The day they met, Kashyap watched Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver at Nair's place—on a "bad vcr" and using a "mutilated tape"; the film fascinated him. "I want to write something," Kashyap told Nair, and spent the next few days sitting in a corner as people like Sriram Raghavan, Sridhar Raghavan and Shiv Subramaniam discussed things. Sridhar introduced him to the world of books—authors like James M. Cain.^[14] The team was working on two projects, one of which was a docu-drama, Auto Narayan, based on the life of serial killer Auto Shankar; the second one was a film scripted by Kashyap.^[17][20] Auto Narayan got delayed because the script penned by Subramaniam was not "working." Kashyap rewrote the script, and got credit for the same, and the second film was scrapped. But Kashyap had now proved himself, and so got access to a VCR and television set. He starting bringing in video tapes and spent many days watching films.^[14] Kashyap got his first major break when actor Manoj Bajpai, who was working on Daud showed Auto Narayan to producer-director Ramgopal Varma. Varma liked Kashyap's work and hired him to write the script for Satya.^[14][16]

In September 1993, while Kashyap stayed at the St. Xavier's Boys Hostel, he used to hang out with the members of a band—Greek (later Pralay). He took copious notes on how they lead their lives—forty pages of a small notebook, and began writing the script—"in bits and pieces"—for a film that he called Mirage but which would later become Paanch. Kashyap had seen ex-VJ Luke Kenny in a Vikram Kapadia play, and approached him with an incomplete script, but nothing came out of it.^[14][17][18] Later on, while working with Nair, he came across files related to the Joshi-Abhyankar Serial Murders that took place in Pune in 1976.^[21]

"Five very ordinary college kids viciously murdered nine people. I got what I needed to finish my script then."^[18]

He had also seen a film, Fun, about two mentally unstable girls murdering an elderly woman. And Paanch was ready to be made into a film. Kashyap says—

"There was a structuring in Fun, which you will also see in Paanch. There was something in Fun. When I began looking for it, I saw a pattern in Last Train to Mahakali, in my own film Paanch and in Auto Narayan. All three films had a similar formula. I am able to analyze it because I have.^[14]

Satya was a commercial and critical success, and Kashyap collaborated with Varma on a few more films writing the screenplay and dialogues for Kaun? (1999) and the dialogues for Shool (1999). He also wrote the dialogues for Mani Ratnam's Yuva (2004). Kashyap made his directorial debut with Paanch, with Kay Kay Menon as the lead in 2000. However, the film ran into trouble with the Indian censor board and hasn't been released to date.^[22] In 2007, he adapted Stephen King's 1978 short story "Quitters, Inc." as No Smoking, which despite being received well by critics, didn't do well at the box-office.^[23] This was followed by Return of Hanuman (previously Hanuman Returns) a Hindi animation film about adventures of the Hindu god Hanuman.

Then, in 2009, came Dev.D. Written and directed by him, the film is a modern day take on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's classic Bengali novel Devdas, previously adapted for the screen by such revered filmmakers as P.C. Barua and Bimal Roy, and more recently by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Dev.D was embraced by the media, critics and public alike, and is considered to be amongst path-breaking films in Hindi for the way it presented itself.

In March 2009, while announcing steering away from screenwriting, after his current assignments to concentrate on direction, Kashyap also announced two new film projects. Bombay Velvet, a thriller based on real incidents in 1960s, based on a script by Princeton University Historian Gyan Prakash, will be produced by Danny Boyle starring Aamir Khan. Doga, the second film, will be based on the Raj Comics super hero.^[24][25]

In 2010 he played a child abuser in Onir's I Am, revealing that the role was meaningful to him because he had been sexually abused as a child.^[26]

He has also written the script of Kabhie Kabhie (1997 TV series) with Akash Khurana and Vinta Nanda which was telecast on Star Plus and this program was directed by Mahesh Bhatt having star casts like Shefali Shah as Radha Pathak, Lillete Dubey as Shama Joshi, Deepak Parashar as Nirmal Joshi, Rohit Roy as Vijay Sinha, Surekha Sikri as Lakshmi Pathak, Alok Nath and Kunika.

Personal[link]

Kashyap, with wife Kalki at the 2010 Filmfare Awards.

Anurag was earlier married to Aarti — his college sweetheart whom he dated for nine years before getting married. They have a daughter Aaliya.^[27] On 30 April 2011, Kashyap got married to Kalki Koechlin at Kalki's maternal home in Ooty.^[28] They first met during the making of Dev D.^[29] Anurag and Kalki collaborated on making of the movie, Shaitan.

His younger brother Abhinav Kashyap is also a screenwriter/director and made his directorial debut in 2010 with the blockbuster Dabangg starring Salman Khan. Abhinav also co-wrote the script with Anurag for the Sanjay Gupta-directed film Jung starring Sanjay Dutt and Jackie Shroff.

Filmography[link]

Actor[link]

• Soundtrack (film) (2011) as a Director (As Himself)
• Shagird (2011) as Bunty Bhaiya (Gangster)
• Tera Kya Hoga Johny (2011) as Kashyap (Special Appearance)
• I Am (2010)
• Luck by Chance (2009) as a Writer (As Himself)
• Black Friday (2004) as a ISI Man

Director[link]

• Gangs of Wasseypur (2012)
• That Girl in Yellow Boots (2011)
• Mumbai Cutting (2010)
• Gulaal (2009)
• Dev.D (2009)
• Return of Hanuman (2007)
• No Smoking (2007)
• Black Friday (2004)
• Paanch (2003) (unreleased)
• Last Train to Mahakali (1999)

Story Writer[link]

• Aiyaa (2012)
• Mumbai Cutting (2011)
• That Girl in Yellow Boots (2011)
• Muskurake Dekh Zara (2010)
• Udaan (2010)
• Gulaal (2009)
• Dev D (2009)
• Fool N Final (2007)
• Water (2005)
• Paisa Vasool (2004)
• Jung (2000)
• Kaun (1999)
• Shool (1999)
• Last Train to Mahakali (1999)
• Satya (1998)
• Kabhie Kabhie (1997 TV series) (1997)

Producer[link]

• Aiyaa (2012) ^[30]
• Michael (2012 film) (2012)
• Tasher Desh (film) (2012)
• Shaitan (2011)
• Gangs of Wasseypur (2012)
• That Girl in Yellow Boots (2011)
• Udaan (2010)
• Aamir (2008)

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Rediff.com: The Anurag Kashyap Interview
• Rediff.com: Yellow Boots is my last film with Kalki

External links[link]

• Anurag Kashyap at the Internet Movie Database
• An Interview with Anurag Kashyap at Indian Auteur
• Anurag Kashyap - Filmography at Bollywood Hungama.

Suresh Gopi
Born	Suresh Gopinathan Nair (1959-06-26) June 26, 1959 (age 53)[1] Kollam, Kerala, India
Other names	Suresh
Occupation	Film actor, playback singer[2]
Years active	1965, 1986 - present
Spouse	Radhika
Children	Lekshmi (deceased), Gokul, Bhagya, Bhavna, and Madhav
Parents	K Gopinatha Pillai, V Gyanalaxmi[3]
Website
http://www.bharatsureshgopi.com

Suresh Gopinathan Nair (born 26 June 1959),^[1] often credited as Suresh Gopi (Malayalam: സുരേഷ് ഗോപി), is a national award winning Indian film actor who works mainly in Malayalam cinema; he is famous for his roles in police dramas. He is noted for his leading roles as much as his character roles. He is also famous for his philanthropic efforts.^[4]

Personal life[link]

He was born in Kollam into a Hindu family to Gnanalekshmi and Gopinathan Pillai. Suresh Gopi did his schooling at the Infant Jesus Anglo-Indian High School at Thangasseri. He graduated with a BSc in Zoology and M.A in English literature from Fatima Mata National College in Kollam. He is married to Radhika, the granddaughter of late actress Aranmula Ponnamma, and has five children: Lekshmi (deceased in a traffic accident at the age of two in 1992), Gokul, Bhagya, Bhaavni, and Madhav. He is settled at Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum) and is currently living in Sasthamangalam

Career[link]

1965: Child artist[link]

Suresh Gopi first appeared onscreen as a child in K. S. Sethumadhavan's Odeyil Ninnu (1965). It was a popular film that had Sathyan in the lead role along with Prem Nazir.

1980s: Early career[link]

He returned to acting in the mid-80s with Sathyan Anthikkad's T.P. Balagopalan M.A. (1986), where he played a prospective groom in a small scene. He went on to play supporting and villain roles. Some other roles of his include Balan in Nandi Veendum Varika (1986), Kumar in Rajavinte Makan (1986), Vinod in January Oru Orma (1987), Shekaran Kutty in Irupatham Noottandu (1987), Suresh in New Delhi (1987), Harry in Oru CBI Diary Kurippu (1988), Unni in 1921 (1988), and Aromal Chekavar in Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha (1989). He played the comic role of Inspector "Minnal" Prathapan in Manu Uncle (1988) and of Dr. Narendran in Padmarajan's Innale (1989).

He played Sethumadhavan in Siddique-Lal's blockbuster In Harihar Nagar (1990). Another role was of Christopher Luke in Viji Thampy's Nagarangalil Chennu Raparkam (1990). The film that helped him get noticed as a serious police officer was the satirical comedy Aanaval Mothiram (1990), where he played Sub-Inspector Nandakumar and co-starred with Sreenivasan.

1990s: Peak[link]

The films that made Suresh Gopi a bankable lead actor were Thalastaanam (1992), Ekalavyan (1993), Mafia (1993) and Commissioner (1994), all by Shaji Kailas and scripted by Ranji Panicker. All of them were police dramas and had, more or less, similar themes. He became immensely popular with his role as Bharathchandran IPS in the block-buster movie Commissioner. Renji Panicker's dialogues employed by Suresh Gopi in English became quite popular with the masses.

During this period, most of his films were dubbed and simultaneously released in Telugu, which made him a sensation in Andhra Pradesh.

During the early to mid 90s, he also played characters of substance in films such as Jayaraj's Paithrukam (1993), Fazil's Manichithrathazhu (1993), Sathyan Anthikkad's Samooham (1993) and Sibi Malayil's Sindoora Rekha (1995).

The success of his cop roles led to more films of such nature, where he either played police officers or other tough characters in films such as City Police (1993), The City (1994), Rudraksham (1994), Kashmeeram (1994), and Mahatma (1996), with most of them failing to get noticed.

In 1997, with Jayaraj's Kaliyattam (1997), an adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello, Suresh Gopi won the National Film Award for Best Actor for playing Kannan Perumalayan. He proved he was more than just another mainstream actor. This was a turning point in his career.

In the late 90s, Suresh Gopi was noted for playing in Joshi's films such as Lelam (1998) and Pathram (1999), again, scripted by Ranji Panicker. He played Nasrani character Chackochi in Lelam and journalist Nandagopal in Pathram where he co-starred with Manju Warrier. Suresh Gopi, Jayaram, and Manju Warrier teamed up in Sibi Malayil's Summer in Bethlahem (1998) which was a commercial success.

2000 - Present[link]

He started off 2000 with Millennium Stars directed by Jayaraj. The movie was a colossal flop and severely affected the careers of all the stars involved. But he had a success later the same year in Thenkasipattanam. After 2000, when his films were doing fairly well, he decided to stop acting in movies depicting violence, a decision he would later regret. It was also rumored that he was giving up his acting career for pursuing a political career. He acted in off-beat movies and accepted only soft roles from 2001 to 2005. With his movies failing to make an impact, he had just one release each in 2002 and 2003. In 2005, he decided to return to action movies. Ranji Panicker, scriptwriter of his most successful movie, Commissioner, directed the sequel Bharathchandran I.P.S. portraying him as the police commissioner. The movie was a super hit and was followed by a number of movies in the same genre, in which he played the typical police officer or detective. Some of them were successful, like The Tiger, Chinthamani Kolacase directed by Shaji Kailas, Nadiya Kollappetta Rathri directed by K. Madhu and Detective. All the others, such as Time, Aayudham, Thavalam, Rashtram, Pathaka, Bullet and Smart City, were flops. In between he attempted to do a different role with negative shades in Lanka which, flopped at the box office and ignited a controversy for an unaesthetic kissing scene with his female co-star, Mamta Mohandas. In 2006 he reunited with his favorite director Shaji Kailas for the movie Time, which had huge expectations but bombed at the box office. It was dubbed into Telugu as Police Ante Veedera and Hindi as On Duty, but failed to fetch better results.

Before coming to the film world, he had displayed great interest in the field of literature; his favourite authors are Bernard Shaw and Shakespeare. He is famous for his philanthropic efforts.

In 2008, Suresh Gopi appeared in multi-starrer Twenty: 20 produced by AMMA. Again, he acted with Mohanlal in Pakal Nakshatrangal, an off-beat movie directed by Rajiv Nath.

In 2010, he appeared with Mohanlal, Dileep and Sarath Kumar for another multi-starrer Christian Brothers.

In 2011, Suresh Gopi acted in the film Melvilasom, which though did not succeed that well commercially was critically lauded. Melvilasom, with nuances in theme and story was another novelty that Malayalam cinema saw in 2011.

In 2012, the making of yet another sequel of Commissioner, The King & the Commissioner with Mammootty has released on 23 March 2012. Suresh Gopi is also the anchor of Asianet's Ningalkkum Aakaam Kodeeshwaran program, which is the Malayalam edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? ^[5] and Kaun Banega Crorepati.

Awards[link]

National Film Awards:

• Best Actor - 1998 - Kaliyattam

Kerala State Film Awards:

• Best Actor - 1998 - Kaliyattam

Film Critics Awards:

• Film Critics Best Actor Award (three times)

• Best Supporting Actor Award (four times)

• In July 2005, he was considered for the Kerala State Film Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of a mentally distressed person in Ullam and as a doctor in Makalkku, but lost out

Trivia[link]

• Suresh Gopi's father was a friend of producer Balaji and they both named their sons Suresh. Suresh Balaji is also a well known producer in South Indian industry. Balaji is superstar Mohanlal's father-in-law.
• Suresh Gopi films of 1990's were criticized for excessive violence and after 2000 Suresh Gopi pledged not to use a gun in any of his movies. This led to a five year downfall to his career. He revoked his pledge in 2005 to appear in Bharathchandran I.P.S. in which he appears with a revolver in the first scene.
• He is a strong supporter of Indian National Congress and was close to former Kerala Chief Minister K. Karunakaran.

See also[link]

• Cinema of Kerala

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Website
• Suresh Gopi biography and filmography
• Suresh Gopi at the Internet Movie Database

The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History is a 1978 book by Michael H. Hart, reprinted in 1992 with revisions. It is a ranking of the 100 people who, according to Hart, most influenced human history.^[1]

The first person on Hart's list is the Prophet of Islam Muhammad.^[2] Hart asserted that Muhammad was "supremely successful" in both the religious and secular realms. He also believed that Muhammad's role in the development of Islam was far more influential than Jesus' collaboration in the development of Christianity. He attributes the development of Christianity to St. Paul, who played a pivotal role in its dissemination."^[3]

The 1992 revisions included the demotion of figures associated with Communism, such as Vladimir Lenin and Mao Zedong, and the introduction of Mikhail Gorbachev. Hart took sides in the Shakespearean authorship issue and substituted Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford for William Shakespeare. Hart also substituted Niels Bohr and Henri Becquerel with Ernest Rutherford, thus correcting an error in the first edition. Henry Ford was also promoted from the "Honorary Mentions" list, replacing Pablo Picasso. Finally, some of the rankings were re-ordered, although no one listed in the top ten changed position.

Hart wrote another book in 1999, entitled A View from the Year 3000,^[4] voiced in the perspective of a person from that future year and ranking the most influential people in history. Roughly half of those entries are fictional people from 2000–3000, but the remainder are actual people. These were taken mostly from the 1992 edition, with some re-ranking of order.

Hart's Top 10 (from the 1992 edition)[link]

Rank	Name	Time Frame	Image	Occupation	Influence
1	Muhammad	c. 570–632		Secular and religious leader	The central human figure of Islam, regarded by Muslims as a prophet of God and the last messenger. Active as a social reformer, diplomat, merchant, philosopher, orator, legislator, military leader, humanitarian, philanthropist.
2	Isaac Newton	1643–1727		Scientist	English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian. His law of universal gravitation and three laws of motion laid the groundwork for classical mechanics.
3	Jesus Christ	7–2 BC – 26–36 AD		Spiritual leader	The central figure of Christianity, revered by Christians as the Son of God and the incarnation of God.
4	Buddha	563–483 BC		Spiritual leader	Spiritual teacher and philosopher from ancient India. Founder of Buddhism and is also considered an Gautama Buddha in Hinduism.
5	Confucius	551–479 BC		Philosopher	Chinese thinker and social philosopher, whose teachings and philosophy have deeply influenced Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese and Indonesian thought and life. Founded Confucianism, and influenced Neo-Confucianism and New Confucianism.
6	St. Paul	5–67 AD		Christian apostle	One of the most notable of early Christian missionaries, credited with proselytizing and spreading Christianity outside of Palestine (mainly to the Romans) and author of numerous letters of the New Testament of the Bible.
7	Cài Lún	50–121 AD		Political official in imperial China	Widely regarded as the inventor of paper and the papermaking process.
8	Johannes Gutenberg	1398–1468		Inventor	German printer who invented the mechanical printing press.
9	Christopher Columbus	1451–1506	70px	Explorer	Italian navigator, colonizer and explorer whose voyages led to general European awareness of the American continents.
10	Albert Einstein	1879–1955		Scientist	German theoretical physicist, best known for his theory of relativity and specifically mass–energy equivalence, expressed by the equation E = mc2.

See also[link]

• Time 100

References[link]

1. ^ Michael H. Hart The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History. first published in 1978, reprinted with minor revisions 1992. ISBN 978-0-8065-1068-2
2. ^ The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History^{[dead link]}
3. ^ Michael H. Hart, "The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History", Citadel Publishing, 2000, ISBN 978-0-8065-1350-8
4. ^ Michael H. Hart. A view from the year 3000: a ranking of the 100 most influential persons of all time; first published in 1999

External links[link]

• Religious Affiliation of History's 100 Most Influential People

Narendra Modi નરેન્દ્ર મોદી
Chief Minister of Gujarat
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 October 2001
Governor	Dr. Kamla Beniwal
Preceded by	Keshubhai Patel
Constituency	Maninagar
Personal details
Born	(1950-09-17) 17 September 1950 (age 61) Vadnagar, Gujarat, India
Political party	Bharatiya Janata Party
Residence	Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India
Alma mater	Gujarat University[1]
Religion	Hinduism
Website	Narendra Modi
As of 9 March, 2009 Source: Government of Gujarat

Narendra Damodardas Modi (Gujarati: નરેન્દ્ર મોદી; born 17 September 1950^[1]) is the current Chief Minister of the Indian state of Gujarat. Born in a middle class family in Vadnagar, he was the third of six children born to Damodardas Mulchand Modi and his wife Heeraben.^[2] He has been a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) since childhood also having interest in politics since adolescence. He holds a master's degree in political science. In 1998, he was chosen by L. K. Advani, the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), to direct the election campaign in Gujarat as well as Himachal Pradesh.

He became Chief Minister of Gujarat in October 2001, promoted to the office at a time when his predecessor Keshubhai Patel had resigned, following the defeat of BJP in the by-elections. His tenure as chief minister of Gujarat began on 7 October 2001, and he is the longest serving Chief Minister of the state of Gujarat.^[3] In July 2007 he became the longest serving Chief Minister in Gujarat's history when he had been in power for 2063 days continuously.^[4] He was elected again for a third term^[5] on 23 December 2007 in the state elections, which he had cast as a "referendum on his rule".^[6][7]

Personal life[link]

Modi was born in a middle class family in Vadnagar in Mehsana district of what was then Bombay State, India.^[8] During the Indo-Pak war in the mid sixties, even as a young boy, he volunteered to serve the soldiers in transit at railway stations.^[9] As a young man, he joined the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, a student organisation and was involved in the anti-corruption Nav Nirmāṇ ("Reconstruction") Movement. After working as a full time organiser for the organisation, he was later nominated as its representative in the Bharatiya Janata Party.^[10] As a teenager Modi used to run a tea stall with his brother.^[11] Modi completed his schooling in Vadnagar. He earned a masters degree in political science from Gujarat University.^[12]

Early activism and politics[link]

Modi was a pracharak (campaigner) in the RSS during his university years.^[12][13] He took up the challenging task of energising the party cadres in right earnest. In partnership with Shankersinh Vaghela, Modi set about creating a strong cadre base in Gujarat. In the initial period, Vaghela was seen as a mass leader, while Modi was recognised as a master strategist.

The party started gaining political mileage and formed a coalition government at the centre in April 1990. This partnership fell apart within a few months, but the BJP came to power with a two-thirds majority on its own in Gujarat in 1995. During this period, Modi was entrusted with the responsibility of organising two crucial national events, the Somnath to Ayodhya Rath Yatra (a political rally through India on a converted Toyota van) of L.K. Advani and a similar march from Kanyakumari (the southernmost part of India) to Kashmir in the North. After the exit of Shankarsingh Vaghela from the BJP, Keshubhai Patel was made Chief Minister while Narendra Modi was sent to New Delhi as a General Secretary of the Party.

In 1995, Modi was appointed the National Secretary of the party and given the charge of five major states in India. In 1998, he was promoted as the General Secretary (Organization), a post he held until October 2001. In 2001, Narendra Modi was chosen by the party to be the Chief Minister of Gujarat after the removal of chief minister Keshubhai Patel.

Tenure as Chief Minister of Gujarat[link]

Personality[link]

Modi is known for leading a frugal lifestyle. He has a personal staff of just three. He is known to be a workaholic Chief Minister and an introvert.^[14] He ordered the demolition of many Hindu temples that were built without proper government sanction which earned him the ire of VHP^[11] He is a crowd puller as a speaker. Modi has also tried to turn his image from an Hindu Nationalist politician to an image of able administrator. He wears business suits and is improving his command over the English language.^[15]

Awards and recognitions[link]

Modi was awarded Gujarat Ratna by Shri Poona Gujarati Bandhu Samaj at Ganesh Kala Krida Manch on celebration of centenary year.^[16]

Development of Gujarat[link]

As a Chief Minister, Modi started various 'yojanas' or plans. This includes:

• Panchamrut Yojana,^[17][18][19] a five-pronged strategy for an integrated development of the state,
• Sujalam Sufalam, a scheme to create a grid of water resources in Gujarat in an innovative step towards water conservation and its appropriate utilisation.
• Krishi Mahotsav – agricultural research labs for the land
• Chiranjeevi Yojana – To reduce infant mortality rate
• Matru Vandana – Providing preventive and curative services under the Reproductive and Child Health Programme
• Beti Bachao – Campaign against female infanticide to improve sex ratio
• Jyotigram Yojana – Provide electricity to every village
• Karmayogi Abhiyan – To educate and train government employees
• Kanya Kelavani Yojana – To encourage female literacy and education
• Balbhog Yojana – Midday meal scheme for students to encourage school attendance from poor backgrounds.^[20]

Vibrant Gujarat[link]

Vibrant Gujarat is a biennial Global Investors' Summit held by the Government of Gujarat in Gujarat, India. The event is aimed at bringing together business leaders, investors, corporations, thought leaders, policy and opinion makers; the summit is advertised as a platform to understand and explore business opportunities in the State of Gujarat. the event has been held continuously since 2003.

Gujarat earthquake[link]

The biggest challenge which he had to face when he took over as the Chief Minister, was the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the areas affected by the massive Gujarat Earthquake of January 2001.

Gujarat violence[link]

On 27 February 2002, a train was burned by a Muslim mob in the town of Godhra leading to 59 deaths, most of them Hindu pilgrims and activists returning from the holy city of Ayodhya.^[21] Riots broke out in the state after it was suspected to be caused by Muslims, leading to 1180 deaths, many of them Muslims. Modi administration was accused of inaction over the riots and for encouraging them.^[15] As an aftermath of the riots, there were calls for Modi to resign from his position as chief minister of Gujarat. The opposition parties stalled the national parliament over the issue. Even Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and Telugu Desam Party (TDP), allies of the BJP, asked for Modi's resignation.^[22][23] Modi submitted his resignation to the Governor and recommended the dissolution of the 10th Gujarat Legislative Assembly.^[24][25] In the following state re-elections the BJP, led by Modi, won 127 seats in the 182-member assembly.

In April 2009, the Supreme Court of India appointed a special team of investigators to look into the role Modi had played in the alleged anti-Muslim conspiracy.^[15] The team was appointed in response to the complaint of zakia Jafri, the widow of ex-Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, who was murdered in the riots.^[26] In December 2010, a Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) in its report to the Supreme Court seeking answers pertaining to the Ehsan Jafri case, submitted that they had found no evidence against Narendra Modi.^[27]

However in February 2011, the Times of India reported that a confidential report from the SIT indicted Modi on several counts of alleged complicity in the Gujarat riots of 2002.^[28] Most other sources have noted that the SIT report does not indict Modi for the riots due to lack of evidence.^[29][30] The Indian Express too said the report did not find any Modi involvement in the violence, though it did accuse him of watering down the seriousness of the situation.^[31] According to the Hindu, the report not only found that Modi tried to water down the seriousness of the situation, but Modi also implicitly justified the killings of Muslims, and failed to condemn the attacks on them.^[32] The Bharatiya Janata Party demanded an investigation into the publication of the report, claiming the leak was politically motivated.^[33]

The apex court refused to pass any order on the case and referred it to the Ahmedabad magistrate for a decision.^[34] In April 2012, a Special Investigation Team found absolved Modi of any involvement in the Gulberg massacre, arguably the worst episode of the riots.^[35]. On 7 May 2012, a Supreme Court-appointed amicus curiae, Raju Ramachandran observed that Modi can be prosecuted under sections 153 A (1) (a) & (b), 153 B (1), 166 and 505 (2) of the Indian Penal Code for promoting enmity among different groups during the 2002 Gujarat riots.^[36]. However the amicus report has been criticised by the Special Investigation Team for relying heavily on the testimony of a perjurer^[37].

2007 elections[link]

Modi made a speech at Mangrol in which he justified the alleged fake encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, During the election campaign In response to Sonia Gandhi's speech calling him a "merchant of death",^[38] and referred to Sohrabuddin's killing. For this speech the Election Commission of India, a constitutional body governing election proceedings in India, cautioned Modi as it considered it as indulging in an activity which may aggravate existing differences between different communities.^[39] Modi won the election and continued his post as the Chief Minister Of Gujarat, he won with majority of votes of 122 seats out of 182 total assembly seats.^[40]

Conflicts with Governor Kamla Beniwal[link]

On 25 August 2011 Gujarat Governor Kamla Beniwal appointed Justice R A Mehta to the post of Lokyukta of Gujarat, a critical anti-corruption post that had been lying vacant since 2003. Justice R A Mehta was recommended for the post by the Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court in June. Since Governor Beniwal had made this decision without consulting and getting the approval of the chief minister and his council of ministers, the action angered Narendra Modi and his BJP party.^[41]

This marked the beginning of a strained relationship between Modi and the Governor. On 25 September 2011, Narendra Modi accused the Governor of running a parallel government in the state supported by the Congress. He demanded that she be recalled back.^[42] He also later accused her of delaying the progress of bills by not passing them.

The decision of the governor in the appointment of R A Mehta was challenged in the high court by the Modi government. The two member high court bench gave a split verdict on 10 October 2011. Later, a third member upheld the governor's decision in January 2012.^[43]

Foreign visits[link]

As the Chief Minister of the Gujarat State, to attract foreign investment in the state, Narendra Modi has made visits to foreign countries, including China and Singapore.

Narendra Modi made his first China visit in 2007 to invite investors Vibrant Gujarat Global Investor Summit,^[44] and second visit in November 2011. One month after the second visit to China, the Chinese Government released 13 Diamond traders from India jailed by the Shenzhen Customs, which the Chief Minister described as the consequece of his diplomatic efforts and statesmanship.^[45]

In 2005 Narendra Modi was denied of diplomatic visa to the United States, in addition to this visa denial, he was also revoked from his already granted B-1/B-2 visa.^[46]

Sadbhavna Mission[link]

In the late 2011-early 2012 Narandra Modi practised a series of fasts in the name of Sadbhavna Mission. The mission started on 17 September 2011 in Ahmedabad with 3 day fast with a view to strengthen the atmosphere of peace, unity and harmony in the state. He observed total 36 fasts in 26 districts, 8 cities including Ahmedabad.^[47]

Views and opinions[link]

Modi's position on terrorism[link]

On 18 July 2006 Modi delivered a speech criticising Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh "for his reluctance to revive anti-terror legislations" like the Prevention of Terrorism Act. He asked the Centre to empower states to invoke tougher laws in the wake of the blasts in Mumbai.^[48] Quoting Modi:

Narendra Modi has frequently commented that if the BJP came to power at the Centre, they will honour the 2004 Supreme Court judgement to hang Afzal Guru.^[49] Afzal was convicted of terrorism in the 2001 Indian Parliament attack in 2004 by the Supreme Court of India and is in Tihar Jail.^[50]

On account of the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, on Thursday 27 November, Narendra Modi held a meeting to discuss waterfront security along the coastline.^[51] The meeting decided to ask the Central government to urgently sanction the following:

• Increase the number of police stations along the coast to 50 (from 10)
• Increase the number of police to 1500 from 250
• 30 modern high-speed surveillance boats.

The 30 coastal boats, under construction at Goa's shipbuilding yard, will have the capacity to run at the speed of 25 nautical miles per hour. These are being manufactured under the Centre's Rs 58-crore grant for coastal security.^[51]

Views on criticism of Modi's governance[link]

In 2003, when Narendra Modi was asked about the conflict of his dreams for Gujarat's future with international criticism of his past activities, Modi said,^[52]

Modi's decision to link Gujarat's violence with the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the US drew criticism from some observers, who contrasted it with the then Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani's unpleasant apology for Gujarat in London a year ago.^[52] Modi responded to this criticism by The Guardian,^[52]

See also[link]

• Chief Minister
• Gujarat
• Bhartiya Janata Party

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Narendra Modi

Official

• @narendramodi Official & verified Twitter Account
• Narendra Modi Official website
• Narendra Modi Personal blog

Other

• Profile at BBC News