Company rule in India (sometimes, Company Raj, "raj," lit. "reign" in Hindi) refers to the rule or dominion of the British East India Company on the Indian subcontinent. This is variously taken to have commenced in 1757, after the Battle of Plassey, when the Nawab of Bengal surrendered his dominions to the Company, in 1765, when the Company was granted the diwani, or the right to collect revenue, in Bengal and Bihar, or in 1772, when the Company established a capital in Calcutta, appointed its first Governor-General, Warren Hastings, and became directly involved in governance. The rule lasted until 1858, when, after the Indian rebellion of 1857 and consequent of the Government of India Act 1858, the British government assumed the task of directly administering India in the new British Raj.

The English East India Company (hereafter, the Company) was founded in 1600, as The Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies. It gained a foothold in India in 1612 after Mughal emperor Jahangir granted it the rights to establish a factory, or trading post, in the port of Surat on the western coast. In 1640, after receiving similar permission from the Vijayanagara ruler farther south, a second factory was established in Madras on the southeastern coast. Bombay island, not far from Surat, a former Portuguese outpost gifted to England as dowry in the marriage of Catherine of Braganza to Charles II, was leased by the Company in 1668. Two decades later, the Company established a presence on the eastern coast as well; far up that coast, in the Ganges river delta, a factory was set up in Calcutta. Since, during this time other companies—established by the Portuguese, Dutch, French, and Danish—were similarly expanding in the region, the English Company's unremarkable beginnings on coastal India offered no clues to what would become a lengthy presence on the Indian subcontinent.

Raj Shrikant Thackeray (Marathi: राज श्रीकांत ठाकरे) (born 14 June 1968) is the founder and president of the right-wing^{[citation needed]}Marathi ethnocentric regional political party, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena ("Maharashtra Reformation Army") in the state of Maharashtra, India. His official name is Swararaj which means the king of musical notes. He is the nephew of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, and a cousin of the current Shiv Sena Executive President Uddhav Thackeray.

Raj was born on 14 June 1968 in a Marathi Kayastha (CKP) family to Shrikant Thackeray (younger brother of Bal Thackeray) and Kunda Thackeray (younger sister of Bal Thackeray's wife Meena Thackeray). Raj’s father Shrikant Thackeray was a musician, cartoonist and was also well versed in Urdu. He studied in Balmohan Vidyamandir, Mumbai and graduated from the Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy School of Art, Mumbai. As a child he is said to have learnt the tabla, the guitar and the violin. He also loved drawing which later turned into a passion for drawing cartoons.

(Marathi:भरत जाधव) (English:Bharat Jadhav) is a popular Marathi theatre and film actor. He is known as a comedian, particularly when working in commercial Marathi cinema and drama. His play Sahi re Sahi is one of the most successful Marathi plays ever^{[citation needed]}. He has also starred in Shrimant Damodarpant, All the Best,^{[disambiguation needed ]} and Aamchya Sarkhe Aamhich.

He began his acting career in 1985, when he joined Maharashtrachi Lokdhara dance troupe, under the guidance of Sahir Sable.

Bharat Jadhav's official website(www.bharatjadhav.com) was released on 11 April 2010, which was designed and developed by his close friend Vikas Kore Director - BizCAT Entertainment Australia in Sydney,Australia, which was launched in the presence on respected Raj Thackeray, in Kohinoor Hall, Dadar.

BizCAT Entertainment Australia will be taking all the steps to make Bharat Jadhav as a Global Icon of the Marathi Film Industry, and name him as a 'Maharashtra Cha Sahi Nayak'.

Malgudi Subha (also spelled as Malgadi Shubaa) is an Indian playback singer. She has recorded songs in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi. In a career spanning for two decades, she sang more than 2500 songs.

She counts Usha Uthup among her rolemodels.

She began her career by providing vocals for ad jingles composed by A. R. Rahman, Viji Manuel etc. She debuted as a playback singer through the film Nadodi Thendral, with music by Ilayaraja. Ace Indian composer A. R. Rahman's debut album, Set Me Free (also called Shubhaa Set Me Free) had all its songs sung by Malgudi Shubha. The album which was released in early nineties by some local labels went unnoticed, but became a good seller when it was re-released in 1996 by the label Magnasound.

Her first successful album, Chikpak Chikbhum, which was released in Chennai, sold eight lakh copies. The songs were composed by Raj-Koti, who were assisted by A. R. Rahman.

She has also appeared as a judge on the Malayalam language music competition program Idea Star Singer. She is presently one of the Judges in Star Singer 2 (Kannada), airing on Asianet Suvarna from 7-8 PM on weekdays.She has also appeared as a judge on the tamil music competition program "SUPER SINGER JUNIOR 2".

Mangte Chungneijang Merykom, also known as MC Mary Kom or Mary Kom, (born 1 March 1983) is a boxer from Manipur, India. Mary Kom, a mother of two, is a five time successive World Boxing champion, a biennial amateur boxing competition organised by the International Boxing Association (AIBA). She is the only woman boxer to have won a medal in each one of the six World Championships. She came back from a two-year sabbatical to clinch her fourth successive World Amateur boxing gold in 2008, a feat that prompted the AIBA to describe her as 'Magnificent Mary'. She was earlier an athlete and switched to boxing after the success of fellow Manipur boxer Dingko Singh.

On Sep 18 2010, Mary Kom won the World Boxing Championship title in Bridgetown, Barbados for the fifth consecutive time. She defeated Romanian opponent Steluta Duta by a points difference of 16 to 6. In its successful mission to make women's boxing an Olympics programme, AIBA selected Mary as one of its three brand ambassadors in 2009. Mary, who always participated in light flyweight category, had to switch over flyweight as her usual weight category was not included in the 2012 Summer Olympics. She is the only Indian woman boxer who has qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics, the quota she achieved in the 2012 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships after reaching to the quarter-final, where she lost to world number two Nicola Adams of England.