Pandit Jasraj– Pandit Jasraj died on 17 August 2020. He was an Indian classical vocalist, belonging to the Mewati gharana .His musical career spanned 75 years resulting in national and international fame, respect and numerous major awards and accolades. His legacy includes memorable performances of classical and semi-classical vocal music, classical and devotional music, albums and film soundtracks, innovations in various genres including Haveli Sangeeth and popularizing the Mewati Gharana – a school of thought in Hindustani classical music. Pandit Jasraj taught music to amateur and professional students in India, Europe, Canada and the United States.
Pandit Birju Maharaj- Pandit Birju Maharaj (born Brijmohan Nath Mishra) died on 17 January 2022. He was an Indian dancer, composer, singer and exponent of the Lucknow “Kalka-Bindadin” Gharana of Kathak dance in India. He was a recipient of the Padma Vibhushan,He was a descendant of the Maharaj family of Kathak dancers, which includes his two uncles, Shambhu Maharaj and Lachhu Maharaj, and his father and guru, Acchan Maharaj. He also practised Hindustani classical music and was a vocalist. After working along with his uncle, Shambhu Maharaj at Bhartiya Kala Kendra, later the Kathak Kendra, New Delhi, he remained head of the latter, for several years, till his retirement in 1998 when he opened his own dance school, Kalashram, also in Delhi. Birju Maharaj was a
Roshni Nadar Malhotra -Roshni Nadar Malhotra, chairperson of IT major HCL Technologies, topped the list of the richest women in the country with a net worth of Rs 54,850 crore, according to Hurun India and Kotak Wealth Management’s ‘Kotak Wealth Hurun – Leading Wealthy Women’ report released December 4, 2020. The list is based on the net worth of women as on September 30, 2020.
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw- Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is the founder and managing director of Bengaluru-based biopharmaceutical firm Biocon. Her wealth is estimated at Rs 36,600 crore. She also sits on the board of Infosys. Shaw is the first woman business leader from India to sign the Giving Pledge. The Giving Pledge is a promise by the world’s wealthiest individuals and families to dedicate the majority of their wealth to charitable causes.
Giving Pledge Adds 14 Billionaires to Philanthropist List. The Giving Pledge announced Tuesday that 14 more billionaires, including the CEOs of DoorDash and Pinterest, had promised in 2021 to donate more than half their fortunes, bringing the total to 231 philanthropists from 28 countries.
Payal Kapadia– Director Payal Kapadia’s A Night of Knowing Nothing won the Oeil d’or (Golden Eye) award for best documentary at the 74th Cannes Film Festival on July 18, 2021. The Mumbai-based filmmaker’s first feature bagged the prestigious prize in a formidable field made up of 28 documentaries presented across various sections of the festival. A Night of Knowing Nothing screened as part of the Directors’ Fortnight, a section that runs parallel to the festival.
A Night of Knowing Nothing follows a university student in India, who writes letters to her estranged lover, while he is away. “Through these letters, we get a glimpse into the drastic changes taking place around her. Merging reality with fiction, dreams, memories, fantasies and anxieties, an amorphous narrative unfolds.”
Ashok Elluswamy– Ashok Elluswamy is a software engineer, working with Tesla for over 8 years. He was the first employee to be hired for Tesla’s Autopilot team. He works as an autopilot team director at Elon Musk’s Tesla electric vehicle company. Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to reveal how he chose Ashok Elluswamy from India to work as an autopilot team director at his electric vehicle company.
Harnaaz Sandhu– Andrea Meza of Mexico crowned Harnaaz Sandhu of India as her successor at the 70th Miss Universe pageant, 2021, held on December 13, 2021, at Universe Dome in Eilat, Israel. This is India’s first victory in 21 years, and its third in the history of the pageant. Sandhu is the first Sikh woman to win the title of Miss Universe. Harnaaz Kaur Sandhu became the 3rd person to win the title after Sushmita Sen and Lara Dutta.
Super Mom collarwali– Popularly known as collarwali, a tigress who gave birth to 29 cubs has died in Madhya Pradesh’s Pench Tiger Reserve. She was given farewell January 24, 2021 by locals, forest officials and security personnel.
Abhijit Banerjee- Abhijit Banerjee, in full Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, (born February 21, 1961, Mumbai, India), Indian-born American economist who, with Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer, was awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize for Economics (the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel) for helping to develop an innovative experimental approach to alleviating global poverty. Banerjee, Duflo, and Kremer, often working with each other, focused on relatively small and specific problems that contributed to poverty and identified the best solutions through carefully designed field experiments, which they conducted in several low- and middle-income countries over the course of more than two decades.
Sumit Antil- In Tokyo Paralympics India’s Sumit Antil won gold medal in Javelin throw in August 2021. Indian para javelin thrower Sumit Antil clinched India’s second gold in Tokyo Paralympics by winning the men’s javelin F64 event with a world record throw of 68.55 metres.
Rahul Dravid- After BCCI appointed Rahul Dravid as the next head coach of Team India, Ajay Jadeja has a special request for the Sourav Ganguly-led Indian cricket board. Rahul Dravid, was announced (November 3)as the new Team India head coach, who took over from Ravi Shastri post the T20 World Cup 2021 edition.
Neeraj Chopra- Neeraj Chopra won India’s first-ever athletics gold medal in the javelin throw final with his second throw of 87.58m. With this, India achieved its best-ever medal haul at the Olympics (seven), surpassing the six-medal haul at the London Games in 2012.This was also India’s second ever individual Olympic gold medal. Abhinav Bindra had bagged the country’s first individual gold at the Beijing Games in 2008.
Abhimanyu Mishra– Twelve-year-old Indian-American Abhimanyu Mishra, world’s youngest Grand Master, overcame pandemic and sacrificed his school to reach the top of the world in chess. Son of an Indian-origin software professional parents, Indian-origin chess player Abhimanyu Mishra was born and has been brought up in New Jersey in the United States. While other children at the tender age of two and a half years learn to play with toys, Abhimanyu Mishra was being introduced to chess by his father. He turned out to be a quick learner and by the age of five, he played his first tournament and subsequently began to compete in local tournaments. Over the years, his mastery in the game and in November 2019, when he was barely 10, he became the world’s youngest International Master, breaking the record held since 2016 by Rameshbabu Praggnanandha, who lives in Chennai and has gone on to become a Grand Master. Not content with this, Mishra has continued to shatter the records in the chess world and on June 30, 2021, he became the world’s youngest Grand Master.