Monday, December 24, 2007

ABDUL KALAM

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was sworn in as the 11th President of India by Chief Justice of India on July 25, 2002 in the Central Hall of Parliament. He has replaced K. R. Narayanan, who completed a five-year term.
Born Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam on Oct. 15, 1931, he began his early education at a village school in the southern port of Rameshwaram. He later received a degree in aeronautical engineering.
smiles on billion faces
Dear Citizens, on this important day on the eve of 55th Republic Day of India, I am indeed happy to greet all the billion citizens of our country including those living abroad. I also greet the members of the armed forces and paramilitary forces who guard our frontiers on the land, the sea and the air and also internal security forces. I would like to share some of my thoughts for evolution of a beautiful India, combining economic prosperity and value system drawn from our civilizational heritage.
Indian economic scenario
Indian economy shows a very robust and consistent growth, indicated by the recent 8.4% GDP growth in the second quarter of 2003-2004. Our foreign exchange reserves have crossed the $100 billion mark and are continuously rising. The rupee is steady and the middle class resurgence and the domestic buying power are on the rise. This has made our economy one of the fastest growing in the world. The time has come for these economic benefits to reach speedily the rural population through development programmes such as PURA – Providing Urban amenities in Rural Areas and Interlinking of Rivers. Economists all around the world predict that by the year 2020, the world economic scenario will be completely different from what it is today, and that India will occupy the pride of position.

SOURAV GANGULY

INTERNATIONAL CARREER
Sourav Chandidas ganguly is an indian and is the most successfull Test captain of the Indian national cricket team. Born 8th july 1972,Ganguly lives at Barisha in kolkata.He is currently 5th highest overall run scorer for India in Tests and 2nd highest overall run scorer in one day international.
He is also the 2nd highest century scorer for india in One day international and is one only seven batsman to score morethan 10,000 runs in one day international in the history of the game. Ganguly is a left-handed batsman and a right-handed medium-pace bowler.
Ganguly is naturally right-handed, but became a left-handed batsman at a young age so that he could use his brother, Snehasish's equipment. Ganguly has been nicknamed Bengal Tiger, Prince of Calcutta, Lord Snooty by his opponents, and affectionately Dada
(which means elder brother in bengali) by his team-mates.Ganguly was the captain of the Indian cricket team from 2000 to 2005. He led India to the 2003 world cup final, and holds the Indian captaincy record for the most Test victories
(21).

Records

Test
Scored a century on Test debut
Scored a century in each of his first two Tests
Captained India in a record 49 Test matches
Led India to a record 21 Test wins

ODIs
Second fastest player to reach 10,000, 11,000 ODI runs
Fastest to reach multiples of 7,000, 8,000, 9,000 ODI Runs
Hold the record of most 200+ ODI partnerships (6 times) along with Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting.
Holds the record, shared with Sachin Tendulkar, for most 1st wicket ODI partnerships of 175+ runs (7 times).
Holds the record, shared with Mahendra Singh Dhoni, for the second highest score by an Indian cricketer in an ODI — 183, against Sri Lanka in 1999.
Held the record, shared with Sachin Tendulkar, for the highest first wicket partnership for India in a ODI match, 258, against Kenya in 2001. This record was bettered by Sri Lankan opening pair of Jayasuriya and Tharanga in 2006 at Headingley.
Was involved in the first 300 run ODI partnership with Rahul Dravid.
Sixth on the all time list with 31 man of the match awards.
He is also the only player to win 4 consecutive man of the match awards in ODIs.
India's most successful ODI captain.
First Indian to score a ODI century against Australia in Australia.
Highest ODI runs scorer in the world (in a calendar year) in 1997.
Second highest ODI runs scorer in the world (in a calendar year) in 1998.
Highest ODI runs scorer in the world (in a calendar year) in 1999.
Highest ODI runs scorer in the world (in a calendar year) in 2000.
Second highest ODI runs scorer for India (in a calendar year) in 2001.
Second highest ODI runs scorer for India (in a calendar year) in 2002.
Third highest ODI runs scorer for India (in a calendar year) in 2003.
Third highest ODI runs scorer in the world (in a calendar year) in 2004.
Third in the list of hitting maximum number of sixes in ODIs.
Second in the list of highest number of centuries in a single calendar year ever. 7 centuries in 2000.

SANIA MIRZA

Sania Mirza, India's top tennis star at the moment, is born November 15, 1986, Mumbai, India and she resides in Hyderabad, India. She is a professional female tennis player from India.Coached by her father, Imran Mirza, Sania began playing tennis at age 6. Her sexy appearance is the main attraction of her fans.
She turned professional in 2003 and became the first and only Indian woman to reach the 4th round of a Grand Slam tournament (2005 US Open). She is now the highest ranked female tennis player ever from India (She had a rank of 42, her highest ever, by end of August 2005)." My mother took me to a coach, who initially refused to coach me because I was too small," said Mirza. "After a month, he called my parents to say he had never seen a player that good at such a young age." [From WTATour interview]
The 5ft. 7in Sania Mirza is having a large fan following ind India. She was awarded the Arjuna award in tennis for the year 2004. She has defeated two top 10 players, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Nadia Petrova too. Sania won the Wimbledon Championships Girls' Doubles title in 2003, teaming up with Alisa Kleybanova of Russia.Through a wild card entry to the 2005 Australian Open and created history by becoming the first Indian woman to enter the third round of a Grand Slam tournament. She lost in the 3rd round to Serena Williams. She became the first Indian woman to win a WTA singles title defeating Alyona Bondarenko of Ukraine in the Hyderabad Open Finals on February 12, 2005.
Sania Mirza has jumped 13 places to be ranked 53rd in the women's singles international tennis rankings released recently. Sania Mirza, who will open her Australian Open campaign against Ukranian Olva Savchuk, made it to the semi-finals of the recently concluded Moorilla Open International tournament in Hobart.
En route to her semi-final, where she lost to Russian Anna Chakvetadze, she defeated world no. 29 Maria Kirilenko of Russia, Romina Oprandi of Italy and her doubles partner Alicia Molik of Australia.The semi-final appearance helped Sania garner 431 points to once again get closer to the top-50 on the ranking ladder.
The Indian, however, slipped one place to be 25th in the doubles ranking. Sania, partnering Molik, had reached the doubles quarterfinal at the Hobart tournament. [source: malaysiasun.com]