100 Notable alumni of
University of Madras
Updated:
The University of Madras is 291st in the world, 58th in Asia, and 4th in India by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 100 notable alumni from the University of Madras sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff.
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A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam was an Indian aerospace scientist and statesman who served as the president of India from 2002 to 2007.
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Mahesh Babu
- Occupations
- film actorfilm producerphilanthropist
- Biography
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Ghattamaneni Mahesh Babu is an Indian actor, producer and philanthropist who works in Telugu cinema. He is one of the highest-paid actors in Indian cinema and has been featured in Forbes India's Celebrity 100 list from 2012 to 2025. Referred to in the media as the Superstar, he appeared in over 30 films and has been a recipient of several accolades including, nine Nandi Awards, five Filmfare Awards South and four SIIMA Awards.
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Vijay Sethupathi
- Occupations
- actor
- Biography
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Vijaya Gurunatha Sedhupathy Kalimuthu Stage name Vijay Sedhupathy is an Indian actor and film producer who predominantly works in Tamil films alongside a few Telugu and Hindi films. One of the highest paid actors in Indian Cinema, Sedhupathy is the recipient of several accolades, including a National Film Award, two Filmfare Awards South and two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards.
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Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
- Occupations
- translatoruniversity teacherphilosopherpoliticianhistorian
- Biography
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Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was an Indian academic, philosopher and statesman who served as the Vice President of India from 1952 to 1962 and President of India from 1962 to 1967. He was the ambassador of India to the Soviet Union from 1949 to 1952. He was also the vice-chancellor of Banaras Hindu University from 1939 to 1948 and the vice-chancellor of Andhra University from 1931 to 1936. Radhakrishnan is considered one of the most influential and distinguished 20th century scholars of comparative religion and philosophy, he held the King George V Chair of Mental and Moral Science at the University of Calcutta from 1921 to 1932 and Spalding Chair of Eastern Religion and Ethics at University of Oxford from 1936 to 1952.
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Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman
- Occupations
- university teachercrystallographerphysicist
- Biography
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Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman was an Indian physicist known for his work in the field of light scattering. Using a spectrograph that he developed, he and his student K. S. Krishnan discovered that when light traverses a transparent material, the deflected light changes its wavelength. This phenomenon, a hitherto unknown type of scattering of light, which they called modified scattering was subsequently termed the Raman effect or Raman scattering. In 1930, Raman received the Nobel Prize in Physics for this discovery and was the first Asian and non-White person to receive a Nobel Prize in Physics.
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M. G. Ramachandran
- Occupations
- actorscreenwriterfilm actorfilm directorpolitician
- Biography
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Maruthur Gopalan Ramachandran, popularly known by his initials M. G. R., was an Indian politician, actor, director, film producer, and philanthropist, who served as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu from 1977 until his death in 1987. He was the founder and first general secretary of the political party All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). He is regarded as one of the most influential politicians of post-independent India, and was known by the epithets Makkal Thilagam (Jewel of the People) and Puratchi Thalaivar (Revolutionary Leader). In March 1988, he was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour.
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Sarojini Naidu
- Occupations
- politicianwriterfreedom fighterindependence activistpoet
- Biography
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Sarojini Naidu was an Indian political activist and poet who served as the first Governor of United Provinces, after India's independence. She played an important role in the Indian independence movement against the British Raj. She was the first Indian woman to be president of the Indian National Congress and appointed governor of a state.
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Mani Ratnam
- Occupations
- screenwriterfilm directorfilm produceractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Gopalaratnam Subramaniam, known professionally as Mani Ratnam, is an Indian film director, film producer and screenwriter who predominantly works in Tamil cinema and a few Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. He is known as one of the most prominent and greatest directors in the history of Indian cinema.
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Gemini Ganesan
- Occupations
- film actoractorfilm director
- Biography
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Ramasamy Ganesan, better known by his stage name Gemini Ganesan, was an Indian actor who worked mainly in Tamil cinema. He was referred as Kaadhal Mannan (King of Romance) for his romantic roles in films. Ganesan was one of the "three biggest names of Tamil cinema", the other two being M. G. Ramachandran and Sivaji Ganesan. While Sivaji Ganesan excelled in dramatic films and M. G. Ramachandran was popular as an action hero, Gemini Ganesan was known for his romantic films. A recipient of the Padma Shri in 1971, he had also won several other awards including the Kalaimamani, the MGR Gold Medal, and the Screen Lifetime Achievement Award. He was one of the few college graduates to enter the film industry then.
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Viswanathan Anand
- Occupations
- chess playerwriter
- Biography
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Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand is an Indian chess grandmaster. Anand is a five-time World Chess Champion, a two-time World Rapid Chess Champion, a two-time Chess World Cup Champion, a World Blitz Chess Cup Champion, and a six-time Chess Oscar Winner. He became the first grandmaster from India in 1988, and he has the eighth-highest peak FIDE rating of all time. In 2022, he was the elected Deputy President of FIDE. He has had an important role in popularizing chess in India.
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M. K. Stalin
- Occupations
- film produceractorpolitician
- Biography
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Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin is an Indian politician who has served as the eighth Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu since 2021. He became president of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on 28 August 2018, after serving as the party's working president from January 2017 to August 2018.
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Bipin Rawat
- Occupations
- military officer
- Biography
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General Bipin Rawat PVSM UYSM AVSM YSM SM VSM was an Indian military officer who was a four-star general of the Indian Army. He served as the first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) of the Indian Armed Forces from January 2020 until his death in a helicopter crash in December 2021. Prior to taking over as the CDS, he served as the 57th Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (Chairman COSC) of the Indian Armed Forces as well as 27th Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) of the Indian Army.
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Shiva Rajkumar
- Occupations
- television presenteractorplayback singer
- Biography
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Shiva Rajkumar is an Indian actor, film producer and television presenter who predominantly works in Kannada cinema. In a career spanning over three decades, he has worked in over 125 films in Kannada and has received several awards, including four Karnataka State Film Awards, four Filmfare Awards South and six South Indian International Movie Awards.
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Indra Nooyi
- Occupations
- businessperson
- Biography
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Indra Nooyi is an Indian-born American business executive who was the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of PepsiCo from 2006 to 2018.
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M. Visvesvaraya
- Occupations
- engineerpolitician
- Biography
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Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya, also referred to by his initials, MV, was an Indian civil engineer, administrator, and statesman, who served as the 19th Dewan of Mysore from 1912 to 1918.
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Kalanithi Maran
- Occupations
- businessperson
- Biography
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Kalanithi Maran is an Indian billionaire media proprietor. He is the founder and chairman of Sun Group, one of India's largest media conglomerates. He owns multiple television channels, newspapers, weeklies, FM radio stations, DTH services, a movie production house (Sun Pictures), and three cricket team franchises: Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League, Sunrisers Eastern Cape in the SA20 League in South Africa and Sunrisers Leeds in The Hundred in England. He also held a major share in the Indian airline SpiceJet from 2010 to 2015.
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C. Rajagopalachari
- Occupations
- lawyerlinguistwritercomposertranslator
- Biography
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Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, popularly known as Rajaji or C.R., also known as Mootharignar Rajaji (Rajaji, the Scholar Emeritus), was an Indian statesman, writer, lawyer, and Indian independence activist. Rajagopalachari was the last Governor-General of India, as, when India became a republic in 1950, the office was abolished. He was also the only Indian-born Governor-General, as all previous holders of the post were British nationals. He also served as leader of the Indian National Congress, Premier of the Madras Presidency, Governor of West Bengal, Minister for Home Affairs of the Indian Union and Chief Minister of Madras state. Rajagopalachari founded the Swatantra Party and was one of the first recipients of India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna. He vehemently opposed the use of nuclear weapons and was a proponent of world peace and disarmament. During his lifetime, he also acquired the nickname 'Mango of Salem'.
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C. N. Annadurai
- Occupations
- screenwriterwriterpolitician
- Biography
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Conjeevaram Natarajan Annadurai, also known as Perarignar Anna, was an Indian politician who was the founder and first general-secretary of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). He served as the fourth and last chief minister of Madras State from 1967 until 1969, and then as the first chief minister of Tamil Nadu for 20 days before his death in office. He was the first member of a Dravidian party to hold either post.
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P. Chidambaram
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Palaniyappan Chidambaram, better known as P. Chidambaram, is an Indian politician and lawyer who currently serves as a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha. He served as the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs from 2017 to 2018. He also served as Interim Deputy Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha from 2022 to 2023 under Mallikarjun Kharge.
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M. S. Swaminathan
- Enrolled in the University of Madras
- Graduated with Bachelor of Science
- Occupations
- geneticistadministratoragronomistpolitician
- Biography
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Mankombu Sambasivan Swaminathan was an Indian geneticist and plant breeder, administrator and humanitarian. Swaminathan was a global leader of the green revolution. He has been called the main architect of the green revolution in India for his leadership and role in introducing and further developing high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice.
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Verghese Kurien
- Occupations
- screenwritermechanical engineerengineerentrepreneur
- Biography
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Verghese Kurien was an Indian dairy engineer and social entrepreneur. He led initiatives that contributed to the extensive increase in milk production in India termed as the White Revolution.
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Neelam Sanjiva Reddy
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Neelam Sanjiva Reddy was an Indian politician who served as the president of India from 1977 to 1982. Beginning a long political career with the Indian National Congress in the independence movement, he went on to hold several key offices in independent India – as deputy chief minister of Andhra state and the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, a two-time Speaker of the Lok Sabha and a Union Minister— before becoming the Indian president.
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V. V. Giri
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Varahagiri Venkata Giri, better known as V. V. Giri was an Indian statesman, activist, and diplomat who served as the president of India from 1969 to 1974. He previously served as the vice president of India from 1967 to 1969 and the minister of labour from 1952 to 1954.
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Prathap C. Reddy
- Occupations
- physiciancardiologistentrepreneur
- Biography
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Prathap Chandra Reddy is an Indian entrepreneur and cardiologist who founded the first corporate chain of hospitals in India, the Apollo Hospitals. India Today ranked him 48th in its 2017 list of India's 50 most powerful people.
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T. N. Seshan
- Occupations
- civil servantpolitician
- Biography
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Tirunellai Narayana Iyer Seshan was an Indian civil servant, lecturer, bureaucrat and statesman who served with the Indian Administrative Service. After serving in various positions in Madras and in various ministries of the Central Government, he served as the 18th Cabinet Secretary of India in 1989. He was appointed the 10th Chief Election Commissioner of India (1990–96) and became known for his electoral reforms. He won the Ramon Magsaysay Award for government service in 1996. After retirement as the CEC, he contested the 1997 Indian presidential election. He lost to K.R. Narayanan after which he unsuccessfully contested 1999 Lok sabha election from Gandhinagar constituency under the Indian National Congress.
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Vengalil Krishnan Krishna Menon
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Vengalil Krishnan Krishna Menon was an Indian academic, independence activist, politician, lawyer, and statesman. Menon contributed to the Indian independence movement and India's foreign relations. He was among the major architects of Indian foreign policy, was India's first High Commissioner to United Kingdom and later India's Defence Minister.
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Vijay Amritraj
- Occupations
- tennis playersports journalisttennis coachactorfilm actor
- Biography
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Vijay Amritraj is an Indian retired professional tennis player, sports commentator and actor from Madras. He was awarded the Padma Shri (India's fourth-highest civilian honour), in 1983, and the Padma Bhushan (India's third-highest civilian honour) in 2026. In 2022, he was honored for his contributions to tennis in London by the International Tennis Hall of Fame and International Tennis Federation. On July 20, 2024 he was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island.
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K. M. Cariappa
- Occupations
- military officer
- Biography
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Field Marshal Kodandera Madappa Cariappa OBE was an Indian military officer and diplomat who was the Indian Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of the Indian Army. He led Indian forces on the Western Front during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. He was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army in 1949. He is one of only two Indian Army officers to hold the five-star rank of Field Marshal; the other being Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw.
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C. Sylendra Babu
- Occupations
- police officer
- Biography
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Dr. C. Sylendra Babu is a retired Indian Police Service Officer who served as the 31st Director General of Police and Head of Police Force, Tamil Nadu Police. In addition to his distinguished law enforcement career, he is a Tamil author, motivational speaker, mentor for civil services aspirants and a fitness influencer.
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Gagan Deep Bakshi
- Occupations
- writermilitary officer
- Biography
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Major General Gagan Deep Bakshi SM VSM is a retired officer of the Indian Army.
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S. R. Ranganathan
- Occupations
- university teacherwriterlibrarianmathematicianresearcher
- Biography
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Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan was an Indian librarian and mathematician. His most notable contributions to the field were his five laws of library science and the development of the first major faceted classification system, the colon classification. He is considered to be the father of library science, documentation, and information science in India and is widely known throughout the rest of the world for his fundamental thinking in the field. His birthday is observed every year as National Librarian Day in India.
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R. Venkataraman
- Occupations
- autobiographerlawyerjudgepolitician
- Biography
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Ramaswamy Venkataraman, also known as R. Venkataraman, was an Indian lawyer, independence activist and politician who served as a union minister and as the vice president of india and president of India. Venkataraman was born in Rajamadam village in Tanjore district, Madras Presidency. He studied law and practised in the Madras High Court and the Supreme Court of India. In his youth, he was an activist for the Indian independence movement, and he participated in the Quit India Movement. He was appointed as the member of the Constituent Assembly and the provisional cabinet. He was elected to the Lok Sabha four times and served as Union Finance Minister and Defence Minister. In 1984, he was elected as the vice president of India and in 1987, he became the president of India and served from 1987 to 1992. He also served as a state minister under K. Kamaraj and M. Bhaktavatsalam.
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U. G. Krishnamurti
- Occupations
- writerphilosopher
- Biography
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Uppaluri Gopala Krishnamurti was an Indian "anti-guru" who questioned the search for enlightenment. Having pursued a religious path in his youth and eventually rejecting it, U.G. clarified that he had experienced a devastating biological transformation on his 49th birthday, an event he referred to as "the calamity". He emphasized that this transformation back to "the natural state" is a rare, acausal, biological occurrence with no religious context. Because of this, he discouraged people from pursuing the "natural state" as a spiritual goal.
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Vinodhini Vaidyanathan
- Occupations
- actor
- Biography
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Vinodhini Vaidyanathan is an Indian actress and writer who has mainly worked in Tamil cinema and theatre. She made her debut in A. R. Murugadoss's Engaeyum Eppothum portraying Ananya's sister. She is best known for her performances in OK Kanmani, Appa (2016), Aandavan Kattalai (2016), Ratsasan (2018), Comali (2019), Game Over (2019), Ponmagal Vandhal (2020) and Soorarai Pottru (2020), Ponniyin Selvan: I (2022) and Ponniyin Selvan: II (2023).
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K. Vijay Kumar
- Years
- 1952-.. (age 74)
- Occupations
- police officer
- Biography
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K Vijay Kumar PMG GM IPS, is a retired IPS officer. He was the chief of the Special Task Force of Tamil Nadu that was involved in the death of the Veerappan during Operation Cocoon of 2004. He had also been the senior advisor to Home Ministry for the Left Wing Extremism areas. He served as the Advisor to the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir with Home, Forest, Ecology & Environment, Health & Medical Education, Youth Services & Sports, Hospitality & Protocol, Civil Aviation, Estates and Information portfolios. Currently he has joined back as senior security adviser in Ministry of Home Affairs in December 2018.
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Srinivasa Rao Srirangam
- Occupations
- poetsongwriterwriter
- Biography
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Srirangam Srinivasa Rao, popularly known as Sri Sri, was an Indian poet and lyricist who is known for his works in Telugu literature and films. Noted for his anthology Maha Prasthanam, Sri Sri is a recipient of a National Film Award, a Nandi Award and a Sahitya Akademi Award.
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Chinmayananda Saraswati
- Occupations
- guru
- Biography
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Swami Chinmayananda Saraswati, also known as Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda Saraswati (born Balakrishna Menon; 8 May 1916 – 3 August 1993), was a Hindu spiritual leader and a teacher. In 1953, he founded Chinmaya Mission, a worldwide nonprofit organisation, in order to spread the knowledge of Advaita Vedanta, the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, and other ancient Hindu scriptures. Through the Mission, Swami Chinmayananda spearheaded a global Hindu spiritual and cultural renaissance that popularised these spiritual texts and values, teaching them in English all across India and abroad.
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Udupi Ramachandra Rao
- Occupations
- space scientistphysicist
- Biography
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Udupi Ramachandra Rao was an Indian space scientist and former chairman of ISRO. He was also the Chairman of the Governing Council of the Physical Research Laboratory at Ahmedabad and Nehru Planetarium at Bengaluru and chancellor of the Indian Institute for Space Science and Technology (IIST) at Thiruvananthapuram. He is known as "The Satellite Man of India". He pioneered India's first satellite launch Aryabhata in 1975.
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Durgabai Deshmukh
- Occupations
- authorlawyersocial workerpolitician
- Biography
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Durgabāi Deshmukh was an Indian freedom fighter, lawyer, social worker and politician. She was a member of the Constituent Assembly of India and of the Planning Commission of India.
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Venu Srinivasan
- Occupations
- industrialist
- Biography
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Venu Srinivasan is an Indian industrialist, he is the chairman emeritus of two-wheeler manufacturer TVS Motor Company and auto components manufacturer TVS Holdings. In addition, he serves on the board of Tata Sons and as one of the vice-chairmen of Tata Trusts. He received the Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian award, in January 2020.
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Methil Devika
- Occupations
- dancer
- Biography
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Methil Devika is an Indian classical dancer, research supervisor and actress. She was a Senior Research Associate at ISRO's Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, in 2023 working on an arts-integrated-advance-science project ideated by her.
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Gurazada Apparao
- Occupations
- poetplaywright
- Biography
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Gurajada Venkata Apparao was an Indian playwright, dramatist, poet, and writer known for his works in Telugu theatre. Rao wrote the play Kanyasulkam in 1892, which is considered as the greatest play in the Telugu language. One of the pioneers of Indian theatre, Apparao holds the titles Kavisekhara and Abyudaya Kavitha Pithamahudu. In 1910, Rao scripted the widely known Telugu patriotic song "Desamunu Preminchumanna".
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E. C. George Sudarshan
- Occupations
- physicistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Ennackal Chandy George Sudarshan was an Indian American theoretical physicist and a professor at the University of Texas. Sudarshan has been credited with numerous contributions to the field of theoretical physics, including Glauber–Sudarshan P representation, V-A theory, tachyons, quantum Zeno effect, open quantum system and quantum master equations, spin–statistics theorem, non-invariance groups, positive maps of density matrices, and quantum computation.
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C. Rangarajan
- Years
- 1932-.. (age 94)
- Occupations
- bankereconomistpolitician
- Biography
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Chakravarthi Rangarajan is an Indian economist, a former Member of Parliament and 19th governor of the Reserve Bank of India. He is the former chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council; he resigned the day the UPA lost power. He is also the Chairman of the Madras School of Economics; former president of the Indian Statistical Institute; the founding chairman of the CR Rao Advanced Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science; former chancellor of the University of Hyderabad; and a professor in Ahmedabad University.
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Vilayanur S. Ramachandran
- Enrolled in the University of Madras
- Studied in 1974
- Occupations
- academicwriterpedagogueneurologistpsychologist
- Biography
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Vilayanur Subramanian Ramachandran is an Indian-American neuroscientist. He is known for his experiments and theories in behavioral neurology, including the invention of the mirror box. Ramachandran is a distinguished professor in UCSD's Department of Psychology, where he is the director of the Center for Brain and Cognition.
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Preetha Reddy
- Years
- 1957-.. (age 69)
- Occupations
- businessperson
- Biography
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Preetha Reddy is the vice chairperson of Apollo Hospitals, one of the largest healthcare conglomerates of India. In September 2012, she was elected to the board as independent director of Medtronic - a med tech firm.
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P. Sathasivam
- Occupations
- judge
- Biography
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Palanisamy Sathasivam is a retired Indian judge who served as the 40th Chief Justice of India, holding the office from 2013 to 2014. On retirement from his judicial career, Sathasivam was appointed the 21st Governor of Kerala from 5 September 2014 to 4 September 2019. Sathasivam is the second judge from Tamil Nadu to become the CJI, after M. Patanjali Sastri. He is also the first former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to be appointed the Governor of a state. He is the first Governor of Kerala to be appointed by the Narendra Modi Government.
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Raja Ramanna
- Occupations
- engineerphysicistpoliticiannuclear physicist
- Biography
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Raja Ramanna was an Indian nuclear physicist. He was the director of India's nuclear program in the late 1960s and early 1970s, which culminated in Smiling Buddha, India's first successful nuclear weapon test on 18 May 1974.
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M. Thambi Durai
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Munisamy Thambidurai is an Indian politician from Tamil Nadu who served as the Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha and leader of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian Parliament. He had served as the Cabinet Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs and as the Minister of State of Surface Transport from March 1998 to April 1999. He had also served as the Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 1985 to 1989.
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M. Govinda Pai
- Occupations
- poet
- Biography
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Manjeshwar Govinda Pai, also known as Rastrakavi Govinda Pai, was an Indian Kannada-language poet. He was awarded the first Rashtrakavi title by the Madras Government (Kasaragod district was part of South Kanara district of Madras Presidency prior to the linguistic reorganisation of States on 1 November 1956). Rashtrakavi M. Govinda Pai was the one who put Manjeshwara(Karnataka) on the literary map of India.
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Mallika Srinivasan
- Occupations
- businesspersonchief executive officer
- Biography
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Mallika Srinivasan is an Indian industrialist and is the chairperson and managing director of Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited, a tractor major incorporated in 1960 at Chennai, India. She served as Chairperson of the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) constituted by the Government of India from 18 November 2021 and served there till 18 November 2026. She is additionally on the Global Board of U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC), and the Boards of AGCO Corporation - United States. She is a core member of the BRICS Women's Business Alliance (BRICS WBA) and a member of India-US CEO Forum. She is also the member on the Governing Body of Stella Maris College - Chennai.
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Shankarrao Chavan
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Shankarrao Bhavrao Chavan was an Indian politician who served as the chief minister of Maharashtra twice from 1975 until 1977 and from 13 March 1986 until 26 June 1988.
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T. M. Krishna
- Occupations
- singer
- Biography
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Thodur Madabusi Krishna is an Indian Carnatic vocalist, writer, activist, author and Ramon Magsaysay awardee.
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Ram Shriram
- Occupations
- businessperson
- Biography
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Kavitark Ram Shriram is an American billionaire businessman and philanthropist. He is a founding board member and one of the first investors in Google. He worked earlier in Amazon. Shriram came to Amazon.com in August 1998, when the company acquired Junglee, an online comparison shopping firm of which Shriram was president. Before Junglee and Amazon, Shriram was a member of the Netscape executive team, joining them in 1994, before they shipped products or posted revenue.
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Ved Prakash Malik
- Occupations
- writermilitary officer
- Biography
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General Ved Prakash Malik PVSM, AVSM served as the 18th Chief of Army Staff of the Indian Army from 30 September 1997 to 30 September 2000. He was the Army Chief during the Kargil War.
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N. Ram
- Occupations
- journalist
- Biography
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Narasimhan Ram is an Indian journalist and a prominent member of the Kasturi family that controls The Hindu Group of publications. Ram was the managing-director of The Hindu since 1977 and its editor-in-chief since 27 June 2003 until 18 January 2012. Ram also headed the other publications of The Hindu Group such as Frontline, The Hindu Business Line and Sportstar, and has been awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India and Sri Lanka Ratna by the Government of Sri Lanka.
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Soumya Swaminathan
- Occupations
- physicianpediatricianscientist
- Biography
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Soumya Swaminathan is an Indian paediatrician and clinical scientist known for her research on tuberculosis and HIV. Swaminathan served as Secretary to the Government of India for Health Research and Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research (2015–2017), where she prioritized evidence-based health policy, research capacity building in medical schools, and strengthening south-south partnerships in health sciences. From October 2017 to March 2019, she was the deputy director general of programmes (DDP) at the World Health Organization. Subsequently till 2022, she served as the chief scientist at the World Health Organization under the leadership of Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
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Rajagopala Chidambaram
- Occupations
- nuclear physicistmetallurgistengineer
- Biography
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Rajagopala Chidambaram was an Indian physicist who is known for his integral role in India's nuclear weapons program; he coordinated test preparation for the Pokhran-I (1974) and Pokhran-II (1998).
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M. K. Narayanan
- Biography
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Mayankodu Kelath Narayanan is a retired IPS officer who served as the National Security Adviser of India from 2005 to 2010, assuming the role after the demise of his predecessor Jyotindra Nath Dixit in January 2005. Subsequently, he served as 19th Governor of West Bengal from 2010 to 2014. The Government of India awarded him the civilian honour of Padma Shri in 1992.
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Chidambaram Subramaniam
- Enrolled in the University of Madras
- In 1932 studied jurisprudence
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Chidambaram Subramaniam was an Indian politician and independence activist. He served as Minister of Finance and Minister of Defence in the union cabinet. He later served as the Governor of Maharashtra. As the Minister for Food and Agriculture, he ushered the Indian Green Revolution, an era of self-sufficiency in food production along with M. S. Swaminathan, B. Sivaraman and Norman E. Borlaug. He was awarded Bharat Ratna, Indian's highest civilian award, in 1998, for his role in ushering Green Revolution.
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Dhivya Suryadevara
- Occupations
- businesspersonexecutive
- Biography
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Dhivya Suryadevara is an Indian-American executive and Co‑President at Fiserv. She is the former CEO of Optum Insight and Optum Financial, part of UnitedHealth Group. She also served as the chief financial officer of Stripe and spent 16 years at General Motors, where she ultimately served as chief financial officer.
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Palagummi Sainath
- Occupations
- journalistwriter
- Biography
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Palagummi Sainath is an Indian columnist and author of the acclaimed book Everybody Loves a Good Drought. He has extensively written on rural India, his notable interests are poverty, structural inequities, caste discrimination and farmers protests.
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Sathamangalam Ranga Iyengar Srinivasa Varadhan
- Occupations
- university teachermathematicianstatistician
- Biography
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Sathamangalam Ranga Iyengar Srinivasa Varadhan, FRS is an Indian American mathematician and statistician. He is known for his fundamental contributions to probability theory and in particular for creating a unified theory of large deviations. He is regarded as one of the fundamental contributors to the theory of diffusion processes with an orientation towards the refinement and further development of Itô’s stochastic calculus. In the year 2007, he became the first Asian to win the Abel Prize.
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Ram Mohan
- Occupations
- animation directoranimator
- Biography
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Ram Mohan was an Indian animator, title designer and design educator, who was also known as father of Indian Animation and was a veteran in the Indian animation industry, who started his career at the Cartoon Films Unit, Films Division of India, Government of India in 1956. He was chairman and chief creative officer at Graphiti Multimedia, a Mumbai-based animation company which was established in 1995, and later he also established the Graphiti School of Animation in 2006.
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Chetpat Aiyar
- Occupations
- lawyeradministrator of the governmentpolitician
- Biography
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Dewan Bahadur Sachivottama Sir Chetput Pattabhiraman Ramaswami Iyer KCSI KCIE, popularly known as Sir C. P., was an Indian lawyer, administrator and politician who served as the Advocate-General of Madras Presidency from 1920 to 1923, Law member of the Executive council of the Governor of Madras from 1923 to 1928, Law member of the Executive Council of the Viceroy of India from 1931 to 1936 and the Diwan of Travancore from 1936 to 1947. Ramaswami Iyer was born in 1879 in Madras city and studied at Wesley College High School and Presidency College, Madras before qualifying as a lawyer from the Madras Law College. He practised as a lawyer in Madras and succeeded S. Srinivasa Iyengar as the Advocate-General of the Madras Presidency. He subsequently served as the Law member of the Governor of Madras and of the Viceroy of India before being appointed Diwan of Travancore in 1936.
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Belle Monappa Hegde
- Occupations
- surgeon
- Biography
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Belle Monappa Hegde is an Indian cardiologist, professor of medicine, and author. He was the vice chancellor of Manipal Academy of Higher Education from 1999 to 2003. He was awarded Padma Bhushan in 2010 and Padma Vibhushan in 2021. He has supported homeopathy a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine and quantum healing.
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Kasu Brahmananda Reddy
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Kasu Brahmananda Reddy was the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, India, from 29 February 1964 to 30 September 1971. On 3 June 1977, he was elected president of the Indian National Congress.
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Krishnaswamy Sundarji
- Occupations
- soldiermilitary leaderwriter
- Biography
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General Krishnaswamy "Sundarji" Sundararajan, PVSM was the Chief of the Army Staff of the Indian Army from 1986 to 1988. He was the last former British Indian Army officer to command the Indian Army.
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R. T. Neason
- Occupations
- film director
- Biography
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R. T. Neason is an Indian film director, he earlier worked as assistant director in film like Iraniyan, Prematho Raa, Thavasi, Ondagona Baa and also with Director Bhagyaraj as a screenplay writer. Neason also assisted in story and screenplay of Velayudham.
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Bapu
- Occupations
- cartoonistfilm directorsongwriterillustratorscreenwriter
- Biography
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Sattiraju Lakshminarayana, known professionally as Bapu, was an Indian film director, painter, illustrator, cartoonist, screenwriter, music artist, and designer known for his works in Telugu cinema, and Hindi cinema. In 2013, he was awarded the Padma Shri, for his contribution to Indian art and cinema. He has garnered two National Honors, two National Film Awards, seven state Nandi Awards, two Filmfare Awards South, a Raghupathi Venkaiah Award, and a Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award – South.
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B. D. Mishra
- Years
- 1939-.. (age 87)
- Occupations
- military personnelpolitician
- Biography
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Brigadier Bal Dutt Mishra (born 20 July 1939) is a retired officer of the Indian Army, and former Lieutenant governor of Ladakh, Previously he held the offices of Governor of Arunachal Pradesh, Governor of Meghalaya and Governor of Mizoram.
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Sameer Nair
- Occupations
- businessperson
- Biography
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Sameer Nair is an Indian media executive and CEO of Applause Entertainment Limited, a content studio owned by the Aditya Birla Group. He helped revamp the Star India, Star One, Star Utsav, Star Gold, Star Vijay, and Channel V television networks and participated in the launch of the Kaun Banega Crorepati, and Balaji Telefilms' soap operas on Star Plus.
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O. P. Singh
- Occupations
- police officer
- Biography
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OP Singh is a 1983 batch IPS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre. He was the Director General of Uttar Pradesh Police, and had previously served as the Director General of CISF and Director General of NDRF.
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Tiruchi Siva
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Tiruchi N. Siva is a member of the Parliament of India representing Tamil Nadu in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of parliament. He is from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party, and was elected in 1996, 2002, 2007, 2014 and 2020. He is a speaker and a writer.
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Mohammed Rela
- Born in
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India - Occupations
- surgeon
- Biography
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Mohamed Rela is an Indian surgeon and expert in liver transplantation and hepatopancreatobiliary surgery. He is considered one of the world's best liver transplant surgeons. He is in the Guinness Book of Records for performing a liver transplant on a 5-day-old baby.
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Arcot Ramasamy Mudaliar
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Sir Arcot Ramasamy Mudaliar was an Indian lawyer, diplomat, and statesman who was the first president of the United Nations Economic and Social Council and the 24th and last dewan of Mysore. He also served as a senior leader of the Justice Party and in various administrative and bureaucratic posts in pre- and Independent India. He was a prominent orator and was known for his inspiring speeches.
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Kamala Markandaya
- Occupations
- prose writerwriterjournalist
- Biography
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Kamala Markandaya, pseudonym of Kamala Purnaiya, married name Kamala Taylor, was a British Indian novelist and journalist. She has been called "one of the most important Indian novelists writing in English".
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Sashi Kumar
- Occupations
- film directorentrepreneurjournalistactorauthor
- Biography
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Sashi Kumar is an Indian journalist. He set up the Asian College of Journalism in Chennai, which was administered by the Media Development Foundation which he had founded.
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Kariamanickam Srinivasa Krishnan
- Occupations
- astrophysicistphysicist
- Biography
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Sir Kariamanikkam Srinivasa Krishnan was an Indian physicist. He was a co-discoverer of Raman scattering, for which his mentor C. V. Raman was awarded the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics.
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Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyer
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Dewan Bahadur Sir Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyer was an Indian lawyer and member of the Constituent Assembly of India, which was responsible for framing the Constitution of India. He also served as the advocate general of Madras State from 1929 to 1944. Neuroscientist Vilayanur S. Ramachandran is his grandson. Alladi Ramakrishnan, an Indian physicist and the founder of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai was his son.
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Conjeevaram Srirangachari Seshadri
- Occupations
- mathematicianprofessor
- Biography
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Conjeevaram Srirangachari Seshadri FRS was an Indian mathematician. He was the founder and director-emeritus of the Chennai Mathematical Institute, and is known for his work in algebraic geometry. The Seshadri constant is named after him. He was also known for his collaboration with mathematician M. S. Narasimhan, for their proof of the Narasimhan–Seshadri theorem which proved the necessary conditions for stable vector bundles on a Riemann surface.He also introduced and named the concept called Standard monomial theory.
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Y. Venugopal Reddy
- Occupations
- civil servanteconomist
- Biography
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Yaga Venugopal Reddy is an Indian economist and a retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the 1964 batch belonging to Andhra Pradesh cadre. Reddy served as governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), India's central bank, from September 2003 until September 2008.
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K. G. Subramanyan
- Occupations
- painteracademicsculptorprintmaker
- Biography
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Kalpathi Ganpathi "K.G." Subramanyan was an Indian artist. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 2012.
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Benegal Rama Rau
- Years
- 1889-1969 (aged 80)
- Occupations
- diplomatjudgebanker
- Biography
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Sir Benegal Rama Rau CIE, ICS was an Indian diplomat and career civil servant. He was the fourth Governor of the Reserve Bank of India from 1 July 1949 to 14 January 1957.
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Thanga Tamil Selvan
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Thanga Tamil Selvan is an Indian politician. He is a member of the Parliament, Theni Parliamentary constituency and was an MLATamil Nadu Legislative Assembly from Andipatti constituency. Previously, he was a member of Parliament of India representing Tamil Nadu in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament and Member of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly from Andipatti constituency in 2001-2002 period.
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Virendranath Chattopadhyaya
- Occupations
- revolutionaryfreedom fighterjournalist
- Biography
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Virendranath Chattopadhyaya, also known by his pseudonym Chatto, was a prominent Indian revolutionary who worked to overthrow the British Raj in India using armed force. He created alliances with the Germans during World War I, was part of the Berlin Committee organising Indian students in Europe against the British, and explored actions by the Japanese at the time.
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C. Kesavan
- Occupations
- lawyerfreedom fighterpolitician
- Biography
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C. Kesavan was an Indian politician who served as the chief minister of Travancore-Cochin from 1950 to 1952. He began his public life as an activist in the Ezhava movement, and gained prominence through his leadership in the Nivarthana movement (abstension movement) in Travancore, demanding adequate representation for backward communities in the legislature.
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K. S. Chandrasekharan
- Occupations
- mathematicianuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Komaravolu Chandrasekharan was a professor at ETH Zurich and a founding faculty member of School of Mathematics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR). He is known for his work in number theory and summability. He received the Padma Shri, the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award, and the Ramanujan Medal, and he was an honorary fellow of TIFR. He was president of the International Mathematical Union (IMU) from 1971 to 1974.
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K. A. Nilakanta Sastri
- Occupations
- historianwriter
- Biography
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Kallidaikurichi Aiyah Nilakanta Sastri was an Indian historian who wrote on South Indian history. Many of his books form the standard reference works on the subject. Sastri was acclaimed for his scholarship and mastery of sources and was a recipient of the third highest Indian civilian honour, the Padma Bhushan.
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A. Sivathanu Pillai
- Occupations
- electrical engineer
- Biography
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A. Sivathanu Pillai is an Indian scientist who was an honorary distinguished professor at Indian Space Research Organisation and an honorary professor at IIT Delhi in the Department of Mechanical Engineering (2015–2016) and a visiting professor at Indian Institute of Science (2014–2015).
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Sethuraman Panchanathan
- Enrolled in the University of Madras
- 1978-1981 graduated with Bachelor of Science in physics
- Occupations
- computer scientistacademic administratoruniversity teachercivil servant
- Biography
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Sethuraman Panchanathan is an Indian–American computer scientist and academic administrator who served as the 15th Director of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) from 2020 to 2025.
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V. Shanmuganathan
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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V Shanmuganathan was the Governor of the Indian state of Meghalaya, in office from 2015 to 26 January 2017. A veteran from Tamil Nadu, he also held an additional charge as Governor of Arunachal Pradesh from September 2016 till his resignation on 26 January 2017.
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Koka Subba Rao
- Occupations
- judge
- Biography
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Koka Subba Rao was the ninth Chief Justice of India (1966–1967). He also served as the Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court.
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Raman Parimala
- Occupations
- mathematicianuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Raman Parimala is an Indian mathematician known for her contributions to algebra. She is the Arts & Sciences Distinguished Professor of mathematics at Emory University. For many years, she was a professor at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai.
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M. S. Narasimhan
- Occupations
- mathematician
- Biography
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Mudumbai Seshachalu Narasimhan FRS was an Indian mathematician. His focus areas included number theory, algebraic geometry, representation theory, and partial differential equations. He was a pioneer in the study of moduli spaces of holomorphic vector bundles on projective varieties. His work is considered the foundation for Kobayashi–Hitchin correspondence that links differential geometry and algebraic geometry of vector bundles over complex manifolds. He was also known for his collaboration with mathematician C. S. Seshadri, for their proof of the Narasimhan–Seshadri theorem which proved the necessary conditions for stable vector bundles on a Riemann surface.
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Viveck Goenka
- Years
- 1957-.. (age 69)
- Occupations
- businessperson
- Biography
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Viveck Goenka is the Chairman, Managing Director and Editorial Director of the Indian Express Group. The newspapers included in the Indian Express Group include the flagship newspaper, The Indian Express, business and economy daily Financial Express; Marathi daily; Loksatta and Jansatta in Hindi. Online, the group is today the third largest news group in the country.
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Olagunsoye Oyinlola
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Ọlagunsoye Oyinlọla Listen is a retired Nigerian military general, who became governor of Osun State, Nigeria in May 2003, and was reelected in 2007. He was a member of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
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A. Sivasailam
- Occupations
- businessperson
- Biography
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Anantharamakrishnan Sivasailam was an Indian industrialist, educationist, philanthropist and a former chairman and managing director of Amalgamations Group of Industries, a ₹ 70 billion conglomerate hosting a workforce of over 12,000 (as of 2011). He headed the business family which was listed by Forbes as the 37th richest in India in 2015, with a net worth of US$ 2.5 billion. He was the president of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (1970, 1971) and ASSOCHAM and held the office of the Sheriff of Madras during 1969–1970. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri, in 2007, for his contributions to Indian industry.
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T. Madhava Rao
- Occupations
- civil servantpolitician
- Biography
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Raja Sir Tanjore Madhava Rao, KCSI, also known as Sir Madhava Rao Thanjavurkar or simply as Madhavarao Tanjorkar, was an Indian statesman, civil servant, administrator and politician who served as the Diwan of Travancore from 1857 to 1872, Indore from 1873 to 1875 and Baroda from 1875 to 1882. He was the nephew and son of the former Travancore Diwans T. Venkata Rao and T. Ranga Rao.
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K. R. Ramanathan
- Occupations
- physicistmeteorologist
- Biography
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Kalpathi Ramakrishna Ramanathan was an Indian physicist and meteorologist. He was the first director of the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad. From 1954 to 1957, Ramanathan was President of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG). Ramanathan was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1965 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1976.
