People you talked about in year 2010

From controversial verdicts to corruption trails, from sporting laurels to family reunions- an eclectic mix of people hogged headlines this year. Here's a look at newsmakers of the year that was.

From a hero's life to an outsider, Jagan Mohan Reddy has seen it all. When his father, charismatic leader and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy, died in a helicopter crash last year, every Congress leader arrived at the Reddys' to express their condolences and support for Jagan. But soon, the love and affection gave way to melancholy.

Trouble started when Jagan took up Odarpu Yatra which he called a personal trip to meet each of the families who lost a member after hearing the death of his father. This was seen in the political circles as a bid to defy Congress top brass who had chosen K Rosaiah over him as Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister. Several attempts were made to convince Jagan to stop his yatra and fall in line. But a defiant Jagan refused to obey and soon sparks began to fly.

As pressure grew, Rosaiah had to resign. But this time too, Congress made Kiran Reddy the Chief Minister. (PTI)

Things got so ugly that Jagan ultimately resigned from the Congress party in December, along with his mother, and announced the formation of a new party. But then came a rude shock. His once trusted uncle chose not to stand by his side and instead went with the Congress diktat. Thus, the Jagan-Congress battle turned into the battle of the Reddys. A miffed Jagan hurriedly sought a meeting with his uncle but according to reports the two got involved in a scuffle instead of arriving at a solution. A not so great year for Jagan Mohan Reddy. (PTI)

The year truly belongs to JD(U) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. An engineer, Nitish successfully implemented the social engineering concept interlaced with development, and won the Bihar Assembly election for the second time in a row, wiping out the alliance of his arch rival Lalu Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan. Nitish created history by winning more than three fourths of the seats - the highest so far - in Bihar Assembly. The only thing that has worked in Nitish Kumar's favour is his performance during the last five years.

Known for his developmental works, Nitish describes himself as one of the '3 Idiots' of Indian politics. But this year has not been a smooth sailing for the Bihar Chief Minister.

One of the major controversies that plagued JD(U) ahead of the crucial elections was Nitish's objection to an advertisement showing Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi sharing the dais with him at his Maha Dalit rally during the run up to the polls. Nitish was apparently miffed over a blow to his secular credentials by Modi's presence just ahead of the elections and even cancelled a dinner for the top brass of the BJP - gathered in Patna for the party's national executive. This snub by Nitish to his coalition partner also raised questions about the future of BJP-JD(U) alliance.

When it comes to controversy and self-goal, the UPA II government has not lost any opportunity. The massive IPL controversy though a domain of sports, claimed the crucial wicket of Shashi ‘twitter' Tharoor. Tharoor had to resign from the post of Minister of State for External Affairs for his alleged interest in IPL Kochi team.

But the man who blew the lid was later unceremoniously kicked out as the IPL czar. Lalit Modi published the shareholders details of Kochi-IPL team's franchise owners, Rendezvous Sports World (RSW) group on Twitter and also mentioned that he was asked by an influential Union Minister not to get into details of Sunanda Pushkar, who was given a sweat equity of approximately 4.5 per cent of total equity (estimated by the media to be worth Rs 70 crore) in Kochi IPL team. In an official statement, Tharoor denied having made any financial gains from the sale or having pressured Modi in any way.

His twitter posts most of time landed him in controversy. His "Cattle Class" remark made huge headlines in the media.In January 2010, Tharoor was reported to have criticized Gandhi and Nehru for their vision on Indian foreign policy by the Indian media. This angered his party. Later, he held a press conference describing the report as "inaccurate" and "tendentious".

In February 2010 while accompanying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Saudi Arabia, he said "We feel that Saudi Arabia has a long and close relationship with Pakistan, that makes Saudi Arabia even more a valuable interlocutor for us. The remark about Saudi Arabia being a "valuable interlocutor" raised a strong reaction within the Indian political circle. In response, Tharoor tweeted saying, "An interlocutor is someone you speak to. If I speak to you, you are my interlocutor. I mentioned the Saudis as our interlocutors, i.e. the people we are here to speak to".

Shashi Tharoor married Sunanda Pushkar in a quiet ceremony at his ancestral home in Elavanchery village in Kerala's Palakkad district on 22 August 2010. Sunanda's friendship with Tharoor was in the media buzz especially after it was revealed that she was offered sweat equity from the Kochi team. Though, she denied that she was a front for Tharoor.

Sunanda, who is in her 40s, holds an executive's post with an infrastructure company owned by the Emirate government. She has also worked with advertising firms, a travel agency in Dubai as well as with an IT firm in Toronto. She belongs to Sopore in the Kashmir Valley and her father is a retired Lt Colonel.

The DMK leader and former Telecom Minister has been at the centre of the controversy surrounding the allocation of 2G spectrum to various bidders. Raja has been accused of not following the rules when it came to choosing the service provider for the allocation of 2G spectrum for cellphone operators. Raja, it is alleged, used the first-come-first-serve basis instead of an auction in 2007 to choose the right contenders.

After the scam was unearthed, the Opposition went hammers and tongs demanding Raja's resignation from the Cabinet. The government was embarrassed further when the Comptroller and Auditor General of India estimated the cost of the scam to 1.76 lakh crore rupees - the largest in India.

Congress-led UPA government began persuading its ally, the DMK – Raja is a DMK leader – and its chief Karunanidhi to ask Raja to step down. But Raja remained adamant that he has done nothing wrong and that he won't resign. Meanwhile, the Opposition - mainly the BJP - virtually brought Parliament to a standstill demanding Raja's resignation. Ultimately, the government was able to convince Karunanidhi and Raja stepped down.

Amidst many scams and controversies this year, Karnataka hogged the limelight when the news of Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa and his family grabbing government land surfaced. Yeddyurappa was accused of denotifying the government land and then acquiring it for himself and his kin.

Political bickering once again took centrestage with Yeddyurappa accusing a faction of the BJP led by Ananth Kumar of trying to topple his government. The crisis came as a blow to the BJP which was attacking the government in Parliament over scams that plagued the country this year. While speculation was rife that BJP top brass will ask Yeddyurappa to go, a defiant Karnataka Chief Minister denied of any wrongdoing and refused to quit as Chief Minister.

Yeddyurappa's son and daughter, however, gave up their land holdings and Yeddyurappa ordered an enquiry into all land deals in the state since 1995. The RSS came out in support of Yeddyurappa who came and met BJP top brass in New Delhi. He was ultimately given a clean chit by the party.

The Congress general secretary had been instrumental in reviving Congress in Uttar Pradesh during the last Lok Sabha elections in 2009. He is the heir apparent in Congress. Rahul has been criss-crossing the country to meet the youth and infuse young blood into the party. He has also met many downtrodden and poor people to bring their problems to the fore.

Apart from meeting the poor, Rahul also delighted women at a kitty party in a Lucknow restaurant where he dropped in for lunch. He also travelled in a sleeper class from Gorakhpur to Mumbai and spent the hours talking to common people.

He also came to the rescue of the Prime Minister in 2G scam.

The Finance Minister and senior Congress leader has been the chief troubleshooter for the party, most notably in dealing with the Opposition's demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the 2G scam.

He found himself more tied down this year while dealing with Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee. His Budget was hailed by many but some people kept bickering, though he introduced a new watered down tax regime.

It has been a troubled year for Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. The Kashmir valley was once again engulfed in simmering protests over separatists' demand of pushing out Central forces and repealing of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). For three months, the whole valley plunged into chaos and many deaths were reported during demonstrations by the stone-pelters. Omar's political prowess was put to test in order to convince the separatists to come to the negotiating table.

Then, in the later part of the year, his controversial remarks on autonomy for Kashmir once again created furore.

The Gujarat minister and one of the key aides of Chief Minister Narendra Modi, was forced to quit as Minister of State for Home as the CBI net around him started tightening in the alleged fake encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kausar Bi. Sohrabuddin was killed in an encounter in 2005. The CBI has reportedly come across evidence that suggests that Shah was in constant touch with the senior policemen involved in the encounter.

The CBI is also investigating the charges that Amit Shah is linked to the powerful marble lobby of Gujarat and Rajasthan who are believed to be behind the death of Sohrabuddin Sheikh. It is alleged that Sohrabuddin used to extort money from these traders.

Amit Shah is presently out on bail granted by the Gujarat High Court in October.

The Myanmarese leader was in the news after she was released from house arrest by the country's military regime. Suu Kyi has been accused by the military junta of leading a rebellion against the establishment, and has spent 15 of the 21 years of her political life under house arrest.

She is the third child and only daughter of Aung San, considered to be the father of modern-day Burma. Suu Kyi was married to British academic, late Michael Aris.

It was after 10 years that Suu Kyi met her younger son Kim Aris. She is the founder leader of National League for Democracy.

Assange is an Australian journalist, publisher and a computer programmer. He is the founder of whistle-blower website WikiLeaks which created the year's biggest controversy after it posted millions of secret documents documenting details about the involvement of the United States in the Afghan and Iraq wars. Analysts say these revelations are bound to affect the relationships between countries and will change how diplomacy is exercised.

After the documents were released, a widespread search began for Assange. The Interpol even issued a red notice against him. He was wanted for questioning on suspicion of sex crimes.

Since the release of these secret documents, Assange has been on the run. He also alleged that he has been receiving threats to his life. Assange was finally arrested in Britain on December 7, 2010.After a week in detention facing possible extradition, he was released on $310,000 bail by a court on December 15th.

The 26-year-old Facebook founder and CEO has all the reasons to smile. Despite a lot of negative publicity courtesy the Hollywood movie 'The Social Network', 2010 has clearly been Zuckerberg's year.

He was named Time magazine's 'Person of the Year' for 2010, a laurel that has earlier been bestowed upon people like Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin.

Zuckerberg also put himself on the map not only as one of the world's youngest billionaires, but also as a prominent newcomer to the world of philanthropy. Earlier this year, he pledged $100 million over five years to the Newark school system.

He's also in the company of media titans like Carl Icahn and others who have joined 'Giving Pledge', an effort led by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and investor Warren Buffett to commit the country's wealthiest people to step up their charitable donations.

David Cameron has the distinction of bringing his Conservative Party to power after one and a half decades of Labour Party rule under Tony Blair, who dominated the British politics for much of the 90s. Young, energetic and a man of innovative ideas, Cameron formed government in alliance with Liberal Democrats, becoming the youngest Prime Minister of Great Britain in nearly 200 years after the 2010 General elections.

Cameron inherited an ailing economy shattered by the global economic recession and dwindling coffers of the British government. Even the budget for Royal family had to be cut down. Cameron had a daunting task of creating more jobs, cutting costs to save more money, to sustain the medical system (National Health Scheme) and boost confidence of the domestic economy.

After taking over the reins, he announced a slew of reforms at cutting government expenditure, hike in University fees, even cut in defence expenditure. Though, he faced popular opposition for his austerity drive, he firmly articulated his position to the public. He reiterated that the current government expenditure was not sustainable in the long term and appealed to the people to take the pain for a better future for Britain. University students across Britain held protests against huge hike in tuition fees, in many cases violent ones.

On the foreign affairs front too, he tried to boost British interests and made the significant trip to United States. He also visited India and slammed Pakistan for being a safe haven for terrorists. Pakistan criticized Cameron for his remarks that he made during his India visit.

Sarah Palin rose to prominence in American politics when the Republican Party nominated her as the Vice Presidential candidate in 2008. She lost the plot as well as the election to orator chief Barack Hussain Obama. Though her presence brought feeble votes to her party, it did attract eyeballs. She has been under constant media glare for her designer clothes, her beauty quotient and her innuendos and gaffes.

Palin was down but not out. She proved it when she drew the first blood in the 2010 US mid-term elections where her party trounced Obama. All of a sudden, Obama's finesse and oratory was dimmed in the rhetoric of Palin's hyperbole. Republicans regained space once again, they won House of Representatives handsomely and lost Senate by a wafer thin margin. But in all this, Palin was the biggest winner. Despite the demagoguery of tea party leadership, Palin emerged as the one of the biggest Republican leaders. Despite her gaffes and no brainer she has been slowly inching towards the US Presidential nominations. And she has not denied her intentions to take on Obama in the 2012 Presidential polls.

She endorsed more than 50 candidates, many of whom have toppled incumbents in Republican primaries. Despite angering the Republican leadership with such actions, a recent poll by Gallup named her as the leading candidate for the party's nomination in 2012. Only time will tell if she goes on to become first woman President of the US.

Palin tried to wear many hats in 2010: author, speaker, political news commentator and reality TV host. In January 2010, Palin began providing political commentary to the Fox News Channel under a multi-year contract. It was announced in March 2010 that she was to host her own TV show, called Sarah Palin's Alaska. Palin authored a second book, America by Heart, which was released on November 23, 2010.

Palin has been prone to gaffes. Here are the few she made in 2010: *On Thanksgiving day she addressed to 57 states instead of 50. *On a radio show she said North Korea is a US ally. *She committed mistakes while apparently trying to invent new words while tweeting about plans to build a mosque near the 'Ground Zero' site in New York. In her first effort, she asked "peaceful Muslims" to "pls refudiate" the mosque. Having invented a word, in her second attempt she used "refute" incorrectly, calling on "peaceful New Yorkers to refute the Ground Zero mosque plan". Both those messages were removed from her page, though not before being salvaged by US news websites. The third attempt remains.

British royal Prince William and girlfriend Kate Middleton were engaged on November 6 and will marry next spring or summer in London. Prince Charles' Clarence House office said the heir to the British throne is "delighted to announce the engagement of Prince William to Miss Catherine Middleton." It said they got engaged last month during a vacation in Kenya.

The announcement on Tuesday by royal officials ends an on-again, off-again romance that began after the two met more than eight years ago as students at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

Prime Minister David Cameron said he was delighted by the news, and sent the couple his best wishes. The prince, who is second in line to the throne, once told an interviewer he wouldn't marry "until I'm at least 28 or maybe 30." He turned 28 in June and recently completed training a Royal Air Force search and rescue pilot.

The royal family is said to approve of Middleton, the daughter of self-made millionaires. Her father worked for an airline and her mother was a flight attendant before they started a mail-order business specializing in children's parties, run from their farm in southern England. Middleton works for the family business.

Commentators have been anticipating a summer 2011 wedding, a date that avoids both the Olympics and Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee, both due to be held in 2012. Bookmakers stopped taking bets on a 2011 wedding months ago, saying all signs were pointing to a marriage next year.

Ever since their relationship became public knowledge, Middleton has been admired for her model looks and elegant dress sense. Now she's likely to become one of the world's most influential women, drawing comparisons with William's late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.

Niira Radia represents everything that's wrong with corporate capitalism in India. A self-proclaimed PR and 'corporate lobbyist', she represents two of India's biggest corporate giants (Reliance and Tata). Her, now (in)famous tapes selectively leaked (not by WikiLeaks though) bring to the fore the muck of corporate lobbying, back channel pressure, media-corporate collusion and crony capitalism. It also very clearly tells Aam Aadmi who rules the country and very unfortunately, how the system works.

The moment the tapes were out, the Opposition got another stick to beat the government, which has almost been pushed to the wall by a slew of scams, starting from the Commonwealth Games to the colossal 2G Spectrum scam to the shameful Adarsh Society scam. The functioning of both the Houses of Parliament was disrupted after reports of the phone conversation tapping of former Telecom Minister A Raja and Niira Radia came in the media. The tapes gave new twist to 2G and a new set of ammunition to the aggressive Opposition.

A member of the Lok Sabha from Pune, from the Indian National Congress, he is also the president of the Indian Olympic Association, Asian Athletics Association, and Athletics Federation of India. Controversy has never been away from him. In January 2010, former Indian hockey captain Pargat Singh accused Kalmadi of being a 'sports mafia'.

The conduct of 2010 Commonwealth Games has come under public scanner and legal scrutiny as well with the Chief Vigilance Commission asking CBI to probe certain aspects of the games' organization. For this, the opposition demanded the resignation of Suresh Kalmadi. It has been alleged that illegitimate wealth was created through over-reporting of games costs. However, Kalmadi continues to deny corruption charges. Finally, minutes before the start of the Winter Session of Parliament on November 9, 2010 the Congress party sacked him from the post of Secretary of Congress Parliamentary Party.The CBI on November 15 arrested TS Darbari and Sanjay Mahendroo, two close aides of Kalmadi, on charges of corruption and forgery in the conduct of the Queen's Baton Relay in London on October 29, 2009.

It may sound ironical but Suresh Kalmadi, who started his career as a pilot at the Indian Air Force (IAF) and went on to participate in the 1965–1971 Indo-Pak war and a recipient of eight medals in his career with IAF, is being pilloried by the entire nation for being corrupt and ‘unpatriotic'.

Kalmadi was accused of plundering the wealth of nation and tax-payer's money as the head of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee. The Central Vigilance Commission, involved in probing the alleged corruption in various Commonwealth Games-related projects, found discrepancies in tenders and alleged misappropriation amounting to about Rs 8,000 crore.

Indicting Suresh Kalmadi in the corruption scandal over the Commonwealth Games preparations, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in its interim inspection report on August 12 revealed that the Organising Committee has been involved in large scale financial irregularities.

According to the report, there was no detailed technical evaluation of the bidders for various deals and projects and selection was made in an arbitrary manner. The CAG report also stated discrepancies in the sponsorship deal with Melbourne-based firm, Sports Marketing and Management (SMAM), who were awarded the deal at an extremely low price. The deal was finally scrapped.

It was a teenager who, in many ways, was the inflection point for this crisis. On June 11, 17-year-old Tufail Mattoo was walking home from school when a teargas shell burst open his skull. A vicious circle was set, killing of a person was followed by protest demonstrations and clashes with police and Central Reserve Police Force in which another person was killed which led to another protest till more lost their lives and hundreds of security personnel were injured.

The protesters, mostly youths wearing jeans and hooded shirts, call themselves ''sangbazan,'' or the stone pelters. They covered Srinagar and other major Kashmiri towns with pro-independence graffiti and mounted fierce stone barrages against security forces, sometimes surrounding armored vehicles and throwing stones inside through the firing slats. Prabhakar Tripathi, a spokesperson for the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force, said on August 27, 2010, it's difficult to respond to such attacks. ''We use bullets in self-defense as a last resort,'' he said.

The government alleged that the stone-pelters were being financed and guided by Pakistan. ''It's not as if all the stone pelting, that takes place, takes place on ideological grounds. We have sufficient evidence and more is being collected as we speak that there is a deep sort of pattern of the involvement of money, of developing and generating these sort of law and order situations,'' Omar Abdullah had said earlier. But pro-separatists called the stone-pelting as a new face of resistance against New Delhi.

The youth of Kashmir also used the power of web to fawn more protests. The Internet was used as a virtual meeting place. Social networking sites, though presumably under Indian surveillance, proved to be more effective than any previous form of political communication in Kashmir, said Shuddabrata Sengupta, a New Delhi-based writer who follows new media issues in India. The stone pelters used Facebook to debate the weekly calendar of protests, discussed ways to hold Kashmiri leaders accountable and trade daily news updates, some of questionable reliability.

The government appealed to keep children away from protests, as participants, or as young residents of the city had swarmed the streets with their potent weapon – stone. As they clashed with the security forces, the casualty was on both sides but the youth of the Valley comprised the most. Over 100 people, mainly youth were killed in the protests. In September Home Minister P Chidambaram issued a stern warning to stone-pelters, after a few incidents of stone-pelting on school buses were reported. The schools were opened after a gap of almost three months.

Both the Centre and the state government celebrated the reopening of schools, but Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was careful not to tom-tom it as a victory over separatists. He reiterated his request to keep education out of the conflict. "It's nobody's victory and nobody's defeat, it's only the victory of those children who have been able to come back to schools and been able to resume their education. We hope that more and more children come back to school," Omar said. The state government blamed the Opposition for tacitly supporting the protesters. "This is the result of the encouragement these stone-pelters are receiving from various political quarters, including unfortunately from the principal Opposition party based out of Kashmir", J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said on February 22.

On October 14, 2011, two months, nine days, and eight hours after their agonizing ordeal began, the last of the 33 miners trapped a half-mile underground in Chile was delivered safely to the earth's surface, capping perhaps the most dramatic survival story in mining history. The 33 miners were trapped in the San Jose mine -- which produced copper and gold – which collapsed on August 5.

Chilean President Sebastián Piñera, a billionaire businessman who is one of Latin America's most conservative leaders, staked his presidency on the effort. It involved untold millions of dollars, specialists from NASA and drilling experts from a dozen or so countries. Some here at the mine have compared the rescue effort to the Apollo 13 space mission, for the emotional tension it has caused and the expectation of a collective sigh of relief at the end. After the successful rescue operation Piñera said “The miners were an example of "companionship, courage and loyalty."

A global audience watched nonstop coverage on computers, television sets and even cellphones. The rescue operation was rightly termed as a triumph of human engineering. The extraordinary tale of survival in one of the most inhospitable spots on the planet captured the attention of the world. The President and rescue workers joined in a rousing rendition of Chile's national anthem, jubilation had broken out in the main square of Copiapo, the state capital 40 miles from the mine and home to most of the miners. More than 3,000 people crowded the plaza to watch the final rescue on giant TV monitors.

The man who was once hailed for one of the most revolutionary experiments in Indian sports, the Indian Premier League (IPL), Lalit Modi is now under fire after allegations of impropriety in the conduct of the League. After complaints of auction rigging and kickbacks emerged, the Board of Control for Cricket in Indian (BCCI) constituted an internal enquiry and issued a notice to Modi. He was suspended as the IPL Chairman in April 2010.

His infamous ‘Twittergate' scandal involving Shashi Tharoor - who had to resign as the Minister of State for External Affairs - blew the lid off the glitterati of the IPL and exposed the muck behind it. Apart from Modi, many of the franchises too faced the heat which Modi called as a ‘witch-hunt' against him by some officials.

The heir of a successful business empire and a US-educated youth, Modi now has a legacy of sorrow, defamation and pain. Law enforcement agencies are after Modi and he is currently living at an undisclosed location out of India. Once the man of the moment, Modi now faces lonely battle.

Just a couple of years back, India was looking for its next big thing in men's tennis after Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi. And now we have Somdev Devvarman. What's better, he plays singles and doubles both unlike Lee and Hesh. And he has moved from strength to strength in the last two years. His surge has been exemplary this year.

He started the year with a quarterfinal finish in the South Africa Open. In the Davis Cup World Group play-offs, Somdev and Rohan Bopanna fought back hard to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat as they helped India enter the elite group by beating Brail 3-2.

Somdev broke a 13-year-old jinx for India by making the French Open's main draw. He, however, Somdev crashed out in the first round. While he played doubles in the Wimbledon, he qualified for the US Open. In none of the Grand Slams, he survived long.

But come the Commonwealth Games, Somdev took his game to the next level. Tennis made its debut at the 19th Commonwealth Games in New Delhi and Somdev made sure he bagged the first gold medal for his country.

In the recently concluded Asian Games in Guangzhou, Somdev kept the Indian tricolor flying high. He won two gold medals for India. A day before winning gold in the men's singles event, he clinched the yellow metal in the doubles event with Sanam Singh.

The kind of promise that Somdev has shown in the beginning of his professional career, all Indians hope that he achieves greater heights in the new year.

Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is surely destiny's favourite child. Since his emergence in the international cricket, he has been the cynosure of all eyes. The last five years have been a dream run for him.

And while it's been an up and up journey for him so far, year 2010 was a rather special one for Mahi, both professionally and personally. Here is it how!

Under his leadership, India entered 2010 with the World No. 1 Test status and managed to stay atop throughout the year. Under his captaincy, India lost just two Tests out of 21. The ICC acknowledged his captaincy by naming him the captain of the World Test XI at the ICC annual awards. In ODIs too, India finished No. 2.

The Chennai Super Kings got lucky in the third edition of the Indian Premier League under MSD's leadership. The CSK were the only side to make it to the semi-finals in all three seasons, making it to the finals twice. And the captain led from the front whenever needed.

The suave cricketer wrote another success story for the CSK when he led them to the title win in the Champions League T20 in South Africa. With his contribution to the side, CSK owner N Srinivasan going for his retention should not raise any eyebrows.

And while he won millions of hearts with his super show, he did break many of them when he decided to tie the knot with his long-time girlfriend Sakshi Rawat. Known to keep his personal life out of media glare, Dhoni's marriage was a low-key and a strictly family affair. It had the Indian media in frenzy who had no access to the do.

Soon after his marriage, he signed what was the richest sponsorship deal in Indian sporting history. He signed a two-year contract with Rhiti Sports worth a staggering $42million. This deal eclipsed the agreement Sachin Tendulkar had signed with sports management firm Iconix in 2006 which was worth $40m for three years. Later in December, he signed a three-year deal of Rs 26-crore with Vijay Mallya's UB Group. It was the biggest for any Indian sportsperson.

So what next! How about lifting the World Cup next year? O yeah! The Indian Dil maange more and more from Mahi!

Till 2009, Sania Mirza normally hogged the limelight for her tennis prowess. Come 2010, her performance dips and TRP for stories about her personal life soars.

She surprised everyone when she broke her engagement with her childhood friend Sohrab Mirza in January. But her fans were in for a bigger surprise when she disclosed her relationship with Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Malik. Sania entered into wedlock with him on April 12 amid much public drama and hype.Her wedding was marred by controversy surrounding Shoaib's alleged first marriage to another Indian girl, Ayesha Siddiqui. After much declining, Malik accepted the marriage and then divorced her before tying the knot with Sania. Since then the couple is having a smooth sail. Shoaib, out of the Pakistan cricket team, is happy supporting his gorgeous wife.

Returning to the tennis court after marriage, Sania won a silver medal in women's singles event and bronze in the doubles event at the Commonwealth Games. At the Asian Games, she won a silver medal in mixed doubles and a bronze in the singles event.

Just a couple of years back, Saina Nehwal's name was often confused with tennis star Sania Mirza. She made sure with her numerous accomplishments and sheer hard work that no one got it wrong henceforth. Year 2010 has been a special year for this young shuttler from Hyderabad.

One win after the other saw Saina move up in the rankings. It all started with the Uber Cup, which followed her quarterfinal finish at the Malaysian Open. In the Uber Cup, Saina was the only Indian woman to score a win in the second league encounter against Japan.

In March, Saina became the first ever Indian woman to reach the semi-finals of the All England Super Series badminton championship when she defeated German Juliane Schenk in straight games in the quarterfinals.

In June she completed a hat-trick of titles after she won India Open Grand Prix, Singapore Open Super Series and Indonesia Open Super Series. In the Singapore Open final she defeated world champion Lu Lan of China. With this win she became World no. 3. High on confidence, Saina successfully defended her Indonesian title. In July, she moved up a rung to become World No. 2.

Saina's top notch show in the court fetched her awards and accolades in abundance. She was honoured with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, India's highest sports award.

While she failed to survive beyond the quarterfinals of the World Championships, Saina made amendments in the Commonwealth Games. One of the brand ambassadors of the Games that were hosted in India, Saina clinched the gold medal in the dramatic women's singles final and played a decisive role in India's second position finish.

Her superb show boosted her brand value as well. After her gold medal at the CWG, Saina doubled her value with the sponsors. Airtel, who have always used the biggest celebrities for their branding, signed her on for Rs 1 crore, making her the number one non-cricket sportsperson in India.

Mangte Chungneijang Merykom. Yes, that's the real name of five-time World Boxing Champion MC Mary Kom.

Mary, who holds the record of being the only boxer to have won a medal in each one of the six World Championships, won a Gold medal in the Asian Championships after defeating old rival Jong Ok of Korea 8-1 in the summit clash.

Few months later, Mary Kom scripted history. A mother of two, became the World Boxing Champion for the fifth time successively. Competing in the 48 kg category, Mary Kom beat Steluta Duta of Romania 16-6 in the final. Her achievement had master batsman Sachin Tendulkar saluting her. “Simply amazing! All the more remarkable aft taking break n havin 2 kids," the veteran batsman had written on his Twitter page.

She was also named as one of the six brand ambassadors of the Commonwealth Games. The only catch was that women's boxing was not a part of the Games. She, however, clinched a bronze in the Asian Games.

He has been the India's ultimate yet the most understated sporting icon for more than 20 years. He has given India many proud moments in his career.

Year 2010 was a happening year for Anand. This year Anand accomplished something which no other chess great could ever do. He won the World Champion title but what really made it special was the fact that he asserted his supremacy by winning the title in every possible format of the tournament including winning the world chess title three times in a row and against various opponents including two different ones in match format. He won in knock-out, round-robin and two matchplay formats to give an apt answer to his critics.

However, in August, an unwarranted incident happened when Anand's citizenship was questioned. The matter came to the forefront when the ICM or the International Congress of Mathematicians wanted to confer a doctorate on Anand in Hyderabad. The decision got delayed because the Human Resource Development ministry raised a query about whether Anand had an Indian passport. The confusion it seemed stemmed from the fact that Anand is an NRI who lives in Spain for most of the year. HRD Minister Kapil Sibal later apologised.

Two major multi-sports events took place in 2010 – the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games and India bagged 101 and 64 medals in them respectively. But off all the medal-winners, we picked Ashish Kumar, a 19-year old gymnast. Why? Because he did what no Indian gymnast could ever do. Win a medal in the Commonwealth Games in gymnastics. What's better, he bagged two in the event. First he won a bronze in the floor exercise and then followed it with a silver medal in men's vault.

Ashish, who first created history at an age of 16 when he became the first Indian to win a medal at the Asian Gymastics Championships in 2006, surely is India's rising star.

Also called as 'Crazy Gymnast' by his teammates for doing difficult body coordination exercises, Ashish carried his CWG success to the Asian Games in Guangzhou where he won a bronze medal in Artistic Gymnastics.

What can easily be dubbed as the dumbest on-field antic of the year, the ball tampering or shall we say the ‘ball biting' episode happened in the very beginning of 2010. And it was none other than ‘Boom Boom' Afridi who was the ‘coupable principal'.

After being thrashed by Australia in both Test and ODI series, Pakistan were playing the last ODI in Perth with the intention of salvaging some pride.

As regular captain Mohammad Yousuf had missed the match officially due to a sore knee (though reports suggested he had differences with coach Intikhab Alam), Shahid Afridi lead the side as a stand-in skipper.

And while his captaincy was impressive, he had his 'moment of madness'. During a Rana Naved ul Hasan over, he gnawed the ball like it was an apple.

Umpires hauled him before changing the ball. He pleaded guilty when he was charged by match referee Ranjan Madugalle with article 2.2.9 offence of ICC Code of Conduct for breaching Law 42.3 of the Laws of Cricket and was handed a ban of two Twenty20 Internationals.

Though he apologised for his action but his weak attempt of defending himself drew more flak than his action. He had said he was "trying to smell the ball" and that "there was no team in the world that doesn't tamper with the ball".

Unlike the last couple of years, Year 2010 did not belong to a sulky Alonso or a blaze kid named Hamilton or even a back from accident Felipe Massa. It was the German driver who holds the record of being the youngest race winner.

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel moved to the next level in 2010 and became the youngest ever World Champion. Often referred to as ‘Baby Schumi', Vettel won five Grand Prix races with three of those victories coming in the last four races.

In a season marked by criticism subject to an innumerable amount of errors - notably in Turkey where he collided into teammate Mark Webber fighting for the lead - Vettel did what he was capable of and triumphantly.

Called the 'Indo-Pak Express', this unlikely pair took the world of tennis by surprise by managing to qualify for their first ever men's doubles final at the 2010 US Open.

As a result of this feat, Qureshi became the first ever Pakistani to reach the final of a Grand Slam event. His emotional yet intelligent speech at the awards ceremony moved many hearts across the globe.

Playing in tandem with each other, Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq-Qureshi have turned themselves not only into a great tennis team but are also ambassadors of peace between the two countries who have had a turbulent past.

Earlier in the year, Bopanna-Qureshi entered the quarter-final of the men's doubles event at Wimbledon.

The duo must be hoping that they win their first major in the new year.

This eight-legged cephalopod became a phenomenon during the 2010 FIFA World Cup with his bang-on predictions of the Germany matches. After Germany's ouster from the tournament, he correctly predicted the World Cup winner – Spain.

His Modus Operandi: An aquarium worker lowered two plastic boxes into his tank. Each had the flag of the two teams playing a match. Both boxes had a mussel each. The box Paul picked a mussel from to eat was the team he said would win.

Paul, who lived at the Sea Life Aquarium in the western German city of Oberhausen, was the only one listed under Noted People from Oberhausen on Wikipedia.

Also known as Octopus Oracle, who had become more famous than some of the biggest soccer stars during the football mega event, Paul had received death threats, especially from Argentina, where a chef reportedly described in detail on a facebook post of how he would murder and cook him.

The two-year-old octopus, however, died a natural death on October 26.

When Pakistan toured England in 2010, first for a home series (since there was no cricket happening in Pakistan due to security concerns) against Australia and then an away series against the hosts England, cricket lovers and fans of the sub-continental giants thought it would finally resurrect their fledgling fortunes in the international arena.

But it became an embarrassment for the game of cricket itself as an expose by the tabloid 'News of the World' brought to the forefront the alleged involvement of several Paksitani players in spot-fixing during the matches.

It was reported that Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir had accepted bribes to purposely under-perform at certain points in the 4th Test at Lord's.

Undercover reporters from the tabloid had secretly video-taped conversations with bookie Mazhar Majeed which show him accepting money and informing the reporters that fast bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir would deliberately bowl no-balls at specific points in an over — information which could be used by gamblers to make wagers with inside information.

The ICC banned the players from taking part in international cricket until their names are cleared while Majeed was taken into custody by Scotland Yard on charges of match-fixing.

The tainted Pakistani trio appealed against their ban but that was turned down by the ICC. They are now being investigated by the international body's anti-corruption unit.

The drama though did not end here with opening batsman Yasir Hameed saying in an interview that almost all Pakistani matches are fixed, something that he denied later.

The controversy surrounding the team reached its height when wicket-keeper Zulqarnain Haider abandoned the team mid-way through Pakistan's series against South Africa in Abu Dhabi and resurfaced in London where he informed in a press conference that he had received death threats from bookmakers and he subsequently retired from international cricket.

2011 can be a make or break year for the Pakistan cricket as it tries to stem the rot of fixing from ruining it further.

Stepping into his 21st year of international cricket, Sachin Tendulkar's hunger for runs was intact as ever and he was quick to pounce on the opportunity to make hay as India visited Bangladesh where he scored centuries in back to back Test matches.

He followed that up with two tons against South Africa with the second one helping India to draw the home series and maintain their number 1 status.

The crowning moment of his limited overs career was yet to come. Having established himself as the leader in all as aspects of the 50-over game, Sachin Tendulkar deservedly became the first man in the history of the format to register a double ton. His unbeaten 200 against South Africa at Gwalior on 24th February was one of the finest by the 'maestro'.

Tendulkar was named Cricketer of the Year at the prestigious ICC Awards, held at a glittering ceremony in Bengaluru.

During the voting period, the 37-year-old from Mumbai played in 10 Test matches, striking 1,064 runs, including six centuries, at an average of 81.84.

Tendulkar also played in 17 ODI matches in the time, smashing his way to 914 runs at an average 65.28 in a period that also included the master batsman's record-breaking double-century against South Africa in Gwalior.

Concentrating just on Test cricket for the rest of the year, Sachin scored two grand double tons, first against Sri Lanka in Colombo and then a match winning 214 at Bangalore which helped India to pulverise the Aussies.

But with the entire nation waiting with bated breath for his 50th Test ton against the pedestrian Kiwi bowlers, Sachin failed to fire.

He, finally, scored the much-awaited century against South Africa in the Centurion Test.

Team India started the year at the top of the ICC test team rankings and the biggest challenge facing them was to stay at the perch. The season started with a tour to Bangladesh and M S Dhoni's men expectedly won both the Test matches.

But the big test was to follow as South Africa visited the sub-continent for a 2-match Test series. With Dale Steyn in full flow, the top Test team was made to look pedestrian as the Proteas registered a big win in the first Test match in Nagpur. With their reputation and the top slot both at stake in the second Test match at Eden Gardens, India managed to bounce back.

Centuries by Sehwag, Laxman and Tendulkar and heroics with the ball by Harbhajan Singh helped the home team secure a win and square the series.

India though found themselves in trouble again and this time it was in Sri Lanka. Muttiah Muralitharan signed off from Test cricket in style as he picked up 8 wickets in the first Test match at Galle to lead the islanders to a win and completed 800 wickets. With the Lankans leading 1-0 after the first 2 Tests, India again needed a inspirational performance to level the series.

Chasing 250-plus on the last day, VVS Laxman produced a gem of an innings and remained unbeaten on 103 to guide India home.

The Border-Gavaskar trophy was next as Ricky Ponting and his men came calling. The Australians, struggling to match their glorious past were determined to ground the high flying Indians and looked on road to a win in the first Test at Mohali when they had the hosts almost dead at 124/8 chasing a target of 215.

But the man who has been a scourge for the Aussies over the years decided to be the saviour for India again. VVS Laxman fought off severe back spasms to script one of the most gallant innings in modern day cricket as he along with some able support from tailender Ishant Sharma and then Pragyan Ojha guided India to an improbable 1-wicket win.

That was enough to turn the tide as India swept the series with a thumping win at Bangalore, thanks to a Sachin Tendulkar double ton.

New Zealand were the next to travel to India and the pundits were quick to predict a whitewash in favour of Team India. The Kiwis though made life difficult for the hosts they produced good all round performances in the first to Test matches to keep the series tied at 0-0. Harbhajan Singh surprised himself and host of others by cracking 2 centuries in the first two Tests.

The Kiwi resistance was finally broken as India stormed to a huge win in the last Test to win the series 1-0.

India participated in a tri-nation tournament in Bangladesh with Sri Lanka as the third team. Both the Lankans and India got better of the hosts and share a match a piece in the preliminary stage to qualify for the final where the islanders upstaged M S Dhoni's men by 6 wickets.

This was followed a 3-match series at home against South Africa. India sealed the series by winning the first 2 ODIs and went on to surrender the dead rubber to the Proteas.

Another tri-series followed with Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe. With most of the seniors rested, Team India was led in the tournament by Suresh Raina. The experiment failed miserably as the team lost to both its matches against Zimbabwe and failed to make the finals.

The biggest 50-over tournament of the year was the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka and India were looking to break a 15-year old jinx in the continental competition.

Having secured a place in the final after beating Bangladesh and Pakistan, India lost their final prelim match against Sri Lanka. Facing the same opposition in the final, India managed a total of 268 runs with a half-century from Dinesh Karthik and other useful contributions.

But it was the bowlers who produced the star act of the night with Ashish Nehra picking up 4 wickets to help India beat Sri Lanka by 81 runs and win their 5th Asia Cup title.

A tri-series followed in Sri Lanka with New Zealand as the third team. India qualified for the final against the Lankans but could not repeat their Asia Cup performance and were handed defeat by the hosts.

India won the first match of the 3-match home series against Australia and with the next 2 matches abandoned due to rain, went on to win the series 1-0.

But sweetest moment of the year in ODIs was yet to come. With most of the senior players rested for the South Africa tour, Gautam Gambhir captained India in the 5-match series against New Zealand. The youngsters rose up to the challenge as the hosts blanked the Kiwis 5-0. Gautam Gambhir was chosen 'Man of the Series' and Yusuf Pathan finally came good in national colours with a blitzkrieg of a knock in the 4th ODI.

The winners of the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007 have not had a great run in T20 internationals ever since. But Team India started off their campaign in the 2010 ICC World T20 in great fashion as they beat Afghanistan and South Africa to qualify for the Super 8 stage.

But the Indian batsmen were found out on the bouncy tracks in the Caribbean as they lost all three of their Super 8 matches against Australia, West Indies and Sri Lanka to get dumped out.

Soccer sensation Wayne Rooney might have had an off-colour season, but he did hog the headlines. He wished he didn't. Rooney went the Tiger Woods' way when stories of his infidelities came to fore. He allegedly slept with Jennifer Thompson, a prostitute while his wife Coleen was pregnant. The couple, however, organised a low-key ceremony for their son Kai Wayne Rooney's christening in November.

Aamir Khan had no releases this year as an actor, but he managed to grab the headlines as producer of sleeper hit Peepli Live. The movie, a satirical look at the farmer suicide crisis, got on the wrong side of a Nagpur based farmers' advocacy group which called for a Maharashtra ban on the film. Director Anusha Rizvi then stirred things up further by taking issue with Peepli Live being called an Aamir Khan movie. And just when we thought there was no more to be said, Hollywood star John Travolta stated in an interview that he was astonished to learn that Peepli Live, India's official entry for the Oscars, was inspired by his own film, Mad City

There was controversy with a capital K on this season's Koffee with Karan. Bollywood hot-male Ranbir Kapoor was on the receiving end of ex-flame Deepika Padukone's verbal volley – she held forth on his low sex appeal, his way with women and how she'd like to give him a pack of condoms. Fellow PYT Sonam Kapoor, who appeared on the same episode, added some masala by praising Deepika for hanging onto Ranbir so long since she personally didn't believe he was worth it, having seen ‘all of him'. Her comment didn't go down well with Ranbir-daddy Rishi Kapoor who shot back saying Anil Kapoor's daughter should concentrate on work. Ranbir himself seems to be giving the ladies a wide berth, swapping saliva with Imran Khan on a separate episode of Koffee with Karan. Get a room, guys!

Kareena also caught the Kapoor foot in mouth disease by stating, in front of current boyfriend Saif Ali Khan, that she finds former boyfriend Shahid Kapoor sexy. She also had some nasty things to say about Priyanka Chopra's accent. Priyanka Chopra lobbed the ball back into Kareena's court, saying she'd got her accent from the same place that Kareena's boyfriend had got his. OK then!

Katrina Kaif was definitely the Bollywood flavor of 2010. It was splitsville for her and main man Salman Khan, even though they keep us guessing with continuing public appearances together. She debuted a brand new slimline figure in an item number from next release Tees Maar Khan. Bollywood gossip keeps pairing her up with Ranbir Kapoor but they both deny there's a romance. Kat also had a new Barbie doll named after her, a dubious honour that no other actress enjoys. That's one eventful year – the lady's going to have to work hard to make 2011 equally happening.

Malaika Arora Khan ends the decade with a bang for Bollywood as her Munni Badnaam act from Dabangg set pulses racing and temperatures soaring. Her plentiful curves and filmi thumkas sent sales of Zandu balm skyrocketing. A sure fire way to beat the winter blues is only a click of the DVD remote away for the Indian male population.

Where be Rakhi Sawant, there be headlines. This year, she helmed a controversial talk show called Rakhi Ka Insaaf on which she called a participant ‘namard'. The participant, Lakshman Prasad from Madhya Pradesh, took Rakhi's words to heart so much that he stopped eating and drinking, and finally died. Rakhi Ka Insaaf also brought upon itself the wrath of many women's rights groups who objected to it's indecent content, forcing the show's time slot to be pushed to 11pm

Almost-but-not-quite forgotten Yana Gupta, grabbed the spotlight by pulling a Sharon Stone at a public appearance. The model neglected to wear her underclothes to a children's charity event, giving the flashbulbs a peek at her naughty bits. A UK glossy has reportedly offered her big bucks to do a nude cover for them while back home, a social activist has filed a case against her. Publicity and financial gain – Yana seems to have sunk a hole in one just by going commando

He lost his girl this year but Salman proved he's still a Khan to reckon with at age 45 by pulling a Dabangg-shaped rabbit out of the hat. His motormouth, maverick cop, Chulbul Pandey, joins the Bollywood Hall of Fame as a filmi character we'll never forget. Salman's Rajnikanth-esque action sequences and his ubiquitous 6 pack made 2010 a year for the box office to remember.

Ranbir Kapoor was the busiest Bollywood man this year, both on screen and off it. The critics loved him in Rajneeti and he kept things from getting too serious with Anjaana Anjaani. His broken romance with Deepika Padukone put him on the singleton list, even as he denied rumours of an affair with girl of the moment Katrina Kaif. Ex-flame Deepika and rumoured ex-flame Sonam Kapoor also kept him headline-worthy with their choice remarks on Koffee With Karan. Next year's forecast for this Kapoor? Sunny with a chance of thunderstorms.

Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani hogged the limelight in the corporate world because of RIL's announcement to diversify into various sectors. Reliance Industries on June 11 entered the telecom arena, hitherto forbidden to it, with a bang, by announcing a Rs 4,800 crore acquisition of Infotel Broadband Services. And in August, RIL bought a 14.12 per cent stake in EIH Ltd, the operator of Oberoi Hotels & Resorts and the Trident brand, for Rs 1,021 crore. The firm then made substantial investments in shale gas assets by acquiring three shale gas assets during the year.

Mukesh Ambani, the richest man in India and the fourth richest in the world, also grabbed international headlines by building world's first billion-dollar home called “Antilla” in Mumbai. Antilla boasts of a health club, gym, a ballroom, dance studio, lounges, guestrooms, a 50-seat screening hall, an elevated garden, three helipads, and parking for 160 vehicles.

In July, the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group's (ADAG's) gas transportation company, Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL), announced its merger with sister firm Reliance Power (R-Power) in a Rs 50,000-crore (Rs 500 billion), all-stock deal.

Another major development was the outcome of the case between the two brothers on supply and pricing of gas from KG Basin's D6 block. The Ambani brothers on May 23 agreed to dump their differences and non-compete agreements, saying this would eliminate any room for further "disputes". Announcing that they would also expeditiously negotiate gas supply agreement in accordance with the Supreme Court order, the groups of both Mukesh and Anil vowed to fulfill vision of their father Dhirubhai Ambani, after whose death they separated following an acrimonious fight.

Ajit Gulabchand-led Hindustan Construction Company holds a stake of around 65 per cent stake in Lavasa Corporation, which is building a 25000-acre hill township project near Pune. Lavasa's signature project is a new city built in the hills near the city of Pune in Maharashtra, but it came under environment ministry's scanner as the company was issued a "show cause" notice charging it with not obtaining environmental clearances before beginning construction work on its planned hill city project.

In one of the biggest acts of philanthropy by an Indian, Wipro Chairman Azim Premji decided to donate a huge chunk of his personal wealth to a charitable trust that is working in elementary education, among other things. Premji transferred company shares worth Rs 8,846 crore to his endowment trust to fund philanthropic activities. Interestingly, Premji's philanthropic act comes at a time when corporate India is increasingly facing questions of not ready yet to let go of their hard-earned cash, even for charity.

Chanda Kochhar is the MD and chief executive officer of ICICI Bank. Kochhar was ranked eleventh in the Financial Times' ranking of the Top 50 Women in World Business. Despite Kochhar's first-time in the list, she topped among the Indians to appear in it. She also has made into the Forbes list of world's 100 most powerful women. She began her career with ICICI as a management trainee in 1984 and has thereon successfully risen through the ranks by handling multi-dimensional assignments and heading all the major functions in the bank at various points in time.

Vedanta Resources, the London-listed Indian mining group controlled by Anil Agarwal, inked a deal to take a majority stake in Cairn India for up to $9.6 billion. This would be one of the biggest ever domestic takeover. Agarwal described the deal as a “testament to the strength of the Vedanta story.” The government will decide on giving the approval to Cairn-Vedanta deal by February-end. Separately, in August the government rejected environment clearance to Vedanta's $1.7 billion bauxite mining project proposed in Orissa, citing violation of forest and environment laws.

In November, Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata made it clear there were no change in his plans to retire in 2012. Tata, who took the $72 billion company to new heights and was instrumental in launching the world's cheapest car Nano, has already announced he will quit office by the end of 2012. He also surprised the political corridors in the country by announcing that he did not enter the airline business as he was not comfortable with the idea of bribing Rs 15 crore to a minister, as had been suggested by an industrialist.

The world's most ambitious and biggest social inclusion program is underway in India, leveraging a massive array of public and private entities, sophisticated biometrics and information technology, and endorsement across political lines. Aadhaar, which means "foundation" or "support" in Hindi, aims to provide unique identification (UID) numbers to some 600 million Indians in the next four years, and cover the rest of the country's population in subsequent years. Aadhaar's driving force and chief evangelist is its chairman, Nandan Nilekani, one of India's most visible new-age entrepreneurs who co-founded the country's second-largest IT services firm, Infosys Technologies.