modi

Narendra Damodardas Modi (Gujarati: [ˈnəɾeːnd̪rə d̪aːmoːd̪əɾˈd̪aːs ˈmoːd̪iː] ( listen), born 17 September 1950) is the 14th and current Prime Minister of India, in office since 26 May 2014.^[1][2] Modi, a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was the Chief Minister of the western Indian state of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014, and is currently a Member of the Parliament from Varanasi. He took office as the Prime Minister after the 2014 general election, in which his party (BJP) won a majority in the Lok Sabha (the lower house of the Indian parliament), for the first time since 1984 general elections.^[3]

As Prime Minister, Modi's administration has focused on reforming and modernising India's infrastructure and government,^[4] reducing bureaucracy, encouraging increased foreign direct investment,^[5] improving national standards of health and sanitation and improving foreign relations.^[6][7] Earlier, as Chief Minister of Gujarat, Modi's economic policies (credited with encouraging economic growth in Gujarat) have been praised,^[8] although his administration has been criticised for failing to significantly improve the human development in the state and for failing to prevent the 2002 Gujarat riots.^[9][10][11] A Hindu nationalist and member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Modi remains a controversial figure domestically and internationally.^[9][12][13][

goldber

William Scott "Bill" Goldberg (born December 27, 1966) is an American semi-retired professional wrestler, actor, former professional football player, and former mixed martial arts color commentator currently signed to WWE under the ring nameGoldberg, performing on the Raw brand. Goldberg is best known for his time in World Championship Wrestling (WCW), where he performed for WCW between 1997 and 2001. He also wrestled for WWE between 2003 and 2004.

Goldberg is a two-time world champion: a one-time World Heavyweight Champion in WCW and a one-time World Heavyweight Champion in WWE. He is also a two-time WCW United States Heavyweight Champion and one-time WCW World Tag Team Champion(with Bret Hart), thus making him along with Hart the fifth WCW Triple Crown winner. Within WCW, Goldberg had a lengthy undefeated streak in singles competition from 1997 to 1998; the official count was given as 173–0.

Goldberg headlined multiple pay-per-view events for WCW and WWE, including closing WCW's premier annual event, Starrcade, on two occasions (1998 and 1999). WWE Hall of Famer and industry veteran Arn Anderson likened Goldberg's popularity at his late 1990s peak to that of Hulk Hogan, The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin, saying that he "was as hot as anybody has ever been in the history of this business".^[9]

Before he was a professional wrestler, Goldberg was a professional football player. After first retiring from professional wrestling, he began working as a commentator for the mixed martial arts promotion EliteXC until its closure. He hosted 26 episodes of Garage Mahal on the DIY Network from 2009–2011.

brock

rock Edward Lesnar^[3] /ˈlɛznər/ (born July 12, 1977)^[3] is an American^[4] professional wrestler, mixed martial artist,^[5] and formeramateur wrestler and professional American football player currently signed to WWE on the Raw brand.^[6] He is a four-time WWE World Champion, a former UFC Heavyweight Champion, and a NCAA Division I Heavyweight Wrestling Champion.^[7][8]

After his successful amateur wrestling career at Bismarck State College and the University of Minnesota (106 wins and 5 losses), Lesnar signed with WWE (then the World Wrestling Federation) in 2000. He was assigned to its developmental promotion Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), where he was a three-time OVW Southern Tag Team Champion with Shelton Benjamin. After debuting on WWE's main roster in 2002, he won the WWE Championship on three separate occasions with victories over The Rock and Kurt Angle(twice). Lesnar won his first WWE Championship (at the time known as the WWE Undisputed Championship) five months after his main roster debut at the age of 25, becoming the youngest champion in the title's history. He was also the 2002 King of the Ring and the 2003 Royal Rumble winner, making him the youngest King of the Ring and Royal Rumble winner as well.^[9][10] He became the top professional wrestler of the company and was on the peak of his career until his career began to decline after losing the WWE Championship to Eddie Guerrero in February 2004. Following his match with Goldberg at WrestleMania XX, Lesnar left the WWE and pursued a career in the National Football League (NFL).^[11] He was named a defensive tackle for the Minnesota Vikings, but was cut prior to the start of the 2004–2005 season.^[12] In 2005, Lesnar returned to professional wrestling and signed with New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), where he won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in his first match. After a contractual dispute with NJPW, he also wrestled as IWGP Heavyweight Champion in the Inoki Genome Federation (

apj

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen "A. P. J." Abdul Kalam ⁱ/ˈæbdʊl kəˈlɑːm/; (15 October 1931 – 27 July 2015) was the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007. A career scientist turned statesman, Kalam was born and raised in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, and studied physics and aerospace engineering. He spent the next four decades as a scientist and science administrator, mainly at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and was intimately involved in India's civilian space programme and military missile development efforts.^[1] He thus came to be known as the Missile Man of India for his work on the development of ballistic missile and launch vehicle technology.^[2][3][4] He also played a pivotal organisational, technical, and political role in India's Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998, the first since the original nuclear test by India in 1974.^[5]

Kalam was elected as the 11th President of India in 2002 with the support of both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the then-opposition Indian National Congress. Widely referred to as the "People's President,"^[6] he returned to his civilian life of education, writing and public service after a single term. He was a recipient of several prestigious awards, including the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour.

While delivering a lecture at the Indian Institute of Management Shillong, Kalam collapsed and died from an apparent cardiac arrest on 27 July 2015, aged 83.^[7] Thousands including national-lev

sachin

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (ⁱ/ˌsətʃɪn tɛnˈduːlkər/; born 24 April 1973) is a former Indian cricketer and captain, widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of all time.^[4] He took up cricket at the age of eleven, made his Test debut on 15 November 1989 against Pakistan in Karachi at the age of sixteen, and went on to represent Mumbai domestically and Indiainternationally for close to twenty-four years. He is the only player to have scored one hundred international centuries, the first batsman to score a double century in a One Day International, the holder of the record for the number of runs in both ODI andTest cricket, and the only player to complete more than 30,000 runs in international cricket.^[5]

In 2002 just halfway through his career, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ranked him the second greatest Test batsman of all time, behind Don Bradman, and the second greatest ODI batsman of all time, behind Viv Richards.^[6] Later in his career, Tendulkar was a part of the Indian team that won the 2011 World Cup, his first win in six World Cup appearances for India.^[7] He had previously been named "Player of the Tournament" at the 2003 edition of the tournament, held in South Africa. In 2013, he was the only Indian cricketer included in an all-time Test World XI named to mark the 150th anniversary of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.^[8][9][10]

Shivaji Rao Gaekwad (born 12 December 1950), known by his mononymous stage name Rajinikanth, is an Indian film actor who works primarily in Tamil cinema. He began acting in plays while working in the Bangalore Transport Service as a bus conductor. In 1973, he joined the Madras Film Institute to pursue a diploma in acting. Following his debut in K. Balachander's Tamil drama Apoorva Raagangal (1975), his acting career commenced with a brief phase of portraying antagonistic characters in Tamil films.

After earning ₹26 crore (equivalent to ₹55 crore or US$8.2 million in 2016) for his role in Sivaji (2007), he was the highest paid actor in Asia after Jackie Chan at the time. While working in other regional film industries of India, Rajinikanth has also appeared in the cinemas of other nations, including the American film Bloodstone (1988). As of 2014, Rajinikanth has won six Tamil Nadu State Film Awards—four Best Actor Awards and two Special Awards for Best Actor—and a Filmfare Best Tamil Actor Award. In addition to acting, he has also worked as a producer and screenwriter. Apart from his film career, he is also a philanthropist, spiritualist, and serves asan influence in Dravidian politics.

The Government of India has honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 2000 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2016 for his contributions to the arts. At the 45th International Film Festival of India (2014), he was conferred with the "Centenary Award for Indian Film Personality of the Year".

The Taj Mahal (/ˌtɑːdʒ məˈhɑːl/, more often /ˈtɑːʒ/;^[3] meaning Crown of the Palace^[4]) is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the south bank of the Yamuna river in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1632 by the Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan (reigned 1628–1658), to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The tomb is the centrepiece of a 17-hectare (42-acre)^[5] complex, which includes a mosque and a guest house, and is set in formal gardens bounded on three sides by a crenellated wall.

Construction of the mausoleum was essentially completed in 1643 but work continued on other phases of the project for another 10 years. The Taj Mahal complex is believed to have been completed in its entirety in 1653 at a cost estimated at the time to be around 32 million rupees, which in 2015 would be approximately 52.8 billion rupees (US$827 million). The construction project employed some 20,000 artisans under the guidance of a board of architects led by the court architect to the emperor, Ustad Ahmad Lahauri.

The Taj Mahal was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983 for being "the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage". Described by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore as "the tear-drop on the cheek of time", it is regarded by many as the best example of Mughal architecture and a symbol of India's rich history. The Taj Mahal attracts 7–8 million visitors a year. In 2007, it was declared a winner of the New7Wonders of the World (2000–2007) initiative.