ASPIRE

  Mohnish Pabrai is a successful Indian-American investor. He famously paid $650,000 (about ₹5.5 crore today) to have lunch with Warren Buffett. Pabrai founded Pabrai Investment Funds in 1999, which now manages over $1 billion and has grown by 517%. His own net worth is estimated at ₹1,202.7 crore. Born in Bombay - India, on June 12, 1964, Mohnish Pabrai later moved to the USA. He currently stays in Irvine - California. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering from Clemson University and an MBA from the University of California. He started his career as a software engineer and later transitioned into entrepreneurship. His early career started in the tech industry, where he worked for several prominent firms, including Tellabs. He also served as a consultant and investment banker at McKinsey & Company and Goldman Sachs. He founded TransTech Inc., an IT consulting firm, which he later sold for $20 million (Today’s 171 crores) to Kurt Salmon Associates in 1999....

Ever heard of Neal Mohan? In 2011, Google offered him a staggering $100 million – approximately ₹ 450 crores – just to stop him from defecting to Twitter. Today, he leads YouTube as its Chief Executive Officer. His parents belong to Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. His father, Aditya Mohan, is an IIT-Kharagpur alumnus who moved to the United States in early 1970s to pursue PhD in Civil Engineering. Neal was born in Lafayette (Indiana State of USA) on July 14, 1973. He spent majority of his formative years in America. Later his parents returned to India in 1985. Neal was enrolled in St. Francis School in Lucknow in 1986. It was a dramatic change for him. A kid brought up in USA struggled to speak and learn Hindi. He studied there till Class XII before joining Stanford University for a BSc in Electrical Engineering. At St. Francis, Neal Mohan met some of the best friends of his life and he had a little software start-up which built software for other high school kids and teachers. That...

  Vaibhav Taneja sent shockwaves around the globe after he earned approximately Rs. 1195 crores as the total compensation from Tesla in 2024. This record-breaking salary has surpassed the high-profile tech leaders like  Satya Nadella  (approx. 680 crores) and  Sundar Pichai (approx. 92 crores). He currently serves as the CFO of Tesla and earns more than Rs. 13 lakh per hour. His journey from Delhi University to become the CFO of Tesla is both surprising as well as inspiring. It is the symbol of excellence and global achievement. His pay package includes the stock options and equity grants that he received after his promotion as CFO in 2023. Born in 1977 and raised in Delhi (India ), Vaibhav Taneja comes from a middle-class family. He doesn’t even have an Ivy-League degree. But he loved numbers. His methodical mind and his disciplined approach changed his fortune. Vaibhav Taneja earned his B.Com from Delhi University in 1999. He later became a Chartered Accountan...

Life, at its core, is a tapestry woven from the threads of our decisions. As Satya Narayana Nadella, the chairman and CEO of Microsoft, wisely puts it, "Life is a matter of choices, and every choice that you make….makes you.” Born in Hyderabad on 19 August 1967, Nadella hails from a Hindu family. His mother Prabhavati was a Sanskrit lecturer and his father Yugandhar was an IAS officer. The family's roots are traced back to Nadella village in Andhra Pradesh's Guntur district (now Palnadu) from where Sayta’s grandfather had migrated to Bukkapuram. Nadella attended Hyderabad Public School in Begumpet. Interestingly, he failed to secure an IIT seat and did his BE in electrical engineering from the Manipal Institute of Technology in Karnataka instead. He went on to earn an MS in computer science from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and an MBA from the University of Chicago. Nadella still serves on the board of trustees to the University of Chicago. Before joining Micr...

  Sundar Pichai: CEO of Alphabet Inc. and its subsidiary Google Sundararajan Pichai was born on June 10, 1972, in Chennai. Raised in a modest two-room apartment of Ashok Nagar neighborhood, Pichai’s early life was simple and disciplined. His father (Regunatha Pichai) worked as an electrical engineer and his mother (Lakshmi) was a stenographer.   Sundar’s earlier studied from Jawahar Vidyalaya and later from Vana Vani; both of which are respected schools in Chennai. His academic brilliance earned him a place at the prestigious IIT Kharagpur, where he graduated with a degree in Metallurgical Engineering and was awarded the institute’s coveted gold medal for academic excellence. Following IIT, he won a scholarship to Stanford University. There he completed his M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering. Sundar earned his MBA from the Wharton School. Sundar Pichai’s professional journey began with McKinsey & Company as a management consultant. In 2004, he joined Google. In 20...

  Divya Narendra is best known for his role in the early development of Facebook and his later ventures. While this entrepreneur and technology innovator is not as widely recognized as some of his contemporaries, his influence on the social media landscape is undeniable. Through his work and determination, Narendra contributed to the creation of one of the world's largest social networking platforms, and has since embarked on various other business endeavors. Born in 1982, Divya Narendra grew up in the United States, where he attended prestigious institutions. Narendra was known to be deeply interested in technology and business right from his formative years. He went on to study Computer Science at Harvard University, which is where his entrepreneurial journey actually began. In 2002, while at Harvard, Divya Narendra co-founded a social networking platform called "HarvardConnection" alongside his fellow students, Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss. The platform ...

Liberal Arts has turned out to be one of the popular and emergent option among Indian Students when it comes to higher education. Apart from being a flexible curriculum, it also offers students a chance to study subjects that one would normally not get a chance to study together. Liberal Arts study sounds like an answer to many problems students face with respect to their subject choices and career.  Some universities in India offering undergraduate programs in Liberal Arts. Following five universities in India offer undergraduate programs in Liberal Arts: 1) Symbiosis School of Liberal Arts, Pune. Admission Procedure:  Admission is done in two ways Option A – candidates have to appear for the  Symbiosis Entrance Test  (SET) or Option B – Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT). Candidates need to first meet the eligibility criteria as set by SSLA. Eligible candidates will have to register and apply. Once the application process is completed, candidates will have to appear ...

Price: Rs. 399 Page count:320 Published:13 November 2014 Language: English Author: Malala Yousafzai, Christina Lamb The book depicts the story of a young Pakistani girl who courageously stands up against the Taliban in order to fight for the cause of girls’ education. She has been awarded 2014 Nobel Peace Prize for her work in this field. The book is a “must-read” for those interested in promoting the educational rights of women globally. Also, it is must-read for all the girls out there who take education for granted. Malala was a bright student. She was groomed by her father who provided her with an opportunity to study in an English-medium school. Her father himself ran the school against the decree of Taliban. When she was a 15 year old, she was shot at by the Taliban terrorists. That was for speaking up regarding women’s rights to education. Before she was shot at, she was unknown outside Pakistan but a well-known public figure in Pakistan, having done a radio interview series whe...

Nothing is impossible. You can achieve anything that your mind believes. Many battles are lost outside the battlefield because there is lack of conviction, lack of self belief. Belief, that one can do it. Belief in ones capabilities is ones strength; tried and tested for generations.  Just imagine that you are walking on the road. It's evening time. And you see a snake on which you are about to step in. What happens. It scares a hell out of you. Your heartbeats increase. Your eyes widen. All your energy goes to your leg to prevent you from stepping on the snake. So many changes in a fraction of second. Afterwards you realise it was not a snake; just a piece of rope. Everything jumps back to normal. Simply because you believed it was a snake, so many changes took place in your body. That too in such a short time. That's the power of belief. So believe you can, and you will win. Let's take another example. A baby elephant which is tied with a huge chain. It tries to free ...