ASPIRE

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...

  A conservative Tamil woman stepped into PepsiCo in 1994. A decade later (in 2006), she commanded the entire company as its CEO. Indra Nooyi's rise in the corporate world is a story of meteoric rise. Not only did she reach the top, she redefined it by becoming the first woman, the first woman of colour and the first immigrant to lead a Fortune 50 company. In the quiet corridors of a Chennai middle-class home, October 28, 1955 marked the arrival of Indra Nooyi. She attended Holy Angels School in Chennai, earned a bachelor's degree from Madras Christian College, and received an MBA from IIM Calcutta. But her ambition wasn't confined to textbooks. In her youth, she wielded a cricket bat and strummed a rock guitar, revealing a spirit as diverse as her intellect. Emigrating to the US in 1978, she obtained her Masters in Management from the famous Yale School of Management. She has been consistently ranked among the world's most powerful women by publications like Forbes...

Ajaypal Singh Banga, an Indian-born American, currently serves as the President of the World Bank Group. His distinguished career is marked by numerous achievements and leadership roles across global institutions. Notably, he collaborated with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris as Co-Chair of the Partnership for Central America and served as a member of the Trilateral Commission. Banga is also a founding trustee of the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum and a former member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. Additionally, he holds the title of Chairman Emeritus at the American India Foundation and serves as honorary chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce. His contributions extend to his work with President Barack Obama, where he was a member of the President’s Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations in  2015 . From the cantonment of Khadki in Pune (where he was born on November 10, 1959) to the helm of the World Bank, Ajaypal Singh Banga'...

The story of Shri Thanedar could well be a story of a Bollywood movie. His rise from poverty in Belgaum to become an entrepreneur in Michigan and then becoming a Congressman in US is nothing short of a fairytale. Shri was born in 1955 in a village called Chikodi near Belgaum (Karnataka). Like any other lower middle-class child, he did some odd jobs to manage his family expenses. He managed to score only  55% marks in his std-10 . After getting a bachelor's degree in chemistry, he went on to do his Masters in the subject from the University of Bombay. He then had a brief stint as a scientist at Mumbai's Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. In 1979, Thanedar left for the US when he was 24. He studied for his PhD from the University of Akron in US. He got a doctorate in polymer chemistry. Additionally, he completed his Masters in Business Administration from Fontbonne University.  After working as a scientist and a scholar for some days, Thanedar decided to pursue entrepreneurship. In ...

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...

A man who returned from a world 🌎 tour was asked to name the most difficult part of his journey. "Stepping out from the house, he said." Beginning is the most difficult thing. Journey of thousand miles begins with a single step. Well begun is half done. Do not hesitate to step out from your house and begin your adventure. Do not wait for all the signals to become green 🍏. You are paid for your actions and not for your words. So stop talking and swing into action to make it happen. Every successful journey started with that single bold step. Once you start, it gets easier all the time. The way to succeed is to start sooner and work harder than your competitors. There is no day like today and today is the best time to start. And never forget what Robert Frost said. "The woods are lovely dark and deep, But I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep." Ravindra Zinjurke