PM Modi writes 'thank you' letter to 10-year-old girl

KANPUR: When 10-year-old girl Aditi from Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur city wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, lauding him for the initiatives taken, little did she know that she would receive a reply from the much-liked politician.

Proudly flaunting the letter which thanks her 'positive and hopeful' views, Aditi said that she would continue writing to the Prime Minister to express her views on the works done by him.

"I had thanked him for the schemes launched for the nation. These schemes are making a difference. I got this letter on April 11th and am feeling happy about it," Aditi told ANI.

When asked if she feels Prime Minister Modi is doing a good job, the 10-year-old girl said 'yes' with firm conviction.

Aditi said that she was expecting the Prime Minister to respond to her letter, adding that she would continue giving suggestions to him.

"I want him to continue working for the nation and keep giving us positive lessons," she added.

Meanwhile, Aditi's mother was surprised at her daughter's writing skills and said that she was not aware that her girl was so well versed with the works being done by the government.

"We were not expecting a reply, but she ( Aditi) had written well. She wrote about the schemes being launched in the nation and about her school," she said. (ANI)

Why PM Modi is still the best person for turning India into economically advanced country...

 Even if Narendra Modi hasn't lived up to the expectations which he aroused two years ago, he is still the best person for turning India into a modern and economically advanced country.

The claim about modernity may seem odd considering that the medievalists of the saffron brotherhood constitute an influential section of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and their affiliates like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) - not to mention the abusive “Internet Hindus”.

Moreover, the hope that Modi will restrain them hasn't been fulfilled. There are still elements who call for beheading those who do not chant a slogan which is used by the saffronites to check a person's patriotism.

Besides, the Sangh Parivar's familiar aversion to beef is still in place, although the unavoidable modernistic trends have compelled some of the BJP-run state governments like Goa to allow the consumption of the forbidden meat.

If, notwithstanding these negative points, Modi is ahead of other leaders in the popularity stakes, as seen in an Economic Times-TNSA survey, the reason is his outlook, which is in sync with the 21st century.

Fortunately for the BJP, this evidence of belonging to the present times cannot be found in some of the others.

Consider, for instance, the credentials of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who wants to lead an anti-BJP combine at the national level to replicate the success of the 'mahagathbandhan' (grand alliance) in his state.

Yet, the retrogressive nature of his ideas shows that he cannot look beyond the familiar obsession of the Hindi-belt politicians with caste. Not only does he want his caste brethren to find employment in the private sector through quotas, thereby reducing this sole successful segment of the economy to another version of the loss-making public sector, Nitish Kumar is also in favour of expanding the ambit of reservations beyond the 50 percent limit set by the Supreme Court.

Inextricably related to this desire to boost the quota system is the Janata Dal-United chief's conviction that catering for the backward castes on the plea of social justice is a surefire way to enable his party to win elections and for him to gain popularity.

He is not bothered about job creation via industrial expansion, but wants only to enable the backward castes, the main support base of the mahagathbandhan, to secure government employment via the reservation system which looks at birth and not educational certificates.

If Nitish Kumar's ideas are implemented, India can say farewell to economic or educational progress. While the quota-based entries into official service will squeeze out the meritorious, the educational system will see a preponderance of those for whom caste is the route to a degree and not a devotion to studies.

If Nitish Kumar had endorsed the elimination of the wealthy "creamy layer" from the beneficiaries of quotas, it would have at least shown that he is not wholly focussed on electoral success and has some interest in taking everyone along, including the upper castes, in the task of ensuring the country's progress. But he apparently thinks that such a demonstration of reasonableness will be detrimental to his position as a backward caste leader because it will make him vulnerable to the machinations of Lau Prasad and other votaries of caste-based affirmative action.

There is not a word, therefore, from him on industries, infrastructure, educational advancement, health facilities and so on. It is only about caste.

This is where Modi is different. Though he belongs to a backward caste himself - he is a ghanchi or teli - Modi almost never talks in terms of caste.

Nor of Hindus like others in the Hindutva brigade who want to give the community a status above all others in the country. Indeed, Modi has distanced himself from the saffronites to such an extent that he is the only one among them to have described Islam as a religion of peace, a concept which is anathema to the Sangh parivar.

There is little doubt that Modi has shown greater interest than any other politician in recent years in India's industrial development. Hence his emphasis on projects like Make in India and entrepreneurial endeavours like Start Up India, Stand Up India, Skill India, Digital India and so on.

His predecessor, Manmohan Singh, also favoured market-oriented economic reforms and succeeded in effecting the fastest ever reduction in overall poverty between 2005-06 and 2011-12, according to the Modi government's chief economic adviser, Arvind Subramanian.

But Manmohan Singh was stopped in his tracks by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who feared that the "accidental" prime minister's economic success will make him a hero and put her son Rahul Gandhi in the shade.

Modi has picked up from where the gentle sardar had left off and, ironically, facing resistance from none other than Sonia Gandhi, who has threatened to stall the goods and services tax, one of the key components of the economic reforms.

But the middle class, one of Modi's major bases of support, is aware that only he can make the growth rate cross eight per cent, as Subramanian expects, and ensure a significant erosion in the levels of poverty.

The Steel Baron of India - Lakshmi Mittal

Lakshmi Niwas Mittal is an Indian-born steel magnate who is currently based in the United Kingdom and is the chairman and CEO of ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest manufacturer of steel. Fondly refered to as the Steel Baron of India, he is known for his lavish lifestyle and spening money on his family.

He is the owner of a majority (38%) of the total shares in ArcelorMittal and is also the co-owner of the Queens Park Rangers F. C. with 34% stake in the professional football club.

"Lakshmi Narayan Mittal"

''I think it is taking time for everyone to understand the world has changed. We have to move very fast. It's a matter of understanding the dynamics. It's taking time to realise that others are taking over us".

Reading success stories of greatest professionals stimulates motivational enzyme within us and we all wish to emulate them on path of success.

The undisputed king of steel, Lakshmi Narayan Mittal is the Chairman and CEO of ArcelorMittal (founder of Mittal before merger with Arcelor). In 2005, he was the third richest man in the world according to the Forbes business magazine. With a staggering fortune of over USD 38.1 billion he has king-sized ambitions to make his company a true global behemoth. He also serves as a non-executive director of Goldman Sachs, EADS and ICICI Bank. Mittal still holds an Indian passport.

Mittal was born on June 15, 1950 in a Marwari Aggrawal family in the Churu district of Rajasthan. He spent his initial years in India living with his extended family on bare floors and rope beds in a house built by his grandfather.  Studying primarily in a Hindi medium school Mittal graduated from St. Xavier's College in Calcutta with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Business and Accounting in 1969.  His family eventually moved to Calcutta where his father, Mohan, became a partner in a steel company and made a fortune.

Mr. Mittal kickstarted his career working in the family's steelmaking business in India, and in 1976 he took a plunge to establish the business international division by buying a run-down plant in Indonesia. Starting from Ispat Indo in Indonesia, Mittal transformed the moderate business of his family into a global steel giant, spanning across 14 countries and employing more than 150,000 people.

The companies of the LNM Ispat group included Ispat international NV, Ispat Karmet and Indo Ispat. In 1994 due to some differences with his family members he parted ways, taking over the international operations of the Mittal steel business, which was already owned by the family. The reason for the split is still not known.

With his vision and hard work, Mittal pioneered the development of integrated mini-mills and the use of Direct Reduced Iron or “DRI” as a scrap substitute for steelmaking and led the consolidation process of the global steel industry. In 2004 Mittal Steel became the largest steelmaker in the world, with shipments of 42.1 million tons of steel and profits of over USD 22 billion.

From the core business of steel manufacturing, his group is now diversifying into shipping, coal, and power and oil enterprises. The most astonishing thing about the steel magnate is his knack of buying sick and rusted steel companies and turning them into gold.

He made his big-ticket entry into the lucrative European market and acquired the massive 5 million ton Kazakh steel plant, Karmet from the government of Kazakhastan. Mittal introduced new technology and transformed it. His trademark was to buy old rundown steel mills from governments at throwaway prices and then turn them into gold.  Between 2001 and 2004 takeover of plants in Romania, the Czech Republic and Poland followed.

Mittal became the world's largest steel maker when he took over the US' largest steel producer - the International Steel Group. He then consolidated all his steel holdings into Mittal Steel. The year 2005 saw a tug of war between Mittal and Arcelor as both bid for Ukraine's largest steel mill - Kryvorizhstal.

Mittal beat Arcelor to the 4.8 billion dollar deal, at more than twice what analysts had valued Kryvorizhstal. Less than three months later, Mittal launched his takeover bid of Arcelor. His idea was to eliminate any future messy battles. The rest is history.

Mittal Steel has grown from strength to strength and is today the world's largest steel producer at 70 million tonnes a year. Now with 10 per cent of the world's notoriously fragmented steel making capacity, Mittal is undoubtedly the ‘Sultan of steel’.

His charisma also made him won many awards and accolades. Mittal was awarded the Padma Vibhushan by the government of India in 2008. Fortune magazine awarded him “European Businessman of the Year 2004” and also “Steelmaker of the Year” in 1996 by New Steel. He was awarded the “Willy Korf Steel Vision Award” in 1998 for outstanding vision, entrepreneurship, leadership and success in global steel development from American Metal Market and PaineWeber’s World Steel Dynamics. In 2006, Financial Times named him "Person of the Year". In 2007, Time magazine included him in their "100 most influential persons in the world".

The Mittal family owns a controlling majority stake in ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steel company. His residence at Kensington Palace Gardens was purchased from Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone in 2004 for 57 million, making it the world's most expensive house, at that time. It has 12 bedrooms, an indoor pool, Turkish baths and parking for 20 cars. The extravagant show of wealth has been referred to as the "Taj Mittal".

An active philanthropist Mittal is a member of a few trusts. ArcelorMittal also has a very active CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) programme under which it produces Safe Sustainable Steel. The company also operates the ArcelorMittal Foundation, which provides support to many different community projects around the world in the countries it operates.

Seeing the plight of sports in India Mittal in a bid to elevate it has set up Mittal Champions Trust with USD 9 million to support 10 Indian athletes with world-beating potential. In 2008 Mittal awarded Abhinav Bindra with Rs. 1.5 Crore, for getting India its first individual Olympic gold medal in shooting. His institute The L.N.M. Institute of Information Technology, Jaipur is producing engineers since 2003.

At the age of 61, the London-based steel tycoon runs Arcelor Mittal, the world’s largest steel manufacturer and holds steel assets in South Africa, Poland, Indonesia, and Kazakhstan.  Describing India as one of the ''most interesting places'' the steel magnate has expressed his views to focus on developing economies, mainly India, for its new factory plans and would like to see more speed and execution in Indian policies. 

He asserts, “I think India will have a very important role going forward. There's a lot of domestic potential to grow and it is much more liberal and open for foreign investors. India needs a lot of industrialization, a lot of growth and development. But, with its demographic of younger generation, I am very confident of India's future in the world space.”

DHIRUBHAI AMBANI: A REAL RAGS-TO-RICHES STORY

28 December 1932 – 6 July 2002

Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani, an Indian industrialist, was widely known as founder of Indian conglomerate multinational Reliance Industries. The company, has been featured on the Fortune 500, is a conglomeration of communications, petrochemicals, power, and textiles. Dhirubhai Ambani’s life is a real rags-to-riches success story.

Born to a school teacher, he was the third of five siblings, three brothers and two sisters. Ever since childhood, Dhirubhai was more keen on work than studies and repeatedly bunked classes and roamed in streets, watching people work and making money. He’d once said his mother to stop lamenting about the hardships and that he would make “heaps of money one day.” His entrepreneurial career began in his early school years by selling “bhajias” to pilgrims in Mount Girnar over the weekends. On completion of his school studies, his brother Ramnikbhai sent him to Aden, Yemen, which was the second busiest oil banking and trading port of the time.

Dhirubhai Ambani joined the largest transcontinental trading firm named A.Besse & Co as a gas-station attendant, as well as a dispatch clerk. A.Besse & Co would deal in every possible branch of trading from cargo booking, shipping, handling, forwarding, to wholesale merchandising for a great number of American, European, African and Asian companies. His hard work promoted him to maintain and manage company`s oil filling station at the port of Aden. Dhirubhai once said, “More than anything else I learnt that nothing big can ever be achieved without money, influence and power and I also learnt that money, influence and power alone cannot achieve anything in life, big or small, without a certain soft, delicate, sensitive, understanding human touch in all one’s deeds and words.” In 1958, he came back to India with Rs 50,000 and started the business of polyester yarn import-export at Masjid Bunder of South Mumbai and later founded the Reliance Commercial Corporation with an investment of 15,000. Back in those days Polyester was in great demand across Asian markets and soon his profit skyrocketed. Dhirubhai continued to live in one bedroom flat with his wife and children for almost a decade until 1968 when he moved to Altamount Road in South Mumbai. In 1966, Dhirubhai started his own textiles manufacturing unit at at Naroda, in Ahmedabad. He launched his first brand “Vimal” sometime in 1969-70; and in 1975, his manufacturing was visited by a team of technical experts from the World Bank who certified it as “excellent even by developed country standards.”

The biggest breakthrough in his life came in the year 1977, when he managed to attract over 58,000 investors in the very first IPO of Relience Commercial Corporation; and he never looked back ever since. A humble beginning helped him to stand his empire worth $64 billion.

He has been honored for several times for his significant contributions. In 1998 The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania honored him with Dean’s Medal for his excellent leadership. In 1996, 1998, and 2000 Asiaweek magazine featured him among ‘Power 50 – the most powerful people in Asia. In 2001 Economic Times honored him with Economic Times Awards for Corporate Excellence for Lifetime Achievement and many more.

Dhirubhai built up a textile and Petrochemicals Empire with his dedication, ability to recognize new business opportunities, dare to take risk, never-give-up attitude and intelligence to handle people.