India Home to 28 Million Child Labourers

India has time and again stated the need to abolish child labour and the right every child has to education. However the country still faces the anguish of children being employed and made to work in horrible conditions that poses threat to their lives. Caught in this situation are teenage miners in the ‘rathole’ mines in Meghalaya, as reported by Gardiner Harris for NY Times.

According to Unicef, 28 million children in India are working, even after the enactment of the 2010 law that has made it mandate for children between the ages of 6 and 14 to be in school. Chid labours are found in shops, kitchen, factories, farms and construction sites. No matter how many laws are formulated it hardly does much to solve India’s most blatant issue.

A child protection specialist at Unicef, Vandhana Kandhari said, “We have very good laws in this country. It’s our implementation that’s the problem,” as reported by NY Times.

Such is the case of teenage miners, who work due to poverty, rickety schools, corruption and insufficient teachers.

Like the 17 year old, Suresh Thapa who has been working in the mines since he was a child and expects his four younger brothers to follow the trend.

As per the Indian Mines Act of 1952, it prohibits anyone under the age of 18 from working in coal mines, however, the teenage worker feel that this law in turn harms their family, as they need the money to feed themselves, and there is no other job available than the ‘rathole’ mines which hire them illegally.

Suresh’s boss, Kumar Subba said throughout the region children are employed in mines, most children are orphans and made to work in dangerous conditions. He said, “People die all the time.” He also said that a state lawmaker owns his mines, as reported by NY Times.

Despite the laws, the police officers are not strict enough. They extract bribe from coal truckers instead of enforcing law.

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights chairwoman, Shantha Sinha said, “Child labor is allowed to continue in Meghalaya by those in positions of power and authority, as it is across India,”  reported NY Times.

A non-governmental organization based in Shillong, Meghalaya’s capital, Impulse, reported that 200 children, some as younger as 5 were found working in 10 local mines in 2010. An estimated 70,000 children were found by the group in about 5,000 mines the same year.

Even the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, research groups confirmed the presence of child workers in these mines.

During monsoon season when many mines are closed or barley functioning, the Tata group reported finding 343 children aged 15 years or younger, working in 401 mines and 7 coal depots.

Meghalaya’s deputy chief minister for mining and geology, Bindo M. Lanong, denied the findings, he said, “There is no child labor in Meghalaya. These allegations are totally absurd. They are not based on facts,” as reported by NY Times.

There are several mines which when checked had no ventilation and only one entrance, and did not follow any mining plan, no limestone was used to reduce explosion risks and had minimal roof supports. The bamboo staircases were unsafe to use and the miners walked sideways to avoid falling.

The job does offer high wage, but the mine managers have hard time finding enough workers in the area, informed the Tata report. This situation has led to children and other labourers being brought from Nepal and Bangladesh through informal networks, often referred as trafficking.

However, the high wage doesn’t remedy the condition of these workers as the mine operators charge large amount to deliver drinking water, food and other essentials to mining camps. This doesn’t allow many of them to send money home or save enough to leave.

As the immigrant children don’t understand local dialects they can’t join the few schools near the mining camps.

The children, who work in these mines, see it as a means to their end, a source to feed themselves and their family as long as they stay alive, working in the dangerous conditions, gambling with life, all for the bare necessities.

10 Unbelievable Billion Dollar Inventions

“Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does nature because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous.” Leonardo Da Vinci.

Here are 10 inventions that will make nature turn tail and run!

#10 Billy Bob Teeth:

Put these on and walk into a party one day and it is a guarantee that you will be an instant hit for all the wrong reasons and probably be scarred for life. At $9.99 who cares if you are missing a few teeth or your gums are showing a little or the fact that you make Halloween arrive early? The hilly “Billy Bob Teeth” born out of a partnership between a dental student and an ex college football player sold over 15 million units since 1994, and as of 1998 had grossed $1.8 million. How is that for a toothy grin?

#9 HeadOn

Ever heard of the “placebo effect”? Headon! This placebo made of wax was a large scale psychological experiment that was largely successful in proving that people will do anything that is said on the television and in making money. This $8 tube filled with wax was sold more than six million times in 2006 alone mostly due to the commercial which evidently hypnotized its viewers by stating “HeadOn. Apply directly to the forehead” and people did it more than six million times in one year!

#8 Doggles

Are you worried about your doggie’s eyes? Here’s Douggles to the rescue. This commercial brand of sunglasses for dogs in the form of tinted googles, which are both fashionable and functional, protect your dog’s eyes from dust, sand, wind, water, and bullets (the last one only holds true when thrown by hand.) Doggles, LLC has sold millions of pairs to pooches at $19.90. That is a good fetch.

#7 Tamagotchi

1996, the year when kids started having virtual pets rather than imaginary ones and what’s more, they were cleaning its e-poop! Tamagotchi is a handheld digital pet created by Akihiro Yokoi of WiZ and Aki Maita of Japan. As of 2010, 74 million Tamagotchis had been sold, grossing about $900 million. Moreover, the toy has led to two films, three animated series and several Nintendo games. 

#6 The Plastic Wishbone

You have to love this invention if you are a vegetarian, if not, well, then it still beats breaking an actual bone. The fact that only two people can make a wish at a thanksgiving table seemed outrageous to Ken Ahroni and he started Lucky Break Wishbone Corp. in Seattle. Now, everybody can break a bone wherever and whenever they want to, all thanks to plastic wishbones and according to the reports, people have been at it right from the very start, the business now makes 30,000 plastic bones a day and reports sales of over $2.5 million each year. Break a leg?

#5 Big Mouth Billy Bass

This is a gag that will delight any morose teenager with a frown. The Big Mouth Billy Bass is an animatronic fish that sings songs with its mouth and wiggles its tail. The singing fish was a huge hit in the late '90s and early 2000s. More than one million fish at about $20 a piece were sold in the year 2000 alone.

#4 Silly Bandz

This one is for all the tweeny girls who love cute rubber objects on their wrists and hair. Many celebrities are also spotted wearing these squishy things, most recently, the dashing Jake Gyllenhaal was seen donning a silly band on his wrist in an interview for the movie “Love And Other Drugs” and they spent half the interview talking about these bands. No wonder these things are famous!

With a pack of 24 that sells for about $5 and packets of 12 for about $2.50 the toy empire has made over 100 million.

#3 The Snuggie

Before you buy this you have to ask yourself ‘Am I willing to ridicule myself?’ if you are then you can probably read a book on your porch on a cold morning without freezing yourself to death, drink warm coffee in a cold room in a warm clothing, wrap yourself in a blanket and still be able to play pool (though no one would be willing to play with you when you are wearing one of these) let’s face it you have to be “a really cold place” to really embrace The Snuggie. Over 20 million Snuggies have been sold since 2008 making the world more “Snugglier.”

#2 Magic 8 Ball

Should you or Shouldn’t you? Get this magic ball and it will tell you. The Magic 8 Ball is a hollow plastic sphere resembling an oversized, black and white 8-ball. This mystical device has the answers to all your questions. The correct way to do it is you ask the ball and shake it and look into the window for your answer. If it doesn’t dazzle you then shake it again and this time you will get bubbles for your troubles.

This magic ball has been rolling ever since the 1940’s, Three Stooges and it hasn’t stopped rolling ever since. Many variants have surfaced like the fortune cookie and fortune teller machine but none of them are as mystic as the Magic 8 Ball.

#1 Pet Rock

And the mother of crazy (crazy because its genius) inventions is “The Pet Rock.” Get a glimpse of “Wilson” Tom Hanks’ only friend in the island where he is stranded all alone now look at this rock. Yup, it can be a very good pet and do nothing mischievous or irritating by doing nothing at all. This mind trick sold for $3.95 per piece and people went ahead and bought them. They bought lots of them and then they went ahead and bought lots more! The company has made $56 million profit. That ought to set your rocks rolling!

Things You Never Knew About Google

You visit Google at least once in a day. Search engine, gmail, Google+, Google Maps, YouTube and myriad other services that Google offers; you wouldn’t stand a chance but visit this search giant.

Google is the largest search engine in the world; it is founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin; it is one of the most valuable companies in the world with more than a $40 billion annual turnover; and one of the best places to work— these things are already became too obvious to our memory, but there still are the things you don’t know about this internet biggie yet, read on to know them as compiled by Complex Tech.    

 

Google’s First Choice Of CEO

When told they needed to hire a "real CEO," Brin and Page's first and only pick for a head honcho was Steve Jobs. Unfortunately, Jobs was already running Apple and Pixar.

LEGO Bricks

Google's first server rack was built from LEGO's, as the team considered it a more cost-efficient (and expandable) way to secure 10 4GB hard drives.

Google As Computer Manufacturer

Since Google makes all of its own servers, it is one of the top 5 computer manufactuers in the world, right up there with HP, Dell, Lenovo, and Apple.

Google Doodle

The first-ever Google Doodle, a design made in honor of the 1998 Burning Man Festival, was originally used as an "out of office" message for co-founders Page and Sergey to inform employees they would be unavailable while in attendance at the event in Nevada.

Page Rank

The company's search algorithm referred to as PageRank, which provides rankings for every page indexed on the Web, was officially named after co-founder Larry Page.

Because Larry Page created the famed PageRank algorithm while at Stanford, the university holds the patent. In exchange for long-term rights to the patent, Google gave the school 1.8 million shares of stock, which resulted in $336 million.

The Search Button

The first version of Google didn't have a "search button," forcing users to rely on the "enter" or "return" key to generate searches.

Homepage

Google's homepage wasn't the result of focus group testing or expensive web designers- but it was simple and plain web page, since at that time Google didn't have a webmaster and Sergey Brin didn't do HTML.

The Google Home Page Facts

Google had to add the copyright line at the bottom of the webpage after discovering users weren't sure if the page was finished loading.

The "Did you mean..." suggestion feature doubled Google's traffic when it was introduced.

Because the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button takes users directly to the web page of the first search result, bypassing all of Google's ads, the feature costs Google around $110 million a year.

The Failed Offer That Saved Google

Sergey Brin and Larry Page tried to sell the search engine for $1 million to Excite (company that has collection of web sites and services). Apparently this was a laughable proposal for then CEO, George Bell, who rejected the offer. The duo then tried to sell it to Yahoo for the same amount, but the offer got rejected here again.  

Fiber Optics

Built as a way to save money on leasing space on other fiber optic systems, Google Fiber is now the fastest ISP in the U.S. with speeds of 1 GB per second. Unfortunately, it's only available in Kansas City, Missouri.

Orkut

Google's first crack at a social network, Orkut, was the brainchild of a Google engineer named Orkut Büyükkökten and is currently the most visited website in India and Brazil.

First Tweet

Google's first tweet was a cryptic message written in binary code that translates to "I'm Feeling Lucky" when decoded.

 

  Android

Before Andy Rubin sold Android to Google, WebTV founder Steve Perlman gave him an envelope with $10,000 to keep the company afloat. Now Rubin is Senior Vice President of Mobile and Digital Content at Google.

Google Stats

Google processes over 20 petabyets (1 petabyte = 1,000,000,000,000,000 bytes) a day of user-generated data.

One click of the mouse allows the search engine to crunch up to 1 trillion pieces of information.

Over 1 trillion pages have been indexed so far on Google.

Google shares the largest network of languages interfaces: 72 to be exact including fictional ones such as Klingon, Pig Latin, Pirate, and even Elmer Fudd.

The YouTube

Before Google purchased YouTube, the co-founders, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim placed ads on Craigslist offering "hot" women $100 for every 10 videos they posted to the site.

Eric Schmidt

Former CEO, Eric Schmidt, once asked to have all his personal information removed from Google's index, but his request was denied as it violated the company's policy.

Google’s China Operation

When Google first opened operations in China, it blocked access to its main source code from Chinese employees out of fear that it the government would gain access to it.

Google’s Office

In order to maintain its quirky company culture, Google has a "Chief Culture Officer," whose job it is to make sure employees are happy and the corporate structure stays true to Page and Brin's original vision.

There is no standard dress code for employees or interviewees. There's an internal meme generator for Google employees to crack jokes on each other.

Before the free five-star meals, Google's first complimentary company snack was Swedish Fish.

Google received a record 75,000 applications for 6,000 job openings in just one week back during February 2011.

Over $72 million a year is spent on feeding company employees.

Before the Recession hit, Google offered workers a $5,000 hybrid car subsidiary as part of its employees incentives program to promote green awareness.

Google Campus

Google has extraordinary on-campus day centers for employees' chidlren. It's so good, that in 2008 the company calculated that it spent $37,000 a year on each child. That's $3,000 more a semester than Stanford's computer science PhD program.

Bikes are placed around the Google campus, unlocked, for employees to use when getting from building to building. To make life a little easier, doctors are brought onto the campus so employees don't have to leave for check-ups.

To be a bit more green, Google has installed 1.6MW solar panels on the rooftops of every building on its main campus in Mountview, Calif. The 9,212 panels generate 4,475kWh each day, or the same amount of electricity used by 1,000 homes.

Instead of lawnmowers, Google rents goats from a company called California Grazing to eat and fertilize the grass of its headquarters, plus help reduce fire hazards.

Ads

Former executive Marissa Mayer tried to kill the billion-dollar business known as Google Adsense, as she found the idea of targeting ads based on users emails to be flat-out "creepy."

According a Worldstream study from 2011, Lowe's spends the most on Google AdWords advertising. That year it dropped a whopping $59.1 million.

 

Man’s Best Friend

Before felines became an Internet sensation, the world's largest search engine demonstrated its loyalty to man's best friend-introducing a Leonberger-bred dog named Yoska as the company dog, which belong to VP of Engineering Urs Hölzle.

 

“Google.stanford.com”

Google originated as a PhD project of Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford University, to provide context and organization to all the links and pages on the World Wide Web. The first web address was "google.stanford.com."

The Investment Offered

When Sun Microsystems co-founder, Andy Bechtolsheim, invested in Google with a $100,000 check made out to Google Inc, the check sat in Larry Page's desk drawer for two weeks while he and Sergey Brin went and created a company called Google Inc.

Susan’s Garage

The domain name for Google was registered on September 15, 1997, and the company was incorporated on September 4, 1998. When Page and Brin needed an office for Google, Susan Wojcicki rented her garage to the two Stanford students for $1,700 a month. On top of helping her with the mortgage, Wojcicki became a top Google executive, and introduced her sister to Sergey who wound up marrying her.

Craig Silverstein, a fellow PhD student at Stanford, was hired as the first employee.

Googol!

The search engine was originally named BackRub, but Page and Brin decided to change the moniker to the word googol, which translates to the number 100¹⁰⁰, playing off the suggestion of infinite search results. However the name “Google” was created by mistake after the co-founders made a spelling error over the original name: googol.

Stanford Days

Brin and Page would hang around the Stanford campus loading dock hoping to "snag computers as they came in," according to Page.

First Data Center

Google's first data center was opened in The Dalles, OR. in 2006 for $600 million. To not alert other companies of its expansion plans, Google joined the town's Chamber of Commerce to keep it all a secret. It now owns and operates 13 in seven countries.

However Page's dorm room served as Google's first-ever data center in 1998.

Visa Problems prevent U.S. Indian Grads from nurturing their Dreams

The immigration laws in the U.S. are chasing away talented foreign students, who are forced to leave the country despite their highly skilled profiles, reports IANS.

Recently, Anurag Bajpayee and Prakash Narayan Govindan, two Indian post-doctoral mechanical engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) came up with an innovative system, which disposes contaminated water from oil and natural gas hydraulic fracturing, in a cheaper and cleaner way.

According to reports by the Washington Post It "just might be a breakthrough that creates wealth and jobs in the United States and transforms the white-hot industry. That is, as long as the foreign-born inventors aren't forced to leave the country."

 The system developed by these young minds is termed as one of the top 10 "world-changing ideas" of 2012, by the Scientific American magazine.

But both of them will have to leave the U.S. soon since their student visas are about to expire. They will have to set up their company in India or somewhere else.

Indians and students of other countries studying in U.S. universities usually gets funding from U.S. taxpayers. Leon Sandler, executive director of MIT's Deshpande Centre for Technical Innovation says that to educate a single PhD student it costs around $250,000 and around 80 percent is paid by the government for the graduate research.

"Essentially we are funding their research, spending a quarter-million dollars in taxpayer money; then we make it hard for these people to stay here," Sandler was quoted as saying.

The Post reports that Bajpayee and Narayan doesn’t want to move to some other country such as Israel or Singapore, where the opportunities are less when compared to the U.S. If they don’t get the opportunity to nurture their dream in this country, then the next choice would be their own country.

Narayan also adds, "If it doesn't happen in the U.S., we will make it happen somewhere else."

If Obama's new immigration bill, which would create a ‘Lawful Prospective Immigrant’ visa for 11 million illegal immigrants living in America, is passed, it will prove to be a great relief to the foreigners settled here.

7 Most Powerful People of 2013

Everyone in this world craves for power. But power is not just only about having the liberty to act according to one’s believes and comfort; it also comes with an added responsibility of making right and fruitful decisions. There are some prominent personalities in this world on whom we have vested the power. Here we shall discuss about the 7 most influential people around the world and why are they named so, as reported by from Forbes.

1. Barack Obama

President, United States
Age: 51
Residence: Washington, DC
Country of Citizenship: United States
Marital Status: Married
Children: 2

Barack Obama, has marked a history by being the first African American win the United States presidential election on 2008. His re-election on 2012 for the U.S. president office was very crucial for the country. Now he is left with four more years to push his agenda past weakened congressional Republicans. Obama is facing major challenges including an unresolved budget crisis, high unemployment and renewed unrest in the Middle East.  However, Obama remains the commander in chief of the world's greatest military and head of the sole economic and cultural superpower, literally the leader of the free and most powerful world.

2. Angela Merkel

Chancellor, Germany
Age: 58
Residence: Berlin, Germany
Country of Citizenship: Germany
Education: Doctorate, Leipzig University; Master of Science, Leipzig University
Marital Status: Married

Angela Merkel is world’s second powerful person and the world first powerful women. Merkel is known to be the backbone of the 27-member European Union and its’ she who carries the fate of the euro on her shoulders.  Though Merkel was a physical chemist by professional background but she successfully entered politics in the wake of the revolutions of 1989. She has served as a chancellor since 2005 and is seen as playing a decisive role in managing the financial crisis at the European and international level. Merkel's assertive instructions for reducing the European debt crisis has been challenged by both hard-hit southern countries and the more affluent north, but still both are standing firm.

3. Vladimir Putin

President, Russia
Age: 60
Residence: Moscow, Russia
Country of Citizenship: Russia
Education: Doctor of Jurisprudence, Saint Petersburg State University
Marital Status: Married

Vladimir Putin has been re-elected for a third 6-year term as president in March, 2012 after a few years swapping posts with Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev.  This October Putin, who controls a nuclear-tipped army, a permanent seat on the UN Security Council and some of the world's Biggest oil and gas reserves, turned 60. That's Russia's retirement age, but no one has got the nerve to tell him to quit.

4. Bill Gates

Co-Chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Age: 57
Source of Wealth: Microsoft, self-made
Residence: Medina, WA
Country of Citizenship: United States
Education: Drop Out, Harvard University
Marital Status: Married
Children: 3

Bill Gates is the world’s second-richest man with a net worth of $65 billion and that's after giving away more than $28 billion for social causes. Gates is the former chief executive officer and current chairman of Microsoft. His post-Microsoft mission includes eliminating many infectious and deadly diseases: By his own estimates, that would save life of above 8 million people by 2020. But Gates’ philanthropic endeavors don’t stop there: he continues to persuade his peers to sign the "Giving Pledge," promising to give away half their wealth or more for charitable causes. After getting influenced by him, twenty-three more tycoons signed the Giving Pledge in 2012, pushing the total to 92.

5. Pope Benedict XVI

Pope, Roman Catholic Church
Age: 85
Residence: Vatican City, Vatican City State
Country of Citizenship: Germany
Marital Status: Single

Pope Benedict XVI serves dual roles as Sovereign of the Vatican City State and leader of the Catholic Church. According to the doctrine of Papal Supremacy, the Pope enjoys "supreme, full, immediate, and universal power" over the souls of 1.2 billion Catholics around the world. Many turn to the Pope for the final word on life's most personal decisions, including birth control, abortion, marriage and euthanasia (the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease or in an irreversible coma).

On 11 February 2013, the aging Pope Benedict announced his pending resignation, effective from 28 February 2013, because of "lack of strength of mind and body."

6. Ben Bernanke

Chairman, Federal Reserve, United States
Age: 59
Residence: Washington, DC
Country of Citizenship: United States
Education: Doctorate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Bachelor of Arts / Science, Harvard University
Marital Status: Married
Children: 2   

Ben Bernanke is an economist and currently the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States. On February 1, 2006, President Bush appointed him to be chairman of the United States Federal Reserve. Then on January 28, 2010, Bernanke was confirmed for a second term as chairman, 2010, after being re-nominated by President Barack Obama. Bernanke has been on a buying spree: In a third round of quantitative easing, the Federal Reserve System is now snapping up $40 billion a month of mortgage-backed securities and $45 billion of Treasurys. This has resulted in modest economic recovery and a near-record of $2.9 trillion on the Federal Reserve Bank balance sheet.

7. Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al Saud

King, Saudi Arabia
Age: 88
Residence: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Country of Citizenship: Saudi Arabia
Marital Status: Married

Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the King of the desert kingdom controls 20 percent of the world's known oil reserves and guards Islam's holiest cities. In 1961, as a young man, Abdullah became Mayor of Mecca. On 1 August 2005, he ascended to the throne upon the death of his half-brother, King Fahd. Abdullah, like Fahd, was one of the many sons of Ibn Saud, the Founder of modern Saudi Arabia. With a personal wealth estimated at $18 billion, Abdullah is ranked as the third richest royal in the world. However, the nation and its populace is suffering with the out-of-control youth unemployment.
Abdullah lost his brother Crown Prince Nayef who died in June. Nayef was supposed to be Abdullah’s heir but as he is no more, another brother of Abdullah, 76 year old Crown Prince Salman, the Formar Governor of Riyadh, is going to success him.

10 Richest Indians of 2013

It has been always said that India is a rich country when it comes to culture and heritage and now it is not far behind in wealth too. Few of the businessmen who have gained fame and wealth around the globe belong to this land and undoubtedly made all Indians proud. Hare are 10 richest businessmen in India according to Forbes list of Indian billionaires, 2012.

1. Mukesh Ambani

Estimated Wealth: $21 billion

Source of Wealth: Inherited

His father started Reliance Industries with mere $100 and had a dream to make the company among the biggest companies of the nation. Considering his father his role model and making his dream come true, Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani is one of the richest men in India as well as Asia with an estimated wealth of $21 billion. Mukesh Ambani is also considered to be among the most influential CEOs in the world. RIL is one of the largest publicly traded companies in India by market capitalization and is the second largest company in India by revenue after Indian Oil Corporation.

2. Lakshmi Mittal

Estimated Wealth: $16 billion

Source of Wealth: Self-Made

Lakshmi Mittal is the perfect role model for rags to richest story. From a simple young man who has gone through many hardships of life, Lakshmi Mittal is now the CEO of world’s biggest steel manufacturer company Arcelor Mittal. In 2011 Mittal was listed as the sixth richest person in the world.  He also ranks sixth among the worlds richest business man with an estimated wealth of $16 billion.

3. Azim Premji

Estimated Wealth: $12.2 billion               

Source of Wealth: Inherited

Azim Premji enjoys a richly deserved status as one of the most influential entrepreneurs of India and has frequently featured as one of the most powerful men in the world. With an estimated wealth of $ 12.2 billion Azim Premji occupies the position of India’s third richest men. He is also well complimented for transforming “Wipro Limited” which was initially a FMCG firm to one of the leading blue chip technological organizations in India.

4. Pallonji Mistry            

Estimated Wealth: $9.8 billion

Source of Wealth: Inherited

With an estimated wealth of $9.8 billion Pallonji Mistry is the fourth richest man in India and the wealthiest person of Parsi descent. Born in 1929 Pallonji Mistry is an Irish construction tycoon and chairman of Shapoorji Pallonji Group. He is the single largest shareholder in India’s biggest multinational company Tata Group holding 18.4 percent stakes. Recently his son Cyrus Mistry inherited the post of CEO after Ratan Tata got retired.

5. Dilip Shanghvi             

Estimated Wealth: $9.2 billion

Source of Wealth: Self-Made

Here is another billionaire who is a complete self-made man.  He is the Founder and Managing Director of Sun Pharmaceutical, an Indian global pharmaceutical company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra that produces and sells pharmaceutical formulations and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) primarily in India and the United States. Dilip Shanghvi’s wealth is estimated to be $9.2 billion that grabbed him the fifth rank among India’s richest men.

6. Adi Godrej    

Estimated Wealth: $9 billion     

Source of Wealth: Inherited

He heads the Godrej group of companies and is considered as the business icon Indian business industry and is definitely among one of the richest in India. Though Adi Godrej inherited his family business but his innovative ideas and inspiring leadership qualities took the Godrej group of companies to the heights. After Pallonji Mistry, Adi Godrej is the second richest in the Parsi descent. The annual turnover of Godrej Group of Companies is estimated to be $3.3 billion.

7. Savitri Jindal and Family         

Estimated Wealth: $8.2 billion

Source of Wealth: Inherited

She is simple, soft spoken and down to earth. Inheriting Jindal Group after her husband’s sudden death, with nine children, Savitri Jindal and her family occupies the seventh rank among the richest Indian people with $8.2 billion estimated wealth. Savitri Jindal is an Indian steel magnet, the wealthiest woman in India and the world's 80th richest person and also the member of Haryana Legislative Assembly.

8. Ravi Ruia        

Estimated Wealth: $8.1 billion

Source of Wealth: Self-Made

Ravikant Nand Kishore Ruia better known as Ravi Ruia is the Vice-Chairman of Essar Group. The company is owned by both the Ruia brothers, Sashi and Ravi and operates in about 25 countries around the globe. The Essar group functions in many sectors like of steel, oil & gas, power, communications, shipping, ports & logistics, projects and minerals. With an estimated wealth of $8.1 billion, Ravi Ruia is the eighth richest man in India.

9. Hinduja Brothers       

Estimated Wealth: $8 billion     

Source of Wealth:  Inherited

Hinduja Brothers, the name is a must mention among the most reputed Indian business families who have worldwide gained prestige. Srichand, Gopichand, Ashok and Prakash are the famous Hinduja brothers who inherited Hinduja Group, started by their father Parmanand Deepchand. With an estimated wealth of $8 billion the Hinduja Brothers grabs the ninth rank among India’s richest men. In June 2012, Hinduja Group bagged its first overseas order of 50 units of vestibule buses from Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation.

10. Kumar Mangalam Birla          

Estimated Wealth: $7.8 billion

Source of Wealth:  Inherited

Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman of Aditya Birla Group one of corporate India's most triumphant fourth-generation industrialists. He inherited the company at the early age of 28 and took the company to its heights. Few big achievements were done by Kumar in the year 2012 like he bought Pantaloon Retail worth 1,600 crore from Kishore Biyani. With an estimated $7.8 billion, Kumar Mangalam Birla is the tenth richest man in India.

10 Most Influential Brands of the World

Brands do matter and their names mean a lot for the customers. The very first thing that comes to the mind of the customers is the brand name.

There might be the same product from different companies but the customers do not go for all the companies. The customers have their own favorite brands and they use them proudly.

There are some of the brands around the globe, who are not just brands; they are a tradition, they represent the whole of a culture. Here is the list of 10 such brands as reported by ‘ndtv.com’.

10. Cisco

Brand Value: $26.3 Billion

Cisco is one of the leading manufacturer and seller of networking devices and other products related to information technology as well as communication engineering.

Cisco was founded by a married couple, Leonard Bosack and Sandy Lerner. It’s headquarter is in San Jose, California.

With a brand value of $26.3 billion, Cisco comes in the tenth rank in this list.

9. BMW

Brand Value: $26.3 Billion

Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMW), with a brand value of $26.3 billion comes in the ninth rank in this list.

This German company started as an aircraft manufacturing company. After the end of World War I, it was forced to stop manufacturing aircraft engines. It started manufacturing motorcycles after this under the brand name of ‘BMW Motorrad’.

It is the parent company of ‘Rolls-Royce Motor Cars’. It’s headquarter is in Munich, Bavaria, Germany.

8. General Electric

Brand Value: $33.7 Billion

General Electric (GE) is a multinational conglomerate company. GE has four primary fields of operation; energy, technology infrastructure, capital finance and consumer & industrial. It’s headquarter is in Connecticut, U.S.

GE is one of the leading manufacturers of aircraft engines, household and water processing appliances. It is also one of the most reliable names in medical imaging and finance. 

GE has been named as one of the most admired companies in the world by Fortune.

7. McDonald's

Brand Value: $37.4 Billion

McDonald's is an obvious name in this list. By serving more than 65 million happy customers in more than 110 countries, McDonald’s has become the largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants in the world.

McDonalds started in 1940 as a barbeque restaurant by two brothers, Richard and Maurice McDonald in California. Today, McDonald’s produces hamburgers, cheeseburgers, French fries, soft-drinks, milkshakes, breakfast items and lot more with its headquarter in the U.S.

McDonald’s was the first fast food center to start ‘speedee service system’.

6. Intel

Brand Value: $32.3 Billion

Most of the computers across the globe run on chips designed by Intel. Intel is the largest chaip makes in the world. The ‘x86’ series process, which is found in most of the computers, was invented by Intel.

Intel was founded in July 18, 1968 as Integrated Electronics by Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore.

Intel is also one of the leading manufacturers of motherboard chipset, embedded processors and other computing devices.

The ‘Pentium’ processors by Intel have become one of the common names among the computer users.

5. Google

Brand Value: $37.6 Billion

Two graduates from Stanford University, Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google in September 4, 1998. They started Google in 1996 as their project during their PhD days.

Today, either Google or its influence needs no introduction. It is the largest search engines in the world. Google earns most of its revenues from internet search, cloud computing and advertising.

Google is also one of the most desired companies for any techie. The work environment and the bulky salary packages offered by Google is the sole reason behind this.

4. IBM

Brand Value: $48.5 Billion

International Business Machines or IBM is also known as the ‘Big Blue’ and needs no introduction in the tech market. It manufactures both hardwires and software for computers. It also offers infrastructure and consulting services.

Tabulating Machine Company, International Time Recording Company and Computing Scale Company merged together in 1911 and ‘Computing Tabulating Recording Company’ (CTR) was founded. Later, in 1924, the name ‘IBM’ was given.

The extensive use of blue color in IBM product as well as in it logo has given the nickname ‘Big Blue’ to it. Thinkpad is one of the most popular products of IBM.

3. Coca-Cola

Brand Value: $50.2 Billion

Pharmacist John Stith invented Coca-Cola in 1886 in Columbus, Georgia. Asa G. Candler bought the formula in 1889. Finally, the company got incorporated in 1892.

Coca-Cola is the pioneer in energy drinks, refreshment drinks, juices, ready-to-drink tea and coffees. It has more than 500 non-alcoholic beverages under its brand name.

Today, Coca-Cola is the leader in producing drinking beverages in the entire world. Its products, quality and the taste it provides have earned it the title of being the third most favorite brand around the globe.

2. Microsoft

Brand Value: $54.7 Billion

‘Who doesn’t know Bill Gates?’ Asking this question is a myth as there might not be a single person, who is not aware of this name!

Bill Gates and his childhood friend, Paul Allen founded this company on April 4, 1975. Bill Gates was the first CEO of this company. Microsoft is the leader in developing Operating System for the computers.

 ‘Windows’ is undoubtedly one of the most widely used OS around the globe and Microsoft is the proud company to develop Windows. Microsoft is the largest software maker in the world today.

1. Apple

Brand Value: $87.1 Billion

There is a saying: ‘Three Apples Changed The World; Adam’s apple, Newton’s apple and Steve Job’s apple’. Whatever people say, they say right.

Established by two best friends, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in April 1976, Apple brought a revolution in the tech market. Starting from music player to computers, Apple’s each and every product has its own demand. Apple changed the age old tradition of enjoying music with the launch of iPod.

Today, when the market has an endless chain of gadgets, Apple’s products are still the most desired for the customers. iPad, MacBook, iPhone has been extremely successful in the market.