Kailash Satyarthi
Children’s Angel
Bachpan Bachao Andolan founder and Nobel Peace laureate gathered five global leaders committed to ending child bondage and violence against minors through ‘Will for Children’ to make a statement against slavery. President Pranab Mukherjee launched his campaign to mobilise 100 million children to end child slavery. He is responsible for freeing and rehabilitating 80,000 child slaves so far.
Mamata Banerjee
Absurd Amazon
The West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) diva returned to power with more power in 2016, increasing her MLA tally from 184 to 211, of 294 seats.
The Election Commission recognised the TMC as the seventh national party with a presence in West Bengal, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura. She is a vitriolic campaigner and Rahul Gandhi’s sole compadre against demonetisation. The high tide of her populist paranoia rose when she accused the Army of attempting to stage a coup to depose her—an allegation which did not leave anyone amused by its sheer absurdity.
Acharya Balkrishna
Billionaire Baba
He proved that babadom and business can be two sides of the same coin. The Big Acharya of Ayurved added his business acumen to Baba Ramdev’s yoga-infused brand name and the result is Patanjali Ayurved’s soaring growth. As the holder of 95 per cent share in the FMCG company, he debuted on Forbes’ India’s 100 Richest People at 48th position with an estimated worth of
$2.5 billion.
Sania Mirza
Raquet Rani
This year was a winner for her. She and Martina Hingis were seeded first and won the Australian Open Doubles and a number of other titles. Sania won many other doubles titles with other partners and ended the year at Number 1 for the second consecutive season.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma
Wallet Wizard
The founder of India’s largest mobile payments startup is the man of the moment. Post the cash ban, Paytm got a shot in the arm as it added over 20 million new consumers, taking its total user base to 170 million, between November 10 and December 20. Even pushcarts in the streets sport Paytm stickers.
Faraaz Hossain
Loyal Martyr
The 20-year-old Bangladeshi died trying to save his friends during a terror attack in Dhaka’s Holey Artisan Bakery in July. The terrorists gave him the option of leaving due to his religion. He died with his friends Tarishi Jain and Abinta Kabir. He was studying at Emory University, Atlanta.
Mohan Bhagwat
Mod Traditionalist
The grand daddy of Saffron setup calls shots on matters related Hindutva. The RSS chief, who changed the organisation’s age-old uniform from khaki shorts to dark brown trousers, kept Sangh's views on cow protection intact, even disagreeing with PM Narendra Modi over the antecedents of gau rakshaks.
Radhika Menon
Saviour on the High Seas
The Merchant Navy captain became the first woman to receive the International Maritime Organisation Award for Exceptional Bravery at Sea for rescuing seven fishermen from a sinking fishing boat. The trawler was adrift after engine failure and loss of anchor in severe weather in the Bay of Bengal amid 25-foot high waves, winds of 60 knots and heavy rain in June 2015, 2.5 km away off the coast of Gopalpur in Odisha.
Fr. Tom Uzhunnalil
Father Courage
The Malayalee priest in Islamist captivity in Yemen since March has become a symbol of humanity’s fight against terror. A video of him appealing to the Pope and questioning his value as an Indian prompted foreign minister Sushma Swaraj to tweet that the government will spare no effort to free him.
T M krishna
Raga Rebel
Thodur Madabusi Krishna won the Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership and ensuring inclusiveness in culture. The musician, teacher, lecturer, activist and author, who cycles to concerts withdrew from Chennai’s December Music Season—the Woodstock of South Indian classical music. His opposition to the Brahmin domination of the Carnatic scene and breaking established musical traditions has made him a hero to the anti-conventionlists.
Sorbananda Sonowal
BJP’s Brahma Putra
I n his speech on being sworn in as Assam CM, Sonowal had promised to rid Assam of corruption. In his seven months of being in charge, over a dozen senior government officials, including the chairman and two members of Assam Public Service Commission, were arrested in a cash-for-jobs racket. Under him, the BJP won 60 of the 126 seats to help it form its first-ever government in the Northeast.
Rajinikanth
The Boss
Such is stardom that several firms in Chennai and Bengaluru declared a holiday on July 22, the day Kabali released. Though die-hard fans complained it was not a typical Thalaivar film with Rajini being niggardly on style, many said it had allowed the actor in him to resurface. The film slayed (Sultan, Baahubali) many a giant at the box office.
Pummy Aunty
Madame Mirror
Ssumier S Pasricha’s popular YouTube videos starring Punjabi alter-ego, Pummy Aunty, the gossipy, sharp-tongued critic of her MBA (maha badtameez aurat) daughter-in-law, reflect the social attitude of our times.
Lt. gen. ranbir singh
Security’s Surgeon
He became the face of the Army when he announced the first cross-border surgical strike in PoK in response to the Uri terror attack. The head of military operations, he endorsed hot pursuit of militants in the jungles of Myanmar. Now, he commands India’s First Strike Force.
Arvind Panagariya
Prince of Plans
Besides spearheading the campaign for cashless economy post-demonetisation, NITI Aayog’s vice-chairman networked with chief ministers to implement policy reforms in land titling, industrial outreach and the Medical Council of India Bill. Due to him, views of the policy think-tank are heard in each Cabinet meeting.
Bezwada Wilson
Clean Commando
When the champion of manual scavengers won the Magsaysay award this year “asserting the inalienable right to a life of human dignity”, he did not celebrate. “When 1.6 lakh Dalit women clean dry latrines in the country, how can we call it a celebration?” he asked. He has also questioned why manual scavenging can’t be banned when old currency can be.
Mother Teresa
She was canonised by Pope Francis in September in Vatican City, making the Nobel Peace Prize winner—who died in 1997—a saint. She founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950 in Kolkata.
B R Ambedkar
In its bid to appropriate the Dalit icon, the NDA government in his 61st death anniversary announced that Amdebkar’s birthday, April 14, would be observed as Water Day.
Pt. Deendayal Upadhyay
The Jan Sangh president probably was never invoked in such a grand scale. In his birth centenary year, BJP chose Kozhikode for its national council meeting in his memory and PM inaugurated the celebrations ressurecting their icon.
Tipu Sultan
Competitive politics brought the 18th century ruler to focus in Karnataka. As the government celebrated his Jayanti on November 10, BJP mounted a stiff opposition accusing him of massacring Hindus.