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Meg Lanning
Former Captain of the Australian Women's Cricket Team
Meg Lanning is widely regarded as one of the greatest cricketers and most successful captains in the history of the sport. Born in Singapore and raised in New South Wales and Victoria, she made her international debut for Australia in December 2010. She quickly established her batting prowess, becoming the youngest Australian player to score an international century at just 18 years of age. In 2014, Lanning was appointed captain of the national team at age 21, making her the youngest skipper in Australian cricket history. Under her formidable leadership, the Australian women's team entered a golden era of unparalleled dominance. Lanning captained the side to five ICC World Cup titles, including four T20 World Cups and one ODI World Cup, alongside a gold medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. As a batter, she was known for her elegant strokeplay, fierce competitiveness, and exceptional consistency, holding the record for the most centuries in Women's One Day Internationals. On the domestic circuit, she has played for Victoria, captained the Melbourne Stars and Perth Scorchers in the Women's Big Bash League, and led the Delhi Capitals in the Women's Premier League in India. In November 2023, after representing her country in 241 international matches across all formats, Lanning announced her retirement from international cricket, cementing her legacy as a true legend of the global game.
Sports
Person
DH
Demis Hassabis
Co-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind
Sir Demis Hassabis is a world-renowned British computer scientist, artificial intelligence researcher, and entrepreneur. He is best known as the co-founder and CEO of DeepMind, a pioneer in artificial intelligence that was acquired by Google in 2014 and later merged into Google DeepMind. Born in London, Hassabis was a child chess prodigy who reached the rank of master at age thirteen before embarking on a career in video game development. He co-designed the landmark simulation game Theme Park at Bullfrog Productions before pursuing higher education. He graduated with double first-class honors in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge and later completed a PhD in cognitive neuroscience at University College London, focusing on the neural mechanisms of memory and imagination. In 2010, Hassabis co-founded DeepMind with Shane Legg and Mustafa Suleyman, aiming to solve intelligence and use it to solve everything else. Under his leadership, DeepMind developed AlphaGo, which defeated a world champion Go player, and AlphaFold, an AI system that solved the 50-year-old challenge of protein folding. This revolutionary scientific breakthrough earned Hassabis the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry alongside John M. Jumper and David Baker. Hassabis is a Fellow of the Royal Society, was knighted in 2024 for services to artificial intelligence, and remains an influential voice on AI safety, ethical deployment, and global technological progress.
Technology
Person
JG
Jyoti Eknath Gaikwad
Member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly for Dharavi
Jyoti Eknath Gaikwad is an Indian politician representing the Dharavi Assembly constituency in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly as a member of the Indian National Congress. She secured victory in the 2024 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly elections by defeating Shiv Sena candidate Rajesh Khandare with a margin of over 23,000 votes. Coming from a prominent political family, she is the daughter of former Member of Parliament and senior Congress leader Eknath Gaikwad, and the sister of Varsha Gaikwad, who previously represented the Dharavi constituency for four terms before being elected to the Lok Sabha in 2024. Active in social work and local community service prior to entering direct legislative politics, she maintains strong roots in Mumbai's central suburban region and continues the Congress representation in the Dharavi area.
Political
Person
AS
Aravind Srinivas
Computer Scientist, Co-founder and CEO of Perplexity AI
Aravind Srinivas is a prominent Indian computer scientist, artificial intelligence researcher, and tech entrepreneur best recognized as the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Perplexity AI. Born on June 7, 1994, in Chennai, India, Srinivas demonstrated an early exceptional aptitude for systems computing and advanced mathematics. He completed a highly selective dual-degree integrated program in Electrical Engineering at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) in 2017 before moving to the United States to pursue doctoral studies. Srinivas earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley in 2021, focusing on reinforcement learning, computer vision, and deep unsupervised models under the guidance of renowned AI pioneer Pieter Abbeel. Throughout his academic path, he worked at several premier global AI institutions, serving in crucial research capacities at Google, DeepMind, and OpenAI. In August 2022, alongside co-founders Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho, and Andy Konwinski, Srinivas established Perplexity AI in San Francisco. Under his operational leadership as CEO, the company pioneered the concept of an AI-driven conversational "answer engine" that delivers direct, contextual responses paired with real-time web citations. He successfully navigated the startup through explosive growth metrics, reaching hundreds of millions of monthly queries and an institutional valuation surpassing several billion dollars. Recognized as one of the most influential global leaders in generative artificial intelligence, Srinivas represents the modern archetype of an academic researcher transitioning into a transformative technology executive.
Technology
Person
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Denis Yarats
Computer Scientist, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Perplexity AI
Denis Yarats is a distinguished Belarusian computer scientist, machine learning researcher, and technology entrepreneur best known as the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Perplexity AI. Born in 1987 in Gomel, Belarus, Yarats developed an early prowess in applied mathematics and computer programming, competing as a finalist in the prestigious Google Code Jam in 2008. He completed his undergraduate studies in Applied Mathematics and IT at Belarusian State University before moving internationally to advance his engineering career.
Yarats's early career features key software engineering and machine learning roles at prominent tech enterprises, including Yandex in Moscow and Microsoft in Seattle, where he contributed to the Bing search engine. He later served as a Staff Machine Learning Engineer at Quora and spent six years as an AI Research Scientist at Facebook AI Research (FAIR, now Meta AI). During his tenure at FAIR, Yarats specialized in deep reinforcement learning, computer vision, and robotics, co-authoring influential research on pixel-based reinforcement learning.
In August 2022, Yarats co-founded Perplexity AI in San Francisco alongside Aravind Srinivas, Johnny Ho, and Andy Konwinski. As CTO, he has been the primary architect behind the platform's core infrastructure, pioneering a reliable conversational "answer engine" that synthesizes precise web queries with real-time citations. Blending academic rigor with high-velocity product execution, Yarats scaled Perplexity into a multi-billion-dollar enterprise that processes hundreds of millions of user queries. Today, he is widely recognized as a foremost authority in scalable artificial intelligence and generative search systems.
Technology
Person
DL
Doug Leone
Venture Capitalist and Former Global Managing Partner of Sequoia Capital
Douglas Leone is a highly successful billionaire venture capitalist and the former global managing partner of Sequoia Capital. Born in Genoa, Italy, in 1957, Leone immigrated to the United States with his family at the age of eleven, settling in Mount Vernon, New York. He went on to pursue an impressive academic career, earning a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Cornell University, a Master of Science in industrial engineering from Columbia University, and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. Prior to transitioning into venture capital, Leone spent several years in sales and executive roles at prominent technology companies, including Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, and Prime Computer. Leone joined Sequoia Capital in 1988, where his sharp business acumen quickly made an impact. He was elevated to managing partner in 1996, working alongside Michael Moritz to guide the firm’s investment strategy. In 2012, Leone became the sole global managing partner of Sequoia Capital, overseeing its massive expansion into international markets, particularly China and India. Throughout his tenure, he played a critical role in Sequoia's early and growth-stage investments in tech giants such as Google, WhatsApp, Stripe, ServiceNow, and Airbnb. Leone officially stepped down from his global leadership position at Sequoia in 2022, handing the reins to Roelof Botha, but continues to serve as a general partner and board member for several high-growth portfolio companies.
Finance
Person
SO
Stephen Oskoui
Co-founder and Managing Partner of Gigafund
Stephen Oskoui is an American venture capitalist and entrepreneur, best known as the co-founder and Managing Partner of Gigafund, a prominent venture capital firm that backs founders of generation-defining companies. Gigafund is particularly notable for its massive concentrated investments in SpaceX, Elon Musk's aerospace manufacturer. Alongside co-founder Luke Nosek, a PayPal co-founder, Oskoui has positioned Gigafund as a long-term capital partner for highly ambitious, transformative enterprises.
Prior to establishing Gigafund in 2017, Oskoui was an active angel investor and entrepreneur. He founded Smiley Media in 1999, an online advertising and technology company, serving as its Chief Executive Officer for over a decade. During his tenure at Smiley Media, he developed deep expertise in customer acquisition and digital marketing, which he later applied to scaling early-stage startups. He has also served as an advisor and investor to numerous high-growth technology companies.
Oskoui graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science. Based in Austin, Texas, he remains a key figure in the venture capital ecosystem, focusing on multi-decadal investments in space exploration, technology, infrastructure, and biotechnology.
Finance
Person
RP
Rajendra Prasad
First President of India
Rajendra Prasad was an Indian independence activist, lawyer, scholar, and subsequently, the first President of India, serving from 1950 to 1962. Born in Ziradei, Bihar, he joined the Indian National Congress during the Indian independence movement and became a major leader from the region of Bihar. An ardent supporter of Mahatma Gandhi, Prasad was imprisoned by British authorities during the Salt Satyagraha of 1931 and the Quit India movement of 1942. After the 1946 elections, Prasad served as Minister of Food and Agriculture in the interim central government. Upon independence in 1947, Prasad was elected as President of the Constituent Assembly of India, which prepared the Constitution of India and served as its provisional parliament. When India became a republic in 1950, Prasad was elected its first president. As president, Prasad established a tradition of non-partisanship and dignity for the constitutional office, setting a precedent for his successors. He is the only president to serve two full terms, holding the office for twelve years. After his presidency, he retired from public life and was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honor, in 1962. He spent his final days at the Sadakat Ashram in Patna, where he passed away on February 28, 1963, leaving behind a legacy of simplicity, intellectual depth, and dedication to the nation.
Political
Person
AE
Abhimanyu Ranganathan Parameswaran Easwaran
Indian Cricketer
Abhimanyu Ranganathan Parameswaran Easwaran is a highly accomplished Indian domestic cricketer who plays as a right-handed opening batsman for Bengal. Born in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, his early cricketing foundation was built at the Abhimanyu Cricket Academy, an institution founded by his father in 2008. At the age of ten, Easwaran moved to Kolkata to pursue professional opportunities under the guidance of coach Nirmal Sengupta. Over the years, he has established himself as an old-school anchor and one of the most reliable top-order red-ball specialists in the Indian domestic circuit. Easwaran emerged as the leading run-scorer for Bengal during the 2018–19 Ranji Trophy season, amassing 861 runs across six matches. His prolific and consistent performances have earned him captaincy roles for Bengal, India A, and India B in major domestic tournaments like the Duleep Trophy. Widely regarded for his stellar technique and mental fortitude, he has repeatedly knocked on the doors of international cricket, securing numerous standby and mainline call-ups to the senior Indian national Test squad, including tours for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and series against England.
Sports
Person