India is winning the world , softly

India is being feted as a soft superpower. DT explores what makes India the next big thing on the world stage. Be it Indian tycoons taking over international giants or foreign universities lauding our politicians or Hollywood superstars shooting in the country... India seems to be the flavour everywhere. It is being feted as an emerging economy with a pool of superlative talent at its disposal and as the next big thing on the world stage. But it is the country’s achievements in the arena of education, art, culture, entertainment etc. that has given it the status of a ‘soft superpower’. Global recognition : Indian writer Kiran Desai is the youngest woman ever to win the Booker Prize. Amitabh Bachchan has been honoured by the French government with the country's prestigious Legion d'Honneur award. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was honoured with a Doctorate of Law by the Cambridge University. Yoga exponent Baba Ramdev has been invited by the United Nations to deliver a lecture on poverty alleviation. Forbes has ranked India-born Indra Nooyi as the fourth-most powerful woman in the world while Congress chief Sonia Gandhi is at 13th position. ICICI Bank deputy managing director Chanda Kochhar, HSBC India’s CEO Naina Lal Kidwai and Biocon head Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw , have been named among the world's 50 most powerful businesswomen by Fortune magazine. India cricket team captain Rahul Dravid has been nominated in four categories, including Cricketer of the Year, for the annual International Cricket Council (ICC) awards. And there’s more... More than 30 Indian writers attended the Frankfurt Book Fair this October to woo world publishers. India was guest of honour at the October 4-8 fair. PIO Praveen Kumar has taken over as president of the British Medical Association. Karan Johar was a judge at the Miss World pageant that took place in September 2006. Deepa Mehta’s Water, based on the plight of Benaras widows, is Canada’s official Oscar entry this year. Manavjit Singh Sandhu was ranked 1st in the world shooting championship in July 2006.

JUST MAKE A DIFFERENCE.....

A man was walking down the beach at sunset. As, he walked along, hesaw another man in the distance. He noticed this man kept leaningdown, picking up something and throwing it out into the water, againand again. As, he approached even closer, he noticed that the man was picking up starfish that had been washed up on the beach. He wasthrowing them back into the water, one by one.

Puzzled, he approached the man and said,"Good Evening. I was wondering what you are doing."

"I'm throwing these starfish back into the ocean.

You see, it's lowtide and all these starfish have been washed up onto the shore. If, Idon't throw them back into the ocean, they'll die up here from lack ofoxygen."

"But, there must be thousands of starfish on this beach. You can'tpossible get to all of them. And, don't you realize this is probablyhappening on hundreds of beaches all up and down this coast. Can't yousee that you can't possibly make a difference?"

The man bent down and picked up yet another starfish, and threw itback into the ocean. With a smile he replied, "Made a difference tothat one !!!

"Just remember, no matter how small the deedit really does makes a difference.Make a difference today.Do something nice for someone else......may be this is familiar one to you.....dats kalam also says...DREAM UR WAY...DO WHAT U CAN....BUT NEVER STOP DOIN...WAIT FOR THE SUCCESS BUT DONT BE DROOPED BY FAILURE....lets do sumthin dat brings a smile on weary face....

pls note this:

I'm extending a personal invitation to my friends and family. To see your invitation, click the link below, or copy and paste it into your browser's address field:http://friends.unicefusa.org/r/cf4ab13a27d5102aa29c