Challenges for the Brave New World: Can Civilizations Talk?

BENAZIR BHUTTO

• Benazir Bhutto was the first woman to lead a post-colonial Muslim state. The charismatic Bhutto was first elected Prime Minister of Pakistan in 1988. She was re-elected in 1993. Bhutto is the eldest child of the former Pakistani premier Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Begum Nusrat Bhutto.

• After schooling in Pakistan, she went to Harvard University’s Radcliffe College where she graduated with a degree in political science. She attended Oxford University in 1973 and graduated with an MA degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.

• After university, she returned to Pakistan, but in the course of her father's imprisonment and execution, she was placed under house arrest. Having been allowed in 1984 to go back to the UK, she became leader in exile of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), her father's party. When she returned to Pakistan and led her party to victory in the 1988 general elections, she was elected as Prime Minister.

• Facing a number of complex legal proceedings in Pakistan in recent years, Bhutto is currently based in Dubai from where she travels around the world giving lectures and keeping in touch with the PPP’s supporters.

P. CHIDAMBARAM

• Finance Minister P. Chidambaram was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1984 and is a six-time Parliamentarian from Tamil Nadu.

• A lawyer by profession (the Congress Party regularly draws on his legal acumen, ability to analyse complex issues and lucid articulation), the Harvard Graduate has been Minister for Internal Security, Union Commerce Minister and Union Finance Minister in the past. He has successfully held the brief for India's integration with the global economy and has managed to declare over 8 per cent GDP growth in successive years with a mix of moderate taxation and investment evangelism. Despite sceptics, the facts are on Chidambaram's side with tax collection doubling in the last three years.

ABHISHEK BACHCHAN

• Abhishek is the son of Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan and renowned actress Jaya Bachchan and the grandson of renowned Urdu and Hindi poet late Harivansh Rai Bachchan. He did his schooling in Mumbai, Delhi, Switzerland and completed his education at the Boston University.

• He made his screen debut in J.P.Dutta's Refugee in 2000. Over the next four years, he went on to do 13 more movies without any box-office success.

• He finally proved himself as Lallan, the thug-for-hire in Mani Ratnam's Yuva. The biker flick Dhoom in 2004 gave him his career’s first box office hit and he consolidated mass appeal with a string of multi-starrer hits in 2005: Bunty Aur Babli, Sarkar, Dus and Bluffmaster. He was in two of last year’s biggest films, again multi-starrers, Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna and Dhoom 2.

• He proved finally that he could pull in the crowds all by himself with his first release this year, the critically and commercially acclaimed film, Guru. He and his co-star Aishwarya Rai announced their engagement two days after the release of this film.

VIJAY AMRITRAJ

• Vijay Amritraj and his brother Anand Amritraj were among the first Indians to play top-flight international tour tennis. In 1976, the brothers were semi-finalists in the Wimbledon men's doubles.

• He captained the Indian Davis Cup for much of the late 1970s and through the 1980s, helping India reach the finals in 1974 and 1987. He compiled a career singles win-lose record of 384-296, winning 16 singles and 13 doubles titles.

• Vijay had a brief acting career, with appearances in a James Bond film Octopussy and in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. He has since gone on to become a sports commentator and has also developed a successful multimedia business.

MIRA NAIR

• India-born Mira Nair is now a New York-based film director. She studied in Delhi and Harvard Universities.

• Nair directed four documentaries, among them India Cabaret which talks about the lives of strippers in a Bombay nightclub won the award at the American Film Festival in 1986. Her debut feature film, Salaam Bombay!, won the Golden Camera award at the Cannes Film Festival and was also nominated for an Oscar. Her film about a chaotic Punjabi wedding, Monsoon Wedding, was awarded the prestigious Golden Lion award at the Venice film festival. In 2004, she made Vanity Fair from the classic novel by W.M. Thackeray. And her most recent film, The Namesake, is based on the book by Jhumpa Lahiri.

Dr. ANDREW T. WEIL

• Benazir Bhutto was the first woman to lead a post-colonial Muslim state. The charismatic Bhutto was first elected Prime Minister of Pakistan in 1988. She was re-elected in 1993. Bhutto is the eldest child of the former Pakistani premier Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Begum Nusrat Bhutto.

• After schooling in Pakistan, she went to Harvard University’s Radcliffe College where she graduated with a degree in political science. She attended Oxford University in 1973 and graduated with an MA degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.

• After university, she returned to Pakistan, but in the course of her father's imprisonment and execution, she was placed under house arrest. Having been allowed in 1984 to go back to the UK, she became leader in exile of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), her father's party. When she returned to Pakistan and led her party to victory in the 1988 general elections, she was elected as Prime Minister.

• Facing a number of complex legal proceedings in Pakistan in recent years, Bhutto is currently based in Dubai from where she travels around the world giving lectures and keeping in touch with the PPP’s supporters.