1.

US-based Fortune magazine recently compiled a list of 12 greatest entrepreneurs of our time, the list I heavily dominated by American entrepreneurs, but Infosys cofounder Narayan Murthy (NRN) finds mention. This is another feather in NRNs cap and perhaps one that he should feel most proud about. There are many tributes paid to NRN.

2. This may perhaps be the biggest feather in NRNs already overflowing cap. The co-founder of Infosys, is the father of Indias IT outsourcing super story and is also known sometimes as Indias Bill Gates. He should be credited with lighting the fuse to Indias success with the services industry and becoming the worlds back-office Enroute, his company distributed its wealth to employees and loads of lucky shareholders. Companies like Wipro, HCLand Cognizant have successfully replicated the model of Infosys. NASSCOM currently pegs the IT outsourcing industry at close to $50bn

3. Steve Jobs: Does it come as surprise that Steve Jobs tops this list? It shouldnt. This is the man who brought back Apple from the brink of bankruptcy, when he rejoined Apple as CEO in 1997. By the time he died in 2011, Apple had toppled Exxon Mobil as the most valuable company in the world. He did all this while revolutionizing numerous industries like retail (Apple store), music (iTunes), movies (Pixar), mobile (iPhone), tablet (iPad) and 4. Bill Gates: 4. Bill Gates is on this list for two reasons. One- by having founded Microsoft he created the PC revolution- the other, through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, he plans to tackle global poverty and disease. Gates is a phenomenon like no other. First he became the richest man in the world by selling software that goes into nearly 90 per cent of the worlds computers and now hes on his way to give all that money away to philanthropic activities. Whats astonishing about this is that he just doesnt plan on giving the money away, sit back and fade into retirement, hes putting his mind where his money is, and working full-time to find better cures for diseases like malaria, AIDS and tuberculosis.

5. Mark Zuckerberg:

He is the youngest billionaire on the Fortune list. The co-founder of Facebook is shy, almost reticent and comes across as socially awkward, but that hasnt stopped him from building the worlds largest digital social network. Nearly a billion people are on Facebook, if the social network were a continent it will already be among the biggest. What next for the 27 year old? World domination. Thats what, and hey dont laugh because we said that. At the speed that hes traveling that just might just happen. 6. Sam Walton: Walmart can strike fear in the hearts of big governments. Just ask India. It tried to stave off the monster retailers entry into the country many times because it was scared of what it might do to the countrys nascent retail industry. Its that big and the guy who created this gargantuan was Sam Walton. . Walton transformed a $25,000 investment into the worlds largest retailer with sales of close to $450 billion! Walmarts mantra of buy it low, stack it high, and sell it cheap changed the way retailing is being done forever. He pioneered several retailing concepts that made Walmart the biggest retailer in the world. These included encouraging managers to take an equity stake in the company, large-scale retail format, opening large stores in the smaller towns instead of bigger cities, and deep discounts. 7. Fred Smith: :

FedEx like Xerox and Google is used a verb. This doesnt happen easily. The founder of FedEx, Fred Smith was inspired by his stint with the US Marine Corps at Vietnam to found the legendary logistics company. He would use his experience and learning from his time in Vietnam to devise many of FedExs logistics practices that made it a roaring success. An integrated ground and air support system, reliance on first-level managers, super-human efficiency and innovations like overnight delivery made FedEx the logistics company to emulate. 8. Larry Page and Sergey Brin: The co-founders of Google are one of the few to remain at the helm of the company (most co-founders part ways after a few years with one of them assuming sole responsibility). They co-founded Google in their college dorm and have turned the company into one of the worlds best technology companies in a little over a decade. When they founded Google, there were several search engines like AskJeeves, Lycos and Yahoo! But their secret sauce was their pioneering search algorithm called PageRank that bestowed authority to a web page based on back-links to that url. The biggest challenge for Brin and Page currently is to ensure the continuing success of the company in the post-Facebook era. 9. Mohammad Younus: There should be no role for a social entrepreneur in a list of 12 greatest CEOs of our time right? Not until you

gauge the full impact of Younus micro-finance (MF) revolution in his country Bangladesh and beyond (India has a $10 billion plus MF industry) that you will agree that leaving him out if this list would have been a travesty. Giving the unbanked small unsecured loans to start or sustain a business was Younus grand idea. Younus had started to loan money to the poor long before he founded Grameen Bank in 1983. His contribution to MF earned him a Nobel Prize in 2006. Currently Grameen Bank has transformed the lives of 7 million poor people in 73,000 villages in Bangladesh, and has also spread its wings to 100 other countries.

10.Jeff Bezos: Pioneers see an opportunity long before its obvious and believe in it when all others fail to see the potential. When Amazon founder Jeff Bezos had an idea to sell books online he approached his boss first, who funnily enough didnt make such a big deal of it. Bezos was obviously convinced, cause he quit his job, and launched the e-commerce company in 1994. The company is now a $800 million monster that sells everything from books to Barbie dolls!

11. Howard Schultz:

Howard Schultz changed coffee drinking from just ordering a cuppa and sipping it into a lifestyle experience. People wanted to come to Starbucks not just to have coffee but to hang around, use the free Wi-Fi and share in the Starbucks way of life. By 2008, Starbucks was going through a rough patch with revenues and profits nose-diving. Schultz was its savior; like Steve Jobs in 1997, returned to Starbucks after a eight year hiatus and turned the company around. He cut costs, boosted the bottom-line and went back to the basics that made Starbucks that made millions love it in the first place. 12. John Mackey:

There are these rare times when wanting to do things your way can have a huge impact. Whole Foods is an initiative that does exactly that. In 1978 all John Mackey wanted to do was to have fun and at the same time have others live a healthy life. So he started a healthy vegetarian store. Mackey way of doing business has forced established big guns like Walmart take notice of healthy foods with organic foods accounting for a big chunk of the giant retailers sales currently. Whole Foods at present has more than 300 supermarkets and over 56,000 employees. Doing good can lead to big revenues and tidy profits.

13.

Herb Kelleher:

The airlines industry is one of the most cutthroat and brutal industries to be part of. If things werent tough enough, the post 9/11 era heralded one of the darkest periods in this already, beleaguered industry. Almost all the airlines were staring the abyss, except perhaps the low-cost Soutwest Airlines founded by John Mackey, which bucked this trend. Kelleher did this by focusing on the customers, keeping them happy; all the while charging them low fares. Kelleher had another ploy by giving employees stock options he ensured that they skin in the game. The result: Southwest registered its 39th consecutive year of profitability in 2011!

Record-Breaking Bridges The Aizhai bridge:

At 1,102 feet up and 3,858 feet across, the ambitious suspension bridge in China's Hunan province has become the highest and longest in the world. The Anzhaite Long-span Suspension Bridge in Jishou was officially opened to motorists Tuesday, Daily Mail reported. The bridge, which is lit up at night with 1,888 lights, is the fourth suspension bridge to cross a valley so wide it seems to be connecting two mountain ranges, the Mail said. The bridge is a key part of the Jishou-Chadong Expressway, a 64-km road which has 18 different tunnels that cover about half of its length. Once on the bridge cars and lorries can motor along a two-way, four-lane motorway at about 50 mph. Pedestrians can also walk along it on a special walkway under the road. Heres a look at some record-breaking bridges from around the world.

the worlds highest tunnel to tunnel bridge, at 336 meter-high (1,102 feet) and spanning 1,176 meters (3,858 feet), officially opens to traffic in Jishou, central China's Hunan province on March 31, 2012. The Aizhai bridge, the worlds highest tunnel to tunnel bridge, at 336 meter-high (1,102 feet) and spanning 1,176 meters (3,858 feet), officially opens to traffic in Jishou, central China's Human province on March 31,2012.Aizhai is also the fourth suspension bridge in China to cross a valley so wide it seems to be connecting two mountain ranges, and of the world's 400 or so highest bridges, none has a main span as long as Aizhai.

Qingdao Jiaozhou Bay Bridge:

The world's longest cross-sea bridge, spanning 36.48 kilometers across the mouth of the Jiaozhou Bay in China's eastern Shandong province, opened to traffic four years after construction started. Here's a peek into some of the world's longest bridges.

Lake Pontchartrain Causeway:

Located in Louisiana, United States, the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, consists of two parallel bridges that run parallel to each other. The bridges are supported by 9,500 concrete pilings and spans over 38.35 kilometres. The southern terminus of the Causeway is in Metairie, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans. The northern terminus is at Mandeville, Louisiana.