SAJAforum

LISTS: Vinod Khosla on Vanity Fair's The New Establishment 100

Legendary Silicon Valley entrepreneur Vinod Khosla is featured in the Vanity Fair's annual listing of The New Establishment 100. He comes in at #71 (Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg is at #1 and Apple's Steve Jobs at #2) on the list of "the 100 most influential people of the information age".

Even with credit tight, Khosla was able to raise $1.3 billion last year to seed two different investment vehicles—a $1 billion fund earmarked for clean-energy and information technologies, and a $300 million fund that will target high-risk, experimental projects. Among his current investments: a suburban-Detroit-based manufacturer of fuel-efficient internal-combustion engines (EcoMotors), an LED lighting company (Soraa), a solar-energy concern (Cogenra), and a high-efficiency-cooling-system company (New PAX). In May, Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, joined Khosla’s venture-capital shop to serve as an adviser.

Can you name other South Asians who should, one day (or even now) be on such a list? Tell us in the comments below or tweet us @sajaHQ.

EARLIER: See other South Asians on various lists in the SAJAforum "lists" category here. 

LISTS: Desis in Inc's list of coolest young entrepreneurs

Four South Asians are in this year's collection of  "30 Under 30: America's Coolest Young Entrepreneurs" (there are more than 30 folks on the full list because, in some cases, more than one person represented the company in question. Some, like Naveen Sevadurai who co-founded Foursquare, run one of the hottest tech startups in the world, while others run companies just now getting noticed.

Below, you will find the at-a-glance looks at the four South Asians, and via the hyperlinks, you can read profiles of them:

• Naveen Selvadurai, Foursquare
• Ooshma Garg, Anapata
• Vikas Reddy, Occipital
• Sachin Agarwal, Posterous
  

Post your comments below.

 

MUSIC: Jay Sean hits #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart

UPDATE: THE FOLLOWING WEEK, JAY SEAN HIT #1.
SEE THE DETAILS.

An e-mail I received this evening had a subject line that was partially cut-off by my e-mail reader:

I thought this was about a musical milestone I had been meaning to blog about but hadn't got around to.Turns out the full headline was "India's rare achievement in rocket technology." [And if you don't know about Ram Narayanan's famous mailing list, read all about it in this SAJAforum piece by Arun Venugopal from three years ago, "ACTIVISM: Ram Narayanan, Bilateral Booster."]

But the note did remind me that we should note here the musical milestone I was thinking of: a solo South Asian act hits #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (the listing of the most popular songs in the US, as measured by radio play, sales and online streaming).

Jay Sean, a 28-year-old British singer/rapper/hip-hopper, whose real name is Kamaljit Singh Jhooti, has lit up the charts with an infectious song called "Down" (featuring a big name in the world of hip-hop, Lil Wayne). As of the week of Oct. 10, the song has been on the chart for 13 weeks (including six in the top 10).

The numbers in gray are last week's position (3); weeks on the Hot 100 (13); peak position (2).

There have been other acts with South Asian connections that have made it to the top of the U.S. charts: Norah Jones; M.I.A., Freddie Mercury, the late lead singer of Queen; Tony Kanal, bassist for No Doubt; Cliff Richard, who was born in Lucknow, India; Engelbert Humperdinck, who was born in Madras, India; Kim Thayil's band, Soundgarden, hit #30 on the Hot 100 with "Blackhole Sun," but was #1 on the Mainstream Rock chart for seven weeks. (anyone else I missed?)

You can watch the Jay Sean video on YouTube, read about him on his official site; and read his Wikipedia entry.

Post your comments below.

DESI SPOTTING: Vinod Khosla, green VC

Vinod Khosla, no stranger to the business spotlight (former Forbes #1 American venture capitalist), is back in it this week.

From the NYT:

Vinod Khosla, the prominent venture capitalist who has been investing hundreds of millions of his own dollars in green technology companies for the last several years, will now invest other people’s money, too.
 
Vinod Khosla says most clean-tech companies need only a few million dollars to prove that their technology works. Khosla Ventures, the firm he founded in 2004 after leaving Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, is announcing on Tuesday that it has raised $1.1 billion in two funds that will invest in green technology and information technology start-ups.

This is the largest amount raised by a venture capital firm since 2007 and the largest first-time fund raised since 1999, according to the National Venture Capital Association.

Learn more about him and Khosla Ventures at KhoslaVentures.com.

He is also of two people with India connections on the Vanity Fair 100 list, its "New Establishment 2009" - the top 100 Information Age powers and power brokers:

78. Vinod Khosla

Khosla Ventures
LAST YEAR: 92.
STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: Since launching Khosla Ventures in 2004, the Sand Hill Road venture capitalist has invested an estimated $500 million of his $1.1 billion personal fortune into 70-plus tech start-ups, most of them immersed in the development of alternative fuel and energy sources. Among them: Calera (war on dirty coal and new materials), Kior (war on oil), and Soraa (high-efficiency L.E.D. lighting). Together with Richard Branson’s Virgin Green Fund, Khosla invested in Gevo, which looks to produce isobutanol from agricultural residues.
EXECUTIVE TIC: Khosla, 54, is known to scribble on his office wall to illustrate his eco-ambitions.
RECESSION-DEFYING MOVE: At a time when nearly every industry is looking for government handouts, Khosla has remained a staunch advocate for keeping the clean-energy market free of subsidies.
LABEL-DEFYING MOVE: Khosla said hybrid vehicles are not an effective solution to reducing carbon emissions.
QUOTE: After being sued by an imprisoned serial litigant, he remarked, “Well, there is at least one thing I have in common with Britney Spears and Perez Hilton now.”
YEAR AHEAD: ↗

He's just above Stephen Colbert at #79 and Rush Limbaugh at #80. This was his second appearance on the list, up from #92 last year.

The other person to note:

97. Anil Ambani

Reliance Entertainment
LAST YEAR: 67.
STAGE OF GLOBAL CONQUEST: Ambani was the biggest loser when Forbes published its annual wealth ranking in March: his fortune fell by $32 billion, to $10 billion. But that still left him with plenty of cash to close a Bollywood-meets-Hollywood deal with Steven Spielberg to make a $500 million investment in DreamWorks (along with the rights to distribute its films in India).
BAD BLOOD: Anil, 50, and his billionaire brother, Mukesh, (they grew up in a communal building in a distressed neighborhood) foolishly hurt their image by perpetuating a long public feud: they frequently sued each other but rarely talked. In one of their biggest battles, Mumbai’s high court ordered Mukesh’s company to make good on a deal from 2005 (when they split up their late father’s empire) to sell natural gas to Anil’s company for 17 years at a price 44 percent lower than that set by the government. That could mean billions of dollars’ worth of savings for Anil and losses for Mukesh, who appealed to India’s Supreme Court.
EPISODE OF UNSURPASSED INTRIGUE: Police arrested two men for allegedly sabotaging Ambani’s Bell 412 helicopter by pouring pebbles and soil into the gearbox while it was parked at a Mumbai airport. Police believed it wasn’t an attempt to murder Ambani but rather a case of a maintenance company’s workers taking revenge on management. The technician who reported the tampering was found dead the following week on railroad tracks in Mumbai, raising speculation: accident, suicide, or murder because of his snitching?
LATEST ACT OF DO-GOODERY: Ambani opened a 730-bed hospital in Mumbai.
YEAR AHEAD: →

The CEOs of Goldman Sachs, Apple and Bezos are 1, 2 and 3 on the list.

Post your comments below.

LISTS: Desis on list of 100 most influential people in business ethics

Ethisphere magazine is out with its 2008 list of "100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics." Yes, they managed to find some positive ethics news in a year which had precious little on that front. From the list announcement:

But not all was bad in 2008. Many individuals stood out for their positive achievements in the business ethics world as well. For that, we created this year’s list of the 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics.

In order to develop the list, we reached out to a number of professors from notable business schools around the world to assemble an advisory board (for the names of the members of the advisory board see below). With the help of the advisory board, as well as a group of Ethisphere editors, writers and fact checkers, we were able to develop a list of 100 individuals from all around the world that greatly influenced the business ethics realm over the past year. All advisory panel members boldly gave up their right to be on this list (they all deserve to be) in order to help nominate others.

What is important to note about this list is that it rewards individuals who were influential this year, rather than over the course of their career. While many people on the list have a lifetime of positive achievements, these individuals made the list for their actions in 2008.

On the following pages you’ll find 2008’s 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics. While you may not agree with the actions, political leanings or personality of some individuals on the list, there is no dispute that each one of them influenced business behavior over the course of the year.

I spotted two desi names on the list (in addition to Prof. Rama Velamuri of the Shanghai's China Europe International Business School, who served on the panel that helped pick the list):

8. Bobby Jindal - Governor of Louisiana

Category: Government and Regulatory
Did What? He set new standards

Jindal, hailed by many in the media as the “star” of the U.S. Republican party, helped convince lawmakers in Louisiana to pass tough new ethics laws which would give the state some of the most stringent ethics laws in the country. He championed the reforms by arguing that until Louisiana cleaned up its reputation it would be at a competitive disadvantage for attracting new business.

53. Sudhanshu Pokhriyal – Director Hyderabad & Coastal Andhra Pradesh Operations for Coca-Cola

Category: Design and Sustainability
Did What? He conserved water

Pokhriyal accepted the Golden Peacock award this year for Coca-Cola’s work in water management and conservation in India. This is even more note worthy because it wasn’t long ago that Coca-Cola had a PR crisis after an Indian environmental group release a report on pesticide levels in Coca-Cola products in India. The report said that the products contained 24 times the amount of pesticides as allowed by the Bureau of Indian Standards. Since then Coca-Cola has drastically turned around its image in the region.

Among the other interesting names on the list: Barack Obama #14; columnists Tom Friedman #20 and Paul Krugman #31. See the full list here.

Post your comments below.

LISTS: DesiClub's Top 50 Coolest Desis of 2008

[ PLEASE SUPPORT SAJA: Help us meet our new $15,000 challenge grant:
http://saja.org/articles/saja-group-receives-prestigious-challenge-grant ]

DesiClub.com, an arts and culture site aimed at second- and third-generation South Asians (see correction from Saroosh Gull, the site's founder, in the comments), is out with its list of the "Top 50 Coolest Desis of 2008." From the introduction:

The South Asian world in 2008 also saw an unprecedented success in mainstream arts & entertainment. With the runaway hit Slumdog Millionaire and more Desi faces on TV than ever before and with Bollywood becoming an even bigger global attraction, we broke even more barriers and moved way beyond the stereotypes of Hollywood. This phenomenon, which also exists in the financial, medical and technology industries will no doubt increase in 2009.

All such lists are, by their nature, controversial - and people love to debate who made the cut and who didn't - and the relative rankings of various people. Take a look at the full list at and post your comments below. You can also reach Peta Cooper, the site's London-based executive producer, at peta[at]desiclub.com to lobby for your favorites for next year.

Meanwhile, we have highlighted the SAJA members and media folks below, along with others we wrote about in SAJAforum last year - look for "[SAJAforum coverage]" below.

SAJA members:

43. Minal Hajratwala
Location: California, USA
Who is She: Author, Poet, Performing Artist
Why is She Cool: Minal authored "Leaving India," a compelling tale of her family's journey from five villages to five continents. In the book, she takes us through the lives of her ancestors starting with her great grandfather who left British-occupied India for Fiji, where he became a successful department store mogul. She interviewed over seventy-five of her family members for the book and compiled an inspiring personal saga that explores the collisions of choice and history that led one unforgettable family to become immigrants.
What's Next: The book releases in March, 2009 and Minal is busy planning her book tour and readings across North America. Be sure to attend one of her readings.
Cool Fun Fact: Minal's poem for the South Asian Sisters annual "Yoni Ki Baat" (inspired by the Vagina Monologues) received a standing ovation!

38. Sarah Singh
Location: New York, USA
Who is She: Director
Why is She Cool: Sarah Singh directed and released "The Sky Below," a documentary about the Partition of 1947 between Pakistan and India. She took an organic approach to covering this very recent (historically) event, which for the most part is never talked about or discussed. We applaud Sarah for visiting this part of our history and shining new light onto it, for it is a discussion that needs to be had. We urge you all to check out the documentary, Sarah Singh's work is beautiful!
What's Next: Hopefully we will see more insightful work from Singh and the film will receive even more recognition.
Cool Fun Fact: Singh is also an accomplished photographer.
[SAJAforum coverage]

32. Kiran Khalid
Location: New York, USA
Who is She: Journalist, Producer, Filmmaker
Why is She Cool: Since January 2008, Khalid has been working as a producer for one of television's most popular news and feature programs, ABC's Good Morning America. But there is a lot more to this dynamic TV producer. She has been recognized as being one of the very first Pakistani-American TV reporters/anchors. She started out on TV in her native Texas but quickly moved her way to one of America's most watched TV shows as producer. In between, she has been recognized for her work in covering the post-9/11 environment in Pakistan and many other national and international projects.
What's Next: We can expect to see more activity from Kiran in all facets of media, don't be surprised if we get another documentary out of her.
Cool Fun Fact: Kiran has worked as a TV reporter and anchor in Mobile, Alabama and Lake Charles, Louisiana. She was also a field producer for Court TV and at one time, she was very much into consumer investigative reporting. Talk about a diverse resume!
[SAJAforum coverage here, here and here - and she's a SAJA board member]

SRI LANKA: Time Magazine's Top 10 Underreported News Stories

 

In a recently introduced list of several things, Time Magazine has also added the "Top 10 Underreported News Stories" of 2008. Sri Lanka's conflict ranks third, right after the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The title says that Sri Lanka's conflict this year is deadlier than Afghanistan. Yet somehow, there is very little news coming out of the island.

From Time:

In January the Sri Lankan government pulled out of its shaky 2002 cease-fire agreement with the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, in an official nod to the fact that the country is once again engaged in civil war. Deadlier this year than the fighting in Afghanistan, the combat has raged largely under the radar because the government has banned from the war zone foreign journalists as well as most aid groups, which is bad news for the 300,000 Sri Lankans who have been forced out of their homes.

Please post your thoughts below.

BOOKS: Muhammed Yunus and his five favorite books

The photo on the right is a screengrab from Forbes.com's opinion section (which is edited by  SAJAer Tunku Varadarajan). It shows Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, who was selected byfellow
laureate Muhammed Yunus of Bangladesh as one of his five favorite novelists. An excerpt from the introduction to Yunus:

A former banker and economics professor, he is the author of several books, including Banker to the Poor and, most recently, Creating a World Without Poverty. Yunus described his five favorite novelists--three of whom wrote in Bengali--for Forbes.com.

See the full list, in a slideshow, here. This unusual op-ed/slideshow was edited by Hana R. Alberts. Post your comments, please.

DESI SPOTTING: Esquire's 75 most influential people of the 21st Century

[NOTE: I just got asked by a newcomer to SAJAforum what a desi is. Here's an explanation, from the SAJA Stylebook. More Desi Spotting here.]

Esquire's 75th anniversary issue, "The 21st Century Begins Now" is getting a lot of buzz, mainly about "the world's first e-ink cover" (coverage of it here and Esquire.com's explanation here).

From SAJAforum's perspective, what really stands out is how South Asian the issue is... The issue isn't online yet, but some observations from a quick glance through the (gasp!) printed magazine:

• The magazine has features on "The Diasporas: Three great human migrations that are changing the world." The subcontinent shows up in all three: The Indian diaspora, the Google diaspora and the American diaspora (more on these below).
• The list of the 75 most influential people of the 21st Century includes the following (in order of apperance - it's not a ranking, though), with a mini-profile:
  • Ratan Tata: Chairman of India's largest privately held company, 70. Mumbai
  • M.I.A.: The first and only major artist in world music, 33. Everywhere
  • Bobby Jindal: Governor, 37. Baton Rouge, Louisiana
    "Because in a party of very few stars, he's the brightest by far."
    (see more below)
    [SAJAforum note: see our extensive coverage of Jindal.]
  • Mukesh Ambani: Magnate, government surrogate, 51. Mumbai.
  • Ronnie Screwvala: Movie mogul, 46. Mumbai.
  • Parag Khanna: Geopolitical analyst, 31. New York.
    [SAJAforum note: Listen to SAJA webcast with Khanna.]
  • Lakshmi Mittal: CEO, ArcelorMittal, the world's largest producer of steel, employer of 310,000 in 60 countries, fourth richest man in the world, 58. London.
• Bobby Jindal is one of six of the Esquire 75 to get singled out for multi-page, in-depth profiles, as folks who are especially "helping to shape the new century." The other five are: Rupert Murdoch, Vladimir Putin, Steve Jobs, LeBron James and director P.T. Anderson. It's clear these folks are meant to be the top six of the 75.
• Jindal's nine-page profile, by Mike Sager, is called: "Bobby Jindal, All-American."
  "Being the youngest governor in the country, the first India-American governor in history, and the first nonwhite governor in Louisiana since Reconstruction are the least of the things that make Piyush Jindal different." It also features photograph of a 33"x48" oil on linen painting of Jindal, "The New Actuality" by Richard Phillips, commissioned by Esquire in June 2008.
  The article, which I have not read yet, has to be the most extensive piece that's been done about Jindal. This, of course, is a list compiled long before Sarah Palin appeared on the national scene.
  UPDATE: Read the full Sager piece here.
• Parag Khanna, who is one of the Esquire 75 himself, has  a three-page story in issue about "The Indian Diaspora: The worldwide rise of Bollystan." Featuring photos of stars Aishwariya Rai, Kal Penn and tech mogul Sam Pitroda, it also has a map of the diaspora and its numbers. Among the stats in an accompanying graphic:
  
  • Ten of the 100 richest people in the world are Indian or of Indian origin
  • Amount of money sent home by Indians living abroad in 2007:
    North America: $10.8 billion
    Persian Gulf region: $5.9 billion
    Europe: $3.2 billion
    East Asia: $2 billion
    South America: $1.5 billion
    Africa: $500 million
    [SAJAforum note: anyone have stats for Australia? Antartica?
    SAJAforum note: Listen to SAJA webcast with Khanna.]
  • The leaders of the following countries are of Indian descent:
    Singapore
    Mauritius
    Guyana
• An article by Luke Dittrich, "The Google Diaspora" (about former Googlers, or Xooglers, as they are known), features a photo of Salman Ullah, and lists: Sanjeev Singh, Sanjeev Agarwal, Gokul Rajaram, Sanjay Raman.
• An article by Chris Jones, "The New American" looks at young entrepreneurial Americans moving to other countries. A chart listing "The American Diaspora" shows India as #3 on the 10 fastest-growing overseas destinations for Americans since 2000. Only ones bigger: Russia (the most), then China. In the top 10 desitations for Americans overall, India is at #10 (UK, France and Italy are the top three).

The web site does offer a preview of the anniversary issue - with an analysis of the background of those selected. See a portion of it here (more Indians than Russians or Texans; incidentally, more winners of the Pulitzer Prize than the Nobel Prize). See full version of the graphic below.

All this is without reading any of the text; will update if we find more stuff. We will also update this with the actual text and pix as and when (and if) we get them.

What do you think of the Esquire 75? Any other South Asians you would have included? Post your comments below.

LISTS: Indians on Forbes' 100 Most Powerful Women list

PepsiCo's Indra Nooyi made 3rd place on the Forbes 100 Most Powerful Women list, which came out last week. Germany's Angela Merkel made #1, followed by Sheila Bair of the Federal Depost Insurance Corporation. See the full list here.

Others who performed nicely:

• Congress Party chief Sonia Gandhi, #21
• Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, #59
• Biocon Chairman Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, #99

The list also includes media figures like Oprah Winfrey, Diane Sawyer and Christiane Amanpour.

More from The Times of India:

The magazine's latest list of 100 most powerful women, published on Wednesday, has put the young Dalit leader in the 59th place. This is her debut in the global power ratings but few would dispute the reasoning that her winning a rare majority in Uttar Pradesh — the politically crucial state in "sixth largest country of the world" makes her an apt candidate for the all-woman elite club.

Interestingly, the BSP chief's emergence in the Forbes list comes as Congress president Sonia Gandhi slips from last year's 6th position to 21st.
<snip>
The inclusion of Dalit czarina Mayawati has come barely days after she made public her intention to be in the running for the prime minister's job, possibly backed by a UNPA-Left bloc. Though the third front does not appear to be getting anywhere, observers are not writing her off because of the vagaries of coalition raj.

See SAJAforum's cover of Indra Nooyi, including her appearance of various such lists. Post your comments below.