Famous Personalities

FAMOUS PERSONALITIES

LAKSHMI MITTAL: World's largest steel maker and the third richest man in the world.

Rags to Riches: Lakshmi Mittal was born on June 15, 1950 at Sadulpur, in Churu district of

Rajasthan, in a poor family. The extended family of 20 lived on bare concrete floors, slept on rope

beds and cooked on an open fire in the brickyard in a house built by his grandfather. He belongs to

Marwari Aggarwal caste and his grandfather worked for the Tarachand Ghanshyam Das firm, one of

the leading Marwari industrial firms of pre-independence India.

Stylebhai: Lakshmi Mittal is also known for his opulence. In 2003, he acquired the Kensington

mansion, said to be the world's most expensive home, from Formula One racing's Bernie Ecclestone

for £70 million ($128 million). His daughter Vanisha's $50 million wedding bash is touted as the most

expensive wedding of the 20th century.

A Cult figure: Mittal Steel is the largest steelmaker in the world, with shipments of 42.1 million tons of steel and profits

of over $22 billion in 2004. Mittal holds steel assets in SouthAfrica, Poland, Indonesia, and Kazakhstan. After the merger

between Mittal Steel and Arcelor which raged a big debate throughout the Europe, Laxmi Mittal controls 10% of the

world's total steel production and the combined entity that has come into force post-merger is three times the size of its

nearest competitors.

The Man with the Midas Touch: The most fascinating thing about this man is that he is said to have a knack of buying

sick and rusted steel companies and turning them into gold. Experts say that his capability to quote the cost of these sick

companies make him winner all the way. It is no mean achievement that when the global steel industry is in its worst

recession phase, Mittal's steel plants are churning huge profits! His zeal and fierceness for acquiring sick and closed steel

plants is so intense that many times he has to jet from one country to another, in quick succession, to sign another

takeover deal. It is no surprise that he turns all of them into gold. That's why the old saying, fortune favors the brave,

applies to him in its entirety. Mittal, now owns 12 giant-sized steel plants that are part of a far-flung empire stretching

from Canada to Trinidad & Tobago to Kazakhstan and Indonesia.

MOTHER TERESA: ‘Saint of the Gutters'

God's Gift to Mankind: Mother Teresa was born on August 27, 1910 in Skopje,

Macedonia to Nikola and Drane Bojaxhiu and was originally named 'Agnes Gonxha

Bojaxhiu'. She received her first communion at the age of five. She decided to become a

Catholic nun, in order to do missionary work and spread the message of love and

compassion in the world. In 1928, she became a Catholic nun and changed her name to

Teresa.

Life and work: In order to carry out missionary work in India, she was sent to Calcutta on

6th January 1929, where she was appointed as a teacher at St. Mary's High School. Sister Teresa became Mother Teresa

on 24th May 1937, when she made final Profession