1. Margaret Thatcher, 87
Thatcher was one of the earliest of our times to break the glass ceiling. Britain’s only woman PM, she was as much at ease with her Cabinet as she was in her kitchen. She earned the monicker The Iron Lady from a Soviet journalist for her staunch opposition to Communism.
2. Narendra Dabholkar, 67
Dabholkar was a sceptic, opposing superstition and black magic. He routinely exposed fraudsters ‘performing magic’. He rankled many with his opposition to Sathya Sai Baba. His crusade bore fruit four months after he was shot, when Maharashtra passed the anti-black magic bill.
3. Nelson Mandela, 95
Mandela led the charge against the apartheid era in South Africa and handheld the nation through the transition to a democratically-elected regime as its president in 1994. During the struggle, he was imprisoned for 27 years, but when he stepped out in 1990, he was instantly recognised as one of the most inspirational world leaders.
9. Rituparno Ghosh, 49
(This story appears in the 10 January, 2014 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)