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Top 10 Indian newsmakers of 2011!

2011 has been a pretty interesting year in many terms. From the highs of India’s World Cup victory on April 2nd to the lows of the 2G scam and the death of many prominent personalities, we have seen it all. But nothing could beat Team Anna and their campaign to bring forward the Jan Lokpal Bill.

As far as the Indian industry is concerned, Infosys and Tata lost their captains to youngsters of the next generation. But Kingfisher began facing some serious turbulence in its flight of “Good Times”. “Kolaveri” and “Flash Mobs” became the buzzwords among all of us for their own reasons.

1. Team Anna and their Lokpal Bill

Team Anna comprising Anna Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi, Manish Sisodia, Shanti Bhushan and others remained in the news throughout the year. Hazare’s fast in the Ramlila Grounds in Delhi drew crowds like never before. Sick and tired of corruption, people protested, demonstrated and came together like never before against corruption to support Hazare in large numbers.

And so came the punch line – “Anna is India and India is Anna.”

2. MS Dhoni and his World Cup Winning Squad

The World Cup was back in the sub-continent after a gap of 15 years. The people were quietly confident for a good showing from the Indian team. But then performing on the world stage isn’t easy. Sri Lanka had been the only team to have won the World Cup as hosts. But through fantastic performances from the young brigade and the talismanic Yuvraj Singh, MSD sealed the triumph with a fantastic six to spark wild celebrations among Indians across the planet.

3. 2G Scam and Black Money

Tihar became the buzzword across the media and the online world. Suddenly, all our ministers and big corporate honchos were making a beeline for the jail as though it was some new hip and happening destination.

Due to Julius Assange’s comments as well as protests from various political parties and the media’s constant blitzkrieg, black money also remained in the news much to the chagrin of the Gandhi dynasty.

4. Why this Kolaveri Di

For a song which was created in a matter of minutes without even a proper video or lyrics, “Why this Kolaveri Di” created a sensation across the Internet. It crossed 1.3 million views a week after its release on 16th November 2011. After becoming the most shared song on Facebook and the most searched one on YouTube, it became the first Tamil Song to be premiered on the MTV India.

Now that’s some achievement, isn’t it? But by Dhanush’s words “It was just a bathroom song.”

5. Flash Mobs

Wikipedia describes a flash mob as below –

A flash mob is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and sometimes seemingly pointless act for a brief time.

What started as an amazing surprise at the Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) in Mumbai by a group of dancers almost became a routine over the next couple of weeks. From Jai Ho in Infosys Pune to Kolaveri in Infosys Bangalore and Auckland to Senorita in Kolkata, flash mobs became the order of the day. Suddenly everyone was ready to shake a leg. Nokia took the concept to promote their Lumia phones while executing a well coordinated flash mob on their slogan “Small Amazings” in the four metros.

6. Ra One

With a marketing budget of Rs 52 cr and a promotion which began exactly 10 months prior to its release, Ra One was the most expensively promoted movie ever in Indian cinema. Some of the prominent deals included those with Formula 1, Champions League, Western Union, Horlicks, HomeShop 18, Nokia, Godrej etc.

But the most important deal was with Sony to develop a full fledged game for Playstation 2 and 3. Ra One also became the first movie to have a YouTube channel of its own.

7. Leadership Change at Infosys and Tata Group

With Naryana Murthy and Ratan Tata stepping down at Infosys and Tata Group respectively, it was the end of an era at both the big corporates.

While Murthy stepped down from Infosys leaving Shibulal as the only remaining founder in Infosys, Ratan Tata stepped down to make way for Cyrus Mistry (Only the 2nd Non – Tata to head the Tata Group). It surely will be a great challenge for these two to lead their respective organizations to the heights achieved by their predecessors.

8. Kingfisher Airlines Crash Lands

From becoming the first Indian 5 star airline (By Skytrax) to defaulting on employees salaries, airport debts, fuel debts and income tax defaults, Kingfisher Airlines has come a pretty long way.

1000s of its flights have been canceled over the last 2 months. 15 out of its 66 aircraft are have been grounded because it couldn’t maintain the maintainence and overhaul expenses. 100s of crew members have left the airline for non – payment of salaries. Vijay Mallya’s airline has seriously become the King of ‘Bad’ Times.

9. Indian F1

For years there had been a talk about having an Indian Grand Prix. And finally when it came to India for the 1st time on 30th October 2011, it turned out to be a massive hit. Though it wasn’t a full house (How would it be considering the crazy ticket prices??) as the government expected, all the doubts associated with the organization were laid to rest with an almost perfect race organized by the Jaypee Group.

10. Deaths of some of the most prominent personalities

What do Bhimsen Joshi, Jagjit Singh, Dev Anand, Bhupen Hazarika, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, MF Hussain, Shammi Kapoor, Anant Pai, Ustad Sultan Khan have in common? We were unfortunate to hear the passing away of each of these great personalities over the year.

A very special late addition (Courtesy:Swathi Ravichandran) – Steve Jobs

The king of innovation. The master of pioneering the personal computer revolution. The man associated with the Apple, a company producing the most amazingly technological products on the planet – Steve Jobs finally passed away after fighting a long battle with cancer leaving everyone stunned. He changed the way millions think about technology today!

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16 Comments

  1. Good Compilation! Versatile, deep & fair.

  2. good compilation….not so sure about Ra.One though…but the rest were good

    • aseemrastogi2

      Thanks Prateek. πŸ™‚ Yeah I put Ra One there only because it managed to stay in the news throughout the year someway or the other πŸ˜‰

  3. shweta

    nicepost ,in a nut shell πŸ™‚

  4. anita

    Nicely written

  5. Hi Aseem, I am writing to you on behalf of The Viewspaper regarding a major event on Twitter. If interested, please contact us at garimao@theviewspaper.net

    Regards,
    Garima

    • aseemrastogi2

      Hey Garima,

      I have sent you a mail on the above mentioned address.

      Thanks and Regards,
      Aseem

  6. swathi2212

    You forgot Steve Jobs πŸ™ πŸ™

  7. sad BabyB didnt made to this top 10.

    • aseemrastogi2

      Hmm yeah she does miss out. But I think she would be in my top 20 though yeah she did hover the news items for quite a while this year.

  8. Saurabh Mishra

    Big Boss Season 5???? Especially my fav Sunny Leone…. You forgot to mention her also πŸ™ πŸ™ She is the biggest news maker of Year 2011 !

    • aseemrastogi2

      Oh yeah agreed. She did make quite a name for herself in the short span she was here in India. πŸ™‚

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