D J Narain (2009-10)
"Presently the front person and lead singer cum composer of one of India’s biggest Pop & Rock Band ‘The Aryans’, Dhamendra Jai Narain, popularly known as DJ Narain, has 5 successful albums , more than 800 concerts and numerous awards to his credit. Through his meaningful music, Narain has reached out to millions of Indians, especially the youth over the last decade. A youth & rock icon, he has also been a notable Civil Services officer and a professor of Mass Communication at the elite Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi. He is perhaps the only person in India who can be dubbed as rockstar and civil servant simultaneously. A brilliant scholar throughout, Narain has been recipient of perhaps every single academic scholarship which Goveremnment had to offer. A keen student of economics as well, Mr Narain has also been a lecturer of Monetery Economics in Lucknow University, prior to joining the civil services and making it big as Aryans. A multifaceted personality , DJ Narain is one of the founders of Kshitij, an NGO in the field of non-formal education and universal health campaigns for over 7 years . He has always been very supportive of any initiatives taken in the field of literacy and shown active involvement in launching Universal Literacy campaigns in Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. In Delhi, he is actively supporting the cause of several NGO's to help raise awareness about their key domain issues . His book ‘Soldiering On’ is an anthology of the saga of Indian Armed forces during the last 100 years and has been widely reviewed and appreciated by the media".
Gautam Ghosh (2008-09)
Gautam Ghosh worked with Bangladesh’s leading Bengali-Rock vocalist Mac (Maqsood –al-Haq) from the most famous band in Dhaka called Feedback, on the country’s 25th independence anniversary and the album went on to become a mega hit. In 1997, his songs “fifty-fifty” and “ley sunn ley” from his human rights private album called “OPEN YOUR EYES” were labelled ‘anti-establishment’. In 2001 he was appointed an honorary Human Rights Ambassador by the British Council and brand ambassador by ACTION AID INDIA. He is the first Indian musician to be thus honoured. Under the British Council’s program on Human Rights, he toured UK and Europe with his songs and participated in the most prestigious Edinburgh Festival 2001, Notting Hill fest 2001 and the Bastille Day fest 2001 in Paris. The Gautam Ghosh collective has been promoting 9/11 every year as the Global ONEness Day, which began as the Sadbhavna (ONEness) movement with MTV and other partners in 2002Ritika Sahni(2008-09)
Ritika has an exciting dual career - as a playback & pop singer and as a social activist. She not only sings as a professional, but also converges her talents towards the cause of disability. Being an active social worker as well as a disability activist, she is on the board of trustees of the NGO 'SAHAY' and is associated with similar organizations and people working in this field within the country and abroad. She is the secretary-trustee of her own welfare trust called TRINAYANI. She holds regular workshops for teachers, parents and students on disability related issues. Ritika was also a Consulting Communication Therapist in the Unicef project (2001-2003), undertaken by The Spastics Society Of India, and presently is a faculty member of their university affiliated Teacher Training Course on Special Education, which is also recognized by the Rehabilitation Council of India. She is presently working on a series of books, which tries to take a small step towards erasing the lines between “us” and “them” through stories, character sketches of people with disabilities, and information handbooks that sensitize people to disability issues.
Bobby Cash(2008-09)
In these days of culture blending, Asian Indian Bobby Cash is a unique musician who has proved to the world that music knows no boundaries and that indeed it is a language that brings together people from different lands and different cultures. Bobby Cash is India's only Country Music Artist, he bears the honor of being the first Indian ever to release albums of Country Music. It was in Tamworth in 2003, that Bobby came to the World Stage. Starting with busking in the street, Bobby became the smash hit of the festival, drawing huge crowds to him. His documentary film has appeared on ABC Television Network, Discovery and other channels and has won Bobby many admirers. In 2005, Nashville called, after Bobby Cash was nominated in the Global Artist category by the CMA, where Bobby got a standing ovation from the President of the CMA, Ed Benson. Bobby has played at some of the top venues in Nashville, appeared on WSM Midnite Jamboree at E.T. Troubadour Theatre, and other places including Billy Bobs in Dallas, Fort Worth. This outstanding best selling Independent, continues to spread his music, proving to the world that music indeed is a common language.
Remo Fernandes (2007-08)
Remo is India’s leading and highest selling rock musician. Writing songs on socio-political protest from an early age onwards, Remo has risen far from where he started- hitch-hiking across Europe armed with nothing but his talent and his guitar, passing a hat around to earn for basic necessities. His songs have campaigned for responsible action against drug abuse, promiscuity leading to HIV- AIDS, awareness about SARS, bird flu and much more. Now an internationally renowned star, he has not only been awarded the Padmashree by the President of India, he has even played and sung with rock giants Jethro Tull and George Harrison.