The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party or simply the Congress, is a political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Empire in Asia and Africa. From the late 19th century, and especially after 1920, under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, the Congress became the principal leader of the Indian independence movement. The Congress led India to independence from the United Kingdom, and significantly influenced other anti-colonial nationalist movements in the British Empire.
Sonia Gandhi is an Indian politician. She is the longest-serving president of the Indian National Congress, a liberal political party, which has governed India for most of its post-independence history. She took over as the party leader in 1998, seven years after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, her husband and a former Prime Minister of India, and remained in office until 2017 after serving for twenty-two years. She returned to the post in 2019 and remained the President for another three years.
The Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian award of the Republic of India. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is conferred in recognition of "exceptional service/performance of the highest order", without distinction of race, occupation, position or gender. The award was originally limited to achievements in the arts, literature, science, and public services, but the Government of India expanded the criteria to include "any field of human endeavor" in December 2011. The recommendations for the award are made by the Prime Minister to the President. The recipients receive a Sanad (certificate) signed by the President and a peepal leaf-shaped medallion. Bharat Ratna recipients rank seventh in the Indian order of precedence.
Manmohan Singh was an Indian politician, economist, academic, and bureaucrat, who served as the 13th prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He was the fourth longest-serving prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Narendra Modi. A member of the Indian National Congress, Singh was the first Sikh prime minister of India. He was also the first prime minister since Nehru to be re-elected after completing a full five-year term.
Pranab Kumar Mukherjee was an Indian politician who served as the 13th president of India from 2012 until 2017. He was the first person from West Bengal to hold the post of President of India. In a political career spanning five decades, Mukherjee was a senior leader in the Indian National Congress and occupied several ministerial portfolios in the Government of India. Prior to his election as President, Mukherjee was Finance Minister from 2009 to 2012. He was awarded India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 2019, by his successor as president, Ram Nath Kovind.
Kunwar Natwar Singh, IFS was an Indian diplomat and politician who served as the Minister of External Affairs from May 2004 to December 2005. Having been suspended by the Congress in 2006, he joined the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 2008 but was removed from the party within four months.
Ghulam Nabi Azad is an Indian politician who served as Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha between 2014 and 2021. He also served as the Chief Minister of erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir from 2005 to 2008. On 26 September 2022, Azad announced his own political party as Democratic Progressive Azad Party. He is the chief patron cum founder of Democratic Progressive Azad Party.
Sushma Swaraj was an Indian lawyer, politician and diplomat who served as the Minister of External Affairs of India in the first Narendra Modi government from 2014 to 2019. She was the second person to complete a 5-year term as the Minister of External Affairs, after Jawaharlal Nehru. A senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Swaraj was the second woman to hold the office of Minister of External Affairs, after Indira Gandhi. She was elected seven times as a Member of Parliament and three times as a Member of the Legislative Assembly. At the age of 25 in 1977, she became the youngest cabinet minister of the Indian state of Haryana. She also served as Chief Minister of Delhi for a short duration in 1998 and became the first female Chief Minister of Delhi.
Balraj Puri (1928-2014) was an Indian Political commentator and human rights activist.
Mohan Chand Sharma AC was an Indian police officer who was martyred during the 2008 Batla House encounter in New Delhi. He was posthumously awarded the Gallantry medal Ashoka Chakra Award, India's highest peacetime military decoration, on 26 January 2009.
Kandathil Mammen Mathew was an Indian newspaper editor who served as the editor-in-chief of the Malayalam-language daily, Malayala Manorama.
Tirath Das Dogra is an Indian forensic pathologist. He was the pro-chancellor and vice-chancellor of SGT University, Budhera Gurgaon Haryana (2013–2017).
The Indian National Congress (INC) is one of the two major political parties in India. The prominent members of the party are the president Sonia Gandhi, vice-president Rahul Gandhi, former prime minister Manmohan Singh and Priyanka Gandhi. INC took part in the elections alongside other members of the United Progressive Alliance. On the fourth anniversary of the second United Progressive Alliance government, the INC announced that its campaign for the election would be led by Prime minister Manmohan Singh, party chairperson Sonia Gandhi, and general secretary Rahul Gandhi.
Jeewan Singh Titiyal is an Indian ophthalmologist, credited with the first live cornea transplant surgery by an Indian doctor. He was honoured by the Government of India, in 2014, by bestowing on him the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, for his services to the field of medicine.
Lalit Kumar is an Indian oncologist, known to have contributed to the development of low cost medical facilities in Delhi. The Government of India honoured him, in 2014, with the award of Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, for his contributions to the fields of medicine.
Dr. Jitendra Kumar Singh is an Indian oncologist, the ex director of Mahavir Cancer Institute & Research Centre and the president of Cancer Care India, the apex body for cancer support organisations in India. He was honoured by the Government of India, in 2012, with the fourth highest Indian civilian award of Padma Shri.
Yog Raj Sharma is an Indian ophthalmologist and ex-chief of Dr. Rajendra Prasad Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, the apex body of the National Programme for the Control of Blindness, a Government of India initiative to reduce the prevalence of blindness in India. He is the Chairman of the Task Force on Prevention and Control of Diabetic Retinopathy Group and the Co-Chairman of the National Task Force on Prevention of Blindness from Retinopathy of Prematurity under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of the Government of India. An advisor to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India. Sharma was honored by the Government of India in 2015 with Padma Shri, the fourth highest Indian civilian award. In 2005, Yog Raj Sharma's published article on "Pars plana vitrectomy vs scleral buckling in rhegmatogenous retinal detachment" in Acta Ophthalmologica Scandinavica and in November 2021, American society of retina specialists cited it as top 100 publications on retinal detachment management in the last ~121 years. Of these top hundred publications, only nineteen countries contributed, three of the contributing countries were Asian and from India this study was the sole contribution. Dr Sharma called it 'the singular biggest achievement of his career" in an article published in Daily Excelsior, Jammu in December 2021.
Jagdev Singh Guleria is an Indian general physician, cardiologist and a former Dean and Professor of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. He is the senior consultant of General Medicine at Sitaram Bhartia Institute of Science and Research and an Emeritus Professor of the National Academy of Medical Sciences. He received the fourth highest Indian civilian honour of the Padma Shri in 2003.
Ashok Kumar Hemal is a urologist and medical academic, known as the first surgeon to perform robotic surgery in India. He is a former professor of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi and is credited with efforts in establishing the department of robotic surgery at AIIMS where he has performed over 100 surgeries for cancer on kidney, prostate glands and urinary bladder. He has also served at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, Winston-Salem, as a professor and was a member of the team which developed teaching modules for the Centre for Medical Education Technology of AIIMS and Indira Gandhi National Open University. He has been involved in with many medical conferences and has published several medical articles; PubMed, an online repository of medical articles has listed 320 of them. Besides, he has authored a medical text book, Robotics in Urological Surgery, published by Springer Verlag. He is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Medical Sciences and a recipient of the 2005 Outstanding Social Scientist Award of the University Grants Commission. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri, in 2007, for his contributions to medical science.
