Newsmakers 2021: Prominent Indians Who Made News And Created Buzz In The Year 2021

Newsmakers 2021: With the year 2021 coming to an end amid COVID-pandemic and its new variants making their presence felt among us, impacting the lives and livelihood of millions of people, including several big time and small businesses, there were, and are several people who created a buzz and had their impact on the society, academics, market, sports, and other walks of life emerging as newsmakers amid the crisis. Here are a few, among the many, listed as the Newsmakers of 2021 who left a lasting sway and imprint on the psyche of the demography and polity of India, and the world in general as newsmakers.

Newsmakers 2021: People Who Made News

Let us take a look at the Indian newsmakers who made it to the Newsmakers 2021 list, and created a buzz in the year 2021.

Bipin Rawat

Bipin Rawat, India's first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and a highly decorated officer with a distinguished career, passed away on December 8, 2021, in a highly unfortunate helicopter crash near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu. Rawat, an alumnus of the National Defence Academy and the Indian Military Academy, was commissioned into the Indian Army's Fifth Battalion and Eleventh Gorkha Rifles in December 1978. General Bipin Rawat was appointed as the first Chief of Army Staff in December 2016.

Parag Agrawal

Parag Agrawal 37, an Indian-origin tech executive, assumed charge as the new Twitter CEO on November 29 (Monday), after Jack Dorsey stepped down as the co-founder of the social media giant emerging as one of the most celebrated faces of Indian Newsmakers 2021. Parag completed his Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science and Engineering (2005) from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT Bombay) and obtained his MS Degree and Doctorate in Computer Science from Stanford University.

Jagrati Awasthi

Jagrati Awasthi, 24, secured AIR 2 in the UPSC Civil Services Examination 2020 after Shubham Kumar and is the women topper of UPSC CSE 2020 join the list of women newsmakers of 2021. Jagrati holds a B.Tech in Electrical engineering from Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT) in Bhopal, and severed as a professional engineer at the Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL). She qualified for CSE 2020 with sociology as her optional.

Shubham Kumar

Shubham Kumar, 24, is the UPSC Civil Services Examination 2020 Topper. He hails from Kumhari village under Kadwa block of Katihar district in Bihar state. He scored 52.04% to top the UPSC CSE 2020. Kumar did his Civil engineering from IIT Bombay. The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) had declared the CSE 2020 final results on September 24, 2021, and recommended a total number of 761 candidates for appointment to various services involving - IAS, IFS, IPS, Central Services, Group 'A' and Group 'B' services. He qualified for CSE 2020 with anthropology as his optional

Indians in the Global Teacher Prize 2021

Meghana Musunuri from Hyderabad and Satyam Mishra from Bihar, have made it to the list of top 50 finalists for the prestigious US $1 million 2021 Global Teacher Prize.
Meghana Musunuri is social studies, English, and mathematics teacher from Hyderabad, India in one of the teachers to have made it to the list of top fifty Global Teacher Prize 2021 finalists while Satyam Mishra is a Math teacher from Bhagalpur, Bihar, India, who is determined to change the way children look at the world through his pedagogy. Thus both of them emerged as prominent Indian newsmakers on a global stage.

Bajrang Punia

Bajrang Punia from Jhajjar in the Indian state of Haryana won the Bronze medal in the men's freestyle 65kg category, defeating Daulet Niyazbekov of Kazakhstan. Punia, who had suffered a humiliating 5-12 defeat in the semifinals to Azerbaijan's Haji Aliyev, redeemed himself by winning India's sixth medal of Tokyo 2020 with a convincing 8-0 victory in the bronze medal battle. Tokyo Olympics 2020 was the Bajrang Punia's first Olympic Games.

Neeraj Chopra

Neeraj Chopra won a historic gold medal in the men's javelin throw, ensuring India's best-ever Olympic campaign at the Tokyo 2020 Games making it to the top of Indian Newsmakers 2021 list. Chopra became the first athlete from independent India to win a medal in a track and field event. Neeraj is from the village of Khandra in Haryana's Panipat district. Neeraj grew in a 17-member joint family and was the eldest of the children.

Mirabai Chanu

Mirabai Chanu from Imphal in Manipur made history by becoming India's first Silver medalist in weightlifting event at the Tokyo Olympics 2020 held on August 5, 2021. Chanu won the silver medal in the 49kg weight category. During the 49 Kg category final, the 26-year-old Chanu lifted 87 kg in snatch and 115 kg in the Clean and Jerk event to achieve a total of 202, making Indian history. It was Mirabai Chanu who opened India's medal account at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics by striking silver medal thus figuring in the list of prominent newsmakers of 2021

Ravi Kumar Dahiya

Ravi Kumar Dahiya, an Indian freestyle wrestler, won a historic silver medal in the 57kg freestyle category at the Tokyo Olympics held on August 5, 2021. Ravi Dahiya won silver, after losing to Russian wrestler Zaur Uguev 7-4 in the title clash. His Olympic silver medal is the second-ever an individual has won in the wrestling event. Ravi Kumar Dahiya is a World Championship bronze medalist at the senior level, as well as the Asian Champion since 2020.

Lovlina Borgohain

Indian boxer Lovlina Borgohain won a bronze medal in her debut Olympic Games held in Tokyo. She won the Olympics bronze medal after defeating the defending world champion Busenaz Surmeneli on August 4, 2021 Wednesday in the 69kg -category by 5-0. Lovlina Borgohain was born in the Golaghat in Assam and began her career as a kickboxer, specifically Muay Thai joining the list of women newsmakers of 2021

P V Sindhu

Indian ace badminton player Pusarla Venkata Sindhu aka PV Sindhu, 26, won a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics 2020 held August 1, 2021 on after defeating China's He Bing Jiao 21-13 21-15. With this PV Sindhu becomes the first Indian woman to win two Olympic medals individually emerging a newsmaker in 2021. She was awarded the Padma Shri 2020 as well as selected as BBC Indian Sportswoman of the Year in March 2020.

Adar Poonawalla

Adar Poonawalla, the CEO of Serum Institute of India (SII) - the world's largest vaccine manufacturer, at the onset of 2021 was in news concerning the production of COVID-19 vaccine Covishield - the AstraZeneca Oxford vaccine manufactured in India, and announcing its accessibility to healthcare workers, elderly citizens and to public in general. Poonawalla continues his earnest efforts in increasing the vaccine production from 70 million in March to 90 million in June at SII, besides assuring of getting clearance from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for Covishield.

All-Women Cockpit Crew

Air India's All-Women Cockpit Crew of AI176 - Capt Zoya Aggarwal, Capt Papagari Thanmai, Capt Akansha Sonaware and Capt Shivani Manhas completed a historical journey over North Pole on the world's longest air route from San Francisco to Bengaluru on January 9, 2021. The All-Women Crew flew the 1st non-stop inaugural flight over the North Pole covering about 16,000 kms.

Hima Das

India's star sprinter Hima Das on February 26, 2021, officially inducted as Deputy Superintendent of Police, Assam. Hima Das, a 21-year-old Indian sprinter who is also known as 'Dhing Express' is the first Indian woman to win a gold medal at IAAF World Under-20 Championships. She clocked a speed of 51.46 seconds.

Bhavya Lal

In the first week of February, Bhavya Lal an Indian-American scientist who oversaw NASA's transition under President Joe Biden's administration, was appointed as the Acting Chief of Staff of the U.S. space agency - NASA for the first 100 days. Before that, she served as a member of the Biden Presidential Transition Agency Review Teams for both NASA and the Department of Defense. Bhavya Lal serves as the senior advisor to the NASA Administrator for budget and finance.

Ravichandran Ashwin

India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin became the first spinner in over 100 years of Test cricket to earn the distinction of dismissing a batsman off the very first ball of an innings. The first spinner to achieve the feat was Yorkshire left-arm spinner, Bobby Peel, during an Ashes Test match in 1888.

Dr. Swati Mohan

Dr. Swati Mohan, as Indian American Aerospace Engineer with NASA made it to the newsroom in the third week of February 2021 for successfully landing NASA's Perseverance Rover on Mars. She acted as the Guidance, Navigation and Control lead for NASA Mars Rover. Dr. Swati also provided much of the commentary from mission control during its tense entry, descent and landing.

Bajrang Punia

Indian wrestler Bajrang Punia bagged his second successive gold medal at the Matteo Pallicone ranking series event in Rome defeating Mongolia's Tulga Tumur Ochir 2-2 by criteria in the 65kg freestyle gold medal match. With the win, Bajrang gained the world No. 1 ranking in the 65kg category.

Rajinikanth

Veteran Tamil and Indian actor Rajinikanth was honoured with the 51st Dadasaheb Phalke Award for 2020 - India's highest film honour for his outstanding contribution to the Indian cinema at the 67th National Film Awards.

Sanjeet Kumar

Indian Heavyweight Boxer Havildar Sanjeet Kumar of The 14th Battalion, Brigade of The Guards, Indian Army won Gold at the Asian Elite Boxing Championships held in Dubai in May defeating Kazakhstan's RIO Olympic-silver medalist & 5-time Asian Championship winner Vassiliy Levit in the 91 kg category.

Sunderlal Bahuguna

The noted environmentalist Sundarlal Bahuguna, a 94-year-old activist breathed his last on May 21, 2021, who not only fought for the environment, but also for human rights. He was a renowned environmentalist who led the movement against deforestation five decades ago.

H S Doreswamy

H S Doreswamy - a veteran freedom fighter and social activist from Karnataka passed away in Bengaluru on May 26, 2021 following a cardiac arrest at the age of 103. The centenarian activist was at the forefront of several agitations and was one of the few from the state who actively took part in the Indian freedom struggle and remained active until recently lending weight to several rights-based movements in the state.

Milkha Singh

Milkha Singh, popularly known as 'The Flying Sikh,' was one of India's finest track and field sprinters. He breathed his last on 18 June 2021 at the age of 91 due to post-Covid complications. Milkha Singh won the 1958 Tokyo Asian Games Gold and Common Wealth Games Gold 200-meter and 400-meter track races. He was awarded with the Padma Shri in 1959. He hung up his boots in 1964

Dilip Kumar

Dilip Kumar, one of Indian cinema's greatest actors breathed his last on July 7 at the age of 98. The legendary actor was often referred to as the 'Tragedy King.' He was described as the greatest method actor by Satyajit Ray. Dilip Kumar was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in December 2015 and Padma Bhushan in 1991. He received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1994.

Aishwarya Sheoron

Aishwarya Sheoran, former Miss India finalist and model Aishwarya Sheoron gave up her modeling career for UPSC exam. She cracked the Civil Services exam in the first attempt securing 93rd rank in the UPSC Civil Service Exam 2019. She was the finalist of Clean and Clear Face Fresh held in 2014 and Femina Miss India in 2016.

Samir Banerjee

17-years-old Indian-origin American tennis prodigy Samir Banerjee won the Wimbledon boys' singles title on July 11 defeating Victor Lilov in an all-American final. Samir's father, Kunal, was born in Assam, and his mother was raised in Andhra Pradesh before migrating to the United States in the mid-1980s.

Prerna Wadikar

Prerna Wadikar, a student from Bengaluru, has been awarded the Vice Chancellor's Social Impact Award 2021 at the University of Oxford in recognition of her efforts making portable energy more affordable through a technological model using a lithium-ion battery. The model developed by Wadikar is believed to be less than 500 grams with the potential to generate power to run a small refrigerator.

These are some of the top newsmakers of India in 2021 that the country has produced and and takes pride in.