The Greatest Indian: A 2012 Poll

The Greatest Indian was a public opinion poll sponsored by Reliance Mobile and conducted by Outlook magazine, in partnership with CNN-IBN and The History Channel in 2012. The poll sought to identify the individual who had made the maximum contribution and impact on the surge of independent India. The poll did not include people from all time periods of Indian history, but focused on modern India, as it was felt that if Mahatma Gandhi were included, there would be no competition for the title. A 28-member jury compiled a list of 100 nominees, which was then reduced to the top 50. The top 50 nominees were released to the public on 4 June 2012. A three-way process was used to assess the top 10, giving equal weight to the votes of the jury, an online poll, and a market survey. The public could vote online or by phone. B.R. Ambedkar was voted the "Greatest Indian". The top 10 nominees, all recipients of the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award, were: B. R. Ambedkar A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Vallabhbhai Patel Jawaharlal Nehru Mother Teresa J. R. D. Tata Indira Gandhi Sachin Tendulkar Atal Bihari Vajpayee Lata Mangeshkar The list of original fifty nominees included: B. R. Ambedkar, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, Vallabhbhai Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mother Teresa, J. R. D. Tata, Indira Gandhi, Sachin Tendulkar, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and Lata Mangeshkar, who made up the top ten Other nominees included Jayaprakash Narayan, Kanshi Ram, Ram Manohar Lohia, C. Rajagopalachari, Sam Manekshaw, Baba Amte, Ela Bhatt, Vinoba Bhave, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, Ravi Shankar, M. S. Subbulakshmi, M. F. Husain, Bismillah Khan, R. K. Narayan, R. K. Laxman, B. K. S. Iyengar, Amitabh Bachchan, Raj Kapoor, Kamal Haasan, Satyajit Ray, A. R. Rahman, Kishore Kumar, Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Mohammad Rafi, Homi Bhabha, Dhirubhai Ambani, Verghese Kurien, Ghanshyam Das Birla, N. R. Narayana Murthy, Vikram Sarabhai, M. S. Swaminathan, Ramnath Goenka, Amartya Sen, E. Sreedharan, Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Dhyan Chand, Viswanathan Anand, and Milkha Singh. Of the 50 nominees, 15 had received the Bharat Ratna, and 6 were women. The poll saw nearly 20,000,000 people vote in the second round of voting. The winner, B. R. Ambedkar, was announced on 11 August. A special finale, hosted by Amitabh Bachchan, aired on 14 and 15 August.

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