aishwarya rai and sania mirza

Gracing the cover of Time magazine and being voted Asia’s most beautiful woman is not easy. Neither is taking a leap of faith from No 326 to No 42 in world tennis rankings in a year's time and becoming the first Indian since Ramesh Krishnan to break into the top-50 in world rankings. But Aishwarya Rai and Sania Mirza have done all that (respectively) and much more.

For a country riding high on the wave of New Age economy, Rai and Mirza have helped redefine the way the world looks at India. As the world becomes a global village, boundaries of space and distance get dissolved. Barriers in trade, information and politics have been lowered and a new order has come into effect, as India takes the hot seat in the globalisation scenario.