Hyderabad: Telugus who excelled without studying in English medium

Hyderabad: Bharat Ratna, Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Second President of India, had his primary education at KV High School at Thiruttani. Later, he moved to Evangelical Lutheran Mission School in Tirupati and then to Government Higher Secondary School Walajapet. He became one of the most distinguished 20th century scholars in Advaita Vedanta. He has been influential in shaping the understanding of Hinduism both in India and West. The Ninth Prime Minister of India, our own Telugu Bidda, P V Narasimha Rao, who came to be known as 'Father of Indian Economic Reforms' had part of his primary education in Katkuru village of Bheemdevarapalli mandal in Hanamkonda district of Warangal. Did his bachelor's degree in the Arts college at Osmania University. Though he studied in Telugu medium in initial stages, he mastered 17 languages and had an excellent command of Marathi, in addition to eight other Indian languages -- Hindi, Oriya, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Sanskrit, Tamil and Urdu. He spoke English, French, Arabic, Spanish, German and Persian.

Alluri Venkata Satyanarayana Raju, known as AVS Raju was born in Antervedipalem village of East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh. He had his primary education in Telugu medium and came up in a hard way by working in the areas of agriculture, construction and industry. Dr Raju entered into the business arena in 1956 and gradually started industries, including Nagarjuna Construction Company Limited in 1978 which became a Public Limited Company in 1990.

Today, NCC is an ISO 9001-2001 company with Pan India presence and employs thousands of people with regional offices in UAE, Oman, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

There are many others like Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy, the seventh President of India, Dr Suri Bhagavantham, former Vice-Chancellor of Osmania University and renowned scientist from Gudivada municipal school, N T Rama Rao, Akkineni Nageswara Rao. We also have Dr Marri Chenna Reddy, who had his education in Urdu medium, Similarly, there are many others like Baga Reddy and many more.

Cherukuri Ramoji Rao of Ramoji Group of companies has been awarded with Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award in India. He had his education in Gudivada Municipal High School, College education in Gudivada College. But rose to become a media baron.