Hailing from the small town of Jalpaiguri town in North Bengal, Swapna Barman, daughter of a van rickshaw puller, became the first Indian woman to win a gold medal in the gruelling heptathlon event at the Asian Games, reports Debayan Mukherjee

Major Hemant Raj had got leave to visit his village in Kerala for Onam when the floods happened. His flight to Kochi from Delhi got cancelled, but like a hero he reached his drowning village and rescued hundreds of people. Archana Sharma reports

Tribal women of the Mukki zone at Kanha National Park are breaking conventional chains by taking over male-dominated jobs in the region. These women have turned protectors of the forest and they also drive and guide tourists, says Kushagra Dixit

Malvika Iyer was 13 when a grenade accidentally blew up in her hands, ripping her forearms and paralysing her legs. The Chennai woman is now a motivational speaker igniting hope for people with disabilities the world over, says Bhavana Akella

Hima Das created history by winning a gold medal at the World U20 Championships. Do you know that she switched to athletics from football only two years ago and had even demolished country liquor vends in her village Dhing... Here’s her story 

Syed Osman Azhar Maqsusi works with unflinching zeal to satiate the hunger of the needy with the slogan 'hunger has no religion' and feeds daily dozens of people including the homeless, ragpickers and labourers in Hyderabad, says Mohammed Shafeeq

When Shivangi Pathak decided to climb Mount Everest she was just 14. Two years later, she has become the youngest Indian woman to scale the highest peak of the Himalayas. Mudita Girotra recounts how the go-getter girl from Hisar achieved her dream

Hailing from a city, Ritu Jaiswal was shocked at the abysmal conditions in her husband’s ancestral village in Bihar. Four years later, she is now changing the face of the village as the elected Mukhiya of the gram panchayat, says Mohd Imran Khan

Roopa D Moudgil who exposed Sasikala’s special treatment in a Bengaluru jail is arguably the most courageous woman police officer in the country after Kiran Bedi. Usha Prasad presents both her tough and soft sides in an exclusive interaction

For the first time millionaire-philanthropist Meera Gandhi shares in her own words why and how she got into philanthropy and what led her to start The Giving Back Foundation that works for the less-privileged and needy people around the world

A former woman police officer in Karnataka who had run-in with a state minister and later quit the service has launched a political party. “I am teaching my party members how to police politicians for the good of the people”, she told Bhavana Akella

It has been The Weekend Leader’s aim to showcase real-life heroes and inspire its readers to serve the community. This year’s Person of the Year Dr. Thiruvengadam Veeraraghavan is one such human being. Award function report with photos

Eleven states, 3,600 kms and 260 days. Meet Srishti Bakshi, who is on a mission to cover the entire stretch from Kanyakumari to Kashmir -- on foot, and all alone – to create awareness about the security and social status of women in India, says Somrita Ghosh

Jai Prakash Chaudhary has come a long way from his life of poverty as a scrap collector in Delhi. Now, he is an eco-entrepreneur and heads a company that employs 70 people and generates annual revenue of over Rs 1 crore, says Sofia Danish Khan

Heading a Rs 1,000 crore turnover business, Mahesh Savani has organised the weddings of over 2,000 fatherless girls. Each wedding costs him around Rs 4 lakh. His father started as a labourer and became a diamond merchant later, says Deven Lad