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I Came to Find a Girl by Jaq HazellThis is an unusual thriller set on the fringes of the modern art world that is dark, haunting, twisted - and, in its own way, unforgettable. It centres on Mia, an art student in Nottingham, who gets seduced by Jack Flood, the cold, heartless enfant terrible of modern art. She goes back to his hotel room, has a drink and the next thing she knows, she is waking up in a state of undress on the bed.She is horrified, of course, but even more horrified to find that Flood uses a video camera to film most of his life (it’s art, apparently). Will her forgotten night in his hotel room end up in a gallery somewhere? Should she go to the police? And what has happened to her missing friend Jenny?The book switches from Mia’s story to descriptions of Flood’s self-obsessed videos, featuring his daily life, his exhibitions, and the women he meets and exploits. While the sections that deal with Mia are sharp, gripping and well-written, the chapters about the videos are often as self-indulgent as Flood’s character and, unfortunately, slow the pace down.It takes rather too long a build-up (until about page 160) for Mia to swing into action, but overall this is a smart modern thriller, with a strongly feminine outlook (still unusual in crime fiction). Jaq Hazell may be an author to watch.258pp, CreateSpace, £7.99I Came to Find a Girl by Jaq HazellSavage Lane by Jason StarrJason Starr is the author of a group of fine psychological thrillers dating back more than 15 years, including Cold Caller, Nothing Personal and Fake I.D. They tended to depict ordinary people (usually male) who made one bad decision (such as borrowing money from the wrong person) which trapped them in an inexorable plot of betrayal, fear and death.Starr has since branched out into werewolf novels and comic books, but Savage Lane sees him return to his old familiar world, although this time his characters are a little more grown up and they have moved from New York to the city’s greener, affluent suburbs.As usual in fiction, suburban life may look comfortable on the surface, but underneath things are seriously wrong. The story centres on Mark and Deb, who are married with children and live in the well-to-do community of Savage Lane. Their lives should be comfortable but Deb likes the booze rather too much and Mark likes Deb’s friend Karen rather too much. Things very soon start to spiral out of control, and Starr concocts a hypnotic story of lust and obsession.But while this is a hard-to-put-down book - you are likely to find yourself repeatedly thinking ‘I’ll read just one more chapter’ - the smartly set-up story seems to run out steam towards the end, with no real sense of a climax (apart from a clumsy stand-off scene). By any other author, this dark thriller would be almost a triumph. But by Jason Starr’s own high standards, it should be better.320pp, No Exit Press, £7.99Buy Savage Lane by Jason Starr from Telegraph BookshopSavage Lane by Jason StarrSmoke and Mirrors by Elly GriffithsIn the bitter winter of 1951 Brighton, two young children have gone missing and it is down to Detective Inspector Edgar Stephens to lead the hunt for them, in this atmospheric period mystery. When their bodies are found in the frozen ground, surrounded by sweets, the mystery takes on a grim (as well as Grimm) fairy-tale aspect, with the papers dubbing them ‘Hansel and Gretel’. Stephens is stumped, but determined to find the killer - a task which may involve enlisting the help of his old pal Max Mephisto, magician and flamboyant star of the Theatre Royal panto, who is also a master of misdirection (a technique the killer may be using).Author Elly Griffiths has deservedly built up a band of followers for her series of mysteries featuring forensic archaeologist Dr Ruth Galloway. ButSmoke and Mirrors is the second novel in her other series, featuring Stephens and Mephisto and evocatively chronicling the shabby gentility and shadowy theatrical world of post-war seaside Britain.The disappearance of little Annie and Mark, and the shock it brings to the town, are eloquently captured by Griffiths as she transports the reader back to the spartan, uncomfortable world of rationing, gas fires and frozen pipes. The contrasting duo of the workmanlike Stephens and theatrical Mephisto are likeable central characters, while the inspector’s sidekick, Emma Holmes feels like she could spin off into a series of her own. But, unfortunately, the underlying plot is not as gripping as the descriptions of an icy Brighton, and at times the story plods rather than flies. Coupled with an unremarkable resolution of the mystery, Smoke and Mirrors is one of Griffiths’s less compelling plots, but the book is memorable for its chilling atmosphere.352pp, Quercus, £16.99Buy Smoke and Mirrors by Elly Griffiths from Telegraph BookshopSmoke and Mirrors by Elly GriffithsBlood, Salt, Water by Denise MinaThis is Denise Mina’s 12th book and she is showing no sign of losing her power to draw readers into a shadowy world of crime. Blood, Salt, Water opens in the tiny Scottish seaside town of Helensburgh with small-time criminal Iain beating to death a woman, on the orders of his crime boss. Meanwhile, in Glasgow, a police monitoring operation has gone awry with the sudden disappearance of the woman they were watching on suspicion of being involved in a criminal scam involving £7m.These two story lines appear separate though, of course, we know they are destined to come together; but, despite that predictability, the book keeps both strands intriguingly and carefully balanced, sucking us into their respective worlds. Alex Morrow, at the heart of the police investigation, is an engaging and sharp character while, such is the skill of Denise Mina’s writing, that we even have sympathy for Iain, the diminished-responsibility killer wrestling with his demons. A subtle but steely crime story that worms its way into the reader’s head.304pp, Orion, £12.99Buy Blood, Salt, Water by Denise Mina from Telegraph BookshopBlood, Salt, Water by Denise MinaPretty Is by Maggie MitchellThis haunting debut novel by American Maggie Mitchell comes with a cover emblazoned with “Perfect for fans of The Girl on the Train”, which might sell a few copies but does great disservice to a book that is a highly original piece of work in its own right.The story centres on two women who, when they were 12, were abducted by a mysterious man and held captive until they were found and ‘saved’ a few weeks later. Now, as grown women, Chloe (who has changed her name from Carly-May) is a fading actress who drinks too much; Lois is a professor of literature with a student who seems in some way concerned with her past.They no longer know each other but are both still troubled by what happened all those years ago. Lois has written a book based on the kidnap (under a pen name - there’s a lot of hiding of identities going on) and, when it’s adapted for a film, the screenplay finds its way to Chloe, who realises it is based on her own background.This novel is dense and unsettling, with a structure more akin to a literary novel than a straightforward crime story (the author is a university English teacher). There are alternating viewpoints, between Chloe and Lois, and a section which is a lengthy extract from Lois’s novel, and the result is multilayered and memorable.320pp, Orion, £12.99Buy Pretty Is by Maggie Mitchell from Telegraph BookshopPretty Is, by Maggie MitchellIn a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth WareThe rights for this debut novel by a British writer have already sold across Europe and in the US and the publishers have high hopes for huge seller.And it is easy to see what has got them excited. This slick chiller about a group of girls on a hen night is the sort of confection that sells well at the moment: half chick-lit and half thriller.It all starts when Nora gets an email with the subject line “CLARE’S HEN!!!”. The problem is that she doesn’t know anyone called Clare.... except for the girl from university that she last saw 10 years before. But why would she want Nora at her hen night?Despite misgivings, Nora and her good friend Nina decide to go along for the hell of it. Which is exactly how it turns out. It is clear from the outset that things are not going to go smoothly: the hen is at a remote house in the middle of a woods (where, naturally, there is no mobile phone signal). The weather is grim. And there’s a very bossy girl running the event.From a reader’s point of view, so far, so good. Nora is an engaging character and narrator, who tells the story in a chatty style. Author Ruth Ware lays out the story well, creates a very believable group of girls and really captures the spirit of a weekend away, before turning it into a breathless race for survival.So, it’s a shame, with a good set-up and an author who can clearly write, that the plotting becomes predictable, the denouement is lumberingly obvious and the book simply goes on for too long. If the excited publishers had imposed a bit more stringent editing, they might have got the best-seller they were hoping for. But this is moreof a near miss than a hit.352pp, Harvill Secker, £12.99Buy In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware from Telegraph BookshopIn a Dark, Dark Wood, by Ruth WareOnly We Know by Karen PerryThe debut novel by Karen Perry, The Boy That Never Was, was set in modern-day Ireland and North Africa several years earlier, where a momentous event had taken place. This follow-up sticks to that basic pattern: the story is set in Dublin, 2013 and Kenya, 1982, where there was a day that none of the main protagonists will forget. Luke, Nick and Katie were children then, and the tragic riverside incident has not been mentioned since.Now, years later, Luke disappears, and it becomes clear that those childhood events are still haunting everyone's lives. And when threatening messages start to arrive, it seems that someone else knows what happened in 1982.We follow the developing story of Luke's disappearance through the eyes of Katie and Nick. They have compelling voices and the book is beautifully written, with just the right balance of teasing the reader with clues and hitting them with revelations.Although similar in structure to The Boy That Never Was, this novel has a different feel to it, and the flashbacks are more poignant, as they draw a contrast between the naive children of that time and the adults they have become. If I had to nitpick, Only We Know is probably 50 pages longer than it needs to be, but otherwise this a fine psychological suspense story that polishes and hones the style of the debut.346pp, Michael Joseph, £16.99Buy Only We Know by Karen Perry from Telegraph BookshopOnly We Know by Karen PerryThe Truth and Other Lies by Sascha ArangoThis psychological thriller has been a bestseller in its author’s native Germany, and it is not hard to see why. It is a sharp, dark and slyly witty story about a charming sociopath, Henry Hayden (who may remind some readers of Tom Ripley). Henry is at the top of his game: he is successful - a bestselling author with a loving wife, a beautiful home and a Maserati. But there is a secret at the centre of all this: he can't write. All his books are written by his wife in secret. Add the fact that he has a mistress and she has just declared herself pregnant, and the book opens with the prospect of Henry's life falling apart.But Henry is not a man to let that happen, so with calculated coldness he sets about dealing with the problems, creating a dark and enveloping web of lies and deception - not to mention a trail of bodies.The book offers dark, clever entertainment and is worth reading for that alone. Sadly, it doesn't end with a bang. It is more like a hit single that has a wonderful hook, chorus and verses but finishes with a fade out rather than a climax. Nevertheless, it’s great fun along the way.344pp, Simon & Schuster, £14.99Buy The Truth and Other Lies by Sascha Arango from Telegraph BookshopThe Truth and Other Lies by Sascha ArangoGoing to the Dogs by Dan KavanaghThis is the fourth and final book in the re-released Eighties crime series by Dan Kavanagh - aka the Man Booker Prize-winning novelist Julian Barnes. This last story sees the regular central character Duffy, the bisexual copper turned security adviser, taken out of his normal urban London setting and becoming involved in shenanigans in the Home Counties. It all starts when an old acquaintance, Vic Crowther, finds a dead dog on his library floor, after it has been thrown through the window of his country home (which he shares with Belinda Blessing, a former Page Three model).This tale plays for more laughs than the London trio, which have gritty city realism to counterbalance Barnes’s acerbic humour. Going to the Dogs is more knockabout and the satire of noveau riche types is a little laboured and perhaps showed that Barnes had exhausted the sardonic fun of the series - this story appeared in 1987 and the author has never gone back to write another Duffy adventure.While it is great to have these classics back in print, it seems a shame the publisher went for individual hardbacks of each novel. More new readers might have been attracted by a reprint of Penguin’s paperback Duffy Omnibus of 1991 which put all four short books into one volume at a reasonable price.240pp, Orion, £14.99Buy Going to the Dogs by Dan Kavanagh from Telegraph BookshopGoing to the Dogs by Dan KavanaghTime of Death by Mark BillinghamFollowing the hellish time he endured on a remote Welsh island, it may be surprising that DI Tom Thorne is back just weeks later (in the world of the books) with a new murder case to solve. But a surprise is exactly what it is, because he is not expecting this one.After the dramatic events of the last book, The Bones Beneath, he is supposed to be enjoying a well-earned holiday in the Cotswolds with his girlfriend, Helen.For townie Thorne the prospect of country walks and green wellies is as appealing as root canal work. So, when Helen discovers that an old schoolfriend in her home town is caught up in the case of two missing schoolgirls, he does not put up much resistance to the idea of paying a visit. And, as surely as night follows day, he gets sucked into the dark events in the seedy rural town.The partner of Helen's friend has been held by the police on suspicion of abduction, the town is crawling with reporters and the local police are sure they've got their man. But Thorne, of course, has his doubts.In a story that reveals as much about Helen's background as it does about the claustrophobia of small-town life, the writing displays the virtues that have made Mark Billingham a bestseller: wit, careful plotting, attention to detail (some of it gruesome) and great characterisation – not just Thorne and Helen but subsidiary figures such as the e-cigarette-puffing local police chief. Even if Time of Death does, perhaps, go on a bit longer than the story really justifies, and the perpetrator is not exactly hard to spot, it is an entertaining read. This won’t disappoint Billingham's legions of fans.On a note of yearning: I know writers like to bring a bit of variation to their work – and you might call me a stick-in-the-mud – but after Thorne novels set in Wales and the Midlands, I am looking forward to the time he gets back to his old London stamping ground. I’d like to say he’ll be happier at home, but that’s unlikely. Though at least he will know where the good pubs are.464pp, Little Brown, £18.99Buy Time of Death by Mark Billingham from Telegraph BookshopTime of Death by Mark BillinghamGame of Mirrors by Andrea CamilleriThis is the 18th outing for Inspector Montalbano, the gastronome, would-be womaniser and police detective (who’d probably put his own attributes in that order, too).The case starts with a mysterious bomb explosion outside an empty warehouse – mysterious because it appears that someone has gone to quite a lot of trouble in order to cause damage worth a handful of euros.At the same time, there is the equally curious matter of Montalbano’s attractive female neighbour, who seems to be taking rather an interest in the easily distracted inspector. There is often a female distraction in Montalbano stories, but it looks like there could be more to this than mere flirtation. Surely she is not interested in him for his charm (and his knowledge of restaurants)?The plot in Game of Mirrors is perhaps not Camilleri’s finest, but his slyly witty writing remains on form (even at the age of 85 – which he was when this book was first published in Italian in 2011). And, as always, his work is given a seemingly effortless translation by Stephen Sartarelli.Montalbano is as charming as ever, and the good news is that there are another five books in the series awaiting translation.288pp, Mantle, £16.99Buy Game of Mirrors by Andrea Camilleri from Telegraph BookshopToxic by Jamie Doward“Sometimes banks are more dangerous than bombs” runs the sell-line on the cover of this new conspiracy thriller by British journalist Jamie Doward. And a good line it is too, as it captures the spirit of the times: banks are not just untrustworthy but evil, with the power to bring down the Western world.Add a febrile plot involving Arab plotters, the CIA, a nuclear power station and a headless, handless body washed up on an English beach, and you have the ingredients for a book that is bang on the mood of the moment.At the heart of the story is Kate Pendragon, a financial investigator seconded to MI5, who makes a likeable central character with a memorable penchant for cocktails and random one-night stands. Unfortunately, some of the secondary characters are less well drawn and can be tricky to differentiate. Is this person from the CIA, MI5 or one of the Saudi Prince's advisers, you might find yourself wondering, as the action jumps between locations. This slows down the early chapters, but the later stages rattle along satisfyingly. The plotting is a bit loose and there's a feeling that Doward, rather than being driven by a central idea, has picked his zeitgeist-y elements and then come up with a recipe to suit his ingredients. However, there's an enjoyably tense will-she won't-she climactic scene, which sees Kate risk the ultimate sacrifice.Doward appears to have been trying hard to create a bang-up-to-the-minute thriller and, even if it falls short, Toxic is a promising debut. He could crack it next time.352pp, Constable, £19.99Buy Toxic by Jamie Doward from Telegraph BookshopToxic by Jamie DowardBlade of Light by Andrea CamilleriWith the UK publication of this Inspector Montalbano story, the publishers celebrated the fact that the veteran Italian author Camilleri has reached 90. Remarkable, of course, but not quite all it seems. The translation process and publishing time-lag means that this book was actually written a little while ago – when Camilleri was a mere 86. Pretty impressive, nevertheless - and even more so when you read the book. If you didn’t know the author’s age, you would never guess it from his writing. All the old appeal is there: the charismatic main character; the ironic viewpoint; the marvellously laconic yet tight writing style; and the excellently evocative setting. Not to mention Montalbano’s continuing obsession with food.The good Inspector has lost none of his charm - not just for readers, but for attractive women. As usual in a Montalbano story, there is a femme fatale, and here she bowles him over in almost record time (by page 18) and he remains infatuated despite (or maybe because of) the fact that she decamps to Milan for most of the book, leaving him to concentrate on investigating the robbery of a local businessman’s wife and a killing that has been staged to look like a Mafia job.The Montalbano books rely on style and charm as much as plot, which is just as well - even by the series’ laid-back standards, the plot of Blade of Light is weak. It rambles and then speeds to a conclusion, failing to convincingly pull its different threads together. This is a shame, but only slightly detracts from the enjoyment of a Montalbano adventure.And just think - Camilleri is still going strong and it seems there are at least another four books in the pipeline to the UK.282pp, Mantle, £16.99Buy Blade of Light by Andrea Camilleri from Telegraph bookshopBlade of Light by Andrea CamilleriHack by Kieran CrowleyThis spiky, grisly and satirical crime caper is set around the New York Mail, a tabloid scandal sheet, and the journalists who work on it. The story opens with a Scoop-like twist, in which the paper’s pet columnist, F X Shepherd, gets sent on an assignment meant for the crime reporter with a similar name. He finds himself embroiled in the the bizarre murder of the gay husband of a restaurant critic, who has been found with a piece of his buttock sliced off - and, apparently, cooked and eaten.The portrait of New York life is sharp, the story is twisty and fast-moving and the portrait of tabloid journalism is cynical and knowing (the author is an award-winning journalist himself). Hack may be slightly overlong, and you have to get through the strangely lacklustre opening pages before the fun starts, but there is a feast of sardonic entertainment here.320pp, £8.54, Titan BooksBuy Hack by Kieran Crowley from Telegraph bookshopHack by Kieran CrowleyMaigret by Georges SimenonThe welcome Penguin reissues of the Maigret novels by Georges Simenon (there are more than 70 of them) in new translations has reached number 19 in the series.What’s notable about that? Well, this was not only the first to have the detective’s name in the title, it was also supposed to be the last in the series. Simenon had knocked out the previous stories in just three years and wanted to abandon his pipe-smoking policeman to pursue a more literary career.So, this 1933 story of Maigret in retirement was supposed to bring down the curtain on the Parisian detective. Except that Simenon’s career didn’t quite go the way he hoped (despite writing hundreds of novels over his lifetime) and in 1942 he returned to his greatest creation and went on to produce more than 50 further Maigret novels.This story finds the detective, who is living in chilly isolation in the countryside, having to come to the rescue of his policeman nephew, who has fled the scene of a crime and got himself into all sorts of trouble. Maigret goes to Paris to help the boy, but finds that the city is not quite the one he used to know so well. Things have changed and Simenon’s taut prose conveys a distinctly uneasy air of the end of an era. Though, of course, we now know that was not to be.144pp, Penguin, £6.99Buy Maigret by Georges Simenon from Telegraph BookshopMaigret by Georges SimononThe Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia HighsmithAnd on the subject of reissues, this year is the 60th anniversary of the publication of the classic The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith and to mark the occasion, Virago are reissuing it in the Modern Classics series, with an introduction by John Sutherland. It’s a handsome hardback, and Highsmith’s gripping story of the charming, amoral and, ultimately, evil Tom Ripley on a mission to persuade a wealthy young American in Italy to return to the USA, remains as compelling as ever.352pp, Virago, £12.99Buy The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith from Telegraph BookshopThe Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia HighsmithThe Ghost Fields by Elly GriffithsThis is the seventh instalment in Elly Griffiths' highly likeable series of Ruth Galloway investigations. It won't disappoint fans and deserves to win over new followers as it features one of her most atmospheric stories coupled with her usual humour, characterisation and eye for building up to a set piece.The story starts with a digger driver at a new Norfolk housing development uncovering the wreckage of a World War Two plane, complete with a body sitting at the controls.Naturally, there is more to this than meets the eye and forensic archaeologist Ruth is soon on the case, once again helping her friend and former lover DCI Harry Nelson. The enjoyable "will-they won't-they" get back together soap opera of the duo's relationship continues through the investigation – though why someone as bright as Ruth would yearn for an unlikeable curmudgeon like Nelson is the biggest mystery of the books.Griffiths seems to be having some fun here with the Agatha Christie style of country house mystery – she sets much of the story in the rambling, forbidding Blackstock Hall, home of the Blackstock family, who seem to have as many skeletons as they do cupboards (which is a lot). The house even gets cut off at one point - shades of Christie's And Then There Were None.For someone whose "day job" as a university archaeologist sounds a tad dull, Ruth has more than her fair share of excitement (including rekindling a relationship with American TV presenter Frank Barker). Fun and skilfully written.384pp, Quercus, £16.99Buy The Ghost Fields by Elly Griffiths from Telegraph BookshopThe Ghost Fields by Elly GriffithsWhat She Left by TR RichmondThis deliciously modern take on the psychological thriller caused quite a stir well before it hit the bookshops, as it was the subject of a serious bidding war between publishers. Now we get to see what the fuss was about.The story is based on the notion that, in years gone by, when a young girl such as Alice Salmon died, her memory might soon fade away. But these days, we all leave a digital trail: emails, social media posts, blogs, online journals, published articles . . . Our lives are all out there, waiting to be pieced together.Alice, an aspiring journalist, dies when she tumbles from a bridge, but was it an accident, suicide or something more sinister? Her rather creepy former university teacher, Dr Jeremy Cooke – who is obsessed with Alice (and her mother) – embarks on a project collecting everything he can find about her and trying to discover the 'real' Alice. He is painstakingly assembling a jigsaw of the dead girl's life, and the book itself is like that: documents, letters all sorts of information, all coming out in a seemingly random order. Of course, the writer is much smarter than that, and the way information is delivered is cleverly crafted to create a shifting, mesmerising, mysterious story.While Cooke is creepy, Alice is carefully revealed to be a sparky, intelligent, infuriatingly self-absorbed, ambitious girl with a tendency to drink too much.The difficulty (for an author) of telling a story through many characters (Cooke, Alice, her mum, her boyfriend, her best friend and so on), is ensuring that every voice is distinct and authentic. But no problem here. What She Left is very well-written and intelligently realised, occupying a territory half way between literary novel and thriller. It overdoes things though, extending the story for about 50 pages longer than necessary, just when the reader is breathless for the conclusion. Still, a memorable debut.Incidentally, the author is billed as "an award-winning journalist" but searching the web for "T R Richmond" reveals no trace of such a journalist. He or she have covered their tracks. A little ironic, given the premise of the book.384pp, Michael Joseph, £12.99Buy What She Left by TR Richmond from Telegraph BookshopWhat She Left by TR RichmondSilver Bullets by Elmer Mendoza"Introducing the godfather of Mexican crime fiction" pronounces the cover of this book - which might sound a bit niche, but to be honest it is remarkable (assuming it is true) that there has not been a translation of an Elmer Mendoza book before. He has been writing his celebrated crime novels since 1999, has had rave reviews and is a leading figure in 'narcoliterature' , depicting the violent and debilitating effect drug wars have had on Mexican society. (Incidentally, Mendoza is also a university professor of literature.)This novel, from 2008, features his frequent protagonist, Detective Edgar Mendieta, a police officer in the drug-trafficking city of Culiacan. When a prominent lawyer is murdered, it looks like just another example of day-to-day corruption (Mendieta is every bit as weary and cynical as you might expect). But the killer used a silver bullet - and a few days later the assassin seems to have struck again.Mendoza's writing style (smartly translated by Mark Fried) could never be called easy - his habit of using reported speech and running a whole conversation together into a single paragraph, means the reader has to concentrate. But it also helps create the claustrophobic atmosphere and sense of urgency and edginess that makes this novel so convincing. Demanding, different and impressive.240pp, Maclehose Press, £14.99Buy Silver Bullets by Elmer Mendoza from Telegraph Bookshop

SOURCE : WIKIPEDIAThere are many top Muslim Business Man Business Man in India such asM. A. Yousuf Ali (Non-resident Indian businessman hailing from Nattika in Thrissur district of Kerala. He is the Managing Director of Abu Dhabi-headquartered EMKE Group of companies that owns the Lulu Hypermarket chain in Middle East.)Yusuf Khwaja Hamied (Chairman, Cipla)Azim Premji (Chairman, Wipro)B. S. Abdur Rahman (Billionaire. Vice-Chairman of Dubai based ETA Star Group, Chancellor of B.S. Abdur Rahman University, founder of Buhari Group, Chairman - Buharia Holding (P) Ltd, Chennai, Chairman - ABR Enterprises (P) Ltd, Chennai, Chairman - West Asia Maritime Ltd, Chennai, Chairman - West Asia Exports & Imports Pvt Ltd, Chennai, Chairman - East Coast Constructions & Industries (P) Ltd, Chennai, Chairman - Sethu Investments Pvt Ltd, Chennai)SOURCE 17 Indian Muslim Entrepreneurs Whose Stories Will Amuse YouThough entrepreneurship knows no boundaries of faith, we’re presenting to you a list of the top Muslim entrepreneurs in India (listed alphabetically).1. Ayaz Basrai Founder, The BusrideThe dream of an idea is often sweeter than its reality. Not so much for Ayaz Basrai. A pass out of the National Institute of Design (Ahmedabad), Ayaz graduated in Industrial Design and specialized in product design.After working in studios like Ideaspice Design Studio (Dubai), Lokus Design, and XHeight Design studio, he moved on and founded The Busride, an independent design studio, which seems to have touched almost every field you could think of: office spaces (Sony music studio, Channel V studio), retail spaces (The Shantanu Nikhil Gallery, The Turtle Retail Stores), houses (one at Ranwar and one at Tutikorin), and even films (Krrish, Chandni Chowk to China). Apart from Busride, Ayaz also runs The Gypsy Kitchen. He is passionate about Bandra and organizes Bandra Walks.2. Azhar Iqubal Co-Founder and CEO, InshortsToday everyone is busy. Either they are busy with work or in their daily chores. Seldom people make time to read a news. But it's essential for everybody to stay updated about the happenings in and around the world. Wouldn’t it be amazing if the news were filtered and shortened for you? Azhar Iqubal, an IIT Delhi dropout started up with News in Shorts along with Anunay Arunav of IIT Delhi, and Deepit Purkayastha of IIT Kharagpur in 2013.This young entrepreneur has turned our dreams into a reality by creating the app, News in Shorts. The app provides an experience, of knowing it all, without reading it all. The app curates news from all the sources, handpicks the best articles, and provides the gist of those stories in just 60 words.3. Farhan Azmi CEO, Infinity Hotels Pvt. Ltd.There are places you don’t want to be put in, and then there are places you do. Farhan Azmi gives to you the latter. The politician cum hotelier finished his schooling at The Scholar High School and studied commerce at Jai Hind and Sydenham College.What started as a hangout place for friends has metamorphosed into Infinity Hotels Pvt. Ltd., which is the parent company of Koyla, Café Basilico, Basilico House, and ChaiCoffi. Each is unique in its concept and the audience it looks to serve. All these have proved to place people want to be seen in. All throughout, Farhan has carefully carved himself a niche keeping in mind what he calls ‘space-starved’ Mumbaikars. Farhan evidently has grand expansion plans for Infinity Hotels and he’s juggling politics and business well.4. Faisal Farooqui Founder & CEO, MouthShut.com and Dealface.comWant to talk tireless? Talk Faisal Farooqui. Faisal graduated as a Bachelor in Science as well as in Finance from The State University of New York, Binghamton. He, unlike many in his stead, returned to India after the completion of his course and founded Consumer reviews on Movies, Cars, Bikes, Mobile Phones, Music, Books, Airlines, Restaurants, Hotels & more, an online customer feedback, and interaction portal. As of now, it has recorded over six million users a month and counting.Faisal also co-founded Zarca Interactive, an online survey software. He has received various awards and titles, like the Manthan Award by Govt. of India - Best Youth Website (2006), Indian Digital Media Awards - Best Web Portal of the Year-Gold (2011), etc. In addition to the awards, he was named Top Entrepreneur by the Entrepreneur Magazine in 2012 and one of the Top 100 Digital Icons of India 2012. When he isn’t busy receiving awards, he’s giving talks at prestigious institutions such as the American University in Dubai, IIM Ahmedabad, and IIT Mumbai. He published a paper on “Application of Market Research Towards Proactive Customer Relationship Management” in 2003. What's more, he also pioneered auto rickshaw advertising.5. Gulrez Alam Global COO, ResultrixSocial media and e-commerce are essential weapons for the success and sustenance of companies. Without SEO and SEM, they would be as good as a gun without bullets. Gulrez Alam has spent more than a decade of making social media and e-commerce useful to his clients.Gulrez, an MBA from IILM New Delhi, founded Resultrix in 2008. It is a leading service provider of search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), affiliate and social media marketing. They are certified partners with Google AdWords and Google Analytics. Resultrix has also been listed as a Microsoft adExcellence Company. In a matter of six years of its formation, it has been acquired by Publicis Group. If you do want to catch him while he’s in Mumbai and make it look accidental, try the Sunday Farmer's Market at Bandra.6. Habil Khorakiwala Chairman, Wockhardt GroupWockhardt group is the first true healthcare group from India, and Dr. Habil Khorakiwala has been the captain of this ship. He steers it and has built it sturdy. Dr. Khorakiwala majored in Pharmacy from the L M College in Ahmedabad and later acquired a Masters Degree in Pharmaceutical Science from Purdue University, USA. He was the only international non-American to have been given the title of ‘Distinguished Aluminous’ by the Purdue University. Thereafter he studied in an Advanced Management Programme at the Harvard Business School in Boston, USA.He returned to India and took over what was a small firm that made OTC (Over-The-Counter) medications. It has now blossomed into a giant MNC, making him a pharma tycoon in its true sense. As of today, Wockhardt is a USD 841 million (and counting) pharmaceutical company. The firm engages in an endless list of CSR activities and has a workforce of 7500 people from 14 nations. The Government of India has nominated Dr. Habil Khorakiwala for various committees and councils. He is quite the family man, and an avid reader and philanthropist.7. Irfan Alam Founder, SammaanIrfan Alam was fond of comics as a child and is now an entrepreneurial superhero for over five million rickshaw operators. As a twelve-year-old, Irfan studied the stock market and helped his father make investment decisions. By the age of fifteen, he launched Matins, a portfolio management firm that managed over Indian INR 60 lakhs (nearly USD 14,000). As an older man, the Harvard graduate identified an opportunity that would ease out the life for rickshaw operators as well as their clients and carried extensive research for the same at IIM Ahmedabad. In 2006, he participated in a competition announced by a television channel for entrepreneurs to showcase their business ideas. He won the contest and was titled “Business Bazigaar”.Irfan declined to accept the investment, in a very hero-like move, over the investors’ demands of the firm being for-profit and their demand to hold a majority of stakes in it. He structured a model that ensured that he and the community (with the community owning a majority) will together hold at least 51 percent of the stakes in Samman, which organized the most scattered income generating sector in India - the rickshaw operators. It doesn’t stop there. The rickshaws that are part of Samman are also a selling point for various products and services. The rickshaw operators and their families have been made “full economic citizens” by Irfan’s efforts to build channels for essential services such as banking, individual access to credit, and health for them. He was invited for Presidential Summit, 2010 at Washington by the US President Barack Obama. He has won himself various titles and awards. All he needs now is a cape!8. Irfan Razack Managing Director, Prestige GroupBread, clothing, and shelter are our basic needs. The Razack Sattar family deals in the latter two. Irfan Razack is Mr. Sattar’s eldest son. He studied commerce and graduated from St. Joseph’s College (Bangalore University) and was also awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by St. Joseph’s Old Boys Association. Later on, he completed a course in Jordan by the United Nations University International’s Leadership Academy (UNU/ILA).Irfan established Prestige in 1986, which is now a public company, with over 90 million square feet of commercial, retail, and residential properties gracing its profile so far. His love for extreme adventure is reflected in the goals he sets for Prestige and the velocity at which the company is expanding. He guided it for INR 4300 crore, which amounts to about 8 million square feet for the financial year 2014. Mr. Sattar has received many awards, including Real Estate Excellence Award (2008) and the Best Developer Award (2009) by Karnataka State Town Planning Development. He has also held important posts like Honorary secretary of Al-Ameen Educational Society, President of Bangalore Commercial Association (BCA) and Chairman of CREDAI.9. Javed Akhtar CEO, TravelportThe obvious direct relationship between employee productivity and employee satisfaction demands that corporates give as much attention to their internal audience as they do to their external audience. Javed Akhtar, a graduate from St. Georges College, Heena J. A., and Bhavin Parekh witnessed the plight of these corporates and identified the tremendous opportunity that comes with it. They fit together all the elements of loyalty and promotions programs, and Travelport was born.They started off in a small office at Dharavi in 2002. 12 years on, they have expanded and ventured into the rewards and recognition programs as well. Rewardport, as they call it, serves over 250 clients with a team of 150 professionals, with a turnover of over INR 100 crore. This taste of success seems to have made Javed crave for more! Already having covered a strong market share in both corporate travel plans and corporate reward plans, he’s now tapping the potential in the travel market for non-corporate individuals. Javed has also come up with the idea of opening travel offices in malls, adding convenience to quality.10. Jawed Habib Managing Director, Jawed Habib Hair and Beauty Ltd (JHHBL)Jawed’s grandfather, Nazir Ahmed, cut the hair of almost all the heavyweights among Indian and British politicians of the likes of Jawaharlal Nehru and Lord Mountbatten. Jawed, a graduate in French Literature from Jawaharlal Nehru University, is undoubtedly romantic- but for hairdressing. He completed a nine-month hairdressing course at Morris International School in London post graduation. Soon after, he was hired by Sunsilk and he gave the firm a good nine years of service before returning to India.Here in India, Jawed started units in remote places and trained a handful of students at a time. The trained students were then encouraged to go back to their hometown and gather a group of five people for his lecture. Then he’d start a salon with them! This soon formed a chain. Today, JHHBL has 207 saloons and 41 academies across India, and one in Malaysia. He now intends to diversify and offer to his clients all that is related to haircare and beauty. Shampoos, serums, makeup cosmetics, hair clips, razors, spas, (saloon) chairs, cups, electronic hair appliances - you name it and it’s on his mind already.11. Jazeel Badur Ferry Co-founder, Eventifier"Never let success get into your head and never let your failure get to your heart". These are the wise words dominating Jazeel’s Facebook page cover photo. The 23-year-old completed an undergraduate degree in computer science and engineering from Mangalore. He and his friends failed at impressing the jury of The Startup Centre hackathon with their idea to build an app related to stock market integrating the SMS feature.A year later, though, they floored the jury with their idea of Eventifier, which was born out of a seemingly casual observation that there was no online portal to archive the pictures and social media discussions threads that were formed while the event was on. Eventifier’s incubation at The Startup Centre hackathon was the starting point of the ride the three friends were getting onto. It was listed as one of the 7 most interesting social media startups at the Web Summit, Ireland. The startup has now been funded with USD 5,00,000 by Accel Partners and Kae Capital.12. Mohammad Hisamuddin Co-Founder, Innoz Technologies and QuestWhile the world is busy going gaga over the internet, Mohammad and two of his friends were busy unlocking the treasures of SMS apps. Mohammad graduated from Lal Bahadur Shastri College of Engineering, Kerala. The idea of Innoz was formed in a hostel room while the startup itself was jointly incubated at IIM Ahmedabad and Technopark Trivandrum.Quest is an Android and iOS based application that function as a search engine where people answer questions posed by other people. Innoz has been recorded the largest offline search engine, 2013, in the Limca Book of Records. It has also has won a number of awards, including Nasscom top 8 emerging technology companies in India 2010, top 10 mobile application developers in India 2010, and top 10 emerging product companies 2011. In addition, they won MIT-TR35 for 2010 and were shortlisted for the GSMA global mobile Awards 2012. Mohammad Hisamuddin follows football, cricket, and tennis and likes to read non-fictions books. With so many things on his plate, we wonder where this gets all the time for it.13. Navaj Sharief Founder, Ammi’s BiryaniWhat’s better than a traditional, homemade biryani? A traditional homemade biryani packed in a box and delivered to you! Meet the guy who brought this about - Navaj Sharief. He completed his schooling from Baldwin Boy’s School and moved on to pursue his BBA and MBA from the Banglore University. Navaj left the comfort of a well-established, family owned business to start Ammi’s Biryani in 2008.He believes in building the city before building the fort. It comes as no surprise, then, that he single-handedly built the company from scratch first, transcending from one role to another whenever required. The building of a strong management and HR team around it came later, with stabilization. This strategy has worked wonders for him. Today, Ammi’s Biryani has over 30 outlets spread across Bangalore and Chennai. It has been applauded for its flawless packaging and its appealing quality of food on various blogs. Navaj bagged the Best Entrepreneur Award at the Maeeshat Awards ceremony, 2013.14. Shahnaz Husain Founder, Shahnaz Husain GroupIf sheer grit and independence could be a woman, it would be Shahnaz Husain. She was schooled at La Martiniere, Lucknow, and was married by the tender age of 15. Shahnaz accompanied her husband to his posting in Tehran. There, beauty treatments intrigued her more than ever and she made up her mind to study cosmetology. Driven by her will to be independent, she supported her education by writing articles for the Iran Tribune. She worked with some of the leading institutions in the world, like Swarzkopf, Helena Rubinstein, Lancome, Christine Valmy, and Lean of Copenhagen. The occurrences of chemical damage due to beauty treatments inspired her to look for a safer, more dependable alternative.She found Ayurveda, and there has been no looking back ever since. Now a mother, she started her business in the comfort of her home, with an initial investment of INR 35,000 from her father. Soon, she was elected Chairman of the I.T.E.C. International Beauty Congress in 1981 and later in the year represented India at the Cosmetics Fair at Brighton, UK. The sale of her products broke the cosmetics sales record at Selfridge, and there was no looking back after. As of today, Shahnaz Husain has expanded her business to over 100 countries, branching into various segments like salons, spas, and shops.15. Syed Mohammed Beary CMD, Beary’s GroupSyed Mohammed Beary started off as a real estate consultant in 1981. Within three decades, Beary’s Group has grown into a giant empire, offering solutions for everything, from design, development, construction, management, coordination to marketing and advisory services. Today, Beary’s is involved in total reality, property development, and turnkey solutions, infrastructure and construction engineering, shariah as well as education. Syed spent his childhood in the picturesque hilly region of Chikmagalur.His love for nature forms an integral part of all the projects his group takes up. The entire Beary Group is supported on three pillars - Entrepreneurship, Environment, and Education. The BGRT is India’s first sustainable green building research park. They have as many as 16 educational institutes across the coastal towns of Karnataka. The group has won multiple awards over the years.16. Sirajuddin Qureshi CMD, Hind IndustriesSirajuddin Qureshi was born an entrepreneur. As a child, he supported his education by buying small goods and selling them on the roadside. He graduated from the University of Delhi and pursued Law after. Hind Industries saw its inception with Mr. Qureshi’s first consignment - an order of meat worth Rs. 17,000 to Dubai. Today, Hind Industries has its presence in 50 countries, with interests in agro-processing, abattoirs, livestock development, engineering, education, hospitality, and power. In 2010, Sirajuddin Qureshi was invited by US President Barack Obama for an entrepreneurial summit in Washington.Mr. Qureshi is also president of the Indian Islamic Culture Centre. Having realized the importance of education very early on in life, Mr. Qureshi has taken upon himself to help scores of youngsters from the minority sections of the society and educated them through the Noble Education Foundation of IICC. He also bears all the expenses towards the education provided. Mr. Qureshi has been honored with several awards and recognitions from the Government of India for his contributions to the export industry.17. Zoher Khorakiwala Chairman, MonginisIn the times when cakes were a luxury affordable only to the highest class, Monginis gave the common man reason to ‘Go ahead, celebrate!’. Zoher Khorakiwala grew up to a constant cycle of wooden trays filled with fresh cakes and puffs entering the bakery and getting exhausted within minutes. He joined the family business in 1972. Since then, much has changed and much has stayed the same. The cake shop of the common man has adapted itself to local tastes as it built franchises all over the world. The evergreen favorites like the black forest cake and the pineapple pastry, though, have remained untouched.Monginis has kept up with the dynamic technological advancements, entering into e-commerce and even offering varieties like ‘photo’ cakes. Not to forget the packaged moist cakes have gained popularity. Zoher Khorakiwala has strategized the expansion of Monginis in such a way that they consolidate their presence in the places where they already have stores. We think these are grand, deserving plans. After all, who hasn’t heard of Monginis?Edit: As per commentsHow a coolie's son set up a Rs 100 crore company http://www.rediff.com/getahead/report/how-a-coolies-son-set-up-a-rs-100-crore-company/20151216.htm

Milkman’s doctoral dissertation concluded that people would choose either heroin or amphetamines depending on how they liked to deal with stress. Heroin users wanted to numb themselves; amphetamine users wanted to actively confront it. After this work was published, he was among a group of researchers drafted by the US National Institute on Drug Abuse to answer questions such as: why do people start using drugs? Why do they continue? When do they reach a threshold to abuse? When do they stop? And when do they relapse?“Any college kid could say: why do they start? Well, there’s availability, they’re risk-takers, alienation, maybe some depression,” he says. “But why do they continue? So I got to the question about the threshold for abuse and the lights went on – that’s when I had my version of the ‘aha’ experience: they could be on the threshold for abuse before they even took the drug, because it was their style of coping that they were abusing.”At Metropolitan State College of Denver, Milkman was instrumental in developing the idea that people were getting addicted to changes in brain chemistry. Kids who were “active confronters” were after a rush – they’d get it by stealing hubcaps and radios and later cars, or through stimulant drugs. Alcohol also alters brain chemistry, of course. It’s a sedative but it sedates the brain’s control first, which can remove inhibitions and, in limited doses, reduce anxiety.“People can get addicted to drink, cars, money, sex, calories, cocaine – whatever,” says Milkman. “The idea of behavioural addiction became our trademark.”This idea spawned another: “Why not orchestrate a social movement around natural highs: around people getting high on their own brain chemistry – because it seems obvious to me that people want to change their consciousness – without the deleterious effects of drugs?”By 1992, his team in Denver had won a $1.2 million government grant to form Project Self-Discovery, which offered teenagers natural-high alternatives to drugs and crime. They got referrals from teachers, school nurses and counsellors, taking in kids from the age of 14 who didn’t see themselves as needing treatment but who had problems with drugs or petty crime.“We didn’t say to them, you’re coming in for treatment. We said, we’ll teach you anything you want to learn: music, dance, hip hop, art, martial arts.” The idea was that these different classes could provide a variety of alterations in the kids’ brain chemistry, and give them what they needed to cope better with life: some might crave an experience that could help reduce anxiety, others may be after a rush.At the same time, the recruits got life-skills training, which focused on improving their thoughts about themselves and their lives, and the way they interacted with other people. “The main principle was that drug education doesn’t work because nobody pays attention to it. What is needed are the life skills to act on that information,” Milkman says. Kids were told it was a three-month programme. Some stayed five years.In 1991, Milkman was invited to Iceland to talk about this work, his findings and ideas. He became a consultant to the first residential drug treatment centre for adolescents in Iceland, in a town called Tindar. “It was designed around the idea of giving kids better things to do,” he explains. It was here that he met Gudberg, who was then a psychology undergraduate and a volunteer at Tindar. They have been close friends ever since.Milkman started coming regularly to Iceland and giving talks. These talks, and Tindar, attracted the attention of a young researcher at the University of Iceland, called Inga Dóra Sigfúsdóttir. She wondered: what if you could use healthy alternatives to drugs and alcohol as part of a programme not to treat kids with problems, but to stop kids drinking or taking drugs in the first place?A couple of minutes ago, we passed two halls dedicated to badminton and ping pong. Here in the park, there’s also an athletics track, a geothermally heated swimming pool and – at last – some visible kids, excitedly playing football on an artificial pitch.Young people aren’t hanging out in the park right now, Gudberg explains, because they’re in after-school classes in these facilities, or in clubs for music, dance or art. Or they might be on outings with their parents.Today, Iceland tops the European table for the cleanest-living teens. The percentage of 15- and 16-year-olds who had been drunk in the previous month plummeted from 42 per cent in 1998 to 5 per cent in 2016. The percentage who have ever used cannabis is down from 17 per cent to 7 per cent. Those smoking cigarettes every day fell from 23 per cent to just 3 per cent.© Dave ImmsThe way the country has achieved this turnaround has been both radical and evidence-based, but it has relied a lot on what might be termed enforced common sense. “This is the most remarkably intense and profound study of stress in the lives of teenagers that I have ever seen,” says Milkman. “I’m just so impressed by how well it is working.”If it was adopted in other countries, Milkman argues, the Icelandic model could benefit the general psychological and physical wellbeing of millions of kids, not to mention the coffers of healthcare agencies and broader society. It’s a big if.© Dave ImmsHave you ever tried alcohol? If so, when did you last have a drink? Have you ever been drunk? Have you tried cigarettes? If so, how often do you smoke? How much time do you spend with your parents? Do you have a close relationship with your parents? What kind of activities do you take part in?In 1992, 14-, 15- and 16-year-olds in every school in Iceland filled in a questionnaire with these kinds of questions. This process was then repeated in 1995 and 1997.The results of these surveys were alarming. Nationally, almost 25 per cent were smoking every day, over 40 per cent had got drunk in the past month. But when the team drilled right down into the data, they could identify precisely which schools had the worst problems – and which had the least. Their analysis revealed clear differences between the lives of kids who took up drinking, smoking and other drugs, and those who didn’t. A few factors emerged as strongly protective: participation in organised activities – especially sport – three or four times a week, total time spent with parents during the week, feeling cared about at school, and not being outdoors in the late evenings.“At that time, there had been all kinds of substance prevention efforts and programmes,” says Inga Dóra, who was a research assistant on the surveys. “Mostly they were built on education.” Kids were being warned about the dangers of drink and drugs, but, as Milkman had observed in the US, these programmes were not working. “We wanted to come up with a different approach.”The mayor of Reykjavik, too, was interested in trying something new, and many parents felt the same, adds Jón Sigfússon, Inga Dóra’s colleague and brother. Jón had young daughters at the time and joined her new Icelandic Centre for Social Research and Analysis when it was set up in 1999. “The situation was bad,” he says. “It was obvious something had to be done.”Using the survey data and insights from research including Milkman’s, a new national plan was gradually introduced. It was called Youth in Iceland.Laws were changed. It became illegal to buy tobacco under the age of 18 and alcohol under the age of 20, and tobacco and alcohol advertising was banned. Links between parents and school were strengthened through parental organisations which by law had to be established in every school, along with school councils with parent representatives. Parents were encouraged to attend talks on the importance of spending a quantity of time with their children rather than occasional “quality time”, on talking to their kids about their lives, on knowing who their kids were friends with, and on keeping their children home in the evenings.A law was also passed prohibiting children aged between 13 and 16 from being outside after 10pm in winter and midnight in summer. It’s still in effect today.Home and School, the national umbrella body for parental organisations, introduced agreements for parents to sign. The content varies depending on the age group, and individual organisations can decide what they want to include. For kids aged 13 and up, parents can pledge to follow all the recommendations, and also, for example, not to allow their kids to have unsupervised parties, not to buy alcohol for minors, and to keep an eye on the wellbeing of other children.These agreements educate parents but also help to strengthen their authority in the home, argues Hrefna Sigurjónsdóttir, director of Home and School. “Then it becomes harder to use the oldest excuse in the book: ‘But everybody else can!’”State funding was increased for organised sport, music, art, dance and other clubs, to give kids alternative ways to feel part of a group, and to feel good, rather than through using alcohol and drugs, and kids from low-income families received help to take part. In Reykjavik, for instance, where more than a third of the country’s population lives, a Leisure Card gives families 35,000 krona (£250) per year per child to pay for recreational activities.Crucially, the surveys have continued. Each year, almost every child in Iceland completes one. This means up-to-date, reliable data is always available.Between 1997 and 2012, the percentage of kids aged 15 and 16 who reported often or almost always spending time with their parents on weekdays doubled – from 23 per cent to 46 per cent – and the percentage who participated in organised sports at least four times a week increased from 24 per cent to 42 per cent. Meanwhile, cigarette smoking, drinking and cannabis use in this age group plummeted.© Dave Imms“Although this cannot be shown in the form of a causal relationship – which is a good example of why primary prevention methods are sometimes hard to sell to scientists – the trend is very clear,” notes Álfgeir Kristjánsson, who worked on the data and is now at the West Virginia University School of Public Health in the US. “Protective factors have gone up, risk factors down, and substance use has gone down – and more consistently in Iceland than in any other European country.”Jón Sigfússon apologies for being just a couple of minutes late. “I was on a crisis call!” He prefers not to say precisely to where, but it was to one of the cities elsewhere in the world that has now adopted, in part, the Youth in Iceland ideas.Youth in Europe, which Jón heads, began in 2006 after the already-remarkable Icelandic data was presented at a European Cities Against Drugs meeting and, he recalls, “People asked: what are you doing?”Participation in Youth in Europe is at a municipal level rather than being led by national governments. In the first year, there were eight municipalities. To date, 35 have taken part, across 17 countries, varying from some areas where just a few schools take part to Tarragona in Spain, where 4,200 15-year-olds are involved. The method is always the same: Jón and his team talk to local officials and devise a questionnaire with the same core questions as those used in Iceland plus any locally tailored extras. For example, online gambling has recently emerged as a big problem in a few areas, and local officials want to know if it’s linked to other risky behaviour.Just two months after the questionnaires are returned to Iceland, the team sends back an initial report with the results, plus information on how they compare with other participating regions. “We always say that, like vegetables, information has to be fresh,” says Jón. “If you bring these findings a year later, people would say, Oh, this was a long time ago and maybe things have changed…” As well as fresh, it has to be local so that schools, parents and officials can see exactly what problems exist in which areas.The team has analysed 99,000 questionnaires from places as far afield as the Faroe Islands, Malta and Romania – as well as South Korea and, very recently, Nairobi and Guinea-Bissau. Broadly, the results show that when it comes to teen substance use, the same protective and risk factors identified in Iceland apply everywhere. There are some differences: in one location (in a country “on the Baltic Sea”), participation in organised sport actually emerged as a risk factor. Further investigation revealed that this was because young ex-military men who were keen on muscle-building drugs, drinking and smoking were running the clubs. Here, then, was a well-defined, immediate, local problem that could be addressed.While Jón and his team offer advice and information on what has been found to work in Iceland, it’s up to individual communities to decide what to do in the light of their results. Occasionally, they do nothing. One predominantly Muslim country, which he prefers not to identify, rejected the data because it revealed an unpalatable level of alcohol consumption. In other cities – such as the origin of Jón’s “crisis call” – there is an openness to the data and there is money, but he has observed that it can be much more difficult to secure and maintain funding for health prevention strategies than for treatments.No other country has made changes on the scale seen in Iceland. When asked if anyone has copied the laws to keep children indoors in the evening, Jón smiles. “Even Sweden laughs and calls it the child curfew!”© Dave ImmsAcross Europe, rates of teen alcohol and drug use have generally improved over the past 20 years, though nowhere as dramatically as in Iceland, and the reasons for improvements are not necessarily linked to strategies that foster teen wellbeing. In the UK, for example, the fact that teens are now spending more time at home interacting online rather than in person could be one of the major reasons for the drop in alcohol consumption.But Kaunas, in Lithuania, is one example of what can happen through active intervention. Since 2006, the city has administered the questionnaires five times, and schools, parents, healthcare organisations, churches, the police and social services have come together to try to improve kids’ wellbeing and curb substance use. For instance, parents get eight or nine free parenting sessions each year, and a new programme provides extra funding for public institutions and NGOs working in mental health promotion and stress management. In 2015, the city started offering free sports activities on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and there are plans to introduce a free ride service for low-income families, to help kids who don’t live close to the facilities to attend.Between 2006 and 2014, the number of 15- and 16-year-olds in Kaunas who reported getting drunk in the past 30 days fell by about a quarter, and daily smoking fell by more than 30 per cent.At the moment, participation in Youth in Europe is a haphazard affair, and the team in Iceland is small. Jón would like to see a centralised body with its own dedicated funding to focus on the expansion of Youth in Europe. “Even though we have been doing this for ten years, it is not our full, main job. We would like somebody to copy this and maintain it all over Europe,” he says. “And why only Europe?”After our walk through Laugardalur Park, Gudberg Jónsson invites us back to his home. Outside, in the garden, his two elder sons, Jón Konrád, who’s 21, and Birgir Ísar, who’s 15, talk to me about drinking and smoking. Jón does drink alcohol, but Birgir says he doesn’t know anyone at his school who smokes or drinks. We also talk about football training: Birgir trains five or six times a week; Jón, who is in his first year of a business degree at the University of Iceland, trains five times a week. They both started regular after-school training when they were six years old.“We have all these instruments at home,” their father told me earlier. “We tried to get them into music. We used to have a horse. My wife is really into horse riding. But it didn’t happen. In the end, soccer was their selection.”Did it ever feel like too much? Was there pressure to train when they’d rather have been doing something else? “No, we just had fun playing football,” says Birgir. Jón adds, “We tried it and got used to it, and so we kept on doing it.”© Dave ImmsIt’s not all they do. While Gudberg and his wife Thórunn don’t consciously plan for a certain number of hours each week with their three sons, they do try to take them regularly to the movies, the theatre, restaurants, hiking, fishing and, when Iceland’s sheep are brought down from the highlands each September, even on family sheep-herding outings.Jón and Birgir may be exceptionally keen on football, and talented (Jón has been offered a soccer scholarship to the Metropolitan State University of Denver, and a few weeks after we meet, Birgir is selected to play for the under-17 national team). But could the significant rise in the percentage of kids who take part in organised sport four or more times a week be bringing benefits beyond raising healthier children?Could it, for instance, have anything to do with Iceland’s crushing defeat of England in the Euro 2016 football championship? When asked, Inga Dóra Sigfúsdóttir, who was voted Woman of the Year in Iceland in 2016, smiles: “There is also the success in music, like Of Monsters and Men [an indie folk-pop group from Reykjavik]. These are young people who have been pushed into organised work. Some people have thanked me,” she says, with a wink.Elsewhere, cities that have joined Youth in Europe are reporting other benefits. In Bucharest, for example, the rate of teen suicides is dropping alongside use of drink and drugs. In Kaunas, the number of children committing crimes dropped by a third between 2014 and 2015.As Inga Dóra says: “We learned through the studies that we need to create circumstances in which kids can lead healthy lives, and they do not need to use substances, because life is fun, and they have plenty to do – and they are supported by parents who will spend time with them.”When it comes down to it, the messages – if not necessarily the methods – are straightforward. And when he looks at the results, Harvey Milkman thinks of his own country, the US. Could the Youth in Iceland model work there, too?Three hundred and twenty-five million people versus 330,000. Thirty-three thousand gangs versus virtually none. Around 1.3 million homeless young people versus a handful.Clearly, the US has challenges that Iceland does not. But the data from other parts of Europe, including cities such as Bucharest with major social problems and relative poverty, shows that the Icelandic model can work in very different cultures, Milkman argues. And the need in the US is high: underage drinking accounts for about 11 per cent of all alcohol consumed nationwide, and excessive drinking causes more than 4,300 deaths among under-21 year olds every year.A national programme along the lines of Youth in Iceland is unlikely to be introduced in the US, however. One major obstacle is that while in Iceland there is long-term commitment to the national project, community health programmes in the US are usually funded by short-term grants.Milkman has learned the hard way that even widely applauded, gold-standard youth programmes aren’t always expanded, or even sustained. “With Project Self-Discovery, it seemed like we had the best programme in the world,” he says. “I was invited to the White House twice. It won national awards. I was thinking: this will be replicated in every town and village. But it wasn’t.”He thinks that is because you can’t prescribe a generic model to every community because they don’t all have the same resources. Any move towards giving kids in the US the opportunities to participate in the kinds of activities now common in Iceland, and so helping them to stay away from alcohol and other drugs, will depend on building on what already exists. “You have to rely on the resources of the community,” he says.His colleague Álfgeir Kristjánsson is introducing the Icelandic ideas to the state of West Virginia. Surveys are being given to kids at several middle and high schools in the state, and a community coordinator will help get the results out to parents and anyone else who could use them to help local kids. But it might be difficult to achieve the kinds of results seen in Iceland, he concedes.Short-termism also impedes effective prevention strategies in the UK, says Michael O’Toole, CEO of Mentor, a charity that works to reduce alcohol and drug misuse in children and young people. Here, too, there is no national coordinated alcohol and drug prevention programme. It’s generally left to local authorities or to schools, which can often mean kids are simply given information about the dangers of drugs and alcohol – a strategy that, he agrees, evidence shows does not work.O’Toole fully endorses the Icelandic focus on parents, school and the community all coming together to help support kids, and on parents or carers being engaged in young people’s lives. Improving support for kids could help in so many ways, he stresses. Even when it comes just to alcohol and smoking, there is plenty of data to show that the older a child is when they have their first drink or cigarette, the healthier they will be over the course of their life.© Dave ImmsBut not all the strategies would be acceptable in the UK – the child curfews being one, parental walks around neighbourhoods to identify children breaking the rules perhaps another. And a trial run by Mentor in Brighton that involved inviting parents into schools for workshops found that it was difficult to get them engaged.Public wariness and an unwillingness to engage will be challenges wherever the Icelandic methods are proposed, thinks Milkman, and go to the heart of the balance of responsibility between states and citizens. “How much control do you want the government to have over what happens with your kids? Is this too much of the government meddling in how people live their lives?”In Iceland, the relationship between people and the state has allowed an effective national programme to cut the rates of teenagers smoking and drinking to excess – and, in the process, brought families closer and helped kids to become healthier in all kinds of ways. Will no other country decide these benefits are worth the costs?How has this story changed the world for the better? Find out in our update