A great scholar, Ali Manikfan from Minicoy Island in the Indian Ocean.

He has been honored with the Padma Shri award of India.

He has designed a 12 months lunar calendar based on the new times published by Fred Espenak who calculated the new moon times based on Astronomical Algorithms of Jean Meeus. He recommended Muslims all over the world to follow lunar calendar which is Islamic Hijri calendar (purely lunar) in line with Qur'an and Hadith.