PERSONS APRIL 2013

PERSONS APRIL 2013

• Dr. Christopher Briggs: Briggs was announced the Secretary General of the Ramsar Convention. He will be the fifth Secretary General to the Convention and will succeed Mr Tiéga Anada who has served the Convention for the past six years. Dr Briggs’ appointment was approved by the Ramsar Standing Committee during its 46th meeting held in Gland, Switzerland from 8-12 April 2013. The Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran, 1971), called the Ramsar Convention- is an intergovernmental treaty that embodies the commitments of its member countries to maintain the ecological character of their Wetlands of International Importance and to plan for the wise use, or sustainable use, of all of the wetlands in their territories.
  
• 68 Years old American Journalist and feminist Mary Thom, was died on 29 April 2013 in a motorcycle accident in Yonkers in the state of New York. Mary Thom had taken her 1996 Honda Magna 750 when she Turn sharply and change direction abruptly into traffic while entering a Yonkers highway, striking a vehicle and then being struck by another. She was a former editor of Ms. Magazine. She devoted her career to giving voice to women's rights issues in books, magazine columns and through her work within the women's movement. She wrote a book about working her way from an entry-level research position to executive editor in "Inside Ms.: 25 Years of the Magazine and the Feminist Movement. Thom was an avid motorcycle enthusiast who never owned a car and had been riding for four decades. She was a top editor at the Women's Media Center at the time of her death.
  
• Takehiko Nakao (57) - Takehiko Nakao, on 27 April 2013 was appointed as the President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) by the Board of Governors at New Delhi. He succeeded Haruhiko Kuroda, who resigned from his office in March 2013 to take up an assignment as the Governor of the Bank of Japan. Nakao is the former Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs of Japan. He will be the ninth President and will assume the charge of his office on 28 April 2013. He is appointed to complete the unexpired term of his predecessor that is supposed to end in November 2016.
  
• N. Ravi---The director of Kasturi and Sons Limited as well as the former Editor of The Hindu was unanimously elected as the president of Editors Guild of India on 23 April 2013 at the annual general meeting of the Guild in New Delhi. He succeeded T.N. Ninan, the chairman and editorial director of Business Standard. He will be serving two-year term as the President of the Guild.He served as Editor-in-chief of The Hindu from 1991 to 2003. Editors Guild of India is the organization of the editors of various magazines and newspapers of India.
  
• Justice JS Verma (80)----- The former Chief Justice of India, died on 22 April 2013 in New Delhi after multiple organ failure. He was the 27th Chief Justice of India on 25 March 1997 and retired on 18 January 1998.Justice Verma chaired the committee that was constituted by the Government of India to frame a tougher law to combat crimes against women, in the wake of the 16 December 2012 Delhi gang rape incident in the moving bus. He served as the Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission. He served as the first Chairperson of the News Broadcasters’ Standards Authority.
  
• Lalgudi Jayaraman(82)---- Renowned violinist and composer, died in Chennai on 22 April 2013 because of illness. He is known for introduction of new concepts of musical ensembles using veena, flute and violin in 1960s.He was also a Padma Bhushan awardee in 2001. In 1963, he earned the title of Nada Vidya Tilaka by the Music Lovers’ Association of Lalgudi. He won the Padma Shri in 1972. In the year 2010, he became the fellow of the Sangeet Natak Akademi. He received the first Chowdaiah Memorial National-Level award by the Chief Minister of Karnataka. In 1994, he received the honorary citizenship of Maryland, US. He won National Film Award for Best Music Direction for film titled Sringaram in 2006.
  
• Shamshad Begum (94) -- Legendary singer, died on 23 April 2013 in Mumbai due to illness. She was one of the first few playback singers of the Hindi film industry. Some of her popular Hindi songs include Kabhi Aar Kabhi Paar, Kajra Mohabbat Wala and Mere Piya Gaye Rangoon. Shamshad Begum started her singing career in early thirties. She was among the most sought-after female playback singers of 40s. She sang in various languages such as Tamil, Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi and Bengali apart from Hindi in multi-lingual song Ye Duniya Roop Ki Chor. She was conferred with the O P Nayyar award for contribution to Hindi film music, in the year 2009. In 2009 again, she was conferred with the third-highest civilian honour of India, Padma Bhushan.
  
• Anil Goswamy----The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Anil Goswami, Secretary, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment as Home Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs for a period of two years from the date of taking over the charge of Home Secretary, vice Raj Kumar Singh. Anil Goswami, is appointed as OSD in the Ministry of Home Affairs in the rank and pay of Secretary with immediate effect and till the date of his assumption of charge as Home Secretary.
  
• Krishnakumar Natarajan---K.Natarajan, CEO and Director of Mindtree on 8 April 2013 was appointed as the Chairman of Nasscom for the year 2013-14.He succeeded N Chandrasekaran, MD and CEO of TCS, who was the Chairman for the year 2012-13. R. Chandrasekaran, Cognizant Group Chief Executive (Technology & Operations) was appointed as the Vice Chairman of the Executive Council. NASSCOM Foundation is a non-profit organization that represents the Indian IT BPO industry and it played a leading role in developing the Indian IT-BPO industry to reach mark of 100 billion dollar industry.
  
• P.J.Kurien----Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha, on 11 April 2013 was unanimously elected as the Chairman of the prestigious Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD) during the 73rd Executive Committee Meeting of AFPPD at Bangkok. He replaced Yasuo Fukuda, former Prime Minister of Japan as the Chairman of AFPPD. PJ Kurien at present is also the Chairman of the Indian Association of Parliamentarians on Population and Development.
  
  AFPPD was established in 1981 is a regional non-governmental organization to serve as a coordinating body of twenty five National Committees of Parliamentarians on Population and Development. It seeks to generate cooperation and support among the Asian Parliamentarians in different areas like population and Development.
  
• Dr Hilary Koprowski(96)----A Polish researcher who developed the first successful oral vaccination for polio died on 11 April 2013 in Philadelphia. Koprowski developed an oral vaccine using the live polio virus that was first used on humans in 1950.Hilary Koprowski remained the President of Biotechnology Foundation Laboratories, Inc. as well as the Head of the Center for Neurovirology at Thomas Jefferson University. He also served as the consultant to the World Health Organization and also Pan American Health Organization. In 1995, Hilary Koprowski was given the title of Commander of the Order of the Lion of Finland by the President of Finland. In 1997, he won the Legion d'Honneur from the French government. In 1998, he won the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of Poland.
  
• Robert Edwards (87) --- The British Nobel Laureate who pioneered the development of in vitro fertilization (IVF ) that led to the birth of the world’s first “test tube baby” , died in London, on 9 April, after a long illness. Sir Robert, who founded the world’s first IVF clinic at Bourn Hall in Cambridge in 1980 and developed IVF with Dr. Patrick Steptoe, started work on fertilization in the 1950s. The first test tube baby, Louise Brown, was born in July 1978 at Oldham General Hospital. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 2010and knighted a year later in recognition of his contribution to science.
  
• R.P. Goenka (83)---- Rama Prasad Goenka, one of the country’s biggest industrialists and the architect of RPG Enterprises, diedat his Kolkata residence on 14 april. Known as India’s top “takeover specialist”, Goenka had served as a Rajya Sabha member, was once president of Ficci and chairman of IIT-Kharagpur board of governors. He was twice awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure by Japan’s Emperor.He established RPG Enterprises in 1979, largely with inherited companies like Phillips Carbon Black, Asian Cables, Agarpara Jute Mill and Murphy India. He took up Ceat Tyres of India in 1981, then KEC in 1982, Searle India (now RPG Life Sciences) in 1983, Dunlop in 1984 and Gramophone Company of India (now Saregama India) in 1986. In 1989, Goenka took control of four new companies — CESC, Harrisons Malayalam, Spencer & Co and ICIM in 1989. His last major acquisition was Calcutta Electric Supply Corp. in 1989, which has since been renamed CESC. Under a succession plan, his business empire was split between Harsh (chairman of RPG Enterprises) and Sanjiv (chairman of RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group) in 2011. But he remained chairman emeritus of both groups.
  
• Professor Bratindra Nath Mukherjee(79) -- The renownedhistorian, Padma Shri Awardee, and an epigraphy expert died at his residence in Kolkata on 4 April 2013. He deciphered several ancient scripts; He authored more than 50 books and wrote about 700 articles in different national and international journals. Few of his famous books were Greek and Aramaic Edicts of Ashoka, Rise of Kushan Empire and a book on coins of the country named Indian Gold. He was among few of the scholars from India, who knew Central Asian Lanuages like Sogdian (an Eastern-Iranian language at present Tajikistan and Uzbekistan), Brahmi, Shell and Kharoshti .He was a numismatist and wrote two volumes on it named Coins of Bengal and Numismatic Art of India. He served as the Professor in the Department of Ancient Indian History and Culture, University of Calcutta.
  
• S. Gopalakrishnan-- The co-founder and Executive Co-Chairman of Infosys, on 5 April 2013 was elected as the President of the industry body Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for the year 2013-14. He is succeeding Adi Godrej, Chairman of the Godrej Group. S Gopalakrishnan, who is also a Padma Bhushan recipient, Gopalakrishnan was in recent times was voted as the top CEO (IT services category) in Institutional Investor's inaugural ranking of Asia's Top Executives, and was selected as one of the winners of the second Asian Corporate Director Recognition Awards by Corporate Governance Asia.
  
• Lt Cdr Abhilash Tomy --- Lt Cdr Abhilash Tomy of Indian Navy, who on 6 April 2013 became the first Indian to circumnavigate the globe, solo and non-stop, in a sail boat over a 150-day voyage. This voyage of Lt Cdr Tony placed India in the list of few selected nations, whose citizens were successful in completion of such an arduous voyage. The voyage of Lt Cdr Abhilash Tomy ended at the Gateway of India. He started his voyage across the oceans of the world from the same place from in his boat INSV Mhadei on 1 November 2012. The Voyage was conducted under the Sagar Parikrama Project, which was sanctioned by Pranab Mukherjee, when he was the Defence Minister of India. With this achievement Tony turned up to be the first Indian and second Asian to complete such a voyage. At present there are less than 80 people across the world in the list of people who have completed such a voyage. INSV Mhadei is a custom-built boat of Indian Navythat was designed in the year 2009 and in a period of four years, the boat undertook its second solo circumnavigation trip.
  
• National Stock Exchange is set to have a new chief when Chitra Ramkrishna will take over as Managing Director and CEO and join the select league of women leaders at the helm of affairs of leading stock exchanges of the world. The 49-year old Ms Ramkrishna, who was part of the leadership team that helped set up the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in early 90s, would be only the third person to head the bourse in its entire history of about two decades. As MD and CEO of the NSE, Ms Ramkrishna succeeds Ravi Narain who would assume the role of non-executive Vice Chairman with effect from April 1, 2013, after serving in various leadership roles at the exchange since its inception. Mr Narain had served as Deputy Managing Director of NSE in its first six years and as MD and CEO thereafter. Mr Narain had succeeded R H Patil, who was the first chief of NSE. In November 2012, the board of directors of NSE decided to elevate Mr Ramkrishna, then its Joint MD, as Managing Director and CEO with effect from April 1, 2013.
  
• Narendra Kumar Verma on 4 April 2013 was appointed as the new director of the state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp’s (ONGC) Exploration. 54 year old Narendra Kumar Verma would be replacing S.V. Rao, who term super-annuated on 31 March 2013.As Director-Exploration at OVL, Responsibility of N.K. Verma is to look for development and implementation of exploration strategy and Business Development for past 15 months. Narendra Kumar Verma is an M.Sc in Geology and an M.Tech Gold Medalist in Petroleum Exploration. Narendra Kumar Verma will be the 11th Director (Exploration) in the world’s number 3 exploration and Production Company. He also holds an MBA (Finance) degree and has 30 years of experience in oil and gas industry. Prior to becoming Director (Exploration) in ONGC, Verma was Director (Exploration) in the firm’s overseas arm, ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL). He has published more than 20 technical papers and 40 technical reports.
  
• American film critic Roger Ebertdied after a long battle with cancer in Chicago on 4 April. He was 70. He was found to be suffering from thyroid cancer in 2002, losing his jaw and his ability to speak in a subsequent surgery. But he later resumed writing full-time and also returned to TV, the BBC reported. Ebert, known for his thumbs-up or down reviews on a TV programme with partner and friend Gene Siskel, became a film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times in 1967 and later became the first person to win the Pulitzer Prize for criticism. His columns were syndicated in hundreds of newspapers worldwide. On 2 April, Ebert had written on his popular blog that he was facing a fresh bout with cancer and was taking a "leave of presence," writing fewer reviews. He had suffered a hip fracture in December, which he said "had recently been revealed to be a cancer."He wrote that the disease was being treated with radiation, which had also made it impossible for him to attend as many movies as he used to.