PERSONS APRIL 2016

PERSONS APRIL 2016

•  Denis Sassou Nguesso: Congo's President Denis Sassou Nguesso named former Finance Minister Clement Mouamba as the Prime Minister, bringing a one-time opposition leader into the government.
  
  The appointment comes a month after Sassou Nguesso was elected to a five-year term that extends his long rule over the oil producing country. Sassou Nguesso led Congo between 1979 and 1992 and returned to power after a civil war in 1997. The central African country has been gripped by political violence since the election.
  
• Ajay Mittal: Ajay Mittal has been appointed as the new Information and Broadcasting Secretary. Mr. Mittal, a 1982 batch IAS officer of Himachal Pradesh Cadre, will succeed Sunil Arora who is retiring on 30th of this month.
  Environment and Forests Secretary Ashok Lavasa will replace Expenditure Secretary Ratan P Watal who is also retiring this month.
  
  The other senior appointment cleared by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet include Ajay Narayan Jha as Environment and Forests Secretary, Snehlata Srivastava as Secretary Department of Justice, Vijay Shankar Pandey as Fertilizers Secretary, Hem Kumar Pande as Consumer Affairs Secretary, Prabhas Jha as Parliamentary Affairs Secretary and Leena Nair as Women and Child Development Secretary.
  
• Lobsang Sangay: The Tibetan people living in asylum at Dharmshala in Himachal Pradesh reelected its incumbent Prime Minister Dr. Lobsang Sangay for another five year term. He defeated speaker of Tibetan Parliament Penpa Tsering. Dr Lobsang Sangay has got a total of 33,876 votes (57.08 % of the total vote share) as against the 24,864 votes (41.89% of the total vote share) in the name of Penpa Tsering.
  
• Sudarshan Pattnaik: Eminent Sand artist Sudarshan Pattnaik has won the gold medal at the 9th Moscow Sand Sculpture Championship. Sudarshan won the award for his creation 15 feet high sand sculpture- titled Mahatma Gandhi and World Peace.
  
• Elizabeth: The world’s oldest-serving royal, the longest-serving British royal, and now the longest lived British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II turned 90 on 21st April.
  
• Pachauri: Environmentalist R. K. Pachauri, accused of sexual harassment by his former women colleagues in the recent past, has stepped down as a member of the governing council of TERI.
  
  Mr. Pachauri, however, maintained that his term as a member of The Energy and Resources Institute’s (TERI) governing council ended on March 31, 2016 and he felt it was time.
  
• Subramanian Swamy: BJP leaders Subramanian Swamy and Navjot Singh Sidhu and journalist Swapan Dasgupta have been nominated to Rajya Sabha.
  
  Official sources said, economist Narendra Jadhav, Malayalam actor Suresh Gopi and Boxer Mary Kom have also been nominated to the Upper House.
  
  There are 12 nominated members in Rajya Sabha and at present seven seats are vacant. Persons having special knowledge in literature, science, art and social service and sports are nominated in this category.
  
  Although independent, the nominated members always vote along with the government and the filling of vacancies will bolster the NDA's numbers in the Upper House where it lacks majority.
  
  Lyricist Javed Akhtar, Therater artist B Jayashree, Journalist H K Dua, Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar, Economist Bhalchandra Mungekar, Proffesor Mrinal Miri, Dr Ashok Ganguly had completed their terms as nominated members.
  
• Bhupendra Kainthola: Indian Information Service officer Bhupendra Kainthola has been appointed as Director of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII).
  
  Kainthola, a 1989 batch IIS officer, has been appointed to the post for three years, an order issued by Department of Personnel and Training.
  
  Pune-based FTII is an autonomous body under Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and country's premier institute that provides training for acting, film making, video editing, direction and production.
  
• Idriss Deby: Chad's veteran leader Idriss Deby has won a fifth term in office after taking more than 60 per cent of the vote in the first round of presidential polls. The country's Electoral Commission said, Deby secured 61.56 per cent of votes in the polls, which was held on the 10th of April
  
  Opposition leader Saleh Kebzabo was a distant second on 12.8 per cent. Sixty-four year old Deby took first office in a 1990 military coup. More than six million people were asked to choose between 13 presidential hopefuls in the vote.
  
• Time Powerful persons
  RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, tennis star Sania Mirza, actress Priyanka Chopra, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and founders of Flipkart Binny Bansal and Sachin Bansal have been named by Time magazine in its list of the '100 Most Influential People in the World'
  
  Time's annual list, includes pioneers like American composer Lin Manuel-Miranda, leaders like IMF head Christine Lagarde and icons like Oscar-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
  
  On RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, TIME said, While serving as the youngest chief economist of the IMF from 2003 to 2006, Rajan predicted the subprime crisis that would lead to the Great Recession.
  
  On Priyanka Chopra, who was awarded the Padma Shri this year, Time said she is a "star rising higher" and lauded her "drive, ambition, self-respect, and she knows there's no substitute for hard work.
  
  Environmentalist Sunita Narain has been featured in the list for the first time. The Magazine said in her profile that, 'Hers is a voice that urgently needs to be heard in this era of climate change. It added, despite resistance from many quarters, some of their key recommendations have been embraced by the courts.
  
  Time magazine said Flipkart founders Binny Bansal and Sachin Bansal may have come across as arrogant when they told investors the company they started in 2007 as an online bookstore could be worth USD 100 million in a decade... It said Flipkart now has 75 million users and a USD 13 billion valuation
  
  Time said Indian-born CEO of Google Sundar Pichai has helped change the world... He worked on Google Chrome, Gmail, and Android phones. A great many of us can't tell which side of a street we're on without checking Google Maps.
  
• Salman Khan: Bollywood actor Salman Khan was on 23rd April named goodwill ambassador of the Indian contingent for the upcoming Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. The announcement was made in the presence of Olympic medalists and Rio star athletes such as boxer M C Mary Kom, hockey captain Sardar Singh, and shooter Apurvi Chandela, among others.
  
• Arseniy Yatseniuk:
  Ukraine’s prime minister tendered his resignation on 10th April afternoon, accusing the president’s party of plunging the war-scarred and recession-ravaged country into an “artificially created” crisis. In announcing his decision after months of pressure to step down, Arseniy Yatseniuk made clear that his party — second largest in the legislature after the president’s — was keen to stabilise the country by joining a new ruling coalition.
  He signalled that his political allies would back Volodymyr Groysman as prime minister. Mr Groysman is currently parliament speaker and a close confidant of President Petro Poroshenko.
  
• Olivier Solonandrasana:
  Madagascar`s President Hery Rajaonarimampianina on 10th News appointed a new prime minister, two days after the island nation was plunged into confusion when the previous premier denied having stepped down.
  
  The new head of government was named as current interior minister Olivier Solonandrasana, according to a statement read out by Roger Ralala, secretary general of the presidency. The development comes after the presidency on Friday announced the resignation of Prime Minister Jean Ravelonarivo following weeks of political conflict, only for Ravelonarivo to swiftly deny the claim.
  
• Barnabas Sibusiso Dlamini:
  He is the Prime Minister of Swaziland, he visited the plant of JSW Steel at Torangal on 13th April. Torangal in Karnataka
  
  According to sources in JSW Steel, the Prime Minister’s two-day visit was in a private capacity and as part of his personal tour of India.
  
  Prime Minister Dr. Barnabas Dlamini also visited Vijayanagar township and had a virtual 3D tour of Hampi, the erstwhile seat of the Vijayanagar empire with a glorious past, at the Kaladham set up in the township.
  
• Jacqueline Galant:
  Belgium's Transport Minister, Jacqueline Galant has resigned after being accused in damning EU reports of ignoring the poor state of security at the country's airports that were laid bare by last month's suicide attacks in Brussels.
  
  Ms Galant was under fire after the EU reports were leaked to media and following the shock resignation of a top transport official who accused her of incompetence and "Gestapo-like" behaviour.
  
  According to a statement from the royal palace, Transport Minister Jacqueline Galant has offered her resignation to the King, which was accepted.
  
• P.C.Thakur:
  Gujarat Police chief P C Thakur was 15th April appointed as Director General, Fire Services, Civil Defence and Home Guards.
  
  Thakur, a 1979 batch IPS officer of Gujarat cadre, has been appointed to the post for a period upto the date of his superannuation on December 31, 2016, an order issued by Department of Personnel and Training. The Appointments Committee of Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the appointment of Thakur as Director General, Fire Services, Civil Defence and Home Guards, it said. He was appointed as Director General of Gujarat Police in December 2013.
  
  The Directorate General of Civil Defence was established in the Home Ministry in 1962 to handle all policy and planning matters related to civil defence and its running partners home guards and fire services.
  
• Mehbooba Mufti: PDP Chief Mehbooba Mufti took oath as the first woman Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir on 4th April. Governor NN Vohra administered oath to Ms Mufti along with her 22 member council of ministers at Raj Bhawan in the winter capital city of Jammu.
  
  BJP leader Nirmal Singh took oath as Deputy Chief Minister of the state. Barring a few changes, majority of Ministers, who were the part of former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed led council of ministers, are repeated by both the parties.
  
• Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson:Iceland's Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson has resigned, his party said on 5th April, the first major political casualty to emerge from the leak of the so-called Panama Papers financial documents.
  
• CP Gurnani: National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) announced the appointment of C P Gurnani as its Chairman for 2016-2017, effective. He succeeds B V R Mohan Reddy, who served as Chairman of NASSCOM for 2015-16.
  
  Gurnani is part of NASSCOM's Executive Council and is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Tech Mahindra. The Executive Council also announced the appointment of Raman Roy, Chairman and Managing Director of Quatrro Global Services, as the Vice Chairman of NASSCOM for 2016-17. Gurnani along with Vice-Chairman Roy and President R Chandrashekhar would lead NASSCOM to carry out its diverse array of priorities to enable NASSCOM in achieving the 2020 vision for the industry.
  
• Hashim Thaci: In Kosovo, new President Hashim Thaci was sworn-in on 6th April in a Parliamentary session boycotted by Opposition parties. Thaci, who replaces Atifete Jahjaga, was elected on 26th of February in the absence of nearly all opposition lawmakers who had earlier tried to disrupt the voting with tear gas. After taking the oath, Mr Thaci said, his goals were Kosovo's integration into NATO and European Union, and the continuation of the process of normalizing relations with Serbia.
  
• Forbes list
  Forbes magazine has named Nita Ambani, Director of Reliance Industries, as the most powerful business woman in Asia.
  
  Other prominent women to feature in the magazine’s ‘Asia’s 50 Power Businesswomen’ list include Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairperson, SBI (ranked 2); Ambiga Dhiraj, CEO, Mu Sigma (14); Dipali Goenka, CEO, Welspun India (16); Vinita Gupta, CEO, Lupin (18); Chanda Kochhar, Managing Director, ICICI Bank (22); Vandana Luthra, Vice-Chairman, VLCC Health Care (26) and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairperson, Biocon (28).
  
  The list also features women from China, Indonesia, Australia, Vietnam, Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, the Philippines and New Zealand.
  
  The magazine has taken note of the role played by Nita Ambani in society, sports venture and telecom venture Reliance Jio Infocomm. Similarly, under the leadership of Dipali, Welspun has become the largest exporter of home fashion products, supplying to 14 of the top 30 global retailers in the world.
  
• Ratnakumar Bugga: US space agency NASA has selected Indian-origin scientist Ratnakumar Bugga's proposal for support under its Innovative Advanced Concepts programme. The programme is aimed at revolutionising future space missions to Mars and beyond.
  
  Mr. Bugga belongs to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California. He was selected for his Venus Interior Probe Using In-situ Power and Propulsion project.