PERSONS AUGUST 2014

PERSONS AUGUST 2014

• K Sankaranarayanan: Maharashtra governor K Sankaranarayanan resigned on 24th August after the Centre transferred him to Mizoram, saying it wasn’t possible for him to go to the northeastern state. The home ministry asked newly-appointed Gujarat governor OP Kohli, to officiate in place of Sankaranarayanan till a new person was given charge.
  
  Sankaranarayanan is the ninth UPA-appointed governor to either quit or be sacked. His resignation comes three days after the Supreme Court issued a notice to the Centre on a complaint by Uttarakhand governor Aziz Qureshi, who said he was being threatened to quit by home secretary Anil Goswami.
  
  Since the formation of NDA, the governors either removed or resigned are…
  
  Sacked…
  • Former Gujarat Governor Kamla Beniwal initially transferred to Mizoram and then she was removed
  • Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Virendra Kataria was also removed
  Resigned
  • UP Governor BL Joshi
  • West Bengal Governor MK Narayanan
  • Karnataka Governor BR Bhardwaj
  • Goa Governor BV Wanchoo
  • Now Maharashtra Governor K Sankaryanan
  • Nagaland Governor Ashwani Kumar
  • Chhattisgarh Governor Shekhar Dutt
  • Uttar Pradesh Governor Aziz Qureshi approached Supreme Court, saying that he was pressurized to resign
  • Kerala Governor Sheila Dikshit also resigned
  • Duggal resigned on 28th August, he was the Governor of Manipur
    
• New governors for four states appointed
  President Pranab Mukherjee appointed Kalyan Singh, Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala, Ch. Vidyasagar Rao and Mridula Sinha Governors of Rajasthan, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Goa, respectively, on 26th August.
  
  Former Chief Justice of India, Sathashivam was tipped to be the next governor of Kerala
  
• Richard Attenborough: Richard Attenborough passed away on 25th August. Lord Attenborough was one of Britain's leading actors, before becoming a highly successful director. In a career that spanned six decades, he appeared in films including Brighton Rock, World War Two prisoner of war thriller The Great Escape and later in dinosaur blockbuster Jurassic Park. As a director he was perhaps best known for Gandhi, which won him two Oscars.
  
  As actor: 
  • In which we serve – 1942
  • Brighton Rock – 1947
  • The League of Gentlemen – 1960
  • The Great Escape – 1963
  • Doctor Dolittle – 1967
  • 10 Rillington Place – 1971
  • Jurassic Park – 1993
  • Miracle on 34th Street – 1994
  • Elizabeth – 1998
  As director: 
  • Young Winston – 1972
  • Gandhi – 1982
  • A Chorus Line – 1985
  • Cry Freedom – 1987
  • Chaplin – 1992
  • Shadowlands – 1993
  • In Love and War – 1996
  • Grey Owl – 1999
    
• R.N. Ravi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved the appointment of former Intelligence Bureau Special Director R.N. Ravi as chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee for a period of three years. Ravi, a 1976-batch Indian Police Service officer from Kerala, has been appointed in the pay and rank of Secretary to the Government of India. He retired as IB Special Director in 2012. The Joint Intelligence Committee functions under the National Security Council Secretariat.
  
  The ACC has also cleared the proposal for appointment of senior IPS officer Ramesh Chand Tayal as Central Reserve Police Force Special Director-General.
  
  Seema Malhotra: A politician of Indian origin has become the Labor Party's first minister tasked with tackling violence against women and girls. Labor party leader Ed Miliband on 25th August appointed MP Seema Malhotra as the first shadow minister for preventing violence against women and girls besides championing the needs of all victims of rape, domestic and sexual violence, as well as forced marriage, trafficking and prostitution.
  
  Ch Srinivasa Rao: Ch Srinivasa Rao has been appointed as Director of Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (CRIDA) in Hyderabad. A scientist with expertise in dryland agriculture and issues related to climate change, Srinivasa Rao would head the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) for five years.
  
  Narendra Verma: Narendra Kumar Verma was appointed as head ONGC Videsh Ltd, India’s flagship overseas oil and gas assets acquisition firm. OVL has interests in 33 oil and gas assets in 17 countries and contributes to 12 per cent and 7 per cent of India’s oil and natural gas production, respectively. In terms of reserves and production, OVL is the second—largest petroleum company of India, next only to parent ONGC.
  
  Sharukhan: Sharukhan has now joined hands with Interpol to promote greater awareness in preventing crime. Interpol is the world's largest international police organization with 190 member countries. The name itself is a contraction of "international police."
  
  The first Indian actor to get the honor, Shah Rukh joins actor Jackie Chan as an ambassador for the campaign, which includes support from footballer Lionel Messi and Formula 1 drivers Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen.
  
  Interpol's Turn Back Crime campaign aims to improve public awareness on the fact that organized crime such drugs trafficking, people smuggling, counterfeiting, cybercrime, kidnapping, crimes against children and corruption in sport are in fact often interconnected where profits from one area is used to fund another.
  
  Bipin Chandra: Noted historian Bipin Chandra died on 30th August. A Padma Bhushan awarder, Chandra had donned multiple roles including that of chairperson of the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Member of the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Chairman of the National Book Trust (NBT).
  
  Considered to be a specialist in economic and political history of India, Chandra had authored several books including ‘The Rise and Growth of Economic Nationalism’, ‘In the Name of Democracy: The JP Movement and the Emergency’, ‘Nationalism and Colonialism in Modern India’ and ‘The Making of Modern India: From Marx to Gandhi’, among others.
  
  He worked as the Reader at Hindu College of Delhi University and then became the professor of History at Jawaharlal Nehru University. Chandra’s text books on History have been taught in schools and colleges in the country for a long time.
  
• Irom Sharmila:
  A session’s court in Imphal on 19th August ordered release of human rights activist Irom Sharmila Chanu, dismissing that she was attempting to commit suicide by way of hunger strike.
  
  Sharmila has been on a fast for the last 13 years and demanding repeal of the controversial Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA). Sharmila moved the session court (Manipur East) challenging an earlier order passed by the chief judicial magistrate (Imphal East) on June 4 that charged her under section 309 IPC (attempt to commit suicide).
  
  She is currently being forced fed through her nose at the security ward of the state-run Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS) close to her Kongpal Kongkham Leikai residence in Imphal East district.
  
  AFSPA:
  The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), is an Act of the Parliament of India which was passed on September 11, 1958. It is a law with just six sections granting special powers to the armed forces in what the act terms as "disturbed areas". Although the usefulness of the act has been universally acknowledged in particular for stabilizing the Kashmir valley and maintaining peace, the Act has received criticism from several sections for alleged concerns about human rights violations in the regions of its enforcement, where arbitrary killings, torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and enforced disappearances have alleged to have happened
  
• BKS Iyengar: Yoga guru BKS Iyengar passed away in Pune on 20th August.
  
  Books written by Iyengar
  • Light on Yoga
  • Light on Pranayama
  • Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
  Awards
  • Padma Shri in 1991
  • Padma Bhushan in 2002
  • Padma Vibhushan 2014
  • In 2004 he was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine
  Other points
  • The noun "Iyengar" is defined by Oxford Dictionaries as "a type of astanga yoga...", named after B. K. S. Iyengar, its deviser. Iyengar was awarded the Padma Shri in 1991, the Padma Bhushan in 2002 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2014. In 2004, Iyengar was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine.
    
• KV Thomas: Senior Congress leader K V Thomas on 20th August took over as the new chairman of Parliament's public accounts committee. The post of the PAC chairman is held by a senior member of the opposition party. Murli Manohar Joshi (BJP) was the chairman of the PAC in last Lok Sabha.
  • The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is a committee of selected members of Parliament, constituted by the Parliament of India, for the auditing of the expenditure of the Government of India.
  • The PAC is formed every year with a strength of not more than 22 members of which 15 are from Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament, and 7 from Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament.
  • The term of office of the members is one year. The Chairman is appointed by the Speaker of Lok Sabha. Since 1967, the chairman of the committee is selected from the opposition. Earlier, it was headed by a member of the ruling party. Its chief function is to examine the audit report of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) after it is laid in the Parliament.
  • CAG assists the committee during the course of investigation. None of the 22 members shall be a minister in the government.
    
• Bhasin: The Indian Banks' Association (IBA) elected T M Bhasin, chairman and managing director of Indian Bank as IBA chairman for 2014-15
  
• Anantha Murthy passed away
  Jnanpith award winner U R Ananthamurthy passed away on 22nd August. Ananthamurthy, rated as one of the best writers in the country.In his several decades of literary life, he has won the Padma Bhushan in 1998, Jnanpith award in 1994 and the state Rajyothsava award in 1984.
  • His nomination for the 2013 Man Booker International Prize brought him to the attention of a Western audience. He was also the Vice-Chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi University in Kerala during the late 1980s.
  • He has written five novels, one play, eight short-story collections, three collections of poetry and eight more of essays with his works translated into Indian and European languages.
  
  
• Asanish Kalyanasundaram: An Indian-origin student Asanish Kalyanasundaram, who scored a perfect five in his main subjects with 100 per cent marks across the board, is being hailed as the brightest student in UK. He achieved the highest possible grades in maths, physics, chemistry, biology and critical thinking as part of the five main subjects required at A Levels in Britain.
  The 18-year-old, who simply says he is "delighted" with his score, is now off to Cambridge University in October to study medicine. He is considering becoming a surgeon but has not decided the branch of medicine he would like to specialize in.
  
• MS Swaminathan: The University of Agriculture in Faisalabad (Pakistan) has conferred an honorary degree of the Doctor of Science on renowned agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan for his “contribution to farm research and allied areas of plant-breeding, genetics, biodiversity and ecological studies.”
  
• Tayyip Erodogan: Turkeys Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan won the country’s first direct presidential election. He won enough votes to avoid a runoff. With 99% of the ballots counted, the premier had secured 52%, far ahead of his nearest opponent Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, a diplomat with a low profile in domestic politics who garnered 38% of the vote. Presidential elections were held in Turkey on 10 August 2014.
  
  The Law on Presidential Elections accepted and put into effect on 20 January 2012 decided that presidential elections will be held in 2014 instead of 2012; within 60 days before the end of the seven-year term of incumbent President of Turkey Abdullah Gül, who will be the last indirectly elected President of Turkey. As Gül took office on 28 August 2007, the first possible day could be 29 June, but a date between 10 and 17 August is considered more reasonable. Erdogan belongs to GK party
  
• Haider Al-Abadi: Iraq's president has asked Haider al-Abadi, Iraq's main Shia coalition nominee for prime minister, to form a government. Abadi had previously been nominated Prime Minister by Shia Parties. The political chaos situation is happening in Iraq, since 2005. Interim, Transitional governments formed, yet stability has not been achieved.
  
  The Iraqi Interim Government was created by the United States and its coalition allies as a caretaker government to govern Iraq until the drafting of the new constitution following the National Assembly election conducted on January 30, 2005. The Iraqi Interim Government itself took the place of the Coalition Provisional Authority (and the Iraq Interim Governing Council) on June 28, 2004, and was replaced by the Iraqi Transitional Government on May 3, 2005. The Iraqi Transitional Government was the government of Iraq from May 3, 2005, when it replaced the Iraqi Interim Government, until May 20, 2006, when it was replaced by the first permanent government. On April 28 it was approved by the transitional Iraqi National Assembly, which had been elected in January 2005. It operated under the Law of Administration for the State of Iraq for the Transitional Period, and its main functions were to draft a permanent Constitution of Iraq and to form a transitional government.
  
  The first government of Iraq led by Nouri al-Maliki took office on May 20, 2006[1] following approval by the members of the Iraqi National Assembly. This followed the general election in December 2005. The government succeeded the Iraqi Transitional Government which had continued in office in a caretaker capacity until the new government was formed and confirmed
  
• Thambidurai: AIADMK leader M Thambidurai was on 13th August unanimously elected as the deputy speaker of the Lok Sabha. The motion for his election was moved by home minister Rajnath Singh and seconded by external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj. Almost all parties moved motions for his election, including the Congress. The AIADMK has 37 MPs in the lower house of parliament and is the third largest party after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress.
  
• Rajni Razdan: Rajni Razdan has been appointed the next Union Public Service Commission chairman. She is former Indian Administrative Service Officer from Haryana cadre. She has been a member of UPSC since April 19, 2010.
  
• H.Kumar: H Kumar, who was appointed as the Managing Director of Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (MRPL), by the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas on August 7, took charge in Mangalore on August 14.
  
• NABARD appoints Deputy MDs:The Government has appointed R. Amalorpavanathan and H.R.Dave as Deputy Managing Directors of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard). Their appointment is for a period of five years from the date of their taking over. Prior to their elevation both were Chief General Managers in Nabard.
  
• Robin Williams: Robin Williams, the Academy Award-winning actor who imbued his performances with wild inventiveness and a kind of manic energy, died. Williams earned Oscar nomination for his roles in Good Morning, Vietnam; Dead Poets Society; and The Fisher King . He won an Oscar in 1998 for Good Will Hunting, playing a therapist who works with a troubled prodigy played by Matt Damon.
  
• ARVIND GUPTA: The union government on 4th August appointed Arvind Gupta, a former Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, of the 1979 batch, as deputy national security advisor (NSA). 
  • At present Ajit Kumar Dova is the National Security Advisor
    
• FOUR INDIANS AMOMNG FORTUNE’S 20 TECH CZARS
  Four Indians are among Fortune magazine's maiden list of 20 "extraordinary" technology czars and young entrepreneurs. They are. 
  • Arun Murthy, co-founder of business computer software company Hortonworks
  • Surabhi Gupta, a software engineer at popular travel rentals website Airbnb
  • Swatee Singh, vice-president of GMS IM Platforms and Big Data Capabilities at American Express
  • Vijay Subramanian, chief analytics officer at Rent the Runway, an online service that provides designer dress and accessory rentals, are among the 20.
    
• EDWARD SNOWDEN: Russia has extended Edward Snowden’s residency permit, allowing the fugitive U.S. intelligence contractor to remain in the country for three more years. Snowden, who is wanted in the United States for leaking information about National Security Agency surveillance practices, was stranded in the transit lounge at a Moscow airport in June 2013 while trying to flee to Latin America. Russia eventually granted him a one-year temporary asylum permit that expired on Aug.1
  Edward snowden, is whistle blower. He was an American computer professional. A former system administrator for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and a counterintelligence trainer at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), he later went to work for the private intelligence contractor Dell, inside a National Security Agency (NSA) outpost in Japan. In March 2013, he joined the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton inside the NSA center in Hawaii. In June 2013, he came to international attention after disclosing to several media outlets thousands of classified documents that he acquired while working as an NSA contractor for Dell and Booz Allen Hamilton. Snowden's release of NSA material was called the most significant leak in U.S. history by Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg.
  
  All about PRISM:
  The codename for the program that helped the NSA and FBI collect data from the users of services like Google, Facebook and other major technology companies.
  
  What does the NSA collected?
  While PRISM has been the most talked-about story to come out of Snowden’s leaks, the disclosures have shed light on a vast array of NSA surveillance programs. These can be split into two categories: “upstream” wiretaps, which pull data directly from undersea telecommunications cables, and efforts like PRISM, which acquire communications from US service providers. One of the slides in the leaked PRISM presentation instructs that analysts “should use both” of these sources.
  NSA programs collect two kinds of data: metadata and content. Metadata is the sensitive byproduct of communications, such as phone records that reveal the participants, times, and durations of calls; the communications collected by PRISM include the contents of emails, chats, VoIP calls, cloud-stored files, and more. US officials have tried to allay fears about the NSA’s indiscriminate metadata collection by pointing out that it doesn’t reveal the contents of conversations. But metadata can be just as revealing as content — internet metadata includes information such as email logs, geo location data (IP addresses), and web search histories. Because of a decades-old law, metadata is also far less well-protected than content in the US.
  
• AIMA Managing India Awards 2014
  Godrej group Chairman Adi Godrej was presented the ‘Business Leader of the Year’ award by the All India Management Association (AIMA) at its Managing India Awards 2014. 
  • HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh bagged the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’,
  • Malayala Manorama Chief Editor & MD Mammen Mathew was honoured for his outstanding contribution to the media
  • Sankara Nethralaya Founder and Chairman Emeritus S. S. Badrinath was selected for ‘Outstanding Institution Builder’ award.
  • Indian Multinational of the Year – TCS Ltd. (Mr N Chandrsekaran, CEO & MD TCS Ltd. to receive the award)
  • Outstanding PSU of the Year – NTPC Ltd (Arup Roy Choudhury, Chairman & Managing Director, NTPC Ltd. to receive the award)
  • Outstanding Institutional Builder – Dr Sengamedu Srinivasa Badrinath, Founder and Chairman Emeritus, Sankara Nethralaya.
  • Emerging Business Leader of the Year – Mr M. G. George Muthoot, Chairman, The Muthoot Group.
  • Entrepreneurs of the Year – Mr Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, Chairman and Managing Director, Bandhan Financial Services.
  • Outstanding Contribution to Media – Mr Mammen Mathew, Chief Editor and Managing Director, Malayala Manorama Group.
  • MNC in India of the Year – Samsung India Electronics Ltd. , (Mr B D Park, Managing Director Samsung India Electronoics Ltd. to receive the award.)
  • Director of the Year – Mr Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Film Writer, Producer, Director.
  • Transformational Business Leader of the Year – Mr Uday Kotak, Executive Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd
  • Corporate Citizen Award – Mr Shiv Nadar, Founder & Chairman, HCL, Shiv Nadar Foundation
    
• CHOWDARY: IRS officer K.V. Chowdary is the new Chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the apex authority of the Income Tax department.
  
• MUNDRA: The government has appointed S S Mundra, chairman and managing director of Bank of Baroda (BoB), a deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
  
• SK JAIN: The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested S K Jain, chairman and Managing director of Syndicate Bank, for allegedly accepting bribes from private companies to extend credit facilities. On 2nd August, the agency conducted raids at 20 locations across Bangalore, Bhopal, Mumbai and Delhi, after registering a case in the matter. It confiscated Rs 50 lakh, allegedly received by Jain as bribe. During the raids, the CBI also unearthed about Rs 21 lakh in cash, gold worth Rs 1.68 crore and fixed deposit receipts of Rs 63 lakh.
  
• UDAY LALIT: The Union government has given its nod for the elevation of senior lawyer Uday Lalit as a judge of the Supreme Court. Judges of Supreme Court used to be appointed by the President of India, who acted on the advice of the Union Cabinet. However, subsequent to the rulings in the Three Judges Cases (1982, 1993, 1998), the President is required to appoint judges who have been chosen by the Supreme Court's collegium — a closed group consisting of the Chief Justice of India and the four most senior associate judges of the court. The Union Cabinet and Parliament have almost no role to play in the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court or to any of India's twenty-four High Courts.