PERSONS DECEMBER 2015

PERSONS DECEMBER 2015

• Neeraj Kumar Gupta: The government on 28th December shunted out Aradhana Johri as disinvestment secretary following the department's dismal record at initiating sell-offs, including strategic sale, and replaced her with Neeraj Kumar Gupta, an IAS officer of the 1982 batch.
  
  It also assigned industrial policy and promotion secretary Amitabh Kant with the additional charge of NITI Aayog, the Centre's think-tank and link with the states, as Sindhushree Khullar's extended term is due to end on 31st December.
  
• O.P. Malhotra: Former Army chief General (retired) O P Malhotra died due to old age complications at his residence on 29th December. Malhotra was the 13th Chief of Army Staff of the Indian Army from 1978-1981, the Ambassador of India to Indonesia from 1981-1984 and Governor of Punjab and Administrator of Chandigarh from 1990-1991.
  
• Ashwini Rai: Dr Ashwini Kumar Rai on 31st December took charge as director of Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research, located in Hyderabad, which was a constituent unit under the Government of India’s department of Atomic Energy.
  
  Consequent upon retirement of PS Parihar on 31st December, Dr AK Rai, an outstanding scientist, took over the charge.
  
  The scientist joined Atomic Minerals Directorate in 1979 soon after obtaining master’s degree in geology from Banaras Hindu University (BHU) and had actively involved in exploration and research.
  
• Pawan Kumar Agarwal: Senior IAS officer Pawan Kumar Agarwal was on 21st December appointed as chief executive officer of food regulator food safety and standards Authority of India (FSSAI), as part of senior level bureaucratic reshuffle effected by the government on 21st December. As many as 12 Additional Secretaries, including Agarwal, have been appointed in various central government departments.
  
• Kirti Azad: Darbhanga MP Kirti Azad has been suspended from the BJP. The party has said that he is being suspended because of anti party activities.
  
• V.S. Malimath: V.S. Malimath (86), chairman of the Karnataka Border Protection Commission and former Chief Justice of the High Courts of Karnataka and Kerala, passed away at on 22nd December.
  
  He was appointed Advocate-General in 1968 and as judge of the High Court of Karnataka in March 1970. He was appointed as the Chief Justice of the High Court of Karnataka in 1984. He was transferred to Kerala the next year. After retirement, he was appointed as the chairman of the Central Administrative Tribunal and later as member of the National Human Rights Commission.
  
• Amit Majumdar: He is an Indian-American doctor. He has been named the first Poet Laureate by the U.S. State of Ohio for showcasing a variety of styles in his poetry. Amit Majmudar, a diagnostic nuclear radiologist, was named to the two-year honorary position by Governor John Kasich who created the honour. Mr. Majmudar is a medical doctor and serves as a diagnostic and nuclear radiologist in Columbus. The legislation creating the position of the State’s official poet was passed in 2014.
  
• Sadhana: Veteran actress Sadhna passed away on 25th December. Born in Karachi in 1941, Sadhna studied at Jai Hind College in Mumbai before joining films. Though she played a cameo in Raj Kapoor’s Shree 420, it was the 1960 film 'Love In Shimla' which made her a household name.
  
  Her other famous films include Hum Dono, Asli Naqli, Mere Mehboob, Waqt, and Woh Kaun Thi. The actress also famously introduced the fringe hairstyle also known as “Sadhna Cut” in Indian cinema. She was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by IIFA in 2002.
  
• Mamady Youla: Guinea President Alpha Conde has named mining executive Mamady Youla as new Prime Minister as part of a strategy to revive the West African nation's ailing economy, the government announced.
  
  Conde was re-elected to a second five year term in a landslide victory in October, pledging to get Guineans back to work. Prime Minister Mohamed Said Fofana and his government resigned on Wednesday, following a tradition in which presidents typically change their cabinets following election.
  
• AK Jain:Senior revenue service officer A K Jain was appointed Chairman of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the apex policy making body of Income Tax department. Jain, a 1978 batch Indian Revenue Services officer, was made acting Chairman of the board following superannuation of Anita Kapur on November 30.
  
• R.K. Mathur: Former Defence Secretary R K Mathur will be the new Chief Information Commissioner. Mathur will have tenure of about three years. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi led selection panel comprising leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha, Mallikaarjun Kharge and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had a meeting in this regard two days back and cleared Mr. Mathur’s name for the post.
  
  The post has been lying vacant for the past 15 days after Vijai Sharma completed his tenure. 62-year-old Mathur is a retired IAS officer of Tripura cadre. At present, there are seven Information Commissioners in the CIC and there are still three vacancies.
  
• Chatla Sriramulu: Noted writer and theatre artiste Chatla Sriramulu (84) passed away at Secunderabad on 18th December. He was a railway employee who hailed from Vijayawada city.
  
  Mr. Sriramulu was awarded ‘Best Actor’ twice by Andhra Nataka Kala Parishad and was also a recipient of Central Government’s Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1982. He was the first artiste from Andhra Pradesh to receive Emeritus Fellowship from the Human Resources Department of Government of India.
  
  He was awarded the certificate of ‘Producer and Teacher’ by the British Drama League, London in 1970. Mr. Sriramulu was instrumental in the establishment of popular literary and cultural organization Rasaranjani which dedicated to the field of theatre arts. He acted in and directed more than 100 plays and wrote several books on a wide range of subjects.
  
• Mother Thersa: Mother Teresa will be given Sainthood, Missionaries of Charity spokesperson Sunita Kumar has informed. Avvenire, the official newspaper of the Italian Catholic bishops conference, said on its website that Pope Francis approved a decree recognising a miracle attributed to her intercession with God. Mother Teresa, who died in 1997 at the age of 87, was beatified in 2003 by the late Pope John Paul. Beatification, which requires one miracle, is the last step before sainthood.
  
  Avvenire said the second miracle attributed to the intercession of Mother Teresa, which is required for canonisation, involved the inexplicable healing of a man who was suffering from a deadly brain disease. Family members of the sufferer prayed to Mother Teresa and he recovered, leaving doctors at a loss to explain how Mother founded the Missionaries of Charity to help the poor on the streets of Kolkata and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.
  
• Mireia Lalaguna Royo: Spain’s Mireia Lalaguna Royo was named the winner of the Miss World 2015 competition on 19th December in the southern Chinese island resort of Sanya, an event dogged by controversy over China’s refusal to allow Canada’s entrant to attend.
  
  Sofia Nikitchuk of Russia was the runner-up and Indonesia’s Maria Harfanti took third place in the final following a lengthy competition featuring 114 women. Each had won the right to represent their country in a series of local and regional competitions.
  
• Ameenah Gurib-Fakim: She is President of the Republic of Mauritius Dr Ameenah Gurib-Fakim called. At present she is visiting India. On 7th December, she met Indian President Pranab Mukherjee.
  
• Limadota Straujuma: Latvian Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma announced her resignation on 7th December after less than two years in office.
  
• Bhaskar Rao: Karnataka Lokayukta Dr Justice Y Bhaskar Rao on 8th December resigned from his post, his resignation letter was sent to the Governor which has been accepted. A motion to remove Dr. Rao was adopted by the Legislative Assembly recently and the Speaker was yet to hand over the probe into the case to the Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court.
  
• Angela Merkel: Time Magazine has named German Chancellor Angela Merkel as its "Person of the Year". The magazine cited her role in Europe's crises over migration and Greek debt. According to the Editor Nancy Gibbs, Ms Merkel had provided steadfast moral leadership in a world where it is in short supply. Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was named runner-up and third place went to US Presidential hopeful Donald Trump.
  
  Ms Merkel, joins an eclectic list of former winners, including Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill and Richard Nixon. She is only the fourth woman since 1927 to be named winner outright and the first in 29 years. The other women to win were Wallis Simpson (1936), Queen Elizabeth II (1952) and Corazon Aquino (1986).
  
• Kapil Chopra: Kapil Chopra, President, The Oberoi Group, has been appointed as the Chairman of World Travel & Tourism Council, India Initiative (WTTCII) for 2016.
  
  The Annual General Meeting of the WTTCII was held on December 9. Chopra, who served as the council’s Vice-Chairman for 2015, takes over from Manav Thadani, Chairman, HVS, South Asia. Ashwani Lohani, Chairman & Managing Director, Air India, has been appointed as the Vice-Chairman of WTTCII for 2016.
  
• PK Singh: Prakash Kumar Singh has taken charge as Chairman, Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL). Prior to this, Singh was the CEO of SAIL’s Durgapur Steel Plant. In July 2015, he was also given the additional charge of CEO, IISCO Steel Plant. An alumnus of IIT, Roorkee in Metallurgical Engineering, he started his career in Bokaro Steel Plant in 1980.
  
• Sharad Joshi: Renowned agro-economist, veteran leader of farmers, founder of Shetakari Sanghtana Sharad Joshi passed away at his residence in Pune on 12th December. He was Rajya Sabha member from 2004-2010. Born in 1935 at Satara, Sharad Joshi had a stint with Pune University and United Nations before he formed Shetakari Sanghtana, an NGO dedicated to the cause of farmers in Maharashtra in 1979 .Taking up the issue of reasonable prices for agricultural produce, Joshi spearheaded numerous agitations, protests, fasts throughout the state and even faced imprisonment.
  
• Justice T S Thakur: Justice Tirath Singh Thakur was on 3rd December sworn in as 43rd Chief Justice of India. President Pranab Mukherjee administered oath of office to Justice Thakur.
  
  He succeeds Justice HL Dattu who demitted office on 2nd December. Justice Thakur will have a tenure of over a year
  
  Born on January 4, Justice Tirath Singh Thakur is the 43rd Chief Justice of India.
  
  A former acting Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, who later took over as Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justice T S Thakur became a judge in the Supreme Court of India on November 17, 2009.
  
  Justice Thakur was enrolled as a Pleader in October 1972 and joined the Chamber of his father, Late Shri Devi Das Thakur, who was a former Governor of Assam and a leading advocate.
  
  Justice Thakur, who has also been a judge of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, had his practice in civil, criminal, constitutional, taxation and service matters in that court.
  
  He became a senior advocate in 1990 and was appointed Additional Judge of the J&K High Court on February 16, 1994. He was then transferred as a Judge of the Karnataka High Court in March 1994.
  
  He was appointed as a permanent Judge in September 1995 and was made a Judge of the Delhi High Court in July 2004. He was later appointed as Acting Chief Justice of Delhi High Court on 9 April 2008 and took over as Chief Justice of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana on 11 August 2008.
  
  He was later elevated as a Supreme Court Judge, a position that he took over on November 17, 2009. With Chief Justice H. L. Dattu due to retire on 2 December 2015.
  
• M. Nair Rajeevan: Distinguished Scientist M Nair Rajeevan was appointed as Secretary of Union Ministry of Earth Sciences. Rajeevan has earlier served in renowned institutions like Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and Indian Meteorological Department. Prior to appointment as Earth Sciences Secretary, he was working as Director of Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune.