PERSONS JANUARY 2015

PERSONS JANUARY 2015

• Paulina: Miss Colombia Paulina Vega has been crowned as Miss Universe 2015. Vega was crowned by the 2014 pageant winner, Gabriela Isler of Venezuela. The new crown is valued at 300,000 dollars and was designed to resemble the skyline of New York City.
  
• RK Laxman: Famous cartoonist RK Laxman passed away on 26th January.
  Born in 1921 in Mysore, Laxman had no formal training in cartooning but the work he put out over decades was sheer genius. He began by drawing for local papers, and illustrating the stories of his famous elder brother, novelist R K Narayan, while still at college.
  
  After stints at various publications and even a film studio after his graduation, he came to Mumbai in the 1940s. After a brief spell at the Free Press Journal, he came to the Times group in 1947 and stayed there for the rest of his glittering career.
  
  The recipient of numerous awards, among them the Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan and Magsaysay Award
  
  His Common Man, created in 1957, was the symbol of India's ordinary people, their trials and tribulations, their little joys and sorrows, and the mess they found themselves in thanks to the political class and bureaucracy.
  
  Laxman continued cartooning for the Times till 2010, even after suffering a stroke in 2003 which paralysed his left side. In 2010, he suffered another stroke which robbed him of his speech. Ill-health forced him to stop cartooning for the Times but he continued drawing till the very end.
  
• Libby Lane: The Church of England has consecrated its first female bishop during a ceremony at York Minster. The Reverend Libby Lane, has been ordained as the new Bishop of Stockport in front of more than 1,000 people. The Church formally adopted legislation last November to allow women bishops, following decades of argument over women's ordination.
  
• M.N. Rai: An Army officer who was awarded the YudhSeva Medal just two days ago was killed in a gun battle with militants in the Tral area of south Kashmir on 27th January. A police head constable was also killed.Col. M.N. Rai, Commanding Officer of 42 Rashtriya Rifles, was among those awarded gallantry medals on the occasion of Republic Day.
  
  According to Lt. Col. N.N. Joshi, Col. Rai was awarded the medal for outstanding contribution to the planning and execution of operations, including a gunfight with militants in south Kashmir last year. Col. Rai, who is from Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh, belongs to 9 Gorkha Rifles, but was on deputation to the Rashtriya Rifles. He is survived by two daughters and a son.
  
• Jaishankar: S Jaishankar, India's Ambassador to the US, has been appointed Foreign Secretary, replacing Sujatha Singh. Dr Jaishankar's new posting was announced after a meeting of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Ms Singh's two-year tenure was to end in August this year. The Foreign Secretary is appointed for a fixed two-year term.
  
  Dr Jaishankar, has earlier in his career been posted in India's embassy in Moscow and several other European capitals, apart from Tokyo, Japan. He also served as First Secretary and Political Advisor to the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Sri Lanka.
  
• Shekhar Sen: Eminent singer, actor, theatre director, composer and lyricist ShekharSen has been appointed as the Chairman of the Sangeet Natak Akademi (SNA).According to an order issued by the Union Ministry of Culture, Shekhar Sen has been appointed as Chairman of Sangeet Natak Akademi for a term of 5 years with immediate effect.
  
  Sen has done many research oriented musical programmes and has rendered many significant Bhajan Albums since 1983 as singer, lyricist and composer. He is famous for his mono act musical plays "Tulsi"," Kabeer", "Vivekananda", "Sanmanti","Saahab" and "Soordas" which have been highly acclaimed. ShekharSen has received prestigious awards including Padma Shri and state level awards.
  
• Subhash Ghisingh: Subhash Ghisingh, the founder-leader of the movement for a separate homeland for the Gorkhas in northern Bengal, passed away on 29th January
  
  For almost 20 years — from 1988 to 2007 — Mr. Ghisingh headed the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC). However, in 2007, his political disciples led by BimalGurung formed a separate outfit, the GorkhaJanmuktiMorcha (GJM). Eventually, it became difficult for the legendary Gorkha leader to operate from the hills and he was forced to shift to Siliguri in the plains of north Bengal.
  
• Sergio Mattarella: Italian lawmakers elected Sergio Mattarella, a constitutional court judge and veteran center-left politician, as president on 31st January. Mattarella, got 665 votes. He will be sworn in on 3rd February for a seven-year term, taking over from 89-year-old Giorgio Napolitano, who resigned earlier this month. The Italian president is a largely ceremonial figure, but he wields important powers at times of political instability, a frequent scourge in Italy, when he can dissolve parliament, call elections and pick prime ministers. Center-right rival Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party appeared in disarray after the vote.
  
• Pahlaj Nihalani: The central government on 19th January appointed film producer Pahlaj Nihalani as the new chief of the Censor Board of Film Certification following the resignation of former chief Leela Samson and nine other CBFC members.
  
  Among others who have been appointed to the Censor Board include filmmaker and social activist Ashok Pandit and actress and Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Vani Tripathi.
  
• Rajni Kothari: Rajni Kothari – considered the doyen of Indian political science, founder of the reputed research institute Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, author of multiple books, and a leading civil liberties activist – passed away on 19th January.
  
  Kothari, who started out at the Baroda University, published seminal essays in the Economic and Political Weekly on the form and substance of Indian politics in the early 60s. He was to later use an Asia Foundation grant to set up the CSDS where he brought together some of the finest scholars in India to produce pioneering social science research.
  
• Paladugu Venkat Rao: Senior Congress leader and MLC Paladugu Venkata Rao (75) passed away on 19th January.
  
  In 1968 and made his electoral debut as a Member of Legislative Assembly from Nuzvid constituency in 1978. He went on to serve as Minister for Rural Water Supply (1980-82), Agriculture Minister (1982) and Marketing Minister (1982-83).
  
  The veteran leader is known for donating his residential building in Nuzvid to Andhra Pradesh Horticulture University to start a Rythu Seva Kendram. The building was used as an agriculture research centre and has been named after his late parents Paladugu Lakshmaiah and Nagaratnamma.
  
• Iqbal Singh Singha: UN chief Ban Ki-moon has exalted India's Lieutenant General Iqbal Singh Singha on the conclusion of his assignment as force commander of the UN mission in the Golan, acknowledging his dedicated leadership during an attack by Al-Qaeda-linked armed groups last year.
  
  Singha completed the term of his assignment on January 2 as Head of Mission and Force Commander of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF). He will be succeeded by Nepalese Major General Purna Chandra Thapa, 54, who studied Philosophy at the University of Madras and graduated from the National Defence College in New Delhi.
  
• Paul Vasanthakumar: A senior judge of Tamil Nadu, Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar is to head the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir. On 22nd January, the President issued an order appointing the Judge with immediate effect.Justice Paul Vasanthakumar, who was born in Kanyakumari will be the second Chief Justice to the Jammu and Kashmir HC from Tamil Nadu. F M Ibrahim Kalifulla, currently a judge of the Supreme Court, had a 14-month stint in the Jammu and Kashmir HC. The 59-yr-old judge is an expert on education and labour laws.
  
• M.S. Narayana: Telugu film industry’s well-known comedian M S Narayana who was critical and was undergoing treatment at KIMS hospital, breathed his last on 23rd January. He acted in nearly 700 movies and also written dialogues for eight films and won the prestigious Nandi award five times for his roles in Ram Sakkanodu, Sarduku Podam Randi, Sivamani and Dukudu Movies. He also won the Filmfare award for his role in Dukudu movie.
  
• King Abdullah: King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has died aged 90 after a short illness. His successor is his half-brother Crown Prince Salman.
  
  The death on 23rd January of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah means Salman bin Abdulaziz has become the country's new ruler and the last to be born before the discovery of oil in the world's top crude exporter.
  
  His crown prince will be his youngest half brother Prince Muqrin, a former intelligence chief who was appointed as deputy crown prince in March.
  
  For nearly 50 years Salman was governor of Riyadh Province, a role that involved working closely with both conservative traditionalists and liberal technocrats as he oversaw the development of the Saudi capital from a small desert town to a major metropolis.
  
  As governor of Riyadh from 1962 until 2011, Salman had more to do with foreign governments than many senior royals. The role also meant he was responsible for arbitrating disputes between quarreling members of the ruling family, putting him at the centre of the kingdom's most important power structure.
  
• BABA RAMDEV, RAVI SHANKAR:Yoga guru Baba Ramdev and spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who are tipped to receive Padma awards, have written to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh declining the honour. The Padma awards are announced on the eve of Republic Day.
  
• ARUNDHATI SUBRAMANIAM:Poet Arundhathi Subramaniam on 24th January won the inaugural Khushwant Singh Memorial Prize for Poetry for her work When God is a Traveller. The award, carrying a cash prize of Rs. 2 lakh, was established earlier this year by Suhel Seth in memory of the late Khushwant Singh and is open to Indian poets writing in English or Indian language translation. The jury, which included Ashok Vajpeyi, Jeet Thayil, Namita Gokhale, Pavan K. Varma and Soli Sorabjee, chose from among the nominated books of poetry by a single author published between September 15, 2013 and 2014. The other shortlisted works were: Escape Artistby Sridala Swami (Aleph Book Company);Central Time by Ranjit Hoskote (Penguin Viking); Fire Altar by Keki N Daruwalla (Harper Collins India) and Selected Poems by Joy Goswami translated by Sampurna Chattarji (Harper Perennial).
  
• Saraswathi Menon: United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Indian sociologist Saraswathi Menon to a panel that will review peace building activities. Ms. Menon, a former lecturer at Madras University, has extensive experience in women’s and development issue. She has been the director of the Policy Division of UN-Women, the UN body for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, and the director of the UN Development Program’s Evaluation Office. Her other UNDP assignments included postings in Mongolia and Nepal. She has a doctorate in sociology from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi.
  
• The others on the seven-member panel, formally known as “advisory group on the review of the peace-building architecture”, include a retired Pakistani major general, Anis Bajwa and Charles Petrie of France, who headed an internal review panel on UN actions in Sri Lanka. Mr. Ban formed the group at the request of the Presidents of the General Assembly and the Security Council.
  
• Ramdev made Haryana’s brand ambassador
  The BJP government in Haryana has appointed yoga guru Ramdev the state's brand ambassador. Haryana has ambitious plans to promote yoga and ayurveda in a big way.Announcing this at a news conference at the Divya Yog Mandir, Haryana's minister of sports and health Anil Vij said a herbal forest would be developed over thousands of acres of land in the state where plants of 25 thousand species of ayurvedic herbs would be grown under the supervision of the yoga guru and his close aide Balkrishna.
  
  The emphasis on yoga and ayurveda would lead to an amalgamation of tradition and modernity and inclusion of yoga in the school syllabus would turn Haryana into a model state based on Indian values and traditions.
  
  Disclosing the state government's grandiose plans to promote yoga and ayurveda, Vij said Krishna Ayurvedic college of Haryana would be developed into an Ayurvedic University whereas a yogic centre of international standards would be built in Panchkula.
  
  Vij said he has been camping at Patanjali Yogpeeth for the last two days to discuss with the yoga guru the methods to implement the state government's plans to promote yoga and ayurveda.
  
  Yoga would be made a compulsory subject in Haryana's schools for which yogshalas would be constructed in all the towns and about 6500 villages of the state under the guidance of Ramdev, he said.Zero period in all schools of Haryana would be yoga period and the PT teachers would have to undergo a training in yoga under the guidance of the yoga guru, he said.
  
  An ayush wing was being established in all the hospitals of Haryana for which 550 doctors would have to do a refresher course under the supervision of the yoga guru, Vij said, adding that Anaganvadi teachers would also be imparted training in yoga.
  
• SK Sinha: Justice S K Sinha was on 12th January appointed chief justice of Bangladesh to become the first Hindu to hold the highest judicial post in the Muslim-majority country. Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, the most senior judge of the country's Supreme Court, was appointed the chief justice of Bangladesh
  
  A law ministry statement said 64-year-old Sinha would take over on January 17, as present Chief Justice Muzammel Hossain will retire on January 16.Sinha was the most senior judge in the apex appellate division of the Supreme Court after Hossain. Unitary Bangladesh's Supreme Court comprises two divisions — the appellate division and the high court division.
  
• Deepak Parekh: Global defense and aerospace company BAE Systems on Monday said it had appointed HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh as a non-Executive Director and Chairman of its Indian subsidiary, BAE Systems India (Services). Mr. Parekh’s association with BAE Systems began in 2010, when he was appointed as a member of the company’s Independent Advisory Board for India, the company said in a release.
  
• V.B. Rajendra Prasad: Prominent Telugu film producer V.B. Rajendra Prasad passed away on 12th January. He is survived by one daughter and three sons including actor Jagapathi Babu.
  
  He produced with over 20 films on the Jagapathi Pictures and Jagapathi Art Productions and directed 14 films, including two each in Hindi and Tamil. His directorial debut, ‘Dasara Bullodu’
  
  His ‘Antasthulu’ got a national award in 1965 and apart from the K.V. Reddy Memorial Award in 2000, he also received the prestigious Raghupathi Venkayya Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2003.
  
• AvinashChander: Government has sacked chief of Defense Research and Development Organization, DRDO Avinash Chander 16 months before his contract was to end. MrChander had retired on November 30th last year on attaining 64 years of age and he was given a contract for 18 months till 31st May next year.
  
• PournimaGupte: The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has got a member-actuary. IRDAI said that PournimaGupte has taken charge as Whole-time Member (Actuary) of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India
  
  Prior to this, Gupte was the chief actuary at IDBI Federal Life Insurance. She has been appointed for a period of five years or till she attains the age of 62 years or till further orders, whichever was the earliest. The position of Member Actuary at Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda), has been lying vacant for more than three years. R Kannan, Former Member-Actuary at Irda retired in early 2011 and the position is vacant since then.
  
• Brahma: Election Commissioner Hari Shankar Brahma was on 15th January elevated as the chief election commissioner. He will assume charge on 16th January. Incumbent V S Sampath demitted office on 15th January on attaining the age of 65.
  
  The convention is to appoint the senior-most among the election commissioners as the chief election commissioner. After Brahma's appointment, government will set in motion the process to appoint an election commissioner to fill a vacancy in the three-member body.
  
  A 1975-batch IAS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre, Brahma (64), who hails from Assam, will have tenure of slightly over three months till April 19 when he turns 65, the upper age limit for the post under the Constitution. Brahma was the Union Power Secretary before his induction into the Election Commission. He assumed charge as one of the three Election Commissioners on August 25, 2010.
  
• AP Singh: The government has accepted the resignation of former IPS officer Amar Pratap Singh from the post of member, Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). He had offered to step down a week ago, much ahead of completion of his tenure in 2017. Singh was appointed member, UPSC in 2013 after serving as CBI director from 2010 to 2012.
  
• Giorgio Napolitano: In Italy, President Giorgio Napolitano has announced his retirement in a resignation letter. Officials say his departure leaves Prime Minister Matteo Renzi with the difficult task of finding a successor. Some commentators have predicted that Mr Renzi may opt for elections if he cannot find support for a replacement to 89-year-old Mr Napolitano.
  
  The President's role is mainly ceremonial, although he can choose a Prime Minister and dissolve Parliament. The power President posses has been seen as crucial in recent years and Mr Napolitano was praised by some for using it to dismiss PM Silvio Berlusconi at the height of Italy's sovereign debt crisis in 2011.
  
• Obama names two Indian-Americans to key posts
  US President Barack Obama has nominated two Indian-Americans to key posts of chairman of the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) and member of the Board of Directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.
  
  Jonodev Osceola Chaudhuri, son of a native American mother and an Indian immigrant father, is currently the acting chairman of the commission responsible for regulating and ensuring the integrity of the more than 420 Indian gaming facilities. A graduate of Dartmouth College, Chaudhuri earned a law degree from Cornell Law School in 1999.
  
  In 2012, Chaudhuri was named senior counselor to the assistant secretary for Indian affairs in the Department of the Interior, where he served for a year before moving to the gaming board.
  
  He has also served on Native American courts as an Associate Judge on the Puyallup Tribe of Nations Court from 2011 to 2012, an Appellate Judge on the San Manuel Mission Band of Indians Appeals Court from 2009 to 2012, and an Appellate Judge on the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Supreme Court from 2006 to 2012.
  
  Prior to becoming a judge, he served as a deputy public defender in the Maricopa County Public Defender's Office from 2010 to 2011. He also ran his own law firm Chaudhuri Law Office, where he was managing attorney from 2006 to 2010.
  
  Deven J. Parekh, who has been named to the Board of Overseas Private Investment Corporation, is currently a managing director at Insight Venture Partners, a position he has held since 2001.
  
  Parekh held a number of roles at Berenson Minella & Company between 1992 and 2000, including Principal and Vice President. Previously, from 1991 to 1992, he was a financial analyst for the Blackstone Group.
  
  He has served as a Member of the Technological Advisory Council of the Federal Communications Commission since 2011. He is a Member of the Board of Publicolor, which he chaired from 2007 to 2012.
  
  Parekh is Treasurer and Member of the Board of Governors of the National Academy Museum, a Member of the Board of the Tisch MS Research Center of New York, and a Member of the Greater NY Partnership.
  
  He is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Economic Club of New York. From 2010 to 2012, he was a Member of the Advisory Board of the Export-Import Bank of the United States.
  
  In 2006, he was named a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute. Parekh received a BS from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
  
• Leela Samson: Leela Samson, head of Censor Board resigned to her job. She has quit over clearance to controversial film Messenger of God, the government denied any interference in the board's functioning. Leela Samson announced her resignation after the tribunal's reported clearance to Messenger of God featuring Dera Saccha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in a lead role.
  
  The Censor Board had referred the issue of clearance to "Messenger of God" to FCAT. The film was slated to hit the screens on 17th January.
  
• Anupam Shrivastava: BSNL said on 16th January that Anupam Shrivastava has taken charge as the company’s new Chairman and Managing Director. He has been appointed for five years or till the time of superannuation at age 60. Shrivastava, a 1981 batch ITS officer, had previous served as Director (Consumer Mobility) at BSNL.
  
• Nadir Patel: Nadir Patel, is the new Canada's new high commissioner to India. Prior to his arrival in India, Patel served as Assistant Deputy Minister and Chief Financial Officer for Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development.
  
  Before that he held a series of high-level government positions, including Chief of Staff to the National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister, and Secretary to the Cabinet.
  
  From 2009 to 2011, Patel was Canada's Consul General in Shanghai; China.Patel currently serves on the Board of Governors of the International Development Research Centre, a Canadian Crown Corporation that supports research and innovation in developing countries to promote growth and development.
  
• Arvind Panagariya: Economist Arvind Panagariya will be the first vice-chairman of the National Institution for Transforming India (Niti) Aayog, which will have two full-time members -- economist Bibek Debroy and former DRDO chief VK Saraswat, a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said 5th January.
  
  The Article 239 of the Constitution defines both Delhi and Puducherry as Union Territories and therefore, their administrators -- lieutenant governors -- will be members of the panel.
  
  Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Suresh Prabhu and Radha Mohan Singh have been appointed as ex-officio members while Nitin Gadkari, Smriti Zubin Irani andThaawar Chand Gehlot are the special invitees.
  
• Ganesh Patro: Popular Telugu dialogue writer Ganesh Patro passed away on 5th January. Some of his notable films include "Maro Charitra," "Rudraveena," "Maa Pallelo Gopaludu," "Nirnayam" and "Mayuri" among others.
  
• Jagtar Singh Tara: Jagtar Singh Tara, the Khalistani militant arrested in Thailand on 6th January. He will shortly be extradited to India and handed over to the Punjab police. The top strategist of Babbar Khalsa International, convicted for his involvement in the assassination of Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, was among the four persons who escaped from the high-security Burail Jail in Chandigarh by digging a tunnel in 2004.
  
  Tara was among the seven militants convicted for their involvement in the August 31, 1995 killing of Beant Singh in a suicide blast.
  
• Beant Singh was the Chief Minister of Punjab from 1992 to 1995, he belongs to Congress Party. He was the first Chief Minister of India assassinated. He was killed by suspected Khalistani separatists in a car bombing. The killing was in retaliation for the alleged human rights violations during the anti-insurgency operations in Punjab.
  
• R. Koteswaran: R Koteeswaran has taken charge of Indian Overseas Bank as its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. Formerly, he was an Executive Director of Bank of India.
  
• KK Paul: Krishan Kant Paul was sworn in as the sixth Governor of Uttarakhand on 8th January. Justice V.K. Bisht of the Uttarakhand High Court administered the oath of office to Dr. Paul at the Raj Bhavan.
  
• Sathiyavathy: The Centre has appointed M. Sathiyavathy as the director-general of civil aviation. She replaces Prabhat Kumar, who has been removed from the post within a year of his appointment. She is only the second woman officer to hold Director General post after Prem Lal who held the post in early 1980s.
  
• Devadas: Rajan Devadas, Indian-American photojournalists whose lenses chronicled U.S.-India relations for more than half-a-century, died of cardiac arrest at the Hebrew Home of Greater Washington on 27th December. He won Padma Shri award, he has covered the U.S. visit of every Indian Prime Minister — from Jawaharlal Nehru to Manmohan Singh — besides photographing every U.S. President — from John F Kennedy to George W Bush. Devadas, was born in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala in 1921, spent much of his childhood in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, and studied at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU).
  
• Aziz Qureshi: Uttarakhand Governor Aziz Qureshi, who had taken the Union government to Supreme Court for alleged attempts to ease him out of office, was today shifted to Mizoram. A Presidential communiqué said that Mr Qureshi has been transferred and appointed as Governor of Mizoram for the remainder of his term till May 2017 and Meghalaya Governor KK Paul will take his place.
  Mr Paul, who was appointed as Governor of Meghalaya on July 8, 2013, will continue to hold additional charge of Governor of Manipur till further orders, it said.
  
  Mr Qureshi, who was among the Governors appointed by the UPA government, was reportedly told by Home Secretary Anil Goswami to quit after the NDA government took charge at the Centre. He had approached the Supreme Court against attempts to ease him out.
  
• Nadimatla Sridhar: IAS officer Nadimatla Sridhar has been appointed as the Chairman and Managing Director of State-owned coal mining company Singareni Collieries Company Limited. Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on 30th December approved the appointment of Sridhar after its CMD Sutirtha Bhattacharya was selected by the Centre to serve as the chairman of Coal India Limited recently.
  
• Mittal: A.K. Mittal was appointed as the new Chairman of Railway Board succeeding Arunendra Kumar, who superannuated on December 31.
  Pradeep Kumar, who was General Manager of the North Central Railway holding additional charge of Northern Railway, has become new Member Staff succeeding Mr. Mittal.
  
  The Railways also filled the post of Member Electrical, which was lying vacant for more than six months after the retirement of Kulbhushan in July 31 this year. Navin Tondon, General Manager of South Eastern Central Railways, has been appointed Member Electrical.
  
  V.K. Gupta, Member Engineering, has been given additional responsibility of Member Mechanical at the Board.
  
• Radhakrishnan: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman K. Radhakrishnan retired on 31st December. Shailesh Nayak, who is Secretary, Union Earth Sciences Ministry, will hold additional and interim charge as Chairman for a month or until a regular chief is named, said an order by the Secretary, Appointments’ Committee of the Union Cabinet.
  Dr. Radhakrishnan led ISRO in many achievements over the past five years after he took over the reins in November 2009. The historic Mars Orbiter Mission was launched and guided to an orbit around the red planet under his leadership. The partial experimental sub-orbital flight of the GSLV Mark-III heavy-lift launch vehicle was another success. The early part of his chairmanship was marred by the Antrix-Devas S-band satellite controversy and the cancellation of that deal in February 2011. Dr. Radhakrishnan took over from G. Madhavan Nair in October 2009 as the seventh chief of the space establishment.
  
• Three new judges sworn in at Bombay High Court
  Three new judges were sworn in at the Bombay High Court on 1st January. Chief Justice Mohit Shah administered the oath of office to Kalidas Laxmanrao Wadane, Indira K. Jain and Shalini Phansalkar Joshi. With this, the strength of judges at the court has gone up to 67.
  
• K.K. Paul: Krishan Kant Paul will be sworn in as the sixth Governor of Uttarakhand on January 8. A presidential communiqué said Mr. Paul, Meghalaya Governor, would continue to hold the office of the Governor of Manipur. The current Uttarakhand Governor, Aziz Qureshi, would be transferred to Mizoram.
• R.K Srivastava: R.K Srivastava on 2nd January took over as the new chairman of Airports Authority of India (AAI) replacing Sudheer Raheja. The government had announced Srivastava’s appointment on December 19 for five years.
  
• Koteeswaran: R Koteeswaran has taken over as the Chairman and Managing Director of public sector Indian Overseas Bank (IOB). Prior to this, Koteeswaran was serving as Executive Director of Bank of India.
  
• Gowarikar: Vasant Ranchhod Gowarikar, a stalwart who played a key role in India’s space programme, passed away in Pune on 2nd January. A chemical engineer with a doctorate from Birmingham University, Dr. Gowarikar joined the Indian Space Research Organisation in 1967, settling down in Thiruvananthapuram.
  
• Kiran Vadodaria: Kiran B. Vadodaria of Sambhaav Metro was elected president of Indian Newspaper Society (INS) for 2014-15 at its 75th annual general meeting on 2nd January.
  P.V. Chandran ( Grihalakshmi ) will be the deputy president, Somesh Sharma ( Rashtradoot Saptahik ) the vice-president, Mohit Jain ( Economic Times ) the honorary treasurer and V. Shankaran the secretary-general of INS.
  
• Leela Samson: The ninth edition of dance festival at The Music Academy here had a befitting start on Saturday with the title of ‘Natya Kala Acharya’ being conferred on renowned Bharatanatyam artist Leela Samson. She was presented the title and citation by Masanori Nakano, Consul General of Japan, Chennai.
  
• Edward Brooke: Former US Senator Edward W Brooke passed away. He was the first black in America to win election to the Senate. He is a liberal Republican who became the first black in American history to win popular election to the Senate, he died on 3rd December.
  Brooke was elected to the Senate from Massachusetts in 1966, becoming the first black to sit in that branch from any state since the post-Civil War Reconstruction era and one of nine blacks who have ever served there including Barack Obama.