PERSONS JUNE 2014

PERSONS JUNE 2014

• David Bergvinson: David Bergvinson will be the next director general of theInternational Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). The governing board of ICRISAT has appointed David Bergvinson as the head of ICRISAT for a five-year term, effective from 2015. He succeeds the current director general, William Dar, who has served the institute since 1999.ICRISAT which conducts agricultural research for development in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
  
  • ICRISAT has the Head quarts in Hyderabad.
  • ICRISAT is a non-profit, non-political organisation.
    
• Jean-Claude Juncker--- Jean-Claude Juncker has been named as the next president of the European Commission. Juncker is a former Luxembourg prime minister and was backed by all EU member states except Britain and Hungary. The President of the European Commission is the head of the European Commission which is the executive branch of the European Union (EU) ? the most powerful body in the EU.
  
  • The current President of European Commission is Jose Manuel Barroso, who took office in October 2004.
    
• Yellapragada Sudharshan Rao---Yellapragada Sudharshan Rao, former Professor of Kakatiya University in Warangal on 25 June appointed as Chairman of Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR). Prof. Rao will be holding the post of ICHR Chief for a term of three years. He is expected to assume the charge on June 28 in New Delhi. He retired from Kakatiya University Department of History where he was Head of the Department and also served as Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences.
  
• A.K. Dubey: A.K. Dubey was appointed as Chairman of Coal India Limited on 25th June. He will serve as the Chairman for a period of three months until the new chairman of the state-owned company is duly appointed. The post of Chairman was lying vacant since May-end 2014 when the then Chairman of CIL S Narsingh Rao resigned from the post. Coal India Limited is an Indian state-controlled coal mining company. Its H.Q is in Kolkata.
  
• Justice V K Rajah---- Singapore President Tony Tan Keng Yam on 25 June appointed Justice V K Rajah as the eighth Attorney-General of Singapore. The President also appointed Justice Rajah as a Member of the Presidential Council for Minority Rights for a term of three years. He has been the Chairman of the Singapore Institute of Legal Education as well as the Board of Judicial Learning since 2010.
• Rajeev Topno---- Rajeev Topno was appointed as Private Secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Appointment Committee of Cabinet (ACC) approved the name of Topno on 18th June 2014. He is a 1996 batch Indian Administrative Service officer from the Gujarat cadre. He was a part of Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) under former PM Manmohan Singh.
  
• M. Shashidhar Reddy--- The Vice Chairman of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on 17 June 2014 resigned from his post. He sent his resignation to the Prime Minister, who is also the chairman of NDMA. Shashidhar Reddy was appointed as a member of the NDMA in 2005 and was promoted to the position of Vice Chairman in December 2010. Apart from Shashidhar Reddy, five other NDMA members also resigned from their positions.
  • The Government of India on 23 December 2005 enacted the Disaster Management Act, which envisaged the creation of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
  • It is headed by the Prime Minister, while the State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMAs) headed by respective Chief Ministers. It works to implement a holistic and integrated approach to Disaster Management in India.
    
• Kodela Siva PrasadaRao---Kodela Siva PrasadaRao of Telugu Desam Party, on 20th June 2014 was elected as the first Assembly speaker of Andhra Pradeshafter bifurcation. He is a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Sattenapalli constituency. He previously served in the cabinets of N.T. Rama Rao and N. Chandrababu Naidu. Article 178 of the Constitution of India provides for Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly.
  
• Dilip Kumar--- ‘The Substance and the Shadow’, the biography of 91-year-old-thespian Dilip Kumar was released on 10 June 2014 in Mumbai by Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra and Aamir Khan. The biography in form of memoir has been penned by Uday Tara Nayar, a former journalist. The book has detailed the career of the legend of Bollywood who was born as Mohammad Yusuf Khan and adopted the screen name of Dilip Kumar. He was born in Peshawar, Pakistan in 1922 and spent his childhood in Maharashtra In 1991, he was honoured with India’s third-highest civilian award, Padma Bhushan. In 1994, he received Dadasaheb Phalke Award.
  
• Ranjit Kumar--- Senior Supreme Court advocate Ranjit Kumar was on 7th June appointed as the Solicitor General. He was considered an expert on Constitutional laws. The Law Ministry also issued notifications appointing senior advocates Maninder Singh, Tushar Mehta, L Nageshwar Rao, P S Patwalia, Neeraj Kishen Kaul and P S Narasimha as Additional Solicitors General.With this, the Narendra Modi government has made its first appointments of law officers who would be representing it in courts.
  • The Appointments Committee of Cabinet had on June 4 cleared the names of the SG and ASGs.
  • G E Vahanvati and Mohan Parasaran resigned last week as Attorney General and Solicitor General respectively along with other law officers after the NDA government assumed office.
  • It is a convention that law officers step down with the change of government.
  
  
• Lieutenant General (Retd.) Abhijit Guha----A retired Indian Army Lieutenant General, has been appointed member of a UN expert panel on peacekeeping that will advice the U.N on how to use new technologies and innovations in that field. Lieutenant General (retd) Abhijit Guha is part of the five-member panel of experts appointed by Under-Secretaries- General for Peacekeeping Operations and for Field Support Herve Ladsous and Ameerah Haq. Guha has recently concluded a term as Director of the Office for Peacekeeping Strategic Partnerships in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and also served as the former Deputy Military Adviser in the department from 2010 until 2012.
  
• Madhuri Dixit---Madhya Pradesh State government appointed Madhuri Dixit as the brand ambassador of maternal and child health campaign - Mamta Abhiyan. Health Department of M.P launched Mamta Abhiyan in 2013 as part of a move to bring down the maternal and infant mortality rates and improve maternal and child health in the State by providing better facilities.
  
• Gopinath Munde---Union Rural Development Minister, Gopinath Munde of BJP died in a road accident in Delhi on 3 June 2014. Munde was sworn-in as the Cabinet Minister for Panchayati Raj, Drinking Water and Sanitation and Rural Development on 26 May 2014.He was a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) in Maharashtra for five terms from 1980 to 1985 and then from 1990 to 2009. He was the Leader of the Opposition in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from 1992 to 1995 and held the post of Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 1995 to 1999.He won the Lok Sabha election from Beed constituency for the first time in 2009 and served as Deputy Leader of Opposition in 15th Lok Sabha (2009-2014).
  
• Kathleen Stephens--- Kathleen Stephens on 6 June 2014 took charge as US interim Ambassador to India. Stephens is replacing the former US Ambassador Nancy Powell. Nancy Powell had left India on 22 May 2014 after announcing the end of her tenure in March 2014.She will head the US mission until a new permanent ambassador is nominated and confirmed by the US Senate. Stephens was US ambassador to South Korea from 2008 to 2011.