PERSONS JUNE 2016

PERSONS JUNE 2016

• Rajesh Agarwal: London's Mayor Sadiq Khan has appointed India-born Rajesh Agrawal as the deputy mayor for business. Khan had tasked Agrawal with championing London's interests following the exit of Britain after the EU referendum, and protecting jobs and growth while the negotiation process for exit takes place. Agrawal was Khan's business adviser during his mayoral campaign.
  
  Born and brought up in Indore, India, Agrawal arrived in London in 2001 and became a fin-tech entrepreneur and innovator.
  
• Sanjoy Mookerjee: The Railway Board Financial Commissioner Sanjoy Mookerjee has resigned citing ‘personal reasons’, just three months ahead of his retirement.
  
• Sujoy Bose: Centre has appointed Mr. Sujoy Bose, Director and Global Co-Head, Infrastructure and Natural Resources, International Finance Corporation, Washington, as the Chief Executive Officer of National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) Ltd.
  
  Bose has extensive international experience in the infrastructure sector including experience in raising funds from international investors.
  
  The NIIF has been established with the aim to attract investment from both domestic and international sources for infrastructure development in commercially viable projects. It has been incorporated as a company under the Companies Act, 2013, duly authorized to act as investment manager of National Investment and Infrastructure Fund.
  
  The establishment activities of the NIIF are underway and steps are being taken to operationalize the initiatives with different investors including RUSNANO, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and Qatar Investment Authority (QIA). An initial budgetary allocation of 4000 crore rupees has also been made in 2016-17 budget. Further allocation would be made as and when necessary.
  
• NS Vishwanathan: N S Vishwanathan is being appointed as a deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), replacing H R Khan, who will retire next week. Vishwanathan, currently executive director, was chosen by a search committee headed by the Cabinet secretary, the first appointment to be done through this panel.
  
  The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved A formal order of his appointment will be issued soon
  
  All appointments of deputy governors to RBI were previously done by a panel headed by the governor. For the first time this has been made through recommendations of the Financial Sector Regulatory Appointment Search Committee, headed by the Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha.
  
  This panel included RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan. Rajan had headed the panel as early as this January that gave a three-year extension to Urjit Patel, another deputy governor.
  
  Khan, in-charge of the financial markets, internal debt management and foreign management department was appointed as a deputy governor in July 2011 and reappointed in 2014.
  
  The central bank has four deputy governors — two from within the ranks (the other being R Gandhi), a former commercial banker (S S Mundra) and an economist to head the monetary policy department (Urjit Patel).
  
  Prior to being appointed as executive director in April 2014, Vishwanathan was principal chief general manager in the department of non-banking supervision. He has also served as chief general manager of vigilance at IFCI Ltd, a Delhi-based government-owned finance company.
  
• K G Subramanyan: Legendary artist K G Subramanyan, credited with being one of the pioneers of Indian modern art, passed away in Vadodara on 29th June
  
  In a career spanning over six decades, had been a painter, sculptor, muralist and print maker besides an author of children's books. He was awarded Padma Vibhushan in 2012, Padma Bhushan in 2006 and Padma Shri in 1975.
  
  He was renowned for his outdoor murals, terracottas, and toys and also experimented with weaving. In the 1970s, he began experimenting with reverse painting, an 18th century craft tradition where the artist paints on a sheet of glass and reverses the glass to view the final image.
  
• Michel Rocard: Former French Socialist Prime Minister Michel Rocard died on 2nd July. Rocard, a fervent advocate of the European Union, served as Prime Minister under President Francois Mitterrand from 1988 to 1991. One of his achievements was the creation of the RMI, a welfare program.
  
• Aida Gemanque: Three years after becoming the world's oldest skydiver, Aida Gemanque became the oldest Olympic torch bearer on 18th June when she carried the flame in the Amazonian city of Macapa, aged 106. Gemanque broke the record formerly held by Alexander Kaptarenko, who was 101 when he took part in the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics relay.
  
  The 95-day torch relay will pass through 325 Brazilian cities and involve some 12,000 runners before ending at Rio's Maracana Stadium for the lighting of the Olympic cauldron on August 5.
  
• S.K. Roy:Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) Chairman S K Roy has written to the government to relieve him of his duties from June 29 this year.
  
  Roy, who took charge as chairman of the country’s largest insurer on the same date in 2013, had a five-year term. The reasons for his resignation are not known.
  
  The approval of his request for being relieved of his duties will be subject to consent of the Cabinet Committee on Appointments.
  
• Yasmin Sooka: South African Indian-origin lawyer and long-time human rights activist Yasmin Sooka has been appointed to chair a UN commission to monitor the human rights situation in South Sudan and make recommendations for their improvement.
  
  Sooka, who has vast experience in global human rights matters, will serve together with Kenneth Scott from the US and Godfrey Musila of Kenya on the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan
  
  The UN resolved to establish the Commission following calls for investigation into alleged atrocities by both government and rebel forces before an independent South Sudan was carved out of the larger Sudan in 2011.
  
• Mehbooba Mufti: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on 25th June won in the Anantnag Assembly by-election by 12,085 votes. Of the 28,500 votes cast, Ms. Mufti polled 17,701. Hilal Shah of the Congress polled 5,616 votes and Iftikhar Misger of the National Conference 2,811.
  
  The PDP’s winning margin has doubled in Anantnag, though the NC and the Congress pegged their campaign on the anti-BJP wave and cornered Ms. Mufti over the PDP’s alliance with the BJP. In the 2014 elections, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, father of Ms. Mehbooba, defeated Mr. Shah of the Congress by 6,000 votes.
  
• Guda Anjaia:Noted Telangana folk poet and lyricist Guda Anjaiah died of heart ailment on 21st June. Born in Lingapuram in Adilabad district in 1955, Guda Anjaiah had penned hundreds of songs only on the tears and travails of the downtrodden sections of society. His popular songs and books including Polimera novel were translated into several languages.
  
  Most popular of his songs 'Vooru Manadira, Yee Vaada Manadira...' was used in Erra Sainyam of Narayana Murthy. Also known as Anjanna, he had also worked for Telangana cultural organization and actively participated in 1969 Telangana movement as a student.
  
  Books: polimera, Dalita Kathalu
  
  Awards: 
  • Sahithya Bandu Ratna award - 1986
  • Rajini Telugu Sahithi Samithi Award -1988
  • Ganda Pendera - 2000
  • Dr. Malaya Sri Sahithi Award -2004
  • Suddala Hanumanthu - Janakamma Award - 2015
  • Komuram Bheem National Award - 2015
  • Telangana Sahithya Puraskaram – 2015
  
  
• Peter Thomson: The United Nations General Assembly on 13th June elected Peter Thomson, Permanent Representative of Fiji, as President of its upcoming 71st session. Thomson, who will replace current General Assembly President Mogens Lykketoft, will begin his tenure in September at the commencement of the 71st General Assembly session.
  
  Made up of all the 193 Member States of the UN, the General Assembly provides a forum for multilateral discussion of the full spectrum of international issues covered by the UN Charter. It meets in regular session intensively from September to December each year, and thereafter as required.
  
• Sunil Mittal: Sunil Bharti Mittal, Founder and Chairman, Bharti Enterprises, has been elected as the Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).
  
  He is the third Indian business leader to hold this position in ICC’s near 100-year-old history. Mittal takes over from Terry McGraw, Chairman Emeritus of S&P Global, who will subsequently become ICC’s Honorary Chairman. The ICC World Council elected the new leaders at a voting held in Sao Paolo, Brazil, Bharti Enterprises said in a statement. Founded in 1919, ICC is the world’s largest business organisation which represents private sector views to national governments and inter-governmental bodies.
  
• Manohar Aich: India's first Mr Universe Manohar Aich passed away in Kolkata on 5th June. Aich, who turned 104 on March 17, was once a household name in Bengal after becoming India's first Mr Universe in 1952. At just four feet and 11 inches, Aich was not the tallest of men but took up bodybuilding and made this his passion during his stint at the Royal Air Force under British colonial rulers.
  
• T Haque: He was former chairman of Commission for Agriculture Costs and Prices, has been appointed the head of the newly created land policy cell in the NITI Aayog. Haque was among the prime mover behind the Model Land Leasing Act, which the central government is planning to bring for the states to follow. Haque has been appointed in the rank of secretary to the government of India for two years, which can be extended for another year.
  
  Haque would now spearhead the Centre’s efforts to convince state governments to modernise their land leasing laws, and update and digitise land records - a task which has been lingering for long due to lack of cooperation by states.
  
  Land being a state subject, any change in laws related to that has to be with their consent. The Model Land Leasing Act proposes legalisation of leasing to ensure that tenants get access to institutional credit, insurance and compensation at the time of a disaster without impacting the legal ownership right of the holder in the rank of secretary to the government of India for two years.
  
• Four Indians among Forbes' 'The World's Most Powerful Women' list
   Four Indian business leaders have made their way into the 2016 edition of The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women list, brought out by Forbes.
  
  The Indian businesswomen on the 13th edition of the annual rankings include State Bank of India Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya (ranked 25); Chanda Kochhar (40), MD and CEO, ICICI Bank; Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (77), Chairman and MD of Biocon; and Shobhana Bhartia (93), Chairperson and Editorial Director, HT Media Ltd.
  
  Bhattacharya is at the helm of the nation’s largest lender, while Kochhar leads the country’s largest private sector bank. Mazumdar-Shaw’s Biocon is a pioneer in the field of biopharmaceuticals and clinical research and Bhartia’s HT Media is a media house with interests ranging from newspapers and radio stations to online job portals and education.
  
  German Chancellor Angela Merkel topped this year’s list, for the sixth consecutive year, and 11 times in total. She is followed by presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen in the second and third spots respectively.
  
  Forbes uses four metrics to arrive at the list of the most powerful women in the world. These include money (net worth, company revenues, or GDP); media presence; spheres of influence; and impact, analyzed both within the context of each woman’s field (media, technology, business, philanthropy, politics, and finance) and outside of it.
  
• Umang bedi: Facebook, the global online social networking service, said it had appointed Umang Bedi, former head at Adobe India, managing director of its operations in this country. Bedi, earlier MD for Adobe in South Asia, would succeed Kirthiga Reddy. She moves to America to take a global role at the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California. Bedi, an engineering graduate from the University of Pune and an alumnus of Harvard Business School, would assume the charge from July.
  
• Hillory Clinton: Hillary Clinton on 8th June made history as she became the first woman to clinch the presidential nomination of a major American political party by winning crucial California and three other state primaries but her Democratic rival Bernie Sanders remained defiant.
  
  Clinton, who won California, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota, now has 2,755 delegates or more than half of the 4,051 total pledged delegates while Sanders has 1,852.
  
  However, Sanders, who won in Montana and North Dakota, refused to concede defeat to Clinton, vowing to stay in the Democratic nomination race.
  
  In the November presidential elections, Clinton would face fellow New Yorker Donald Trump, from the Republican Party, who she said is not fit to lead the country.
  
• Umesh Sachdev: A 30-year old Indian entrepreneur Umesh Sachdev has been named by Time magazine to its 2016 list of “10 millennials who are changing the world” for building a phone which can help people to interact and access critical services by communicating in their native languages.
  
  Sachdev, along with his college friend Ravi Saraogi, founded Uniphore Software Systems. The Chennai-based startup produces software allows people to interact with their phones and access services such as online banking by communicating in their native languages, Time said in its profile on Sachdev.
  
  Uniphore’s products, which include a virtual assistant that is able to process more than 25 global languages and 150 dialects, are being used by over five million people, mostly in India.
  
  Time said through the software, Sachdev is building bridges and helping “hundreds of millions of people cross the divide between the digital and the real world by harnessing the power of speech.
  
• Razak Khan: Veteran comedy actor Razak Khan, who worked in films like “Hera Pheri”, “Raja Hindustani” and “Baadshah” among others, passed away on 1^stJune following a cardiac arrest. The comedian was also seen in Salman Khan’s “Hello Brother”, Shah Rukh Khan-starrer “Baadshah”, and Aamir Khan’s “Raja Hindustani”.
  
  Khan’s notable roles include “Anari No 1”, “Hera Pheri”, “Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega”, “Aamdani Atthani Kharcha Rupaiyaa” and “Hungama”.
  
• Neeraja Sethi:Two Indian-origin women have featured on the Forbes’ annual list of America’s 60 wealthiest and most successful self-made women entrepreneurs who have “crashed ceilings through invention and innovation.
  
  India-born Neerja Sethi, who co-founded IT consulting and outsourcing firm Syntel with her husband Bharat Desai, is ranked 16th on ‘America’s Richest Self-made Women’ list while president and CEO of Arista Networks Jayshree Ullal (55) is ranked 30th.
  
  According to Forbes, the richest self-made woman in America is Diane Hendricks, the owner of ABC Supply, the largest wholesale distributor of roofing and siding in the country.
  
  Hendricks is now worth USD 4.9 billion, USD 1.2 billion more than last year when she was ranked second. The second annual tally of America’s wealthiest, most successful self-made women includes 60 trailblazers -- 10 more than last year.
  
  The 60 women, who are worth a combined USD 53 billion, have created some of the nation’s best known brands such as Gap and Spanx, while a number of them have also helped build some of the most successful companies in tech, including Facebook, eBay and Google."
  
  Sethi (61) has a net worth of USD 1.1 billion. Her company employs more than 25,000 people and boasts a recent market cap of USD 3.6 billion.
  
  She is currently the vice president of corporate affairs, a role she has had since the company’s inception. She also sits on the board of directors alongside her husband, who remains the chairman.
  
  Born in London, raised in New Delhi, Ullal has a net worth of USD 470 million. She became president and CEO of Arista Networks in 2008, when it had no revenues and fewer than 50 employees. The company reported USD 838 million in revenue in 2015, after going public in June 2014.
  
• Nita Ambani: Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's wife Nita Ambani has been nominated for membership in the International Olympic Committee and will become the first Indian woman to be on the apex sporting body if she gets elected at the IOC Session scheduled from August 2 to 4.
  
  The Switzerland-based IOC is the supreme authority of the Olympic Movement and is responsible for holding of the summer and winter Olympics and Paralympics.
  
  Nita Ambani, Founder and Chairperson of Reliance Foundation have been nominated as a candidate to be a new member, pending election, of the IOC. The election will be held at the 129th IOC Session in Rio de Janeiro on August 2-4.
  
  The independent selection process follows a new procedure for recruitment of IOC members based on the Olympic Agenda 2020 recommendations. Once elected, she will continue to be a member until the age of 70. Ambani is the first Indian woman to be nominated to the IOC.
  
• Muhammad Ali: Boxing icon Muhammad Ali has died at the age of 74. The former world heavyweight boxing champion, one of the world's best-known sportsmen, died on 3^rd June
  
  He was suffering from a respiratory illness, a condition that was complicated by Parkinson's disease.
  
  Mr. Ali whose legendary boxing career stretched from 1960 to 1981,dazzled fans with slick moves in the ring, and engaging persona outside it.
  
  His opposition to the Vietnam War saw him banned from the sport for years. Once vilified in some quarters for his outspoken stance on civil rights issues, Ali held firm to earn dozens of tributes, lighting the Olympic torch in 1996 in Atlanta and being named a UN messenger of peace in 1998.
  
  He received the highest US civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 2005.
  
  Mohammed Ali, is counted among the world's greatest sports persons and inspiring personalities. Born in 1942 he was a legend very early in his life winning the world heavyweight championship in 1964 at the age of 22. His fame went beyond the sporting arena as he emerged as the voice against racial discrimination.
  
• Eknath Khadse: Maharashtra Governor C Vidyasagar Rao has accepted the resignation of Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on 4^th June said a retired High Court judge will probe allegations against Eknath Khadse.
  
  Ending speculations and heated debates, Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse submitted his resignation to chief minister Devendra Fadvanis earlier on 4^thJune.
  
  Mr Khadse has been facing heat over a series of allegations including irregularities in a land deal in Pune and allegations levelled by AAP that he received calls from underword Don Dawood Ibrahim's residence in Karachi on his mobile phone.
  
  He is in a controversy over the purchase of a three-acre Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) land in Pune allegedly at a low price of around Rs 3.75 crore from its original owner in the name of his wife and son-in-law. The market value of the land is reportedly Rs 40 crore.