PERSONS MARCH 2010

PERSONS MARCH 2010

• The government of India appointed Congress President Sonia Gandhi chairperson of the National Advisory Council (NAC). The NAC was set up after the UPA came to power in 2004 as an interface with civil society on implementation of the government's National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP), including the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and the Forests Right Act.
  
• Eminent Bhoodan leader Biswanath Patnaik, 94, a close associate of Vinoba Bhave, and was popularly known as the “Koraputia Gandhi” passed away at Baliguda in Orissa's Kandhamal district.
  
• A commemorative stamp on former Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy is being issued by the Postal Department on September 2 to coincide with his first death anniversary.
  
• Chennai-born Shankar Balasubramanian of Cambridge University has been named Innovator of the Year by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), Britain's leading agency for academic research and training in non-clinical life sciences.
  
• The Supreme Court collegium, headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, has recommended the elevation of Chief Justice of the Jharkhand High Court Gyan Sudha Misra as a Supreme Court Judge. Justice Misra, who hails from Bihar will be the fourth woman judge of the Supreme Court, after Fatima Beevi, Sujata Manohar, and Ruma Paul, who retired in June 2006.
  
• The 31-year-old Tejdeep Singh Rattan became the first Sikh in a generation who had continued wearing a traditional turban and yet joined the United States Military, a feat not achieved since 1981.
  
• Kanu Sanyal, one of the architects of the naxalite movement and who, in more recent times, was critical of the Maoists, was found dead at his residence in the Naxalbari area of West Bengal's Darjeeling district.
  
• C.V. Midhun, a second semester B.Sc. Physics student of the Majlis Arts and Science College at Puramannur in Valanchery, Kerala ,who had disputed the famous black hole theory of noted scientist Stephen Hawking, has become part of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment. The LHC, a gigantic instrument placed near Geneva, is studying the impact of particle collision.
  
• The Centre has appointed Justice P. Venkatarama Reddy, a retired judge of the Supreme Court as chairperson of the 19th Law Commission, which will have tenure up to August 31, 2012.
  
• Girija Prasad Koirala(86), the Nepali Congress president, who served as Prime Minister four times and as head of state once, passed away. Koirala, popularly known as Girija babu, was considered a ‘national guardian.'
  
• Former Deputy Chief Minister and Veteran Dalit leader Koneru Ranga Rao (74) died after prolonged illness. Rao held various port folios, including housing and social welfare in the congress governments that were in power from 1978-88 and 1989-94 and went on to become the Deputy Chief Minister in Kotla Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy cabinet.
  
• Noted Marathi poet and Jnanpith award winner, Govind Vinayak Karandikar(91) - known by his literary name Vinda, passed away in Mumbai.
  
• Senior journalist T. Surender has been selected as the new Chairman of Press Academy of Andhra Pradesh (PAAP).
  
• Iron Sharmila, who has been on a fast - onto - death since November 4, 2000 demanding the repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA) in Manipur, was rearrested, as she continued her fast despite being released by the court.
  
• Eminent industrialist G.P. Birla(87) passed away. Son of B.M. Birla, who had helped to set up units such as Orient Paper and Industries, Hyderabad Industries and Nigeria Engineering Works. He was also involved in setting up the Birla Institute of Technology in Ranchi, Birla Science and Technological Museum and Birla Archaeological and Cultural Research Institute.