PERSONS MAY 2015

PERSONS MAY 2015

• John Forbes Nash: American mathematician John Nash, a Nobel Prize laureate whose life story inspired the movie "A Beautiful Mind", was killed in a car accident.
• Tanishq Abraham: An Indian-American home- schooled boy has surprised one and all by graduating from a US college at the age of 11 with three associate degrees in maths, science and foreign language studies. Tanishq Abraham, a native of Sacramento, California, graduated from American River College in Sacramento (ARC), California, alongside 1,800 students. Abraham is the youngest person to graduate from American River College this year. Abraham last year became one of the youngest ever in the US to graduate high school.
• Naresh Takkar: Naresh Takkar, Managing Director & Group Chief Executive Officer of ICRA will now be a part of the External Advisory Committee (EAC) that will be evaluating applicants received for payments banks. This reshuffling happened after Roopa Kudva, former MD & CEO, CRISIL withdrew from the committee, Reserve Bank of India said in a notification.
  
  This EAC is being chaired by Dr. Nachiket Mor, Director, Central Board of RBI. Apart from Mor and Takkar, Shubhalakshmi Panse, former Chairman & Managing Director, Allahabad Bank and Deepak Phatak, Chair Professor, IIT Bombay are a part of the committee that was set up in February. The EAC is required to evaluate the applications received for setting up of payments banks and thereafter needs to make their recommendations to the regulator.
  
  RBI had received 41 applications for payments banks earlier this year. According to the guidelines issued by RBI in November, payment banks can accept demand deposits subject to a cap of Rs 1 lakh a customer and provide payment and remittance services through channels such as internet, branches, business correspondents and mobile banking. They, however, cannot offer credit facilities directly but can act as an agent of a commercial bank for credit and other services.
• Buhari: Muhammadu Buhari formally takes over as Nigeria’s President this week but his inauguration could not have come at a worse time, with the country reeling from a cash crunch and a crippling strike over fuel.
• Pradip Baijal: Former Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, TRAI chairman Pradip Baijal has claimed that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had warned him of consequences if he did not co-operate in the 2G scam. In his book,"The Complete Story of Indian Reforms: 2G, Power and Private Enterprise - A Practitioner's Diary, Mr Baijal said CBI had also warned him that he would be harmed if he did not cooperate. Later, talking to a news channel, he said UPA government had destroyed some files related to the 2G case. Claiming that his charges are not politically motivated, he said the former Prime Minister approved the action of his Ministers.
• Four Indians among world’s 100 most powerful women’Four Indians are among the world’s 100 most powerful women who are “transforming the world”, according to the Forbes’ 12th annual list, which is topped by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
  
  The top 10 include U.S. presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton (2), philanthriopist Melinda Gates (3), Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen (3), GM CEO Mary Barra (5), IMF Chief Christine Lagarde (6), Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff (7), Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg (8), YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki (9,) and U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama (10).
  • SBI Chief Arundhati Bhattacharya (30),
  • ICICI bank head Chanda Kochhar (35),
  • Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (85) and
  • HT Media Chair Shobhana Bhartia (93), and two women of Indian-origin —
  • PepsiCo Chief Indra Nooyi (15) and
  • Cisco Chief Technology and Strategy Officer Padmasree Warrior (84) — make the list. They were
  
  On Ms. Bhattacharya, Forbes said she oversees 2,20,000 staff members in 16,000 branches and services 225 million customers at the country’s largest lender (assets $400 billion) with offices spread over 36 countries.
  
  Merkel has made the list 10 times over the past 12 years — nine times as No 1. The list also includes media mogul Oprah Winfrey (12), singer Beyonce Knowles (21), Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer (22), Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour (28), Queen Elizabeth II (41), TV personality Ellen DeGeneres (50), actress and humanitarian Angelina Jolie (54), Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed (59) and singer Taylor Swift (64). Forbes added that as of January 2015, 10 women served as heads of state and 14 as heads of government. Women currently hold 23 (4.6 per cent) of CEO positions at S&P 500 companies.
• Mary Ellen Mark:She is a photographer. Her unflinching yet compassionate depictions of sex workers in Mumbai, homeless teenagers in Seattle and the mentally-ill in a state institution in Oregon made her one of the premier documentary photographers of her generation, she died on 25th May.
• Naeem Ali Khan: Famous Ghazal Singer Naeem Ali Khan passed away on 28th May. He was the grandson of famous Tabla Maestro Ustad Ahmad Jaan Thirakva. Khan was pupil of famous Ghazal Singer, Ghulam Ali Khan.
• Christopher: Eminent scientist S Christopher was appointed as Director General of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for a two-year term.
  
  The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has approved appointment of Christopher as Secretary, Department of Defence Research and Development-cum-Director General, DRDO for a period of two years from the date of taking over the charge, an order issued by Department of Personnel and Training said. Christopher is presently Distinguished Scientist and Programme Director (airborne early warning and control system) and Director, Centre for Air-Borne Systems in the DRDO.
  
  Another scientist G S Reddy was appointed as the Scientificc Adviser to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar for a two-year term. Mr Reddy is Distinguished Scientist and Director, Research Centre Imarat, and Programme Director of Medium Range Surface to Air Missile (MRSAM) in the DRDO.
  
  The Department of Defence Research and Development (DoDRD) has remained under additional charge of Defence Secretary since January 30 this year, after Avinash Chander's contract was curtailed by the government.
  
  Established in 1980, the DoDRD advises the government on scientific aspects of military equipment and logistics and the formulation of research, design and development plans for the equipment required by the three Services.
• P K Sinha:Pradeep Kumar Sinha has been appointed the Cabinet Secretary, with effect from June 13, 2015. He succeeds Ajit Seth.Sinha has been serving as Secretary in the Ministry of Power since July 2013. He has earlier been Secretary in the Ministry of Shipping, and has held several other important positions in the Union Government and the State of Uttar Pradesh. Pradeep Kumar Sinha is an IAS officer of 1977 batch UP cadre.
• Neeraja Sethi and Jayshree Ullal:Two Indian-origin women find place in Forbes' inaugural list of America's 50 richest self made women. India-born NeerjaSethi, with a net worth of 1.1billion US Dollar, ranked 14th while London born JayshreeUllal with 470 million US Dollar net worth comes at the 30th spot on the list. Sethi, co-founded IT consulting and outsourcing company Syntel with her husband, billionaire Bharat Desai, in 1980. Ullal is the president and CEO of Arista Networks, The first ever list of the America's top 50 most successful, self-made women as measured by their net worths included Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, media mogul Oprah Winfrey, Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman, singer Madonna and Beyonce Knowles, among others.
• Aruna Shanbaug:
  Aruna Shanbaug died on 18th May at Mumbai's KEM hospital after being in coma for 42 years. Shanbaug was raped by a hospital staff member in 1973 and was in coma ever since.
  
  The 68-year-old was critical and was on life support in the last few days. Her battle led to landmark changes in legislation that now permit passive euthanasia.
  
  Four decades of suffering, four decades of existential struggle four decades of confined solitude that's the story of Aruna Shanbaug a woman who spent most part of her life ridden in a hospital bed.
  
  Aruna was a victim of a sexual assault at her workplace in 1973. She was a nurse at the King Edward Memorial hospital in Mumbai when she was raped by a ward boy at the same hospital.
  
  She slipped into a coma after being strangulated during the assault. Since then 42 years passed and Aruna remained bed ridden at ward 4 of the same hospital where she worked.
  
  Shanbaug's condition moved author and activist Pinki Virani to write a book in 1998 about her. In 2009, Virani went to the Supreme Court to plead for euthanasia for Shanbaug.
  
  The Court set up a panel that medically examined Aruna. It declared that she was indeed in a vegetative state. Despite this the plea was rejected in 2011, however the landmark outcome of the case was the legalisation of Passive euthanasia and the debate around it.
  
  The judges said that Shanbaug's primary caregiver was the Mumbai hospital, so it can choose whether to pursue euthanasia. The Hospital chose to continue caring for Aruna.
  
  The debate generated by Pinki Virani's court case also impacted the more stringent anti-rape law drawn up after the Nirbhaya case. Now violent acts that result in a victim being left in a vegetative state as on par with murder.
  
  A victim of a brutal crime Aruna's case brought the euthanasia debate on to the centre stage leading to landmark legal changes.
• Draupadi Murmu: Draupadi Murmu on 18th May took oath as the ninth Governor of Jharkhand, the first tribal woman to occupy the position in the State. She was administered the oath of office by Jharkhand High Court Chief Justice Virendra Singh. She succeeds Syed Ahmad, who has been shifted to Manipur.
  
  Born on June 20, 1958, Ms. Murmu was first elected in 2000 on a BJP ticket from Rairangpur in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district. She was re-elected in 2005 after which she was elevated to the Cabinet and given charge of transport and commercial taxes.
  
  Murmu graduated from R.B. Women’s College, Bhubaneswar in 1979. She worked as a clerk in the State secretariat before joining politics.
• AhluwaliaFormer Union Minister and BJP MP S.S. Ahluwalia was appointed chairman of a Joint Committee of Parliament that will go into the provisions of the controversial land acquisition Bill. Mr. Ahluwalia is a BJP Lok Sabha member from Darjeeling in West Bengal. The 30-member Joint Committee of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha will submit its report on the first day of the monsoon session.
  
  Other membersThe 20 members of the Lok Sabha who are on the joint panel include K.V. Thomas, Rajiv Satav (both Congress), Anand Rao Adsul (Shiv Sena), Kalyan Banerjee (Trinamool Congress), B. Mahtab (BJD), Mohammad Salim (CPI-M), Chirag Paswan (LJP) and Udit Raj, Anurag Thakur and Ganesh Singh (all BJP).
  
  The 10 Rajya Sabha members include Ram Narain Dudi (BJP), Jairam Ramesh, Panna Lal Punia, Digvijay Singh (all Congress), Ram Gopal Yadav (SP), Sharad Yadav (JD-U), Sharad Pawar (NCP), Derek O’Brien (TMC) and Rajpal Singh Saini (BSP).
• Yingluck Shinawatra: Thailand's first female prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra is undergoing a negligence trial on 19th May
  
  It is the latest legal move against Yingluck, sister of fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra whose administration was toppled in a military coup nearly a year ago.
  
  Yingluck is accused of criminal negligence over a populist but economically disastrous rice subsidy scheme, which paid farmers in the rural Shinawatra heartland twice the market rate for their crops.
  
  She is not accused of corruption but of failing to prevent alleged graft within the programme, which cost billions of dollars and galvanised the protests that eventually felled her elected government leading to last May's coup.
  
  Thailand's military-appointed parliament impeached Yingluck in January over the scheme, a move which banned her from politics for five years.
• V. Shanmuganthan: V. Shanmuganthan was sworn-in as the Governor of Meghalaya at the Raj Bhavan in Shillong on 20th May.
  
  Chief Justice of the Meghalaya High Court Uma Nath Singh administered the oath of office to Shanmuganthan. Shanmuganthan was appointed as the new Governor on 12th May.
• Ashok Lahiri: The Finance Ministry has constituted a committee headed by Justice AP Shah to look into the issue of Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) on Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs). Apart from Justice Shah, Girish Ahuja and Ashok Lahiri are members of the panel. The term of the Committee will be for one year. The Committee will examine the matter relating to levy of MAT on FIIs for the period prior to April 2015. It will also examine all the related legal provisions, judicial/quasi judicial pronouncements and such other relevant aspects on the issue. The panel has been asked to submit its report expeditiously. The Ministry said other issues to be referred to the Committee will be notified in due course.
• Mrinal Datta Chaudhuri: Eminent economist, noted academic and policy adviser Mrinal Datta Chaudhuri passed away on 19th May. He, as Professor Chaudhuri was popularly known, studied with Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen in Shantiniketan and furthered his education at Kolkata’s Presidency College before completing his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he studied modern economics under the legendary Paul Samuelson, whom Dr. Chaudhuri personally regarded as “the greatest economist of the 20th century”.
• Hwang Kyo-Ahn: South Korean President Park Geun-Hye on 21st May selected her justice minister to become the new prime minister, a post that has become something of a poisoned chalice under her administration.
  
  Hwang Kyo-Ahn, was named as the new prime minister after his predecessor, Lee Wan-Koo, was implicated in a major bribery scandal and forced to quit in April after serving only two months.
  
  As a former prosecutor and with two years under his belt as justice minister, Hwang was deemed fit to follow through on Park's pledge of an anti-corruption drive, presidential press secretary Kim Sung-Woo told reporters. Transparency International in 2014 ranked South Korea as the world's 43rd least corrupt country out of 175, behind Taiwan but ahead of China.
  
  The prime minister is a largely symbolic post in South Korea, where power is concentrated in the presidency. Under Park, it has proved to be a job that is both difficult to secure and equally tough to hold on to.
  
  The president's first ever nominee withdrew after allegations about his past, and her initial prime minister was Chung Hong-Won, who then resigned after the April 2014 Sewol ferry disaster.
  
  Two successive Park nominees to replace Chung withdrew their candidacies again because of allegations of past wrongdoing and the job finally went to Lee, who then stepped down last month.
  
  It is the only cabinet post requiring parliamentary approval, and nominees often face a rough confirmation ride from opposition MPs.
  
  The main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy described Hwang's nomination as "very disappointing", saying the justice ministry's political independence had been weakened on his watch.
• Jayalalithaa: AIADMK Chief Jayalalithaa takes oath as Tamil Nadu's Chief Minister on 23rd May. AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa takes oath as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for the 5th time. 28 cabinet ministers also took oath including O. Paneerselvam who took charge as the Finance Minister. Jayalalitha had stepped down as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu seven months ago.
  
  She had been convicted by a special court in a disproportionate assets case on September 27 last year, after which she had relinquished the high office. Her return to the post for the fifth time was made possible by the Karnataka High Court overturning the earlier court's verdict. Having resigned from the Assembly in the wake of the special court verdict, she will have to get herself re-elected to the House.
• Bindumadhav Joshi: The Pioneer of Indian Consumer Movement and founder of Akhil Bhartiya Grahak Panchayat Shri Bindumadhav Joshi died on 10th May. In 1954, he participated in armed struggle for the Freedom of Dadara Nagar Haveli area which continued to be a Portuguese Colony even after the parts of India became independent. He worked dedicatedly in adivasi and dry area of Maharashtra.
  He worked with devotion for uplift of backward society. In 1972, he came in close contact with Jayprakash Narayan He was highly impressed and inspired by ‘Navnirman Movement’.
  
  He started ‘Akhil Bhartiya Grahak Panchayat’ in 1974; which has become more a mass movement of consumers rather than an institution. Through this movement, new and unique thought of consumer movement based on Indian philosophy and ethos was developed and has now been widely accepted.
  
  He tried his level best to bring the Consumer Protection Act and as a result of his hard work and efforts the act was passed in 1986. Separate Consumer Forums are established with his hard efforts. A separate department of consumer welfare is established.
  
  He was appointed a President of consumer welfare high power committee of Govt. of Maharashtra.
  
  He led a unique experiment of close co-operation between voluntary Consumer Movement and Administration.
  
  He was honoured by various prestigious awards like ‘Amrut Award’ by Indian Merchant Chember: ’Ramshashtri Prabhune Award’ for social justice. Prestigious FIE Foundation Award for Consumer Movement. ‘Yadnayavalka Award’ for contributing original thoughts in the Field of social service.
• K.V. Kamath: Eminent banker K.V. Kamath was on 11th May appointed as head of the 50 billion dollars New Development Bank being set up by the five emerging economies of BRICS grouping. Kamath will have a five-year term of the bank, which is likely to be operationalised within one year.
  Leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) had in 2014 reached an agreement to establish the New Development Bank, with its headquarters in Shanghai. As per the agreement, India got the right to nominate the first president.
• Priti Patel:Prime Minister David Cameron has promoted one of Britain's most prominent Indian-origin MP Priti Patel by making her the new Employment Minister, as he unveiled the first all-Conservative Cabinet in nearly 20 years with his top four aides retaining their previous portfolios.
  Patel, who was re-elected from Witham in Essex with a big majority in the May 7 general election, replaces another female MP in the Cabinet, Esther McVey, who lost in the polls. Her appointment reflects Cameron's plans to shake up the party's old fashioned all-male image and have a significant number of women around the Cabinet table.
• Cyriac Joseph: National Human Rights Commission chairman Justice K G Balakrishnan completed his tenure as the longest serving chief of the rights body on 10th May. NHRC member Justice Cyriac Joseph has been authorised by President Pranab Mukherjee to act as the Chairperson of the Commission with effect until the appointment of a new Chairperson.
  Justice Balakrishnan had joined the Commission as its chief on the June 7, 2010 after his retirement as the Chief Justice of India. During his tenure, Justice Balakrishnan was instrumental in charting out several new initiatives towards promotion and protection of human rights in the country. He laid emphasis on increasing the outreach of the Commission to build awareness about human rights. Starting of open hearings of the complaints on the problems of Scheduled Castes and atrocities against them in different states of the country was one of his major initiatives.
• New Governors for six states
  President Pranab Mukherjee on 12th May appointed Governors in six states.
  • Former Odisha Minister Droupadi Murmu will be the new Governor of Jharkhand. She will replace Dr. Syed Ahmed who has been transferred to Manipur for remaining period of his term.
  • J. P. Rajkhowa has been appointed as the new Governor of Arunachal Pradesh
  • Nirbhay Sharma has been transferred and appointed as Governor of Mizoram for the remainder of his term.
  • Tathagata Roy will be the Governor of Tripura
  • V. Shanmuganthan has been appointed as Meghalaya Governor
• Arun Shrivastava: Arun Shrivastava has assumed the charge as managing director and CEO of Syndicate Bank with effect from May 15, 2015. Prior to joining the Manipal-based bank, Shrivastava was executive director of Bank of India (BoI), looking after the portfolios of finance, strategy & planning, large corporate & mid-corporate business, corporate debt restructuring, project finance & syndication, credit monitoring & asset recovery, and publicity & public relations. He was also overseeing BoI's foreign subsidiaries in Indonesia and Botswana, besides a joint venture called Indo Zambia Bank.
  Shrivastava started his career with Bank of Baroda in 1979 as a direct recruit officer. He has been a professional banker with 36 years' experience including his posting as managing director of the bank's subsidiary in Kenya and also as director on the board of the bank's subsidiary in Uganda and Tanzania. Shrivastava's qualifications include M.Sc., CAIIB and AIBM. Arun Shrivastava has assumed the charge as managing director and CEO of Syndicate Bank with effect from May 15, 2015.
• Joseph: The government appointed M. J. Joseph as the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) in the Ministry of Finance. Joseph, a 1979 batch Indian Civil Accounts Service (ICAS) officer, was the Director General of the Bureau of Indian Standards
• Morsi: An Egyptian court has sentenced ousted president Mohammed Morsi to death over a mass prison break in 2011. The former leader has already been sentenced to 20 years in jail for ordering the arrest and torture of protesters during his time in power. The country's religious authorities will now have to give their opinion before the sentence can be carried out. Mr. Morsi was deposed by the military in July 2013 following mass street protests against his rule.
  
  Since then, the authorities have banned his Muslim Brotherhood movement and arrested thousands of his supporters.
• Lu ping: Lu Ping, the Chinese official who oversaw Hong Kong's transition from British to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. Beijing's Chief negotiator in the years before handover, Lu was known for his hard-line stance. He notoriously called Hong Kong's last British Governor Chris Patten a sinner for a thousand years for making the territory's elections more democratic. Lu also helped draft Hong Kong's mini constitution, the Basic Law. Lu was appointed Director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO) in 1990 and retired in 1997, just days after the handover.
• Navneet Rajan: Senior IPS officer Navneet Rajan Wasan was on 7 May 2015 appointed as (DG) of Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D). He will serve the post till 30 November 2015, the date of his superannuation. The post of Director General (DG) of Bureau of Police Research and Development had been lying vacant since March 2015 following the retirement of Rajan Gupta.
• Achal Kumar Jyoti: Former Chief Secretary of Gujarat Achal Kumar Jyoti has been appointed as the Election Commissioner. Mr Jyoti is a retired IAS officer of the 1975 batch. He earlier worked as the Managing Director of the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Limited. He also served as chairman of Kandla Port Trust. Mr. Jyoti will have tenure of nearly three years, when he will turn 65, the age at which Election Commissioners demit office under the Constitution.
  With this appointment, the strength of three members Election Commission has now gone to two. In the coming days, the government will appoint one more Election Commissioner to fill up the last vacancy.
• Salman Khan: Salman Khan has got bail after surrendering before the trial court and furnishing a fresh bail bond of Rs 30,000 in the 2002 hit-and-run case, as per Bombay High Court instructions. After completion of legal formalities by the evening, the actor was allowed the leave. The Bombay High Court suspended five year jail sentence given to Khan and asked the actor to surrender before the court and furnish the bond. Justice Abhay Thipsay