PERSONS NOVEMBER 2013

PERSONS NOVEMBER 2013

• Sachin Tendulkar---- Recently-retired batting legend Sachin Tendulkar on 28 November became UNICEF's first brand ambassador for South Asia and is all set to work in promoting hygiene and sanitation in the region. "Thanks for allowing me to start this wonderful second innings of my life. I'm looking forward to being an ambassador for UNICEF and serve to the best of my ability. This is an innings that is really, really important to me, so I will try my best," said Tendulkar. The batting icon, who has been involved with the global organization for the last 8-10 years, was now, named its ambassador for South Asia region for two years. Tendulkar said it was hard to digest that many people around the world did not have access to clean toilets.
  
• Neeraj Sahai (56)---- Indian-American has appointed as president of Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, the world's largest ratings firm. He was appointed by McGraw Hill Financial Company. Neeraj Sahai will assume his new role at Standard & Poor's from 6 January 2014. Sahai, who did his masters in economics from University of Delhi, is currently head of Citi's Securities and Fund Services business and also acts as chief fiduciary officer of Citigroup. He succeeds Douglas Peterson, who became president and chief executive officer of McGraw Hill Financial on 1 November, 2013.Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, part of McGraw Hill Financial, is the world's leading provider of independent credit risk research. It publishes more than a million credit ratings on debt issued by sovereign, municipal, corporate and financial sector entities.
  
• Omprakash Valmiki (63)----- Noted Dalit writer Omprakash Valmiki passed away on 17 November 2013 at Dehradun, Uttarakhand. Omprakash Valmiki is one of the most famous Dalit litterateurs in Hindi and he portrayed the life of Dalits with an authentically Dalit voice. He was born in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh in 1950. He worked with Government Ordnance Factory Dehradun. Valmiki's autobiography Joothan (1997) is one of his famous works. In this work, he spoke in detail about the caste discrimination, persecution and humiliation than he faced, when he is growing up. Joothan is regarded as a milestone in Hindi literature.
  
• Justice A.P.Shah ----Union Government on 22 November appointed Justice Ajit Prakash Shah as the new Chairman of the 20th Law Commission of India.Justice Ajit Prakash Shah succeeded Justice D. K. Jain who resigned in October 2013 to take over as the President of National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission. He was Chief Justice of the High Court of Delhi from May 2008 till his retirement in February 2010. He is known for his bold judgments, especially concerning social issues, including the world-headliner July 2009 ruling that found India`s 150-year-old statute prohibiting homosexual acts (Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code) as discriminatory and, therefore, a "violation of fundamental rights”. The 20th Law Commission of India was constituted with the Order of the Government of India with effect from 1 September 2012. It has a three-year term ending on 31st August; 2015.The commission would be responsible for identification of obsolete laws and suggest measures suitable for quick grievance handling and redressal of the citizens. It would also be examining the laws that effects poor and suggest measures which would help in harnessing the law and the legal process for the economically weaker and poor section of the society.
  
• Nisha Desai Biswal--- Nisha Desai Biswal assumed the post of the US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia. On 21 November 2013, Nisha Desai Biswal was sworn in as Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia. Nisha Desai Biswal replaced at this post Robert Blake and will be responsible for policy of the US State Department for South and Central Asia. Prior to appointment, Nisha Desai Biswal worked as the Assistant Administrator for Asia at the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
  
• Frederick Sanger (95) ---- A British biochemist who is the only person to win Nobel Prize two times for Chemistry died on 19 November 2013 in Cambridge, eastern England. For the first time, he won the Nobel Prize in 1958 for development of the methods, which helped to unravel the chemical structure of Protein, mainly insulin. Second Nobel Prize was given to him in 1980, jointly with Walter Gilbert and Paul Berg for the development of the techniques to read the sequences of DNA, which carries the basic code for life. By winning two Nobel, Sanger became one of the four people who had won the Nobel Prizes two times. The other winners of Nobel Prize two times are Marie Curie, John Bardeen and Linus Pauling.
  
• Doris Lessing (94) ----British Nobel Prize-winning author Doris Lessing was died on 17 November 2013 at London. Her best-known works are The Golden Notebook, Memoirs of a Survivor and The Summer before the Dark. In 2007, the 88-year-old Doris Lessing became the oldest recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. and only the 11th woman to win the award.
• Usha Ananthasubramanian ---- The Union Government on 12 November 2013 appointed Usha Ananthasubramanian as the chairperson and managing director of public sector Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB), the first women’s bank. Before joining BMB, she was an Executive Director with Punjab National Bank (PNB).Usha Ananthasubramanian started her career in the actuarial department with LIC and banking career in February 1982 with Bank of Baroda. She holds a master’s degree in statistics from the University of Madras and a master’s degree in ancient Indian culture from University of Mumbai. During her tenure at Punjab National Bank, she was part of the panel formed for examination of the blueprint and other issues for setting up of the women’s bank. The panel’s report paved the way for India’s first public sector women’s bank. The bank aims to service women and women-run businesses, support women’s self-help groups and their livelihoods and promote further financial inclusion. The Union Cabinet cleared the proposal for setting up of all-women bank on August 2013. The Reserve Bank of India gave its in-principal approval for the Bharatiya Mahila Bank in June 2013 and the banking company was set up.The Union government approved Rs. 1,000 crore seed capital for the women-focused public sector bank, announced by Union finance minister P. Chidambaram in his 2013-14 budget speech.
  
• Justice R. Banumathi----The Judge of the Madras High Court was appointed as the Chief Justice of the Jharkhand High Court on 12 November 2013. She was appointed by the President Pranab Mukherjee. The Supreme Court’s Collegium has cleared her elevation as Chief Justice in August 2013 and the Union government has taken three months to process and notify the appointment. Justice R. Banumathi entered the Tamil Nadu Higher Judicial Service in 1988 as a direct recruit district judge. She worked as District and Sessions Judge in Coimbatore and Vellore, and Principal District and Sessions Judge in Pudukottai, Madras, Tirunelveli and Salem. She also worked as Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Chennai. She was made a judge of the Madras High Court on 3 April 2003.
  
• Gamani Corea (87)----Veteran Sri Lankan economist Gamani Corea — one of the chief architects of Sri Lanka’s first national plan in the late 1950s passed away in Colombo on 3 November. A highly regarded economist, Dr. Corea was also a seasoned diplomat, who held key positions such as Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1974 to 1984.The Institute of Policy Studies appointed Dr. Corea its first chairman, he said. In his vibrant career serving different capacities, Dr. Corea worked closely with leading economists of the world, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
• Reshma ---- Legendary Pakistani folk singer Reshma passed away in Lahore on 3 November 2013 after a long battle with throat cancer. She was 66. She is known for her popular songs such as Lambi Ju dai and Dama Dam Mast Kalandar. Reshma was born in 1947 in Bikaner, Rajasthan, in a Banjara family. She has no formal education in music, but at the age of just 12 years, she was seen singing at the Shahbaz Qalander's shrine. Thereafter, her iconic song Laal Meri was recorded on the state-run Pakistan Radio. With this, she became the most popular folk singer of Pakistan. She won various national awards such as Sitara-i-Imtiaz as well as Legends of Pakistan, by the President of Pakistan.
• Gabriela Isler----- Gabriela Isler from Venezuela won Miss Universe 2013 title on 9 November 2013 held in Moscow, Russia. Patricia Yurena Rodriguez from Spain and Constanza Baez from Ecuador finished as the first and second runner-ups. Manasi Moghe from India had been shortlisted for the top 10 finalists of Miss Universe 2013 but failed to win the crown. Gabriela Isler is the third Miss Universe from Venezuela in 6 years.