PERSONS NOVEMBER 2016

PERSONS NOVEMBER 2016

• Balamuralikrishna
  Veteran Carnatic singer M Balamuralikrishna passes away in Chennai on 22nd November. He has born in a musical family of Sankaraguptam, East Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh. Balamuralikrishna has been awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian honour in 1991, for his contribution towards Indian Art. He was made Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Government in 2005.
  
• Hindi litterateur Vivek Rai passed away
  Renowned Hindi and Bhojpuri litterateur Dr Viveki Rai passed away on 22nd November in a Varanasi hospital after illness. Dr Rai was born in 1924 in Ballia district of eastern Uttar Pradesh. Dr Rai was awarded with many awards including Yash Bharti in 2006 by Uttar Pradesh government for his literary contribution. He wrote about fifty books of stories, essays and novels. His novel Sonamati recognized as one of his best literary work. Viveki Rai's creative works mainly depict rural life of India. His first story was Pakistani published in 1945 in the then popular newspaper Aaj. He also wrote severasl articles and columns in magazines and news papers too.
  
• Trump named Nikki Haley as US Ambassador to the UN
  Donald Trump has named South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley as US Ambassador to the UN. US media report she is the first non-white female cabinet-level official appointed within the Trump administration. Mrs. Haley is the daughter of Indian immigrants and had been a vocal critic of Mr. Trump on the campaign trail. The 44-year-old has been characterized as a rising star within the Republican party and is the youngest Governor in the US.
  
• O.P.Bhatt appointed as Tata Steel Chairman
  In a change of stance, the board of Tata Steel has appointed former State Bank of India chief O. P. Bhatt as Chairman, replacing Cyrus Mistry. Earlier in Noveember, 2016 the board was divided on the decision to remove Mistry as at least three directors objected to such a move.
  
  However, in a special board meeting on 25th November, the board members took note of the leadership changes at Tata Sons and the special notice from it for an EGM to remove Mistry as a director. Following this, the board passed a resolution with majority consent to replace Mistry as the Chairman of the Board, with immediate effect.
  
• Former Cuban President Fidel Castro Passed away
  Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro has died. He was 90. His brother and incumbent Cuban President Raul Castro has announced the death of Fidel Castro. Fidel Castro has ruled Cuba as a one-party state for almost half a century before handing over the powers to his brother Raul in 2008.
  
  Along with Che Guevara He led armed rebellion against Batista government. In 1959 when Batista escaped to US Castro took over the Charge of Prime Minister ship. From then, he led a single party govt. in Cuba. He was born in 1926 in Biran, a frontier town on the island’s wild eastern tip.
  
• Augustin Matata: Congolese Prime Minister Augustin Matata resigned on 14th November to make way for an opposition figure to take his place following a controversial deal that effectively extends the president's term in office.
  
  The decision to delay presidential polls until at least late 2017 was part of a deal agreed in October by the government and fringe opposition groups that has been boycotted as a sham by the mainstream opposition. The deal, which followed a national dialogue, was aimed at calming soaring political tensions. The opposition has accused President Joseph Kabila, who has been in office since 2001, of manipulating the electoral system to stay in power after his second term ends on December 20.
  
  The country has been in a state of crisis since disputed elections in 2011 returned Mr Kabila to office for a second term. A 2006 constitutional provision limits the presidency to two terms.
  
• Harish Bhatt: He is the new Chairman of Tata Global Beverages; earlier Cyrus Mistry was in this position. Tata Global Beverages said that the board had considered the continuance of Mr. Mistry as the chairman and decided to replace him with Mr. Bhat in the long-term interest of the company and the stakeholders. Mr. Bhat, a Tata Group insider, joined the Tata Administrative Services (TAS) in 1987.
  
• Nikki Haley: Indian-American South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has been elected Vice Chair of the powerful Republican Governors Association. Haley’s elevation to this position came amid reports that she is being considered for the position of secretary of state by President-elect Donald Trump.
  
• Narendra Modi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to be the mascot of 'Incredible India' campaign with the Tourism Ministry finally deciding to do away with plans to rope in any Bollywood stars, including Amitabh Bachchan, for the role which was lying vacant after ouster of Aamir Khan earlier in 2016.
  
  No Bollywood actor will be engaged for the campaign aimed at attracting foreign travellers and video footages of Modi during the last two-and-a-half years where he has talked about tourism in India and abroad, will be used for the campaign.
  
  The ministry is planning to use — for radio and audio release — two types of videos of different durations where Modi had talked about the uniqueness and diversity of the various places in the country.
  
• Rajeshwar Rao: The Reserve Bank has appointed M Rajeshwar Rao as Executive Director following G Mahalingam's taking voluntary retirement from the central bank.
  
  Executive Director, Rao will look after Department of Statistics and Information Management, Financial markets Operations Department and International Department. Prior to taking over as the Executive Director, he was the Chief General Manager, Financial Markets Operations Department. He has previously held charge of the Risk Monitoring Department. He has also worked as the Banking Ombudsman, New Delhi.
  
• Record 5 Indian-Americans set to be elected to Congress
  Indian-Americans have bagged four congressional seats so far in the 2016 elections, marking a new high for a minority that has pursed political power commensurate with its clout as the country’s richest ethnic group.
  
  Among the winners was California’s attorney general Kamala Harris, who won her Senate race, also a first for the community, putting her among the next generation of Democrats that are expected to take over the party from Hillary Clinton.
  
  The other three were Ro Khanna, Raja Krishnamoorthi and Pramila Jaypal, all elected to the House of Representatives, where the tally could still climb with Ami Bera, the sole Indian-American in the current House, leading in his re-election bid.
  
  All five are Democrats, and three of them are from one state, California — Harris, Bera and Khanna, whose constituency, District No 17, is home to Silicon Valley. Krishnamoorthi won in Illinois and Jayapal in Washington.
  
  This is the first time Indian-Americans have won more than one seat in Congress, going back to the 1950s, when Dalip Singh Saund, a Democrat, became the first member of the community ever elected to the House. He served three terms.
  
  Bobby Jindal, a Republican who became the second Indian-American to make it, was also the lone member of the chamber from his community. He served two terms before running for governor of Louisiana. He won two terms.
  
  Bera, the third, was the only Indian-American in the last House. And there are now four, going on to five. The community, which forms 1% of the American population with 3.4 million members, has long been the best educated, something they brought from India, and most prosperous, with a median household income of $103,000.
  
• Cyrus Mistry: Tata Sons has removed Cyrus Mistry as chairman of India's largest software services firm, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), and has called a special shareholders meeting to do the same in the hospitality firm that runs the Taj Group of Hotels.
  
  The holding company, which has a 73.26% in the software firm, has nominated Ishaat Hussain, a long-time Tata group veteran, as the interim chairman of TCS with immediate effect. Thus, Mistry ceases to be the chairman of the TCS board, the company said in a stock exchange.
  
• Kanu Ramdas Gandhi: Kanu Ramdas Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and a former NASA scientist, passed away on 7th November. The Gandhi couple had returned to India in 2014 after several decades in the U.S. Kanu had studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His education was sponsored by the then U.S. Ambassador to India, John Kenneth Galbraith.
  
  He later went on to work with NASA and the U.S. Defence Department on wing structures of fighter aircraft, while his wife Shivalaxmi was a professor and researcher at the Boston Biomedical Research Institute.
  
  On their return to India, the couple stayed at various ashrams including the Guru Vishram Vrudhha Ashram in Delhi as they did not have a home of their own place of their own. After his heart attack in the Radhakrishna Ashram in Surat, his friend Dhimant Badhia offered monetary support to bear medical expenses.
  
  Kanu become famous as the boy who walked ahead of Mahatma Gandhi holding one end of his stick on the beaches of Gujarat's Dandi village during the historic Salt Satyagraha of March-April 1930.
  
• Michel Aoun: Lebanon's Parliament on 31st October elected former general Michel Aoun President, ending a vacuum and political stalemate of more than two years. Aoun, failed to achieve the two-thirds majority necessary to win a first round of voting, and a second round was repeated twice after the number of votes exceeded the 127 MPs present in the session.
  
  But the former army chief's victory had been all but assured after two longstanding political rivals offered him their support. Aoun's election ends a vacancy for the post since May 2014, when his predecessor Michel Sleiman's mandate ended.
  
  The country's deeply divided political powers were repeatedly unable to reach consensus on a candidate for President, a post reserved in Lebanon for a Maronite Christian and elected by Parliament.
  
• Johnson Mogoa Kimani Ondieki:UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 1st November sacked the commander of the peacekeeping force in South Sudan, Johnson Mogoa Kimani Ondieki (Kenya) following a damning report showing that the blue helmets failed to protect civilians during a recent outbreak of violence in Juba. The report from a UN special investigation found that a lack of leadership in the UN mission culminated in a "chaotic and ineffective response" during the heavy fighting in the capital from July 8 to 11.
  
  Peacekeepers abandoned their posts and failed to respond to pleas for help from aid workers under attack in a nearby hotel, according to a summary of the report. The UN mission known as UNMISS has 16,000 troops deployed in South Sudan, which has been at war since December 2013.
  
• Bindeshwar Pathak: Ministry of Railways has appointed Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, the founder of Sulabh International as a Brand Ambassador for Swachh Rail Mission of Indian Railway. Minister of Railway Suresh Prabhu felicitated Dr Pathak at a function in New Delhi on 2nd November. The initiative will help push the cleanliness drive of the Railway.He added that cleanliness is the key to the solution of lot of diseases. Mr Prabhu said, the government is installing bio-toilet at various trains to keep the tracks and trains clean. He also said, the Railways has also introduced vaccum-bio- toilet which will be installed in trains.
  
• Kamala Harris: Kamala Harris, California's Attorney General, is on the cusp of becoming the first Indian-American Senator in the US Congress. The latest polls have placed ahead of her rival, days before the 8th of November general elections. Harris has already got the backing of US President Barack Obama to be the state's next Senator, brightening her chances to become the first from the Indian community ever to be a member of the Upper House.
  
  She heads into the US Senate election with a considerable lead over fellow Democrat Loretta Sanchez.
  
  Harris, born in Oakland, California, is the daughter of an Indian mother who emigrated from Chennai in 1960 and a Jamaican American father.
  
• Kirpal Singh Badungar: Senior Shiromani Akali Dal leader, Prof Kirpal Singh Badungar, is unanimously elected as new president of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee.
  
  This is second time that he has been chosen to head the apex Sikh body. Baldev Singh Kiampuri is elected as senior vice president while Baba Buta Singh is elected as Junior Vice President. Amarjit Singh Chawla would be the new General Secretary.