PERSONS OCTOBER 2012

PERSONS OCTOBER 2012

• Lt GenNaresh Chandra Marwah- Marwah has taken over as the Chief of Integrated Defence Staffto the Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee (CISC) from Vice Admiral SPS Cheema. The General Officer in his career spanning over 39 years has held various coveted Command, Staff and Instructional appointments. The General Officer has a vast operational experience, stretching to almost two decades across the entire spectrum of conflict.
  
• Dr. Rakesh Mohan - has assumed charge as Executive Director on the Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In addition to India, Dr. Mohan will also be representing three other countries in the constituency, viz. Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Bhutan on the Board of the IMF. Dr. Mohan was earlier Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India and also Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs, Government of India. He has also been the Chairman of National Transport Development Policy Committee and of the High Level Committee on the Financing of Infrastructure. Prior to assuming his duties at the IMF, Dr Mohan was Professor in the Practice of International Economics and Finance at the School of Management and Senior Fellow at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at Yale University. The term of Dr. Rakesh Mohan at the IMF will be for a period of three years.
  
• T. Samuel (86)-Veteran Cartoonist and the pioneer of pocket cartoons in India, T Samuel died on 2 October 2012 . As a staff cartoonist, he served Delhi edition of Times of India, where he became famous as the creator of the pocket cartoon named Babuji. After serving Times of India for a certain period of time, he joined Indian Express as a cartoonist and carried on with his featured cartoon Babuji and Garib, the next strip cartoon series. He was back with Times of India and served it and its Hindi daily Nav Bharat Times till 1985, the year of his retirement.
  
• Pavan K. Varma-Indian Diplomat , resigned as India’s ambassador to Bhutan with an idea of entering into politics.Ambassador Pavan Varma is set to join the Janata Dal-United (JDU). He asserted that he wants to contribute to clean politics and good governance in the country.Pawan Varma, is a 1976 batch IFS officer and had taken voluntary retirement but is going to demits office on 31 December 2012.
  
• Shirani Bandaranayake -Sri Lankan Chief Justice, identified with the ruling party for long, is now facing its wrath. The papers of an impeachment motion against her have been handed over to Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa by four Members of Parliament. Chamal Rajapaksa, brother of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, will have to decide if the charges deserve a probe and then set a date for a debate. The motion has to be passed by a simple majority in the 225-member unicameral Parliament, where the government commands a two-thirds majority.
  
• Rear Admiral Bimal Kumar Verma, AVSM, took over as the Chief of Staff, Eastern Naval Command, from Vice Admiral Sunil Lamba, AVSM, on 29 October. In the course of his distinguished career, Rear Admiral BK Verma has held various Command, Staff and Operational appointments. Rear Admiral BK Verma is an alumnus of the 55th course of National Defence Academy and was adjudged the ‘Best Naval Cadet’ in his sixth term.
  
• Rajat Gupta (63), the former Goldman Sachs Director and McKinsey and Company Managing Partner convicted of supplying confidential information to jailed hedge fund boss Raj Rajaratnam, received a two-year jail term from U.S. Judge Jed Rakoff on 25 October, even as one of the most spectacular insider-trading cases on Wall Street since the financial crisis of 2008 drew to a climax. He was also ordered to pay a fine of $5 million. In June 2012 a jury convicted Mr. Gupta on four criminal felony counts of conspiracy and securities fraud related to his passing on material non-public information on Goldman Sachs to Mr. Rajaratnam, who is himself currently serving out an 11-year jail term.
  
• Jaspal Bhatti(57)- Popular satirist and filmmaker , the man behind hit comedy shows like 'Ulta Pulta' and 'Flop Show', died in a road accident near Punjab's Nakodar town, 40 km from Jalandhar, on early hours of 25 October. The 57-year-old actor-director, who became popular with his satirical shows during the golden days of Doordarshan, was on a tour to promote the film .
  
• Palagummi Viswanatham -Renowned Telugu music composer, passed away on 26 october, after a prolonged illness. He was 93 years old.In a career spanning more than half a century, Palagummi (as he was popularly known) composed more than 15,000 songs and wrote the lyrics for a hundred of them. He also worked for several decades with All India Radio, mostly in the pre-television era. At AIR, Palagummi created light music for a variety of shows which included features, plays, rural programmes and programmes for farmers etc. He also composed publicity songs for government programmes and patriotic songs during the Indo-China and Indo-Pak wars.He received several awards in his lifetime, most of which were from the state government and included a Nandi Award for music for a television serial in 1992. He also received a Hamsa Award for composing music for television film Rajasekhara Charitra.
  
• Sunil gangopadhyay-Eminent litterateur and Sahitya Akademi president, died at his South Kolkata residence on 23 october, following a massive heart attack. He was 78. A prolific writer and winner of several awards, Gangopadhyay was the founder editor of 'Krittibas', a seminal poetry magazine that became a platform for a new generation of poets experimenting with many new forms. Author of over 200 books, Gangopadhyay excelled in different genres but declared poetry to be his "first love". His Neera series of poems are popular. He had won the Sahitya Akademi Award (1985), Ananda Puraskar `(1989) and the Hindu Literary Prize(2011).After serving five years as the vice-president, he was elected the president of the Sahitya Akademi on February 20, 2008.He used the pen-names of Nil Lohit, Sanatan Pathak and Nil Upadhyay.
  
• The Indian Filmmaker Yash Chopra died on 21 October 2012, nine days after being diagnosed with Dengue. He passed away at the age of 80 at Lilavati Hospital at Bandra due to dengue and multiple organ failure. Also termed as the King of Romance, Yash Chopra had by his name Six National Film Awards, Eleven Filmfare Awards out of which four was Filmfare Award for Best Director. Yash Chopra, in his last interview with Shah Rukh Khan on television stated about his latest upcoming film named Jab Tak Hai Jaan and his retirement along with the plans of spending his time with family members.
  
• Yash Raj Films, yash chopra’s own production company stated with the launch of DAAG: A poem of love in 1973. Few of his most acclaimed films, were Deewar in 1975 that set the angry young man image of Amitabh Bachchan, Kabhi Kabhi (a romantic drama) in 1976, Trishul, Silsila in 1981, Mashaal in 1984 and Vijay in 1988 and Chandni in 1989. Some more movies of Yash Chopra were Lamhe in 1991, Darr in 1993 the debut movie of Shah Rukh Khan, Dil To Pagal Hai in 1997, Veer-Zaara in 2004. His latest movie Jab Tak Hai Jaan is scheduled to be launched during the week of Diwali in 2012 about a month after his death.
  
• London Olympic Shooter and silver medalist Vijay Kumar was honoured with the Services Best Sportsman award for 2012 at the Army Headquarters in New Delhi The award which include trophy and cash award of one lakh rupees is generally given to the best sportsman from the three defence forces of Army, Air Force and Navy. Vijay Kumar is the current world number and had earlier won three gold medals and one silver medal at the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games. Vijay Kumar won a silver medal at the July-August 2012 London Games in the individual 25 metre rapid fire pistol. Vijay Kumar is from Barsar village of Hamirpur district of Himachal Pradesh and is presently a serving Subedar Major in the Dogra Regiment (16th Battalion) of the Indian Army. He was also awarded with Arjuna Award in 2007 and Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 2011-12 by the Government of India.
  
• The State Government reconstituted the State Official Language Commission and appointed Mandali Budha Prasad, a former minister, as its Chairmanfor a term of two years. T Gouri Shankar, Ayyala Somyajula Gopala Rao, N R Venkatesam and Vempalli Abdul Khader were appointed as the members. Despite being a politician, Buddha Prasad was associated with the movement for getting Telugu recognition as a classical language. He served as a member of the Task Force Committee appointed by the State government for this purpose. He was one of the people behind the initiative for setting up Telugu Bhashodyama Samakhya. Prasad was a member of the Children’s Committee during the first World Telugu Conference held in 1975. He participated as a delegate in the Third World Telugu Conference held in Mauritius in 1990. He served as the president of the First International Telugu Internet Conference held in Milpitas, USA during September 2011. He was also the president of the First International Kuchipudi Dance Festival held in Cupertino, US, in 2008. He conducted Krishna Mahotsavams and installed a bronze statue of Sri Krishna Devaraya in Srikakulam.
  
• Prominent Litterateur, Yagalla Ramakrishna passed away on 24 October of heart attack in Srikakulam. He is 67 and leaves behind wife and a son and daughter. His body was handed over to Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Science (RIMS) here on Thursday as per his last wish. Ramakrishna, who was suffering from cancer for the last few months, suffered a heart attack on Wednesday morning. He died on the way while being shifted to RIMS. Ramakrishna, who was close to prominent short story writer Kalipatnam Rama Rao, was instrumental in developing the Kadha Nilayam in Srikakulam town along with him. He instituted annual literary awards to under the aegis of Yagalla Foundation twelve years back. The recipients of the prestigious.
• Mr. Koji Sekimizu - Secretary General, International Maritime Organization (IMO), London called on G.K.Vasan, Minister of Shipping in New Delhi on 16 October. During the meeting, the Minister drew the attention of the Secretary General to the issue of 43 Indian seafarers who are in captivity of Somali pirates. He also stressed the need for Counter Piracy Measures to be taken and requested for the intervention of the IMO for early release of the Indian seafarers.
  
• The Minister sought assistance of the IMO for promotion of technical co-operation and technology transfer relating to the improvement of the energy efficiency of ships. The Minister also requested the Secretary General, IMO for considering cooperation between Indian Maritime University (IMU) and World Maritime University (WMU) for development of the IMU.
  
• Ravi Narain - National Stock Exchange’s (NSE) chief and Managing Director, on 17 October 2012 was elected as chairman of the working committee of the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE).Ravi Narain is also the chairman of the National Securities Clearing Corporation and a board member of the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange. The World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) is an international organization for securities and derivative markets such as stock exchanges. It comprises of Group of more than 50 Bourses or Stock Exchanges.
  
• Norodom Sihanouk - Former Cambodian king died on 15 October 2012 in Beijing. He was 89 Years old. Norodom Sihanouk was receiving medical treatment for many years in Beijing for cancer and other ailments. Norodom had dominated politics in Cambodia for nearly 60 years. He was the King of Cambodia from 1941 to 1955 and again from 1993 until 2004. Sihanouk held so many positions since 1941 that he was identifies as the politician who has served the world's greatest variety of political offices. These included two terms as king, two as sovereign prince, one as president, two as prime minister, as well as numerous positions as leader of various governments-in-exile. He was succeeded in 2004 by his son, King Norodom Sihamon.
  
• Yash Chopra(80)- great Indian Filmmaker Yash Chopra on 21 October 2012 passed away at Lilavati Hospital at Bandra due to dengue and multiple organ failure. Also termed as the King of Romance, Yash Chopra had by his name Six National Film Awards, Eleven Filmfare Awards out of which four was Filmfare Award for Best Director.Few of his most acclaimed films were- Deewar ,Kabhi Kabhi , Trishul, Silsila ,Vijay and Chandni .Some more movies of Yash Chopra were- Lamhe , Darr , Dil To Pagal Hai , Veer-Zaara . His latest movie Jab Tak Hai Jaan is scheduled to be launched during the week of Diwali in 2012 about a month after his death. He received Legion of Honour, France's highest civilian honour. On behalf of Swiss Government he received a Special Award by Ursula Andress and was honoured for rediscovering Switzerland. HeReceived Padma Bhushan in 2005.He won Asian Filmmaker of the Year, 2009 at Pusan International Film Festival. He also received the BBC Asia Awards two times in the year 1998 and 2001 for the kind of contribution he made to the films. In the year 2001 he received Dr. Dadabhai Naoroji Millennium Lifetime Achievement award . For his contribution to Indian Cinema he was conferred with Priyadarshini Award. The Leeds Metropolitan University in Yorkshire awarded him with Honorary Doctorate in Art. In the year 2010 he was honoured with the Honorary Doctorate from the School of Oriental and African Studies. For his contribution via his films to 'Brand Switzerland' he received Swiss Ambassador's Award 2010. In the year 2001 he was awarded Dadasaheb Phalkethe topmost and the highest honour of Indian Film Industry. In the year 2006 he received 4th Pune International Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award . BAFTA gave him a lifetime membership for the his contributions to Indian Cinema, in 59 years history of the academy he was the first Indian to be honoured with the membership.
  
• Felix Baumgartner(Australia) - He became the first skydiver on 14 October 2012 to go faster than the speed of sound, reaching a maximum velocity of 1,342 kilometers per hour. In jumping out of a balloon 39 kilometers above New Mexico, the 43-year-old also broke the record for the highest ever freefall. It took just under 10 minutes for him to descend. Only the last few thousand feet were negotiated by parachute. The previous highest, farthest, and longest freefall was made by Kittinger, who leapt from a helium envelope in 1960. His altitude was 31 kilometers.
  
• Osman Ali Khan -The last Nizam of Hyderabadwho ruled between 1886-1967, was named in list of the 25 richest people across the world who ever lived, by US website Celebrity Networth. Osman Ali Khan, was ranked sixth in world and the richest in India with $236 billion. He died in 1967 at age of 80. The list declared by US website Celebrity Networth was compiled after adjusting the fortunes of people across history for inflation.
  
• The Government has appointed senior IPS officer Pranay Sahay as the chief of country’s largest paramilitary force CRPF. Mr. Sahay, a 1975-batch IPS officer of Manipur-Tripura cadre, was already holding the additional charge of the CRPF Director-General since October 3 after incumbent K. Vijay Kumar retired in September. Official sources said formal orders in this regard will be issued soon as Mr. Sahay’s appointment has been approved by the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC). He is expected to hold the top CRPF post till his retirement in July next year. At present, Mr. Sahay is also the chief of border guarding force Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), a post which he is expected to relinquish after official orders are issued in the next few days.
  
• SSB Pranay Sahay -The Government gave the temporary charge as head of the world's largest paramilitary force CRPF to Director General of border guarding SSB Pranay Sahay. The top post at the about 3-lakh personnel force, the country's mainstay for anti-Naxal operations, fell vacant three days back after K Vijay Kumar retired on September 30.
  
• Justice Subhashan Reddy- was sworn-in as the new Lokayukta of Andhra Pradesh by Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan in Raj Bhavan in Hyderabad on 12 october. Justice Reddy took oath of office in the name of god. He will hold the office of Lokayukta for five years. He succeeds Justice S. Ananda Reddy.
  
• Vijay Mallya – On 13 Oct a local Hyderabad court has issued non-bailable warrants against Kingfisher Airlines Chairman Vijay Mallya and four directors for failing to appear before it in a cheating case filed by airport operator GMR. The metropolitan magistrate court's order was in response to a petition filed by GMR Hyderabad International Airport, which accused Kingfisher Airlines of dishonouring cheques worth Rs 10.5 crore issued towards airport charges.
  
• Lance Armstrong - U.S. antidoping authorities issued a blistering report on 11 October, accusing seven-time Tour de France cycling champion Lance Armstrong of being at the center of "a massive team doping scheme, more extensive than any previously revealed in professional sports history." The 202-page report, which includes new testimony from 11 former teammates of Mr. Armstrong, is the culmination of a years long and highly contentious investigation into professional cycling and the methods behind the success of one its greatest teams. The report was issued by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in support of its decision in August to ban Mr. Armstrong from competition for life and strip him of his titles.
  
• S.Vishwanathan - S. Viswanathan on 8 October 2012 was appointed as a managing director of State Bank of India. His appointed came by the Central Government of India. Viswanathan, was earlier serving as a deputy managing director of State Bank of India. Prior to that, he was heading the state-run bank’s investment banking arm, SBI Capital Markets Ltd. The appointment of S. Viswanathan takes effect from the date of taking over charge of the post until April 30, 2014, that isthe date of his attaining the age of superannuation or until further orders, whichever is earlier. Following the appointment, SBI has now four managing directors, including Diwakar Gupta, who the chief financial officer, Hemant Contractor, who is in charge of international operations and A. Krishna Kumar, who looks after national banking.
  
• B. Satyanarayana Reddy (86)- Socialist party leader and former Governor of Uttar Pradesh and Odisha died in hyderabad on 6 october. A bachelor, who dedicated his life for public service and served for long in the Janata Party, he was a staunch follower of Rammanohar Lohiya and Jayaprakash Narayan. He had served as the Governor of Uttar Pradesh between 1990 and 1993 and later as Odisha Governor. A Telangana protagonist, Satyanarayana Reddy served as an inspiration for those in the Telangana movement.
  
• Lt. General (Retired) Kuldeep Singh Brar who led the controversial Operation Blue Star to flush out terrorists from the Golden Temple in Amritsar in 1984, was stabbed near a hotel in Central London on 1 october night by unidentified attackers and he suffered minor injuries. He was taken to hospital and later discharged.Police said they had registered a case of assault. Gen. Brar has been on the hit list of several extremists and militant organisations. He enjoys “Z” category security, but was thought to have been without any protection at the time of the incident as he was on a private visit and had not informed the Indian mission in London of his movements. Gen. Brar, 78, was decorated for his role in liberating Bangladesh after the 1971 India-Pakistan war.
  
• Historian Hobsbawm passes away :
  Eric Hobsbawm, one of the most eminent British historians who closely followed the fluctuating fortunes of the Left movement in India and influenced many Indian scholars over decades, died on 1 October in London, at the age of 95. Hobsbawm's works included the widely read and referenced books on world history, titled 'The Age of Revolution: Europe 1789-1848', 'The Age of Capital; 1848- 1875', 'The Age of Empire: 1875-1914', and 'The Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century, 1914-1991'. A lifelong Marxist, Hobsbawm last visited India in 2005, when he met several people, including CPM leaders, at a luncheon hosted by K Natwar Singh, former Minister for External Affairs.