PERSONS OCTOBER 2016

PERSONS OCTOBER 2016

• Cyrus Mistry
   In a dramatic development that took the corporates and others by surprise, Cyrus Mistry was on 24th October sacked as Chairman of Tata Sons and was replaced by Ratan Tata, from whom he had taken over the reins of the over USD 100 billion salt-to-software conglomerate four years ago.
  
  The announcement came after the Board of Tata Sons met in Mumbai and decided to replace 48-year-old Mistry and appoint Ratan Tata as interim head. The board named a five-member search committee, which includes Tata, to choose a successor to Mistry within four months.
  
  Mistry was chosen as Tata's successor in November, 2011, and was appointed Deputy Chairman of Tata Sons, whose board he had entered in 2006. He was made chairman on the basis of his representation from Shapoorji Palonji, the largest shareholder in Tata Sons.
  
• Bilal Nazki: Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra has appointed former Chief Justice of Orissa High Court Bilal Nazki as the chairperson of the State Human Rights Commission. The Governor also appointed former District and Session Judge Jang Bahadur Singh Jamwal as Member of the Commission with effect from the date they assume charge of their offices.
  
  Justice Nazki retired as Chief Justice of Orissa High Court in November 2009 and was later appointed as the chairperson of Human Rights Commission of Bihar. He also headed the committee set up by the Centre to review the functioning of the Haj Committee of India and its state units in 2013.
  
• Balakrishnan: 25-year-old water tanker driver from Bengaluru has won two distinctive bodybuilding titles - the Mr Asia 2016 and "Arnold Schwarzenegger of Whitefield" - during the 5th Phil-Asia bodybuilding championships in the Philippines. G Balakrishna, a gym instructor, is a resident of Ramagondanahalli near Varthur
  
  He has earlier won the Mr Universe Under-24 junior contest in 2013 in Germany and the Mr Universe title in the same category at the world championship in Athens in 2014. He joined the water-tanker business in 2010 in Whitefild, Bengaluru.
  
• Karnal Singh: Senior IPS officer Karnal Singh was on 26th October appointed chief of Enforcement Directorate, the agency entrusted with probing money laundering cases.
  
  The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has approved the appointment of Singh as Director, Enforcement Directorate (ED) till August 31, 2017, i.e. the date of his superannuation. Singh, a 1984 batch IPS officer of Union territories cadre, is holding the additional charge of ED chief since August 2016. He is at present Special Director in the ED. He got third extension in August 2016 to hold the additional charge of the post of ED chief for six months.
  
• Shashikala Kakodar: Goa's first woman chief minister Shashikala Kakodkar on 28th October passed away, Kakodkar was the daughter of the former Goa chief minister Dayanand Bandodkar. Shashikala became chief minister and continued to be in power till 1979. Kakodkar was active in social and cultural fields and had headed the Bhartiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch (BBSM), a front demanding mother tongue be made medium of instruction in elementary education.
  
• Saina Nehwal: In a rare honour for an Indian sportsperson, star shuttler Saina Nehwal has been appointed as a member of the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) Athletes' Commission. Saina received a letter to the effect from the IOC President Thomas Bach
  
  The Athletes' Commission is chaired by Angela Ruggiero and it comprises nine vice presidents and 10 other members. Saina's appointment to the prestigious panel has come just when she is set to resume practice after recovering from a knee injury.
  
• Poonam Chauhan: National woman footballer Poonam Chauhan has died of dengue during her treatment at a private hospital in Varanasi. Poonam, who played for the Indian football team in 2010, passed away on 19th October
  
  Chauhan was a part of the team that had won a gold medal at the 2010 South Asian games. She also played for the UP state football team, and was one of their most crucial members. Poonam was working as a football trainer at Varanasi's Sigra stadium.
  
• Arun Jaitley: Finance Minister of India, Arun Jaitley has written book, ‘Andhere se Ujale ki Ore’, the book was released by BJP president Amit Shah on 20th October. The book is a Hindi translation of earlier book with the same name.
  
  The book 'Andhere se Ujaale ki Ore' presents many of Jaitley's articles which he has written over the years on current issues. The book especially has articles that Jaitely wrote over the corruptions and scams in earlier governments.
  
• Junko Tabei: The first woman to conquer Mount Everest, Junko Tabei of Japan has passed away. She conquered Mount Everest in 1975, the first by a woman. She went on to conquer soaring peaks in several continents - Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Mount McKinley in the United States and the Vinson Massif in Antarctica - heralding the era of women climbers.
  
• Bill Gates: Bill Gates topped the forbes list of 400 rich people in world. Five Indian-Americans are among the richest .
  Symphony Technology founder Romesh Wadhwani, co-founder of outsourcing firm Syntel Bharat Neerja Desai, airline veteran Rakesh Gangwal, entrepreneur John Kapoor and Silicon Valley angel investor Kavitark Ram Shriram have featured on Forbes' The Richest People In America 2016 list.
  
  The list was topped by 60-year-old Gates who has a net worth of $81 billion. Gates keeps pushing to save lives in the developing world through efforts to eliminate polio, attack malaria and expand childhood vaccinations as head of the world's largest private charitable foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Wadhwani (69) has been ranked 222nd on the list with a net worth of $3 billion.
  
  The IIT-Mumbai and Carnegie Mellon alumnus is the chairman and CEO of Symphony Technology Group, an empire of 17 data, technology, health care and analytics companies that together take in more than $2.8 billion in annual revenue. In 2015, Wadhwani announced that he planned to commit up to $1 billion to fund entrepreneurship initiatives in India.
  
  Desai ranks 274th on the list, with a net worth of $2.5 billion. Their company Syntel, started in 1980 from their apartment in Michigan, now generates over $950 million in revenue and has nearly 24,000 employees across the globe.
  
  Gangwal is ranked 321 on the list with a net worth of $2.2 billion. The 63-year old IIT alumnus is an airline veteran who made his fortune from InterGlobe Aviation, the parent company of his budget airline IndiGo, India's largest by market share.
  
  Gangwal co-founded IndiGo, headquartered outside Delhi in 2006 with one aircraft. The Miami resident owns more than 40 per cent of the company and now serves as a board member
  
  Kapoor ranks 335 on the list and has a net worth of $2.1 billion. The 73-year-old is the chairman of two drug outfits - Akorn, which specialises in "difficult-to-manufacture" prescription drugs, and Insys Therapeutics, which produces an opioid for cancer patients.
  
• Panneerselvam: Tamil Nadu Finance Minister O Panneerselvam — who has served as the interim chief minister of the state twice — has taken over all the portfolios of Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, who has been hospitalised since September 22.
  
  According to the Raj Bhavan release under Clause (3) of Article 166 of the Constitution of India, the governor allocated the subjects hitherto dealt with by Jayalalithaa to Panneerselvam. He will also preside over the Cabinet meetings. This arrangement has been made according to the advice of the CM and will continue until Jayalalithaa resumes her duties.
  
• Antonio Guterres: The UN General Assembly on 13th October formally appointed Antonio Guterres as the new Secretary-General of the United Nations, replacing Ban Ki-moon.
  
  The 193 member states adopted by acclamation a resolution appointing the former Prime Minister of Portugal for a five-year term beginning January 1. Mr. Guterres, who also served as UN refugee chief for a decade, is expected to play a more prominent role than Mr. Ban, who will step down after two five-year terms. Mr. Guterres won unanimous support from the UN Security Council during a vote first week of October, 2016 that capped the most transparent campaign ever held at the UN for the top post. He campaigned on a pledge to promote human rights and enact reforms within the United Nations system, seen as clunky and too slow to respond to unfolding disasters.
  
• Bhumibol Adulyadej: Thailand's most revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej passed away on 13th October, ending a remarkable seven-decade reign as the world's longest ruling monarch who was considered a demigod by Thai people.
  
• Sheikh Mohamed bin Zyed Al Nahyan: Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan will be the chief guest at next year's Republic Day celebrations.
  
• 
  Arjun Vajpai: Professional mountaineer Arjun Vajpai on 5th October scaled the world's sixth highest mountain Cho Oyu. Arjun has climbed five of the 14 highest mountains in the world that tower over 8000 metres and holds world records as the youngest summiteer on Mount Lhotse,
  Mount Manaslu and Mount Makalu.
  
  The Mount Cho Oyu 2016 expedition was a personal challenge for the young mountaineer because he had suffered a paralytic attack during his first attempt in 2011 and Arjun had to work his way back to physical fitness to climb again.
  
• Sushil Chandra: Sushil Chandra will be new chairperson of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), replacing Rani Singh Nair from November, 2016. His appointment, cleared by a Cabinet panel, came at a time when the Department will be monitoring payment of taxes by declarants of black money through a four-month long window. Chandra, a 1980 batch officer of Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax cadre), is currently Member (Investigation) of the CBDT.
  
  IIT graduate Chandra's tenure will last till May next year. The CBDT is headed by a chairman and can have a maximum of six members.