PERSONS SEPTEMBER 2012

PERSONS SEPTEMBER 2012

• Onno Ruhl- World Bank has appointed Onno Ruhl as the Country Director for India on 10 september.He will replace Roberto Zagha who retires in October.Ruhl, a Dutch national, was previously the Director for Operations Services and Quality in the South Asia Region of the World Bank.
  
• Rajiv Mehta- Rajiv Mehta, IPS, has been appointed as the Director General, Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on 18 september. His appointment will be on deputation basis for a period of five years from the date of assumption of charge of the post or till the date of his superannuation or until further orders, whichever event takes place earlier.
  
• RAJIV KUMAR- Noted economist Rajiv Kumar, on 17 september resigned as secretary general of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci). Rajiv Kumar joined Ficci in October 2010 as director general when Amit Mitra was its secretary general. Later, Kumar replaced Mitra in May 2011 and became the secretary-general, Ficci. Mitra moved on to become the finance minister of West Bengal. In a statement, Ficci said Kumar decided to “return to academics and research” therefore resigned.
  
• G. Kasturi(87)- former Editor of The Hindu and former Managing Director of Kasturi & Sons Limited, proprietors of The Hindu Group publications, died on 21 september. Mr. Kasturi presided over a phase of rapid technological and editorial transformation at The Hindu . He led from the front the newspaper’s expansion and modernisation from the 1960s through to the cusp of the 1990s.His was the longest tenure for an Editor of the newspaper, which turned 134 years on September 20, 2012. He joined The Hindu in 1944.
  
• Konda Laxman Bapuji(97) - Noted freedom fighter, former Minister and Telangana protagonist diedof cardiac arrest at his residence in Hyderabad on 21 september. Born in Wankhidi village in Adilabad district on September 27, 1915, Bapuji participated in ‘Vandemataram’ and Quit India movements and fought against the Nizam’s rule for the liberation of Hyderabad State. Later, he participated in the ‘non-mulki’ agitation in 1952 and gave up his Minister’s post in support of the demand for statehood to Telangana in 1969.He was active in the Telangana agitation till his death and even tried to convince the leaders of Seemandhra on the need for a separate State. Bapuji was elected to the Assembly four times – twice each from Adilabad and Nalgonda districts -- with his last term being during 1972-78 from Bhongir. He served as a Minister in the Cabinets of Kasu Brahmananda Reddy and Damodaram Sanjivaiah and as Deputy Speaker of the Assembly.
  
• The Indian Newspaper Society declared Tilak Kumar as its new President:
  K.N. Tilak Kumar was appointed as the president of The Indian Newspaper Society for the year 2012-2013 on 13 September 2012 during the 73rd annual meet of the Newspaper Society. Tilak Kumar is the Editor of Deccan Herald and the Joint Managing Director of the Printers (Mysore). He is a successor of Ashish Bagga from India Today. The secretary general of the society released the names of other newly elected office bearers of the society. Some of the prominent names are Ravindra Kumar (The Statesman) is appointed as the Deputy President, Kiran B Vadodaria (Sambhaav Metro) is the new Vice President and Sanjay Gupta (Dainik Jagran, Varanasi) has been appointed as the Honorary Treasurer of the Society. New elected members of the executive committee are V K Chopra (Dainik Asam), P V Chandran (Grihalakshmi), Mahendra Mohan Gupta (Dainik Jagran), L Adimoolam (Health & The Antiseptic), Jagjit Singh Dardi (Charhdikala Daily), Samahit Bal (Pragativadi),Ravindra Dhariwal (Navbharat Times), K Balaji (The Hindu Weekly), Pradeep Gupta (Dataquest), Dr B S Adityan (Varantari Rani), Pawan Agarwal (Dainik Bhaskar, Bhopal), Rishi Darda (Lokmat, Ahmednagar) and Vijay Darda (Lokmat) and others. Indian Newspaper Society has 1000 dailies, weeklies, bi-weeklies, monthlies and fortnightlies on board, which are published in eighteen different languages of India.
  
• Thilakan(77)- Malayalam cinema’s acting legend, died on 24 September in thiruvananthapuram. Wreaths were placed on behalf of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Defence Minister A.K. Antony. The cremation was held with state honours in the city.Surendranath Thilakan, a man of rough edges on and off screen, acted in nearly 200 films during his four-decade-long film career and won accolades and several awards on the way. He was honoured with the Padma Shri in 2009.
  
• Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad -The World Hindi Conference has decided to honour Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad in recognition of his immense contribution to Hindi literature. It comes as a great honour to a Telugu-speaking person for his enormous contribution to Hindi, whichis the National Official Language. He has been invited to take part in the 9th World Hindi Conference being held in Johannesburg in South Africa from September 22-24, where he will be honoured. Lakshmi Prasad will be honoured with citation, shawl and memento .Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad, who heads the Andhra Pradesh Hindi Academy, is the Hindi Professor in Andhra University in Visakhapatnam. A former member of the Rajya Sabha, Lashmi Prasad has been honoured in the past by Sahitya Academy Award and is a recipient of Padma Shri.
  
• Aishwarya Rai Bachchan - Hindi actor, was appointed as UN Goodwill Ambassador for UNAIDS. She says that she does not want to be just a “poster girl” for the organisation but will help break social barriers and stigmas that are attached with the disease. In her new role, Aishwarya will help raise awareness on issues related to stopping new HIV infections in children and advocate for increased access to anti-retroviral treatment. UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe announced Aishwarya’s appointment as the Goodwill Ambassador at a press conference in New York on 25 September.
  
• Brajesh Mishra(83)- India’s first National Security Adviser and the man who supervised the testing and incorporation of nuclear weapons as an integral part of the country’s security strategy, died in New Delhi on 28 September. From being closely involved in the planning for the 1998 Pokhran nuclear tests to pushing for a deeper engagement with the United States and attempting to mend ties with both Pakistan and China, Mishra stepped out of the bureaucratic mould to implement in a finely detailed fashion the broad vision of foreign policy that Atal Bihari Vajpayee as Prime Minister had sketched out for India. He became a diplomatic practioner himself after joining the Indian Foreign Service in 1951.He served in various positions, including as Ambassador to Indonesia and India’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations.
  
• K.S. Narayanan(93)- Chairman Emeritus of the Sanmar Group, passed away in Chennai on 28 September. A co-promoter of the India Cements Ltd., he went to Denmark in the late 1940s and returned with a thorough knowledge of cement and PVC. A technology-savvy industrialist, it used to be said that he could run the plant on his own. With a well-diversified knowledge base, he dealt with a range of industries — cement, plastics, sugar, drugs and pharmaceuticals, shipping, ceramic insulators, rubber and calcium carbide. He was involved in the promotion of diverse enterprises such as Chemplast Sanmar Limited, Sanmar Shipping Limited, WS Industries Ltd. and Tamil Nadu Dadha Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Narayanan was the founder president of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce-Southern Region and former president of the Hindustan Chamber of Commerce. He also served as the Sheriff of Madras (1974) and as the Honorary Consul of Denmark for South India.
  
• Justice Altamas Kabir- Senior most Judge of the Supreme Court, was sworn in as the 39th Chief Justice of India on 29 September. President Pranab Mukherjee administered the oath of office to him at a brief ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan.Justice Kabir will have tenure of a little over nine months till July 18, 2013. Justice Kabir (64), who hails from Kolkata, was appointed as a Judge of the Supreme Court on September 9, 2005. He became a Judge of the Calcutta High Court in 1990. He was appointed as the Chief Justice of the Jharkhand High Court on March 1, 2005 and elevated to the Supreme Court in September 2005. During his tenure as a Supreme Court judge, Justice Kabir delivered several landmark judgments, particularly relating to human rights and election laws.
  
• R Lakshmipathy, publisher of Tamil daily Dinamalar, was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of Press Trust of India (PTI) after the company's Annual General Meeting (AGM) here on 24 September. Lakshmipathy, who has served as PTI Chairman twice earlier, succeeds M P Veerendrakumar, Chairman and Managing Director of Mathrubhoomi group of newspapers. K N Shanth Kumar of Deccan Herald was elected Vice Chairman of the Board. Lakshmipathy is an educationist running several educational institutions for the benefit of rural people in and around Madurai for which has been awarded D. Litt. By Alagappa University and Bharathiar University.
  
• Shumsher K Sheriff, Secretary to the Vice-President, has been appointed the new Secretary General of Rajya Sabha. Sheriff, an IAS officer of 1977 batch, would take over on October 1 on completion of the term of the incumbent, Dr V K Agnihotri, a Rajya Sabha Secretariat release said on 25 September. He would hold the office of Secretary General in the rank and status of Cabinet Secretary, on deputation, until August 31 next year.
  
• Justice Darmar Murugesan, who was a judge of the Madras High Court, was sworn in as the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court on 26 September. 62-year-old Justice Murugesan after being elevated was transferred to Delhi in the place of Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri, who in turn has taken charge as the Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court.
  
• Jaideep Sarkar on 27 September 2012 was appointed as the new Indian Ambassador to Israel. The IITian and diplomat, is a private secretary to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and a joint secretary of external affairs ministry, has replaced Navtej Sarna, the former ministry spokesperson.
  
• Nirmal Verma, the former navy chief on 27 September 2012 was appointed as India’s high commissioner to Canada. His appointment to the post happened on the recommendation of the PMO to the president, who cleared his name for the vacancy. Admiral Verma, will soon leave for Ottawa to join the office because Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s visit is scheduled to India in the near future.
  
• Verghese Kurien the White Revolutionary and the Milkman of India Died:
  The man responsible for bringing white revolution in India and founder of world’s largest dairy company Amul Verghese Kurien (90) took his last breath in a hospital at Nadiad, on 9 September 2012. The body of Kurien was cremated in the ultramodern crematorium at Kailash Bhumi in the milk capital of India- Anand, Gujarat in presence of his admirers and staff members of milk cooperatives. Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) was founded under the chairmanship of the visionary. He was appointed to be the founder Chairman of National Dairy Development Board ins the year 1965 by the then Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri. He played a major role in different organizations like, he chaired the Vikshit Bharat Foundation and been a Chairman for Board of Governors of Institute of Rural Management, Anand. Kurien, who was born in Kerela on 26 November 1921, in a Syrian Christian family was a mechanical engineer by education with dairy engineering as his minor subject. His vision and leadership together helped the then milk deficit country India to be the largest milk producing country of the world. India’s contribution to the total milk production of the world is about 17%. Because of his contributions to the nation, Verghese Kurien won awards namely Magsaysay Award, the world food prize and India’s second highest civilian award, Padma Vibhushan. Now, Kurien is survived by his grandson, Siddharth, daughter Nirmala Kurien and his wife.
  
• Altamas Kabir appointed next Chief Justice:
  Seniormost Supreme Court judge Justice Altamas Kabir was on 13 September, appointed the next Chief Justice of India. Justice Kabir, 64, who will succeed Justice S. H. Kapadia, will take over as the country’s 39th Chief Justice on September 29. Justice Kabir was appointed Supreme Court judge on September 9, 2005. He has delivered several landmark judgments, including on human rights and election laws. He will have a tenure of nine months till July 18, 2013. Born on July 19, 1948, in Kolkata, Justice Kabir did his LLB and MA from University of Calcutta and was made a permanent judge of the Calcutta High Court on August 6, 1990. He is part of the Bench hearing the case of the two Italian Marines who allegedly shot dead two Kerala fishermen taking them for pirates. Justice Kabir headed a Bench which recently decided the case of disqualification of MLAs by the Karnataka Legislative Assembly Speaker. The Bench quashed the Speaker’s order on disqualification of MLAs who had defected from the Bharatiya Janata Party. Justice Kabir also decided the important issue of whether an MP suspended from a political party can continue as MP. The Bench headed by him held that even after being removed or suspended from a party, the person can continue as MP and participate in its proceedings and shall be entitled to vote.
  
• Former CJI Ranganath Mishra dead:
  Former Chief Justice of India Ranganath Mishra died at a private hospital in Bhubaneswar on 13 September following prolonged illness. He was 86 and survived by wife Sumitra Mishra. A legal luminary, Mishra had been admitted to the hospital on May 22 following old-age related ailments and the end came on Thursday night. A multi-faceted personality closely associated with writing and cultural activities, Mishra was born on November 25, 1926. He had enrolled as an advocate of Orissa high court in 1950 after a brief stint in teaching and handled all types of cases at Cuttack. He was appointed a permanent judge of the Orissa high court in 1969 and became acting Chief Justice of Orissa high court in 1980 and a permanent Chief Justice from January 1981. Mishra was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court on March 15, 1983 and rose to become the Chief Justice of India in September 25, 1990 and held the post till November 24, 1991. Besides being a Rajya Sabha member from 1998 to 2004, Mishra was also the Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
  
• Sheryl Kumar was Crowned as Miss India Fiji 2012 :
  Sheryl Kumar was crowned Miss India Fiji 2012 at a glittering ceremony in Suva on 8 September 2012. Sheryl beat nine other contestants to win the title. She is now preparing for the Miss India Worldwide pageant to be held in Kuala Lumpur in March 2013. Sheryl also won the Pure Fiji Beautiful Skin award at the event.
  
• New ABC Chairman:
  Shailesh Gupta, director (marketing) of Jagran Prakashan, has been elected Chairman of the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) for 2012-2013. Syed Mahmood Ahmad, executive vice-president (marketing) of ITC, is the Deputy Chairman. Six more members of the Council of Management for the ABC have also been elected.
  
• Former RSS chief Sudarshan passes away :
  Former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief K S Sudarshan, who was known for his hardline views and believed in the concept of ‘swadeshi’, died in Raipur on 14 September after suffering a heart attack. Mr Sudarshan, 81, is survived by a brother and sister. The ex-RSS chief, who had arrived in the city two days back, died at the RSS office here at 6:50 a.m.. He was in the city for a book launch function. Mr Sudarshan had gone for an early morning walk and suffered a heart attack while doing ‘Pranayam’ in his chamber in the RSS office, doctors said. Born on 18 June, 1931 in Raipur, he did his Bachelor of Engineering in Telecommunications. A known votary of swadeshi, he served as Pracharak of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for six decades and became its Sarasanghachalak in 2000 succeeding Rajju Bhaiya. He stepped down from the post due to poor health. In August, he had briefly gone missing during his morning walk in Mysore.
  
• Girl of Indian-Kazakh origin wins Miss Almaty 2012:
  Farida Malik (18), a student of Kazakhstan’s Turan University, has won the Miss Almaty 2012 title.Tengrinews.kz quoted Sovet Seitov, executive director of the Miss Kazakhstan beauty pageant, as saying of Ms. Malik: “She is an interesting girl with outstanding appearance. Her father is Indian and her mother is Kazakh. She likes dancing and moves very gracefully. A majority of jury liked her.”
  
• The Indian Newspaper Society declared Tilak Kumar as its new President:
  K.N. Tilak Kumar was appointed as the president of The Indian Newspaper Society for the year 2012-2013 on 13 September 2012 during the 73rd annual meet of the Newspaper Society. Tilak Kumar is the Editor of Deccan Herald and the Joint Managing Director of the Printers (Mysore). He is a successor of Ashish Bagga from India Today. The secretary general of the society released the names of other newly elected office bearers of the society. Some of the prominent names are Ravindra Kumar (The Statesman) is appointed as the Deputy President, Kiran B Vadodaria (Sambhaav Metro) is the new Vice President and Sanjay Gupta (Dainik Jagran, Varanasi) has been appointed as the Honorary Treasurer of the Society. New elected members of the executive committee are V K Chopra (Dainik Asam), P V Chandran (Grihalakshmi), Mahendra Mohan Gupta (Dainik Jagran), L Adimoolam (Health & The Antiseptic), Jagjit Singh Dardi (Charhdikala Daily), Samahit Bal (Pragativadi),Ravindra Dhariwal (Navbharat Times), K Balaji (The Hindu Weekly), Pradeep Gupta (Dataquest), Dr B S Adityan (Varantari Rani), Pawan Agarwal (Dainik Bhaskar, Bhopal), Rishi Darda (Lokmat, Ahmednagar) and Vijay Darda (Lokmat) and others. Indian Newspaper Society has 1000 dailies, weeklies, bi-weeklies, monthlies and fortnightlies on board, which are published in eighteen different languages of India.
• Kaushik Basu- The World Bank appointed Kaushik Basu, as its chief economist and senior vice president on 5 September 2012. Basu, an Indian national and a Cornell University professor most recently served as chief economic adviser of the India's Union Ministry of Finance. He has to take over as the chief economist at the World Bank on October 1. Kaushik Basu, 60, holds a doctorate from the London School of Economics and has also founded the Centre for Development Economics at the Delhi School of Economics in 1992 is also a founding member of the Madras School of Economics. He had his wide contributions in the field span development economics, welfare economics, industrial organisation and public economics. He was awarded with one of the country's highest civilian awards, the Padma Bhushan in May 2008.In his two-and-a-half-year stay in the Union finance ministry; Basu gave some constructive thoughts on food coupons and innovative ways to tackle corruption among other advices.
  
• Sachin pilot(35)-Indian Union Minister of state for Telecommunication and Information Technology is commissioned to be a Lieutenant in Territorial Army on 6 September 2012. With this he has turned up to be a part of ‘124 TA (Sikh) Battalion’ the one also known by the name of ‘Urban Concept’ battalion. Along with commissioning, he will have to attend "14 camp and 22 parade days'' in a year.Sachin Pilot has turned up to be the first union minister to be commissioned as an officer on regular basis in Territorial Army. He cleared the exam that was conducted by the Territorial Army and the SSB interview round at Allahabad. He is a MP from Ajmer Lok Sabha Constituency of Rajasthan.
  
• Sundaresh Menon-An Indian-origin judge, has been named as the new Chief Justice of Singapore, making him the first from the community to head the courts.Sundaresh Menon, presently Singapore's Judge of Appeal, will assume the office of the Chief Justice from November 6.He would take over from Justice Chan Sek Keong, who retires at the age of 75.
  
• Mamatha Benarjee-The ‘Bloomberg Markets’ magazine has included West Bengal Chief Minister in the list of 50 most influential people in the finance category. Mamta Banerjee is included in the policy-makers section .The selection was decided on the ability of leader to move markets and shape ideas and policies and his or her influence in affecting the price of a security or the structure of a deal. Two other people of Indian origin who were included in the list were Anshu Jain, Co- CEO of Deutsche Bank and Preet Bharara, US Attorney for the southern District of New York. Mamta banerjee was placed in 21st position. Earlier in April, she was also ranked among 100 most influential personalities of the world by the Time magazine.
  
• Smita Shah- A close supporter of US President Barack Obama became the first person from Indian-American origin to serve as a parliamentarian for Democratic National Conventionon 6 September 2012. She is the Vice-Chair at Chicago Plan Commission.
  
• Paul Mc Cartney(70)-Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney received the French Legion of Honour award on 8 september, at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris. President Francois Hollande bestowed the medal on the British musician, adding that the award was granted for his entire body of work. Born in Liverpool, Mr. McCartney was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1996, earning him the title “Sir”.
  
• N.A.K.Browne-IAF chief Air Chief Marshal N A K Browne, who has become the senior most among the three Service chiefs after Admiral Nirmal Verma retired on 1 september, has taken over as the new chairman of the chiefs of staff committee (CoSC).ACM Browne, in his new role as CoSC chairman, will have to strive to achieve the much-needed synergy among Army, Navy and IAF, which often pull in different directions in policy and procurement decisions.
  
• Amir Khan-Bollywood star, Aamir’s hugely successful TV show Satyamev Jayate, that focusing on burning issues facing India and ways of tackling them, has landed him on the cover of prestigious Time magazine as India's "first superstar-activist.
  
• Bimal Gurung sworn in as the Head of Gorkhaland Territorial Administration. Bimal Gurung, President of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), will head the first elected body of the GTA. The 50-member body will consists of 45 elected candidates and 5 nominated candidates. The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) had emerged victorious on all 45 seats in the Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA) election. The party won 28 seats out of 45 uncontested while, the voting for remaining 17 GTA seats were held on 29 July 2012 and results were declared on 2 August 2012. Gorkhaland Territorial Administration is the successor of Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council which came into existence in 1988. Gorkhaland Territorial Administration was the result of three-year long agitation by Bimal Gurung led Gorkha Janmukti Morcha for separate Gorkhaland state. The agitation which kicked off in 2007 culminated with the formation of GTA in 2011. In 2011, when Mamta Banrjee led Trinmool Congress stormed to power in West Bengal, three sides viz. Union Government, West Bengal Government and GJM inked a tripartite agreement with respect to the formation of GTA. The West Bengal Legislative Assembly had passed a legislation for the formation of Gorkha Land on 2 September 2011. According to the legislation the GTA will have administrative, executive and financial powers but no legislative powers.
  
• Gaurav Shumsher Rana an India-educated lieutenant general took over the position of Nepal’s Army Chief, on 6 September 2012. He has served Nepal’s army for 39 years ever since his recruitment in 1970. Rana’s appointment is a result of cabinet decision following a proposal made by the ex-army chief Gen Chhatra Man Singh Gurung to the President Ram Baran Yadav, as a successor to him. Rana, who did his graduation in military affairs from a Himachal Pradesh based, The Lawrence School at Sanawar also completed his Officers’ Cadet Course Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, UK. Rana is a son of a former Major General Aditya Shumsher Rana of Nepal Army and a great-grand son of the Prime Minister Chandra Shumsher Rana, who ruled the nation in between 1901-1930.
• A.KRISHNA MURTHY-Sahitya Akademi secretary A. Krishna Murthy on 1 sept has been suspended pending an inquiry into his conduct after allegations against him of financial irregularities and administrative lapses. The decision to place him under suspension was taken by a four-member executive board of the Akademi. Eminent writer Sunil Gangopadhyay, who is the chairman of the Akademi, told that the allegations include financial irregularities and administrative lapses on the part of the Secretary.