PERSONS SEPTEMBER 2017

PERSONS SEPTEMBER 2017

• Arvind Subramanian: Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) to the Finance Ministry Arvind Subramanian has been given a one-year extension and will continue in office till October 2018. His three-year term was set to end on October 16, 2017.
  
• Rajiv Mehrishi: Rajiv Mehrishi took over as the Comptroller and Auditor General on 25th September. He was administered the oath of office and secrecy by President Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Mr Mehrishi succeeds Shashi Kant Sharma.
  
  Mr Mehrishi, a 1978 batch IAS officer of the Rajasthan cadre, completed his two-year fixed term as the Home Secretary in August. He had held several posts in both his state cadre Rajasthan and in the Centre. Mr Mehrishi also served as Economic Affairs Secretary and Chief Secretary of Rajasthan.
  
• Shashi Shanker: Shashi Shanker has been appointed Chairman and Managing Director of India's biggest oil and gas producer, ONGC, till March 2021.
  
  The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) named Shanker, who is currently Director (Technical and Field Services) at ONGC, as CMD till his superannuation.
  
  Mr Shanker, will take charge from October 1st when the incumbent Dinesh K Sarraf retires and will have a three-and-a-half-year term until March 31, 2021.
  
• Yingluck Shinawatra: Former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has been found guilty of criminal negligence and sentenced in absentia to five years in prison.
  
  The Supreme Court convicted her of mishandling a rice subsidy scheme which allegedly cost Thailand at least eight billion dollars.
  
  Ousted in 2014, weeks before a military coup, and later impeached, Ms Yingluck denies all charges and fled before the verdict, reportedly to Dubai. Public opinion is divided. She remains popular with rural and poor voters.
  
  The Supreme Court judges said Ms Yingluck had been aware of the falsified rice deals but did nothing to stop it.
  
• L.K.Advani: L K Advani has been renominated as Chairman of the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.
  
  Advani and all other 14 members have been given another term. The Ethics Committee examines every complaint relating to unethical conduct of a member referred to it.
  
  It can also take up suo motu investigation into matters relating to ethics, including those linked to unethical conduct by a member wherever necessary and make recommendations. Chairpersons of other Parliament panels have also been renominated.
  
  They include P Karunakaran (CPM) for the Committee on Absence of Members from Sittings of the House and Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank (BJP) for the Committee on Government Assurances, according to a Lok Sabha bulletin.
  
  Chandrakant B Khaire (Shiv Sena) for the Committee on Papers Laid on the Table and Dilipkumar Mansukhlal Gandhi (BJP) for the Committee on Subordinate Legislation have also been renominated as chairmen of the respective panels.
  
  Deputy Speaker in Lok Sabha M Thambidurai has been nominated as chairman of the Committee on Private Members’ Bills and Resolutions in place of Dilipkumar Mansukhlal Gandhi. Thambidurai was also renominated as chairman of the panel on Local Area Development Scheme, which reviews implementation of the MPLAD scheme.
  
• YC Modi: Senior IPS officer Y C Modi, who was part of the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team that probed the 2002 Gujarat riot cases, was 18th September named chief of the National Investigation Agency.
  
  The federal probe agency is tasked with probing terrorism and terror-financing related cases. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) approved Modi’s appointment as Director General of the NIA. ACC has also approved the appointment of Modi as officer on special duty (OSD) in NIA with immediate effect to ensure a smooth takeover.
  
  Modi, a 1984 batch IPS officer of the Assam–Meghalaya cadre, is at present the special director in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). He will take over from Sharad Kumar after he completes his tenure on October 30, the order said. Kumar, who was appointed DG NIA in July 2013, has been given two extensions.
  
  In October last year, Kumar was given a one-year extension, apparently to help the agency complete some important probes, including the Pathankot terror case, terror strikes in Kashmir, Burdwan blast case and the Samjhauta blast cases.
  
• Peter Thomson: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appointed Peter Thomson, the outgoing president of the General Assembly as the first special envoy for the oceans. Peter Thomson played a leading role at the first-ever UN conference on oceans in June. The 193 UN member states issued an urgent call for action to reverse the decline in the health and productivity of the world's oceans.
  
• Halimah Yacob:
  Halimah Yacob is the first female President of Singapore was sworn-in as the 8th President of Singapore. She was certified by the Presidential Elections Commission as the only eligible candidate and there was no opponent.
  
• Nagaraja Sarma: M. Nagaraja Sarma appointed the chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) of the United India Insurance Co. Ltd. He is at present the general manager, Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd. He is appointed for five years.
  
• Debabrata Mukherjee: Debabrata Mukherjee, Vice President, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia, is all set to be the new Chairman of the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC). Till now Mukherjee represented advertisers’ category on the council as the Deputy Chairman of the Bureau. He will replace I Venkat, Director, Eenadu who was unanimously elected as Chairman of Audit Bureau of Circulation last year.
  
• Ban-ki-Moon: Former United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon elected as Chair of Ethics Commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for a four-year term. He succeeds Youssoupha Ndiaye of Senegal whose term has come to an end. His appointment was proposed by the IOC Executive Board and was approved during the IOC Session in Lima with a 74-4 majority.
  
• Sadaram is Chief Info Commissioner
  Former secretary of the State Legislature, S. Rajasadaram, has been appointed Chief Information Commissioner of the State Information Commission under the Right To Information Act.
  
  A Ph.D in law, Dr. Sadaram retired as legislature secretary recently. He has been instrumental in the effective functioning of legislature as an adviser to the Chairman of the Legislative Council and Speaker of the Legislative Assembly since the formation of the new State.
  
  Dr. Sadaram’s name was finalised by a high-level committee headed by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, his deputy Mohd. Mahmood Ali and Opposition leader K. Jana Reddy.
  
  The committee which met at Pragati Bhavan on 15th September also approved the name of senior journalist Buddha Murali, with three decades of experience in a Telugu daily, as Information Commissioner.
  
• Arjan Singh: Marshal of Indian Air Force Arjan Singh passed away in New Delhi on 16th September. He was admitted in the Army Research and Referral Hospital in New Delhi following a cardiac attack.
  
  He was the only officer of the Indian Air Force who was promoted to five-star rank as Marshal. He had served as Chief of the Air Staff from 1964 to 1969 and led the force in 1965 war. He has also served as Ambassador to Switzerland, Vatican and was awarded the Padma Vibhushan.
  
• A B Pandey:UIDAI CEO A B Pandey was on 8th September appointed interim chairman of Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) -- the firm providing IT backbone and portal for registration and tax returns under the GST regime. Pandey was given additional charge days after GSTN's first chairman Navin Kumar completed his term on August 29. Pandey has been steering UID project since the beginning of 2010. The UIDAI issues Unique Identification numbers (UID), named as Aadhaar, to all residents of India.
  
  The GSTN is the information technology (IT) backbone and portal for real-time taxpayer registration, migration and tax return filing under the GST.