PERSONS OCTOBER 2015

PERSONS OCTOBER 2015

• Jimmy Morales:In Guatemala, a former television comedian with no political experience has been elected the new President. Jimmy Morales easily won the top office after a corruption scandal toppled the country's last leader.
• Narendra Modi: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the 10th most admired personality globally, as per a new survey by the World Economic Forum (WEF) that has ranked the late South African President Nelson Mandela on the top.
  
  Mahatma Gandhi is ranked as the fourth most admired leader, according to a survey of more than 1,000 millennials. The respondents were spread across 285 cities in 125 countries.
  
  After Mandela, the WEF's Global Shapers Annual Survey 2015 found that Pope Francis is the second most admired leader. Others in the list are Tesla Motors' CEO Elon Musk (3rd rank), Microsoft Founder Bill Gates (5th ), US President Barack Obama (6th), Virgin Group Founder Richard Barson (7th), Apple Founder Steve Jobs (8th), Nobel laureate Mohammad Yunus (9th) and US investor Warren Buffett (11th).
  
  Out of the 1,084 respondents, 3 per cent voted for Modi as well as for Yunus while 20.1 per cent favoured Mandela. All the survey respondents are members of the WEF's Global Shapers Community aged between 20 and 30 years. In the list of 11, three personalities are not alive - Mandela, Gandhi and Jobs.
• Vidya Devi Bhandari: In Nepal, Vidya Devi Bhandari from the ruling CPN-UML was on 28th October elected as country's first woman President after she defeated her rival from Nepali Congress by more than 100 votes.
  
  Bhandari, the Vice-president of CPN-UML and widow of late general secretary of the party Madan Bhandari, secured 327 votes against 214 votes of her rival Veteran Nepali Congress leader Kul Bahadur Gurung. The new President will succeed incumbent Ram Baran Yadav who was elected as the first President of Nepal in 2008 after the country was declared a Republic. With the promulgation of the Constitution on September 20, it was required to elect a new President within a month of the commencement of the Parliament session.
• Najib Shah: The government on 28th October appointed senior Indian Revenue Service officer Najib Shah as Chairman, Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC). Shah was appointed as Member of the indirect taxes board in May this year. Earlier, he was also posted as Director General, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence. He was acting Chairman of CBEC after Srivastava retired in May this year.
• Munawwar Rana: Urdu poet Munawwar Rana joined the league of writers returning their awards protesting the growing intolerance in the country. He also said that he will not accept any government recognition in future.
• Justin Trudeau: Justin Trudeau has been elected as Canada's new Prime Minister. Trudeau, son of country's former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, recorded a stunning victory in the general elections. His Liberal Party won 185 of the 338 seats in the next House of Commons ending Conservative Party's outgoing Prime Minister Stephen Harper's nine-year reign.
• Alok Rawat: Former Secretary in the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances Alok Rawat has been appointed as a member of the National Commission for Women, NCW. He is the the first male member in the five member Commission.
• Brett McGurk: U.S. President Barack Obama appointed Brett McGurk as his new envoy to the coalition fighting Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq. McGurk, a long-time White House adviser on Iraq, has been the deputy to General John Allen, who led the global coalition's campaign against Islamic State since its inception last year. Allen, who served in the U.S. Marines for more than 37 years, is retiring from public service next month.
• Rajeev Kher: Former Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher has been appointed as a member at the Competition Appellate Tribunal, where two posts of members have been lying vacant for more than a year. Compat, which hears appeals against rulings of fair trade regulator Competition Commission of India (CCI), comes under the Corporate Affairs Ministry. Kher was appointed as a member late last month. At present, Justice G S Singhvi is the Chairman of Compat.
  
  Besides chairman, the tribunal has two members. The two posts have been vacant since August 2014 when Rahul Sarin had retired. Prior to that, another member Parvin Tripathi superannuated in May last year. While Kher has become a member, another post remains vacant at the tribunal.
• K P Sharma Oli elected Prime Minister of Nepal
  In Nepal, K P Sharma Oli was on 11th October elected as the next Prime Minister of the country. He defeated incumbent Sushil Koirala. The contest became necessary after parties failed to forge a consensus amid violent protests over the country's new Constitution.
  
  In voting held in Parliament, CPN-UML chairman Oli garnered 338 votes, 39 more than the 299 that he needed to be elected as the prime minister. On the other hand, Nepali Congress president Koirala could only secure 249 votes.
  
  Oli was backed by UCPN-Maoist, Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal, Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum-Democratic and some fringe parties. Four Madhes parties in the United Democratic Madhesi Front had supported Sushil Koirala.
• Ghulam Nabi Khayal: Noted Kashmiri writer and poet Ghulam Nabi Khayal has joined the authors returning their Sahitya Akademi awards in the wake of Dadri lynching incident. He said that he had decided to return the award as the minorities in the country are feeling unsafe and threatened.
  
  Khayal said the government has failed in fulfilling its duty of protecting the minorities as enshrined in the Constitution of the country. This is the first time that a Kashmiri writer has decided to return the literary honour in protest. On 10th October, Gujarat-based writer Ganesh Devy returned his Sahitya Akademi Award to express solidarity with the writers, who have recently given up their awards.
• Dalip Kaur Tiwana: Eminent Punjabi writer Dalip Kaur Tiwana announced that she will return her Padma Shri in protest against the rising communal tension in the country. She wrote in a letter to the Central government that, to kill those who stand for truth and justice put us to shame in the eyes of the world and God.
  
  Tiwana thus joins the 23 writers and poets who have returned their prestigious Sahitya Akademi awards. She was conferred with the Padma Shri in 2004. She was also awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1971.
  
  Earlier, Maya Krishna Rao has returned her Sangeet Natak Akademi award. Joining the bandwagon of protesters, several writers have returned their State Sahitya Akademi awards, and 5 litterateurs have resigned from Sahitya Akademi posts.
  
  Meanwhile, the Sahitya Akademi has convened an emergency meeting of its executive board comprising 24 writers representing different Indian languages on October 23rd to discuss the issue of a string of writers returning their Akademi awards in protests against growing intolerance in society. Sahitya Akademi President Vishwanath Pratap Tiwari said the meeting has been called to discuss the issue of resignations of the writers.
• Mandakranta Sen: Noted Bengali poet Ms. Mandakranta Sen returned her Sahitya Academi Young Writers Special Award to protest against what she described as intolerance and communalism in the society. Ms. Sen received the award in 2004 for her body of work in Bengali poetry.
• Kundhavi Kadiresan: Kundhavi Kadiresan has been appointed as the Assistant Director-General of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization and Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific. An economist who has spent most of her professional career with the World Bank Group, Ms. Kadiresan brings a strategic perspective and pragmatic approach to the developmental challenges facing the world. Ms. Kadiresan will lead the prioritisation of FAO’s work across the region in close consultation with technical specialists of the organisation. She replaces Hiroyuki Konuma who retired from FAO earlier this year.
• Bhoopal Reddy: Sahitya Akademi award winner and Telugu writer M. Bhoopal Reddy has announced that he is going to return his award to express solidarity with fellow awardees who have already done so to protest the “growing intolerance in the country” as manifest in incidents such as the murder of writer M.M. Kalburgi.
  
  Mr Bhoopal Reddy, who won the Sahitya Akademi Award for his book for children Uggupalu in 2011, is the first Telugu writer to declare his intention to return the award.
  
  The writer has also decided to also return his Ugadi Puraskaram award given by the Telangana Government to register his protest against the “indifference” of State Government to the growing number of farmer suicides. He had his education in Hyderabad and did his post-graduation in Telugu from Osmania University and got his doctorate for a treatise on the poems and writings of Potlapalli Rama Rao.
• G.R. Chandak: G.R. Chandak, senior scientist of Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) has been appointed as the Director, Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD), a Centre of Excellence under the Department of Biotechnology (DBT). Dr G.R. Chandak at present is a group leader at the CCMB.
• Kashi Nath Singh: Noted Hindi novelist Kashi Nath Singh has announced to return his Sahitya Akademi award in protest against the Dadri lynching incident and the killing of Kannada writer MM Kalburgi. Singh had received the award in 2011 for his novel, 'Rehan Par Ragghu'. He is best known for his novel, 'kashi ka Assi', which was later adapted by a Bollywood film, 'Mohalla Assi'.
• Katyayani Vidyamhe: After M. Bhoopal Reddy, renowned Telugu writer Katyayani Vidmahe has become the second litterateur from the State to return her Sahitya Akademi award, protesting against the growing intolerance in the country.
• Edidha Nageswara Rao: Producer of landmark movies like Shankarabharanam, Sagarasangamam and Swatimutyam , Edida Nageswara Rao passed away on 4th October
  
  Born on April 24, 1934, late Nageswara Rao started his career as a theatre artiste, film actor, dubbing artiste and turned into a film producer by launching Poornodaya Movie Creations.
  
  Joining hands with eminent director K. Vishwanath, Edida Nageswara produced his maiden move Siri Siri Muvva ,in 1978. In all, he produced 10 movies which turned out to be very popular.
• Chandrika and Ranjan Tandon: In one of the largest philanthropic gifts by a member of the Indian-American community, a couple has donated $100 million to New York University’s engineering school, which will now be renamed after them in recognition of their gift. Chandrika and Ranjan Tandon’s gift to the New York University’s School of Engineering will principally support faculty hiring and academic programmes and is intended to build on the engineering school’s existing practice of cross-disciplinary innovation and entrepreneurship. The school will be renamed the NYU Tandon School of Engineering.
• Jack Dorsey: Twitter Inc named Jack Dorsey as its permanent CEO but said it would look elsewhere for a chairman, seeking to allay concerns about its co-founders dual role as head of the mobile payments company Square.
• Vidyasagar: Nethi Vidyasagar Rao was unanimously elected as Deputy Chairman of Telangana Legislative Council on 6th October.
• Hoesung Lee: Hoesung Lee, 69, a Korean professor of economics of climate change, energy and sustainable development, was on 6th October elected as head of the Inter-governmental Panel for Climate Change at its 42nd session in Dubrovnik, Croatia. He succeeds R.K. Pachauri, of India, who stepped down in February after a female researcher accused him of sexual harassment.
  
  Mr. Lee was elected by 78-56 votes in a run-off with Jean-Pascale van Ypersele of Belgium. A total of six candidates had been nominated for the post.
  
  Mr. Lee, until now one of the vice-chairs of the IPCC, served as executive member of the Korean Academy of Environmental Sciences; a member of the Asia Development Bank President’s advisory board; a council member of the Global Green Growth Institute; and an editorial board member of the U.K.-based Climate Policy.
  
  He was the founding president of the Korea Energy Economic Institute and the former president of the International Association for Energy Economics. He has been serving the IPCC in various capacities, including as Working Group III Co-Chair since its Second Assessment Report of 1992.
• A.R. Rahman: Oscar-winning composer A.R. Rahman has been named the Cultural Ambassador for Seychelles.
• Shekhar Basu: Renowned scientist Shekhar Basu has been appointed as the Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission. Basu is presently Director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and Chief executive of the Nuclear Recycle Board will replace R K Sinha who superannuates on 23rd of October. He will have tenure till he attains the age of 64 years.
  
  Mr Basu, who was instrumental in setting up reprocessing and waste management facilities at Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research in Kalpakkam is a recipient of Padma Shri. He has been credited for commissioning land-based Nuclear Submarine Propulsion Plant at Kalpakkam.
• Shashi Desh Pande: Award-winning author Shashi Deshpande on 9th October resigned from the Sahitya Akademi General Council expressing disappointment over the literary body's silence on the issue of Kannada writer M M Kalburgi.
  
  In her letter to Akademi chairperson Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari, the author said she hoped that the Akademi will get involved with important issues that affect Indian writers' freedom to speak and write. Deshpande, who won the Sahitya Akademi award for her novel "That Long Silence" in 1990 is the fourth writer renouncing their coveted prizes. Hindi writer Uday Prakash returned his Sahitya Akademi award which was followed by Nayantara Sahgal and Ashok Vajpeyi.
• Ravindra Jain: Veteran music director and lyricist Ravindra Jain passed away on 9th October.
  
  A soulful musician, an accomplished lyricist and renowned vocalist Ravindra Jain began his musical journey in Bollywood in the 1970s.
  
  'Chor Machaye Shor', 'Geet Gaata Chal', 'Chitchor', 'Ankhiyon Ke Jharokhon Se', 'Nadiya ke Paar', 'Ram Teri Ganga Maili', 'Do Jasoos' and 'Henna' are some of his works that brought him fame.
  
  Mr. Jain composed music for almost 150 movies in his lifetime apart from working with Sagar Films for their television series.
  
  His popular and unforgettable work on the small screen includes Ramanand Sagar's "Ramayan", "Shri Krishna", "Alif Laila" and Mahabharat.
  
  Mr. Jain had won the Filmfare Award for Best Music for ‘Ram Teri Ganga Maili’ in 1985 and also the Maharashtra government’s Lata Mangeshkar Lifetime Achievement Award.
  
  He was also conferred the Padmashri Award this year.
• Dilip Chenoy and Atul Bhatnagar:The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), a body promoting skill development. Its managing director and CEO Dilip Chenoy and COO Atul Bhatnagar resigned.
  
  The Union government, which has taken the skill development initiative on top priority, was not happy with the functioning of the Corporation as it was not in pace with the demand and was lagging in strengthening private partnership that was not shaping up.
  
  The government has laid major emphasis on skill development and wants to create skilled manpower that could not just be of use within the country but also abroad.
  
  NSDC facilitates or catalyses initiatives that can potentially have a multiplier effect and the approach is to develop partnerships with multiple stakeholders and build on current efforts. It aims at scaling up efforts necessary to achieve the objective of skilling/up-skilling 150 million people by 2022.
  
  The National Skill Development Corporation, (NSDC) is a one of its kind, Public Private Partnership in India. It aims to promote skill development by catalysing creation of large, quality, for-profit vocational institutions. It also acts as a catalyst in skill development by providing funding to enterprises, companies and organisations that provide skill training. It was set up as part of a national skill development mission to fulfill the growing need in India for skilled manpower across sectors and narrow the existing gap between the demand and supply of skills.
• Viren Dangwal: Renowned Hindi poet Viren Dangwal passed away in Bareilly. Dangwal's famous collection ' Dushchakra me Shrista' earned him the Sahitya Academy award in 2004.
• Kartik Chandran: Kartik Chandran, an Indian-American Associate Professor of Earth and Environmental Engineering at Columbia Engineering, has been named a 2015 MacArthur Fellow with a “genius grant” of $625,000 (Rs. 4.09 crore).
  
  Mr. Chandran, an IIT-Roorkee graduate, has won the fellowship for his work in “transforming wastewater from a pollutant requiring disposal to a resource for useful products, such as commodity chemicals, energy sources, and fertilizers.”
  
  He joins a distinguished group of 24 talented people who have all demonstrated exceptional originality and dedication to their creative pursuitsas well as a marked capacity for self-direction. The fellows may use the $625,000 stipend as they see fit.

PERSONS SEPTEMBER 2015

PERSONS SEPTEMBER 2015

• Syed Ahmed: Manipur Governor Syed Ahmed died at a private hospital in Mumbai. He was sworn in as the Governor of Manipur on May 16, 2015. Mr Ahmed, a former Congress leader from Maharashtra, was shifted to Manipur from Jharkhand, where he was appointed Governor on August 26, 2011 when the UPA Government was in power at the Centre.
  
  Besides dabbling in politics, where he started his career in Congress, Mr Ahmed also had a flair for writing, especially in Urdu. Mr Ahmed held two master's degrees (in Hindi and English) and a doctorate in Urdu.
  
  He has written an autobiography 'Pagdandi se Shahar Tak'. His other literary works included 'Maktal se Manzil', 'Kafas se Chaman' and 'Jange-Azaadi Me Urdu Shayari'.
  
• Kallen Pokkudan: Noted environmentalist Kallen Pokkudan, known for his crusade against destruction of mangroves, died on 27th September.
  
  Mr. Pokkudan, popularly known as Kandal Pokkudan, had single-handedly revived mangrove (Kandal in Malayalam) forests in the coastal areas of the district. Environmental activists said he had been involved in mangrove conservation as a one-man army since 1989. He had planted over one lakh mangroves.
  
  Born in a Dalit family at Ezhome in 1937, Mr. Pokkudan had been a fellow traveller of the CPI(M) and had been involved in agitations of agricultural workers. He also wrote a few books on mangroves including an autobiographical book ‘Kandalkadukalil Ente Jeevitham (My life among the mangrove forests). He had won the State government’s Vanamithra Award and Harithavyakthi Award. He had also played a role in the films ‘Papilio Buddha’ and ‘Sthalom’.
  
• Siva Kumar: Director of Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment, Avadi, P Sivakumar has been elevated as "Distinguished Scientist" in recognition to his services. He was involved in development of various products, including the Arjun MBT Mark-II, Carrier Command Post Tracked Vehicle, unmanned ground vehicles. Sivakumar was also a fellow of National Academy of Engineering.
  
• Jagmohan Dalmiya: Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Jagmohan Dalmiya, who was admitted to hospital few days back after he complained of chest pain, passed away at a hospital in Kolkata on 20th September.
  
  In 1992 Dalmiya, took charge as the BCCI secretary. At that time cricketing board was then in deficit of Rs 80 lakh.
  
  Damiya entered the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 1997 as president. His commercial skills and flair for striking deals turned round the cash-strapped ICC's fortunes.
  
  In 2006, the BCCI expelled him on charges of embezzling funds from the 1996 World Cup. He was banned from BCCI meetings; a first information report was filed against him.
  
  But Dalmiya refused to stay away from the game. In 2007, he successfully challenged the criminal cases filed by the BCCI before the Bombay High Court. The board was forced to revoke his suspension in 2010.
  
  Cricket and Dalmiya
  Joined BCCI in 1979, became treasurer in 1983
  Became BCCI Secretary in 1990.
  Headed organizing committee for 1996 World Cup
  First Asian President of ICC from 1997 to 2000
  Served as BCCI President from 2001 to 2004
  In June 2013, he was appointed interim president of BCCI. Served till October 2013, when N. Srinivasan, who had stepped aside, resumed the Presidency
  March 2, 2015, he became BCCI president after a gap of over 10 years
  
• Sadhan Gupta: Independent India’s first visually-challenged MP Sadhan Gupta has died following age-related illness. He was the veteran Communist and eminent lawyer
  
  In 1953, the CPI (M) leader became India’s first visually-challenged Parliamentarian when he won from the Kolkata south-east constituency. He was re-elected to Parliament for the second consecutive term and remained an MP till 1962. Later on in 1986, he became the first visually-challenged Advocate General of West Bengal. Mr. Gupta was also the founder-president of the National Federation of the Blind and the first president of the Indian chapter of Disabled Peoples’ International.
  
• Yudhvir Singh Malik:Yudhvir Singh Malik, who presided over the ban of Nestlé India’s Maggi noodles as chief executive officer of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) in June, has been transferred to NITI Aayog. He is a Haryana cadre Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the 1983 batch, as additional secretary of the NITI Aayog, a new post.
  
  This follows cancellation of the appointment of Keshni Anand, another 1983 batch Haryana cadre IAS officer, to the post. In July, former agriculture secretary Ashish Bahuguna was named chairman of FSSAI, several months after the post was left vacant. The food sector had seen widespread anger and disgruntlement due to pan-India recall of Maggi noodles, the signature brand of Swiss food major Nestle. On June 5, FSSAI had ordered the withdrawal of Maggi noodles, as some states had found monosodium glutamate (MSG) and excessive lead after testing a few samples of the product. The regulator said Maggi noodles was “unsafe and hazardous for human consumption”.
  
• Mukesh Ambani: Industrialist Mukesh Ambani was named India's richest for ninth year in a row with a net worth of USD 18.9 billion even as his wealth dipped by USD 4.7 billion in a year, while ecommerce giant Flipkart's founders made their debut on the country's top 100 rich list.
  
  As per Forbes magazine's latest India rich list released tonight, Ambani was followed by Sun Pharma's Dilip Shanghvi as second richest with a net worth of USD 18 billion, while Wipro's Azim Premji retained his third place with USD 15.9 billion. Flipkart's co-founders Sachin and Binni Bansal made their debut at 86th position with a net worth of USD 1.3 billion each.
  
  The combined wealth of India's 100 richest persons remained largely unchanged at USD 345 billion, as compared to USD 346 billion in 2014, Forbes said
  
  The magazine said the Indian economy was estimated to grow at 7 per cent this year, but the wealth of many of India's 100 richest have gone down due to decline in the stock markets and depreciation in rupee value over the past one year
  
  As many as 10 of them saw their net worth dip by over USD 1 billion each in one year, including Lakshmi Mittal, whose net worth dipped to USD 4.6 billion (ranked 8th with USD 11.2 billion). His rank also slipped three places.
  
• Matthias Mueller: Volkswagen has named Matthias Mueller, the head of the group's Porsche unit, to be the new CEO and to lead the world's top-selling automaker past a growing emissions-rigging scandal
  
  The appointment comes after the previous CEO, Martin Winterkorn, quit the job this week over the scandal, which has damaged the company's reputation and threatens its business.
  
  Meanwhile, Swiss authorities said that they have temporarily banned the sale of new Volkswagen brand diesel-engine models potentially equipped with software capable of tricking environmental tests.
  
  Volkswagen has admitted to cheating on diesel car emissions test in the US by using software on 482,000 cars. It has said some 11 million cars worldwide have the software.
  
• Satyabhama: Kalamandalam Satyabhama, a pioneer who accorded Mohiniyattam a well-knit structure for the first time, died early on 13th September at a private nursing home at Ottappalam
  
  A Padma Shri awardee, her contributions to the realm of Kerala’s performing arts remain immense. Satyabhama’s career with the Kerala Kalamandalam marked a crucial phase in preserving and reinventing Mohiniyattam.
  
  An acclaimed choreographer and widely venerated guru, she also proved her administrative skills as the first woman vice-principal and later the principal of her alma mater, the Kerala Kalamandalam, founded by Vallathol Narayana Menon, to promote Kathakali and other performing art forms.
  
  Her disciples, including foreigners, are a legion who are torchbearers of the coveted ‘Kalamandalam sailee’ (school) of Mohiniyattam.
  
• Ashok Sridharan: Ashok Sridharan, a mayoral candidate of Chancellor Angela Merkel-led Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has comprehensively won the election in Bonn, becoming the first person of Indian-origin to occupy the mayor's office in a major German city. Sridharan, who is the son of a migrant from India and a German mother, will take over the reins of the city administration from the outgoing SPD mayor Juergen Nymptsch on October 21.
  
• Malcolm Turnbull: Malcolm Turnbull was on 15th September sworn-in as Australia's new Prime Minister; becoming the country's fifth premier in eight years after an internal revolt in the ruling Liberal Party forced Tony Abbott to quit. Soon after taking oath of office as the 29th Prime Minister of the country, the 60-year-old conservative leader vowed to bring a new style of consultative leadership to Australia.
  
• Tony Abbott ousted: Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott was dramatically ousted from power by challenger Malcolm Turnbull in an internal party vote. In the hastily-arranged late night party leadership ballot, 57-year-old Abbott, who had been plagued by poor opinion polls, received 44 votes to Turnbull's 54. Malcolm Turnbull is expected to be sworn in after Abbott writes to the Governor General and resigns.
  
  Turnbull earlier resigned from the cabinet this afternoon and challenged the leadership of Tony Abbott. Turnbull blamed the prime minister was incapable of providing the economic leadership the country needs.
  
• E Sreedharan: ‘Metro Man' E Sreedharan has been invited to the United Nations' High Level Advisory Group on Sustainable Transport (HLAG-ST). Sreedharan, the Principal Advisor to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, has been invited by the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to serve on his HLAG-ST. The service is for a period of three years and Sreedharan has accepted the offer.
  
• P.V. Chandran: P.V. Chandran was elected president of the Indian Newspaper Society for 2015-16 on Friday. The annual general meeting of the INS here chose him to succeed Kiran B. Vadodaria. Mr. Chandran represents Grihalakshmi , a Malayalam magazine published by the Mathrubhumi group of publications, of which he is a whole-time director.
  
  Somesh Sharma ( Rashtradoot Saptahik ) is the new deputy president, Akila Urankar ( Business Standard ) vice-president and Mohit Jain ( The Economic Times ) honorary treasurer, said a media release issued by V. Shankaran, INS secretary-general. A 41-member executive committee was also elected.
  
• Chandrashekhar Patil: Kannada writer Prof. Chandrashekhar Patil, who hails from Dharwad and was a close associate of M.M. Kalburgi, has announced that he would return the prestigious Pampa Award conferred on him in 2009, in protest against the murder of his friend. Prof. Patil said that this was the least he could do as a writer to protest “the environment created in the country stifling dissent and freedom of expression,” that led to the murder of Kalburgi.
  
• Ramesh Chand: Renowned farm expert Professor Ramesh Chand has been appointed as new member of Niti Aayog. Mr Chand has been working as Director of National Institute of Agricultural Economics and Policy Research (NIAP) in New Delhi since 2010. He is also a member of a task force on agriculture development under Niti Aayog. The task force headed by Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagriya, which was formed in March this year, is mandated to recommend strategies for re-invigorating agriculture in all its aspects and to formulate strategies for reforms, innovation and technology diffusion. Besides Mr Chand, economist Bibek Debroy and former DRDO chief V K Saraswat are other two full-time members.
  
• Indians in Forbes list: Seven Indians, including three Infosys co-founders and a Dubai-based education entrepreneur, feature in the latest Forbes Asia edition in a new group of philanthropists from 13 countries for their noteworthy contributions.
  
  Infosys co-founders Senapathy Gopalakrishnan, Nandan Nilekani and SD Shibulal feature in the Forbes Asia's 9th list of philanthropists in the Asia-Pacific region for their individual contributions to health and education sectors.
  
  Rohan, son of Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy, also feature in the list. He donated a whopping USD 5.2 million to Harvard University Press for promoting ancient Indian literary classics. He represents his father as a philanthropist.
  
  Kerala-born entrepreneur Sunny Varkey also features in the list. In June 2015, Varkey was in the news for his pledge to donate half his fortune worth USD 2.25 billion as charity in response to the Giving Pledge Initiative, led by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. Based in Dubai, Varkey is the founder of GEMS Education, a chain of 70 private schools in 14 countries. He has already been featured in Forbes' list of top Indian philanthropists.
  
  The two others are India-born brothers Suresh Ramakrishnan and Mahesh Ramakrishnan. Both are London-based entrepreneurs and are founders of Whitcomb & Shaftesbury Tailors on London's Saville Row.
  
• J Manjula: The Defence Research and Development Organisation, India's top defence technology research and development centre, for the first time in its history has appointed a woman as the Director General, Electronics and Communication Systems cluster.
  
  J Manjula an Outstanding Scientist took charge of the office from Dr KD Nayak, who held additional charge as Director General (Electronic and Communication Systems)
  
  According to DRDO Manjula has now become the first woman Director General in the various departments of DRDO.
  
  Prior to her appointment as DG Electronic and Communication Systems, she was the head of Defence Avionics Research Establishment (DARE) since July 2014. She also was the first woman director of DARE, a Bengaluru-based DRDO lab, where her priority was to indigenise the various electronic warfare systems for the Indian Air Force.
  
  An alumna of Osmania University and a practising Electronics and Communications engineer, Manjula had a brief stint in Electronics Corporation of India Ltd before joining DRDO in 1987.
  
  She worked with the Integrated Electronic Warfare cluster of DRDO's Defence Electronics Research Laboratory, (DLRL) Hyderabad, for 26 years.
  
  She has designed several fast signal acquisition receivers, high power RF systems, responsive jammers and controller software for various systems that have been inducted in Army, Navy, Air Force and Paramilitary. She has vast experience in EW systems design and deployment in wide area network and her specialisation includes configuration of Communication and Radar ESM and ECM systems.
  
  For her accomplishments, she was given the India Today Woman Summit award for 2014. She is also a recipient of DRDO's 'Scientist of the Year 2011' and 'Performance Excellence' awards.
  
• Elizabeth: Queen Elizabeth became the longest-reigning monarch in British history on 9th September - breaking Queen Victoria's record on the throne. She has reigned for more than 23,226 days.
  
• Anjuly Duggal: The government has nominated Anjuly Chib Duggal, a secretary in the department of financial services, to the board of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) with effect from September 3, the central bank said. Duggal, who was appointed as financial services secretary on September 1, replaces Hasmukh Adhia who has become the revenue secretary.
  
• Shashidhar Sinha: Shashidhar Sinha CEO, IPG Mediabrands, was unanimously elected as Chairman of the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) for 2015-16, according to an ABC press release. He was elected at the bureau’s 67th Annual General Meeting. I Venkat of Eenadu was unanimously elected as Deputy Chairman.
  
• Indra Nooyi: PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi is the sole Indian-origin executive in Fortune's list of 50 most powerful women in business, which has been topped by General Motors CEO Mary Barra. India-born Nooyi is ranked 2nd on the list, moving up a notch from her third position last year. Fortune said about the 59-year-old top executive that she beaten back a challenge from activist investor Nelson Peltz, landing a big marketing deal with the NBA, and managed to post 4 per cent organic revenue growth in 2014.
  
  Barra tops the Fortune list of 50 Most Powerful Women in Business and in her second year as head of the nation’s largest auto-maker. The list also includes IBM CEO Ginni Rometty on the third rank, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg on 8th, and Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer at 18th.
  
• Rakesh Sharma: Rakesh Sharma took over as Managing Director and CEO of Bengaluru-headquartered Canara Bank on 11th September. Before being appointed by the Government to head Canara Bank, Sharma was the MD and CEO of Lakshmi Vilas Bank since March 2014.
  
• Darbha: Algorithmic trade specialist Gangadhar Darbha, and consultant of RBI, passed away On 11th September. He had joined RBI as a consultant only on September 1. He had joined the central bank from Japanese brokerage Nomura Securities, where he was an Executive Director.
  
  Jeremy Corbyn: A renowned Dalit sympathizer, hard core Tony Blair critic and an MP who vowed to publicly apologize for the Iraq war is Labour Party's new leader. Jeremy Corbyn has become the leader of the second-largest party in Britain and the government's main opposition with a thumping majority, getting 60% of the vote share.
  
• MM Kalburg: In Karnataka, senior Kannada writer and former vice-chancellor of Kannada University Dr. M. M. Kalburgi was shot dead in Dharwad in the morning on 30th August. He was shot dead by unidentified persons in his residence in Dharwad and rushed to the civil hospital, where he was declared dead. The 77 year old Kannada epigraphist and renowned scholar of vachana literature Kalburgi was awarded the Sahitya Akademi award, Nrupatunga Award and Pampa award for his contribution to Kannada literature.
  
• Rajiv Mehrishi: Senior IAS officer Rajiv Mehrishi appointed as Home secretary as his previous assignment was that of Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs with the Ministry of Finance. Mehrishi replaces L C Goyal who sought voluntary retirement after taking over the charge seven months ago . The appointment of Mehrishi is for a period of two years. His previous assignment was that of Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs with the Ministry of Finance. The post of Union Home Secretary has a fixed tenure of two years. LC Goyal has been appointed as the CMD, ITPO.
  
• Arup Roy Choudhury: Country’s largest power generator NTPC’s Chairman and Managing Director Arup Roy Choudhury demitted office on 31st August after five years at the helm. Choudhury was denied an extension as per the recent policy of the government of not renewing the tenures of public sector unit heads appointed by the previous Government.
  
  However, unlike in the case of SAIL, where charge was handed over to the Steel Secretary Rakesh Singh, NTPC will be headed in the interim by its own employee.
  
  AK Jha, Director (Technical), the senior most director in the company will head the company in the interim till a permanent replacement is found. The suggestion to hand over charge to Jha, was given by Choudhury, people in the know of the development said. A search committee, to be constituted by the Power Secretary Pradeep Kumar Pujari, will now look for a replacement.
  
  Choudhury was the youngest chairman of a public sector unit when he was appointed Chairman and Managing Director of NBCC in 2001. He was 44 then.
  
• Ashwani Lohani: Ashwani Lohani took over as Air India’s Chairman and Managing Director on 31st August, 2015.
  
• Aadesh Shrivastava: Bollywood singer-composer Aadesh Shrivastava who was battling cancer passed away on 4th September. Over the course of his career, Shrivastava had composed music for over 100 Hindi films, including "Chalte Chalte","Baabul", "Baghban", "Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham", "Rajneeti" and others.
  
• Uday Prakash: Hindi writer Uday Prakash decided to return his Sahitya Akademi award in protest against the murder of Kannada scholar and rationalist M.M. Kalburgi.
  
  Prakash wrote that Prof. Kalburgi's murder was part of a series of attacks on and instances of disrespect shown towards writers, artists, thinkers and intellectuals. The Sahitya Akademi awarded him in 2010-11 for his collection of short stories, Mohan Das. Prof. Kalburgi was also an Akademi awardee.
  
• Otto Perez: Guatemalan President Otto Perez has resigned, he is due to appear in court over a corruption scandal that has gutted his government and plunged the country into chaos days before a national election.
  
  Perez, who was elected on a ticket to combat crime and corruption, was not constitutionally eligible to run for re-election in coming (6th September) presidential vote.
  
  He has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and said he would not resign. But his options narrowed when a judge issued a detention order against him after lawmakers voted to strip him of immunity from prosecution.
  
• R Sampanthan: Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader R Sampanthan on 3 September 2015 became the first tamilian to lead the opposition of in the Sri Lankan parliament after a gap of 32 years. An announcement was made in this regard by the speaker Karu Jayasuriya in the house. Sampanthan was first elected to Parliament from Trincomalee in 1977 on the ticket of the Federal Party.

PERSONS AUGUST 2015

PERSONS AUGUST 2015

• Vince Chhabria: A 46-year-old Indian-American federal judge is among 11 people elevated as a full-time judge in the third largest US state California by President Barack Obama. Vince Chhabria was appointed the Bay Area's first Indian-American federal judge. The appointment was made as President Obama transformed most of the Bay Area's federal judiciary, filling 11 of the 14 full-time judgeships on the region's federal court -- the most dramatic makeover of a district court bench in the nation
  
  Chhabria was confirmed last year year to a seat in San Francisco. He once clerked for US Supreme Court Judge Stephen Breyer, as well as his brother, San Francisco federal judge Charles Breyer. He has issued significant decisions allowing cases, inlcuding that of labour laws, against transport companies Uber and Lyft's models to proceed. Previously in a historic moment for the Indian-Amercican community, Obama had nominated Chhabria, to serve as a federal judge in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. San Francisco-born Chhabria, whose father came to the US from Mumbai on a college scholarship, is a graduated with honours from University of California, Berkeley (Boalt Hall) and the University of California, Santa Cruz.
  
• Devpreet Singh: Devpreet Singh has been appointed as the new CBI spokesperson in place of Kanchan Prasad who will resume charge as director(News) in Doordarshan News. In an order issued by information and broadcasting ministry, Singh, who was on a study leave for completion of her PhD, has been appointed as chief information officer with effect from September 9 next month. A 1992-batch Indian Information Service officer, Singh was director (News-News Services Division) All India Radio before she went on a sabbatical.
  
• Girish Sahni: Girish Sahni has assumed charge as the next Director General of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) and Secretary, Department of Scientific & Industrial Research, Ministry of Science & Technology, with effect from August 24. The post had been lying vacant since the retirement of Samir Brahmachari in December 2014. Sahni, a PhD from Indian institute of Science, Bengaluru, had earlier been the Director, CSIR-Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh.
  
• Marcy Borders: Marcy Borders, who became known as the “dust lady” from a defining picture of her covered in ash and grime on Sept. 11, 2001, died on 25th August. She is a survivor of the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York who was featured in one of the most iconic photographs of the outrage has died of stomach cancer.
  
• Novak Djokovic: Novak Djokovic, the world’s top ranked tennis player, was appointed Goodwill Ambassador by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), after having served as the agency’s Serbia Ambassador and promoting children’s rights within his own private foundation.
  
  He also signed a Memorandum of Understanding between the World Bank and the Novak Djokovic Foundation, setting out how the two institutions can partner more closely to promote early childhood development.
  
  The Fund and the Foundation have established a close cooperation on bringing early childhood services to every child and family in Serbia, and the welcome addition of the Bank’s resources will allow an even broader reach to the most deprived children around the world.
  
• Shaktikanta Das: Revenue Secretary Shaktikanta Das was appointed Secretary, Economic Affairs. He will replace Rajiv Mehrishi who superannuates on August 31.
  
  Financial Services Secretary Hasmukh Adhia will be the new Revenue Secretary while Corporate Affairs Secretary Anjuly Chib Duggal has been named the new Financial Affairs Secretary. She will replace Adhia.
  
  According to the appointments cleared by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), Rajasthan cadre IAS officer Sunil Arora will replace Bimal Julka as the new Information and Broadcasting Secretary. Julka also retires on August 31.
  
• Vassiliki Thanou: Greece's Supreme Court judge, Vassiliki Thanou, has been sworn in as caretaker Prime Minister to lead the country to elections next month. Her appointment ended week-long political deadlock after leftist leader Alexis Tsipras resigned.
  
  Vassiliki Thanou, the first woman to assume the post, is an opponent of austerity and has argued against wage cuts for judges and court officials. Meanwhile, outgoing Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has ruled out forming a national unity government should he fail to win a outright majority in the snap elections triggered after his resignation.
  
• Shahnaz: India’s beauty icon Shahnaz Husain has been nominated as the Cultural Ambassador for the Seychelles in India by President James A. Michel during his visit to New Delhi.
  
• Hamida Salim: Eminent Urdu writer Hamida Salim passed away at her residence in Jamia Nagar, New Delhi on 16th August. Salim was the first woman graduate of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). She had penned down many books including' Shorish-e-Dauran', 'Ham Saath Thhe','Parchhaiyon Ke Ujale' and ' Hardam Rawan Hai Zindagi'. She was sister of the legendary poet Israrul Haqu Mazaj and aunt of famous lyricist Javed Akhtar.
  
• Varaha Pande: Sanskrit Scholar and Indologist NR Varhadpande passed away on 21 August 2015 in Nagpur following age related issues. He was famously known for his book titled Aryan Invasion: A Myth that exposes fallacy of Aryan invasion and is considered as one of the most profound works in changing the course of ancient Indian history. An ardent student of Psychology, Varhadpande worked as the Chief Psychologist with the Ministry of Defence and was instrumental in devising various Psychological tests for the armed forces personnel.
  
• Chetan Bhagat: Famous Author. The book titled Making India Awesome authored by him was released on 19th August 2015
  
  This is the second non-fiction book written by the country’s biggest-selling writer Chetan Bhagat. His first non-fiction book was What Young India Wants which was well received by the readers.
  
• Dayanidhi Maran: The Madras High Court on 10th August cancelled former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran's interim anticipatory bail in the alleged illegal telephone exchange case. The court directed him to surrender before the CBI within three days. The court passed the order after hearing arguments on the CBI plea for cancellation of Maran's interim anticipatory bail.
  
  CBI has registered an FIR against Maran and others alleging that more than 300 high-speed telephone lines were provided at his residence in Chennai and extended to his brother Kalanithi Maran's SUN TV channel to enable its uplinking when Dayanidhi Maran was Telecom Minister from 2004-07.
  
• OP Rawat: Om Prakash Rawat was 13th August appointed as the new Election Commissioner. Om Prakash Rawat, a 1977 batch Madhya Pradesh cadre IAS officer appointed as new Election Commissioner. With Rawat's appointment, the sole vacancy in the three-member poll body has been filled. His appointment comes days before the poll watchdog takes a call on announcing the schedule for Bihar assembly polls.
  
  Rawat will have a tenure of more than three years which will end in December, 2018. He had retired from government service in December last year. An EC or a CEC has a tenure of six years in office or till he or she attains the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier.
  
• OP Munjal: Om Prakash Munjal, the founder of hero cycles passed away on 13th August. He was the world's largest cycle maker, and almost every second cycle sold in the country sported the Hero badge. He also sold components to BMW for its bikes, and had plans to expand abroad.
  
  Munjal dabbled in two-wheelers also, first in 1988 with the Hero Puch rage of mini-motorcycles and then in the 1990s with BMW superbikes. While fuel efficient bikes, including those made by Hero MotoCorp (then called Hero Honda), clobbered Hero Puch, regulatory hassles ruined the BMW gamble. The Foreign Investment Promotion Board had ruled that Hero Motors would have to offset the foreign exchange spent on the import of the BMW superbikes with equivalent exports, and Hero Motors found it difficult to do those exports.
  
• Ajit Kumar Seth: Former Cabinet Secretary Ajit Kumar Seth was on 14th August appointed as the chairman of the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB), the government’s head-hunter. The PESB is entrusted with the selection and placement of chairman, managing director or chairman-cum-managing director and functional director in Central public sector enterprises, among others.
  
  He has been appointed for a period of three years or till he attains 65 years of age, said the order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training. Seth, a 1974-batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, has been appointed in place of Atul Chaturvedi, who has completed his tenure.
  
  Also, IAS officers Gauri Kumar and Anshuman Das, former CMD of NALCO, have been appointed as members in the PESB.
  
  Ms. Kumar, will be replacing K.M. Acharya, a 1974-batch former IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre, who has completed his tenure. Mr. Das has been appointed in place of Ashwani Kumar Datt.
  
• Renu Mandhane, Richa Naujoks, Nee Gautam: Indian origin, both legal luminaries, have done the nation proud. If Renu Mandhane, an Indo-Canadian international human rights law expert, is set to be the next Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, Indian-American attorney Richa Naujoks, nee Gautam, has been shortlisted for the TrustLaw Lawyer of the Year Award of the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
  
  Ms. Mandhane, currently the Executive Director of the International Human Rights Programme of the University of Toronto.
  
  Ms. Naujoks has the distinction of being the only Indian and U.S. lawyer shortlisted for the prestigious award, a statement said. She was nominated by the Mumbai-based Wello for her outstanding pro bonowork on the complex restructuring of its U.S. and Indian legal and operational structure. Wello makes water wheels that help women safely carry water from distant sources to their homes.
  
• Muralitharan & Dilshan: Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has appointed veteran cricketers Muttiah Muralitharan and Thilakaratne Dilshan as the brand ambassadors of the newly created National Kidney Fund.
  
• Niloy Neel: A Bangladeshi blogger known for his atheist views has been hacked to death by a gang armed with machetes in the capital Dhaka, police say. Niloy Neel was attacked at his home in the city's Goran area. He is the fourth secularist blogger to have been killed this year by suspected Islamist militants in Bangladesh.
  
• Ram Nath Kovind and Acharya Dev Vrat: President appoints Ram Nath Kovind as Governor of Bihar and Acharya Dev Vrat as Governor of Himachal Pradesh.
  
  Kovind, who had been a two-time Rajya Sabha member between 1994 and 2006, hails from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh. His appointment comes barely a few months ahead of the Assembly elections due in Bihar.
  
  Educationist Acharya Dev Vrat was appointed as Governors of Himachal Pradesh. Vrat imparts modern and traditional education through a 'gurukul' in Haryana's Kurukshetra.

PERSONS JULY 2015

PERSONS JULY 2015

• Bijoy Krishna Handique: Former Union Minister and a six-time Lok Sabha member from Assam, Bijoy Krishna Handique died on 26th July. Handique was the Minister for Mines and Development of North Eastern Region in the UPA-II government.
  
  He also held the portfolios of Union Minister of State for Defence, Parliamentary Affairs, Mines, and Chemicals and Fertilizers during the tenure of the UPA-I government. The senior politician from Assam had been elected to Lok Sabha from Jorhat for six consecutive terms since 1991. He was also a member of Rajya Sabha from 1980 to 1985 and a member of several parliamentary committees.
  
• Abdul Kalam: Former President Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, the 'missile man' who became popular as 'People's President' died after he suffered a massive cardiac arrest and collapsed during a lecture at the IIM Shillong on 27th July. He suffered cardiac arrest when he was giving a e lecture on 'Livable Planet' at IIM Shillong
  
   Born on 15 October 1931 in Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam overcame all odds to study physics at the St. Joseph's College, Tiruchirapalli and aerospace engineering at the Madras Institute of Technology, Chennai. His entire life is a life of simplicity and high values.
  
  Kalam spent four decades as a scientist and science administrator at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
  
  His role in development of ballistic missile and launch vehicle technology earned him the moniker - 'Missile Man'.
  
  Kalam played a pivotal role ian the nuclear tests that India conducted in 1998 in Rajasthan's Pokharan.
  
  Kalam was conferred with Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour, in 1997 for his immense and valuable contribution to country's scientific research and modernisation of defence technology.
  
  Dr Kalam was elected the President of India in 2002, defeating Lakshmi Sahgal.
  
  He was currently a visiting professor at several prestigious academic and scientific institutions like the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and Indian Institute of Management Indore, Chancellor of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology Thiruvananthapuram.
  
  Kalam advocated plans to develop India into a developed nation by 2020 in his book India 2020.
  
  Dr Kalam has received several prestigious awards, including the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour. Dr Kalam is known for his motivational speeches and interaction with the student community in India. He launched his mission for the youth of the nation in 2011.
  
• World Student day to commemorate Kalam: UNO
  United Nations Organisation(U.N.O) declared October 15th, Dr.A.P.J. Abdul Kalam‘s Birthday as the “WORLD STUDENTS DAY“.
  
  Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (born 15 October 1931 in Rameshwaram, Madras Presidency, British India), usually referred to as Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, was the 11th President of India, serving from 2002 to 2007. During his term as President, he was popularly known as the People’s President.
  
  Honours
  On April 29, 2009, he became the first Asian to be bestowed the Hoover Medal, America’s top engineering prize, for his outstanding contribution to public service.
  
  On 13 September 2009, he was a recipient of the International von Karman Wings Award.
  
  The Government of India has honoured him with the nation’s highest civilian honours: the Padma Bhushan in 1981; Padma Vibhushan in 1990; and the Bharat Ratna in 1997 for his work with ISRO and DRDO and his role as a scientific advisor to the Indian government.
  
  Kalam is the third President of India to have been honoured with a Bharat Ratna before being elected to the highest office, the other two being Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Zakir Hussain. He is also the first scientist and first bachelor to occupy Rashtrapati Bhavan.
  
  It was in the year 2010, when the United Nations decided to honour this 'great scientist' on his 79th birth anniversary and declared his birthday on October 15 as the ‘World Students' Day’.
  
  In 2005, Switzerland also declared May 26 as 'Science Day' to commemorate Dr Kalam’s visit to the European country.
  
  'Wings of Fire', 'India 2020 - A Vision for the New Millennium', 'My journey' and 'Ignited Minds - Unleashing the power within India' are the famous books which Dr Kalam authored.
  
• Tamil Nadu government instituted youth award in name of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam
  The state government of Tamil Nadu on 31 July 2015 instituted a youth award in the name of former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.
  
  In a statement issued in Chennai, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa said that the annual Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Award consisting 8 gram gold, 5 laks rupees in cash and a citation.
  
  The award would be given from 2015 onwards on every Independence Day (15 August) to a person from the state who works with exceptional merit in science, humanities and students welfare.
  
  She also announced that Dr Kalam’s birthday on October 15th would be celebrated as the Youth Revival Day. Former Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam widely called People’s President died on 27 July 2015. He was the 11th President of India and was awarded with India’s highest civilian honour Bharat Ratna in 1997.
  
• Hariharan: Eminent physicist P. Hariharan died on 26th July in Berkeley, California. He worked at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), New Delhi from 1949 to 1951 and then at the National Research Council, Ottawa from 1951- 1954. On returning to NPL, Dr. Hariharan received a PhD for his work on photographic resolving power. Subsequently, he held key posts at several scientific institutes and organisations and was also an honorary visiting professor at the University of Sydney.
  
  Dr. Hariharan's research contributions include the design of a new three-beam interferometer, the double-passed Fabry-Perot interferometer, and the first practical radial-shear interferometer.
  
  He was also the first to apply digital phase-shifting techniques to holographic interferometry for measurements of vector displacements and strains.
  
  Dr. Hariharan has published more than 200 papers and has authored four books. Dr. Hariharan was a recipient of several awards, including the Joseph Fraunhofer Medal of the Optical Society of America, the Thomas Young Medal of the Institute of Physics, London and the Walter Boas Medal of the Australian Institute of Physics.
  
• RS Sharma: Ram Sewak Sharma, Secretary - Department of Electronics and Information & Technology, has been appointed as the new Chairman.
  
  Sharma has worked in various government departments particularly dealing with IT-enabled programmes. He has also worked as Director General and Mission Director of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) or Aadhaar.
  
  From UIDAI he went back to his parent cadre Jharkhand as the State Chief Secretary. In May 2014, he returned to the Centre in his present post — Secretary DeitY.
  
  ‘Digital India’ campaign
  During his tenure as Secretary, he has been a key official for the Prime Minister’s ‘Digital India’ campaign and various projects under it, and also local manufacturing of electronic products. He has been responsible for implementing a number of projects relating to ICT Infrastructure, process re-engineering and service delivery in public private partnership mode.
  
• Uma maheshwara Rao: G.S. Umamaheshwara Rao took charge as in-charge director of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS)
  
  With the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare yet to appoint a full-time director, Dr. Rao, a senior professor in the Department of Neuroanaesthesia, has been appointed as the interim director as his predecessor N. Pradhan, who was also an in-charge director
  
  Rajendra Srivastava: Indian School of Business (ISB) said that Rajendra Srivastava has been named as its new dean, with effect from January 1, 2016.
  
  Srivastava , currently the Provost and Deputy President (Academic Affairs) and Professor of Marketing at the Singapore Management University, will succeed Ajit Rangnekar who has held the position since January 2009, ISB Board Chairman Adi Godrej stated.
  
  Professor Srivastava is an MBA and PhD (Business Administration) from the University of Pittsburgh, an MS in Industrial Engineering from the University of Rhode Island, and a B.Tech. (Mechanical Engineering) from IIT, Kanpur.
  
• Bisheshar Pradeep: Noted Urdu fiction writer Dr Bisheshar Pradeep passed away in Lucknow. Retired as director from state PWD of Uttar Pradesh, he was a native of a place near Pakistan's Faisalabad and migrated to India after partition. He was awarded with ' Urdu Hindi Sahitya Akademi Award' in 1996.
  
  He also won a national level award for his children's book 'Surkh Gulab'. He was best known for his 'Afsana Nigari', the fiction writing form in Urdu. His son Dr Akhilesh Dhawan said that his father had a heart attack yesterday morning. His last rites were performed in the presence of all the noted litterateurs of Lucknow. 
• RK Pachauri: Director General, TERI Dr. R K Pachauri has been removed. He will be replaced by Dr Ajay Mathur. Currently Mr Mathur is Director General of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency.
  
  Dr Pachauri was accused of sexual harassment by his junior colleague. Recently a Delhi court allowed Dr Pachauri access to all TERI offices in the country except the ones in Delhi and Gurgaon.
  
  Pachauri had shared Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 with former US Vice President Al Gore for work on climate issues. He has led and built The Energy and Resources Institute, TERI, over the last 34 years from a concept to a major, financially autonomous, professionally dynamic organization on the global stage.
  
• Hoshiyar Singh: In Uttar Pradesh, the government has refuted the allegations of the family members of national level fencing player ?Hoshiyar Singh who was allegedly lost life due to pushing by GRP constables from a moving train on 23rd July. In a release issued from the state Home Department in Lucknow this evening that Hoshiyar Singh had alighted from the train on Sikandra Rao station to take water.
  
  After taking it, he tried to board the moving train and slipped and his body was cut in two pieces on the station itself.
  
• M S Dhoni: According to figures released by the London School of Marketing, Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been named as the ninth most marketable sportsman in the world He sits ahead of the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Maria Sharapova, Kobe Bryant and Usain Bolt among others.
  
  The list is headed by tennis star Roger Federer who lost in the Wimbledon this year to Novak Djokovic. He beats Tiger Woods, LeBron James and Kevin Durant on the list.
  
  Indian limited-over skipper, MS Dhoni has made it to the top 10 in the list of the most marketable sportsperson of the year, 2015. According to a study conducted in the London School of Marketing, Dhoni ranks number nine in the list of famous sports persons from around the world.
  
  The list, that is dominated by tennis great, Roger Federer, consists of only cricketer in the the top 20 list in the form of Dhoni. The calculation was done on the basis of their earnings from their endorsements.
  
  It is interesting to see Dhoni ahead of great footballers of modern time, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel messi and Neymar. Team India captain Dhoni has also pipped the likes of 'Sprint King' Usain Bolt, tennis ace Novak Djokovic and teammate Sachin Tendulkar in the latest list of world's 100 richest sportspersons, released by the Forbes magazine.
  
  According to the list, Dhoni is ranked 31st, which is way ahead of Djokovic , Bolt and Tendulkar. Interestingly, the Indian captain's earnings through endorsements are more than the world's most popular footballer Lionel Messi.
  
  Dhoni made a mark in the 50-over format with a whirlwind 148 against Pakistan, and came to the forefront with an amazing 183 not out in a chase against Sri Lanka.
  
• Chalasani Prasad: In Andhra Pradesh, Viplava Rachayitala Sangham (VIRASAM) founder Chalasani Prasad (83) passed away on 25th July. Born in a communist family at Bhatlapenumarru in Krishna district. He was detained during the Emergency and was arrested seven times due to his Marxist ideology. The VIRASAM was considered as a front organization of CPI (Maoist). He worked and retired as a lecturer of Politics at Mrs. AVN College.
  
• Lt. Gen. Rai: Lt. Gen. M.M.S. Rai, Eastern Army Commander, has been appointed next Vice Chief of Army Staff. He will take over from Lt. Gen. Philip Campose, who will demit office on July 31. Lt. Gen. Rai is from the Corps of Engineers.
  
  With several senior officers about to superannuate, the Army has cleared several other key appointments at the command and corps level. Lt. Gen. Praveen Bakshi, Chief of Staff, Northern Command, will replace Lt. Gen. Rai as the next General-Officer-Commanding, Eastern Command. The Army Training Command (ARTRAC) at Shimla will get Lt. Gen. PM Hariz as the next commander.
  
  At the corps level, new appointments have been cleared for the Army’s 15 and 16 Corps. While Lt. Gen. RR Nimbhorkar will take over as the Commander of Srinagar-based 15 corps, Lt. Gen. SK Dua will be the new Corps Commander of 16 corps at Nagrota.
  
• Victor Ponta: Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta has been charged with several counts of corruption in a long-running investigation. The country's anti-corruption agency said he faces charges of fraud, tax evasion and money laundering dating back to when he was a lawyer before he became Prime Minister in 2012. Some of his property has been seized pending the outcome of the case, the agency added. Mr Ponta denies any wrongdoing.
  
  Mr Ponta resigned as leader of the governing Social Democratic party yesterday, saying he needed time to prepare his defence, but will continue to fulfil his duties as Prime Minister. He is accused of receiving the equivalent of around 55,000 euros from a political ally and MP.
  
• MS Vishwanathan: M S Viswanathan, one of the most popular music composers of south Indian cinema, passed away on 14th July. Viswanathan, known in the industry as MSV, has a huge body of work in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam with over 750 films. Sivaji Ganeshan’s Panam in 1952 was his debut creation.
  
  MSV is popular for his collaboration with fellow composer T.K. Ramamoorthy. The duo composed music for 86 Tamil films during their association of over a decade. “Sonnathu Needhana” (Nenjil Oru Alayam), “Viswanathan Velai Vendum” (Kadalikka Neram Illai), “Kettavarellam Padalam” (Thangai) are among MSV’s all time favourites that are still popular in Tamil Nadu.
  
  His association with iconic lyricist “Kaviyarasu” Kannadasan is legendary and resulted in many evergreen songs. MSV’s brilliant partnership with composer Ramamurthy under the famous creditline of “Viswanathan-Ramamurthy” came to and end in the early 1960s. He was also responsible for making memorable songs for K. Balachander’s super hit movies.
  
  In Telugu, his compositions include “Tenali Ramakrishna”, “Anthuleni Katha”, “Idhi Katha Kaadu”, “Aakali Rajyam” and “Maro Charitra”.
  
  Viswanathan is a recipient of Kalaimamani and several other music awards. Born in Palakkad in Kerala, Viswanathan had scored music for over 1,000 films.
  
• Prashant Pathrabe: A Maharashtra-based senior IIS officer has been given additional charge as Director of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), which has been rocked by a students agitation over appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as chairman.
  
  Prashant Pathrabe, a 1992 batch officer of Indian Information Service (IIS), has been given temporary charge as Director of the FTII by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry as the term of the incumbent, D J Narain.
  
• C.V Narasimhan: C.V. Narasimhan ,considered the senior-most IPS officer in the country, passed away following a brief illness in a private hospital on 17th July
  
  In his career spanning 35 years in the police department, Mr. Narasimhan held different positions such as the Director, Central Bureau of Investigation, Member Secretary, National Police Commission and Directorate, Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption.
  
  In 1948, he topped the first national competitive examination in the IPS category, and bagged the President's Revolver Prize for the ‘best cadet’ at the National Police Academy in Mount Abu.
  
  In 1974, he became the first IPS officer to be posted as the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, a post to which only IAS officers were considered. While in his tenure in the DVAC, Mr. Narasimhan played a key role in drafting the Vigilance Manual, the first of its kind, which is followed to this day.
  
  As Member Secretary of the National Police Commission, he was part of the team that prepared eight voluminous reports in 1979-81 formulating fundamental reforms in the police force. Though the recommendations were not implemented, some of them, including formation of State Security Commission and fixed tenure for the State Director General of Police, came into force many years later based on the direction of Supreme Court in the Prakash Singh case. A ‘Handbook on Law’ compiled by him was published by the Centre and remained a reference book for all police stations in the country.
  
  Mr. Narasimhan was recipient of the Police Medal for Meritorious Service in 1964 and President's Police Medal for Distinguished Service in 1972.
  
  Leading the Indian delegation to an Interpol convention at Stockholm in 1977, he chaired a crucial session where a consensus was evolved among several countries on international cooperation in the investigation of economic crimes.
  
  In the erstwhile Madras Presidency, Mr. Narasimhan began his career as Assistant Superintendent of Police in Kakinada and Kurnool. Among the high profile cases he handled in his career were the cases against the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi after her electoral defeat.
  
• Bashar Navaaz: Notable Urdu poet Bashar Navaaz Passed away. Bashar navaaz was known as an Indo Pak shayar. His gazals are popular in India as well as Pakistan. His books ‘Rayagan’, ‘Ajanabee samandar’ was very appreciated by gazal lovers. As lyricist he wrote number of gazals for hindi movies like ‘Bazaar’, ‘Loree’, ‘Jaane vafaa’, ‘Tere Shahar me’, etc. The Gazal “Karoge yaad to har baat yaad aayegee” from film Bazaar is all time hit song. Bashar Navaaz was honored with ‘Galib award’ of Galib Academy New Delhi, Maharashtra State Urdu Academy award, Maharashtra State Iftekhaar E Adab award.
  
• Sunita Williams: A Indian-origin Sunita Williams is among four "veteran" astronauts picked by NASA to fly the first commercial space vehicles, a part of the space agency's ambitious plan of human landing on Mars by 2030. According to NASA, Williams accompanied by Robert Behnken, Eric Boe and Douglas Hurley, will train and prepare for commercial space flights that will open up low-Earth orbit transportation to the private sector.
  
• Jayalalitha:Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha won from RK Nagar constituency with a huge margin. She won with a massive margin of over 1.5 lakh votes The by-election was necessitated by AIADMK's P Vetrivel vacating the seat in May to enable Jayalalithaa seek re-election post her acquittal by the Karnataka High Court in a graft case.
  
• Revanth Reddy: Thirty days after their arrest in cash-for-vote case, Telangana TDP legislator A. Revanth Reddy and two other accused were granted conditional bail by the High Court here on 30th June while the ACB planned to move the Supreme Court for its cancellation.
  
• K P P Nambiar: Visionary technocrat, industry mentor and institution builder K P P Nambiar, died in Bangalore on 30th June. He was a native of Kannur in Kerala, had been credited with establishing India’s first state run electronics venture Keltron and Inda’s first IT park Technopark, both in his home state.
  
  Nambiar, who had served as Secretary, Department of Electronics when Rajiv Gandhi was the prime minister, had been the force behind establishing C-DAC, STPI, CEDTI and VLSI laboratories under the Department of Electronics.
  
  As the secretary at the Department of Electronics, Nambiar had given a new perspective and direction for country’s research and development in the area of electronics.
  
  In a bid to take electronics revolution to villages, he formed women co-operatives to manufacture consumer durables under the brand of Keltron. As many as 50 such groups were established in Kerala.
  
  In early 80, Nambiar left Keltron after mentoring it for a decade. Then he joined as the Managing Director of the Indian Telephone Industries, Bangalore. It was while serving as ITI MD that Nambiar moved to the Department of Electronics as its secretary.
  
  He served in that post until his retirement in 1989. Post-retirement, Nambiar returned to Kerala, where then state chief Minister E K Nayanar invited him to prepare the project for Technopark, which is now the single largest IT park in the country.
  
  Nambiar had hailed from Kalliassery, the native of village of Nayanar. Nambiar was the first chairman of Techno-park in Thiruvananthapuram. Later, he became the chairman of governing body of IIM-Kozhikode.
  
• YC Modi: An order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training said, the Appointments Committee of Cabinet has approved the induction of Modi, a 1984 batch IPS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre, as Additional Director in the central probe agency.
  
  He has been appointed in place of Archana Ramasundaram, who was recently moved out of the CBI and appointed as Director, National Crime Records Bureau. Another IPS officer Rupak Kumar Dutta has been appointed as Special Director in the CBI.

PERSONS JUNE 2015

PERSONS JUNE 2015

• Sister Nirmala:Former Superior General of Missionaries of Charity Sister Nirmala died in Kolkata on 23rd JUne. Sister Nirmala took over the highest post in Missionaries of Charity after the death of Mother Teresa. She worked as Superior General till the year 2009. Sister Nirmala received Padmabibhusan award in the same year.
  
  Her original name was Nirmala Joshi . She was born in Ranchi and educated in Patna. Inspiring by the work of Mother Teresa Sister Nirmala joined in the Missionaries of Charity in 1976 and dedicated herself to the service of the poor till death.
  
• James Horner: James Horner, the two-time Oscar-winning composer of some of the biggest Hollywood hits like "Titanic", "Braveheart" and 'Avatar", died in a plane crash.
  
• Praful Bidwai: Praful Bidwai, a veteran journalist, author and anti-nuclear activist has died in the Netherlands
  
  The Delhi-based activist was attending a conference in Amsterdam on 23rd June. He also wrote a number of books, including the ‘1999 New Nukes: India, Pakistan and Global Nuclear Disarmament’ His latest book on the crisis in the Indian Left was due to be released later this year. After working as a senior editor for the Times of India for several years, Mr. Bidwai became a freelance commentator, writing for publications in India and abroad. He also wrote a regular column for Frontline and Hindustan Times for several years. —
  
• Pullela Sriramachandrudu: An Indian scholar and eminent writer in Sanskrit and Telugu literature Pullela Sriramachandrudu passed away on 24th June. He was born in Amalapuram on October 24, 1927, he started his academic journey as an ardent student of ‘Vyakarana Sastra’ and went on to acquire three masters degrees in Sanskrit, Hindi and English from Banaras Hindu University.
  
  Among his best-known accomplishments are translation of the Valmiki Ramayana with a word-to-word meaning and commentary in Telugu that runs into over 10,000 pages.
  
  Credited with writing several books in the two languages, he received the Padma Shri, among other honours.
  
• Tendulkar: Indian batting legend Sachin Tendulkar has been voted the "best Test player" of the 21st century in an online poll conducted by Cricket Australia. Tendulkar amassed the highest number of votes breezing past Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara, who had to settle for the second spot, reports cricket.com.au.
  
  Currently working as an advisor to the Mumbai Indians franchise in the Indian Premier League (IPL), Tendulkar earned 23 percent of the votes followed by Sangakkara with 14 percent and former Australian hard-hitting wicket-keeper batsman Adam Gilchrist with 13 percent.
  
  The top 10 list: 
  1. Sachin Tendulkar (India) 23 percent
  2. Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka) 14 percent
  3. Adam Gilchrist (Australia) 13 percent
  4. Ricky Ponting (Australia) 11 percent
  5. Jacques Kallis (South Africa) 11 percent
  6. AB de Villiers (South Africa) 10 percent
  7. Shane Warne (Australia) 9 percent
  8. Glenn McGrath (Australia) 5 percent
  9. Muthiah Muralidaran (SL) 3 percent
  10. Dale Steyn (South Africa) 1 percent
  
  
• PK Sinha:Pradeep Kumar Sinha, a UP cadre IAS officer of 1977 batch, on 14th June assumed charge as Cabinet Secretary. He took over from Ajit Kumar Seth. P.K. Sinha was earlier OSD in the Cabinet Secretariat.
  He has served in different capacities in the Government of India as well as in the States.
  
• Sheila Kaul: Former Union Minister Sheila Kaul, a sister-in-law of Jawaharlal Nehru and oldest surviving former parliamentarian, died
  • She was former Himachal Pradesh Governor
  • She represented Parliament 5 times
  • She was Urban Development Minister in the PV. Narasimha Rao Cabinet, during her tenure she was accused making out-of-turn allotment of government accommodations in return for monetary gain between 1992 and 1995.
  
  
• Ajay Mahajan: IDFC, soon-to-be-turned bank, announced the appointment of Ajay Mahajan as its Head Commercial and Wholesale Banking in the bank structure to be launched later this year. Mahajan will oversee coverage of SMEs (small and medium enterprises), mid-cap and large corporates, financial institutions, government business and transaction banking, treasury and markets and investment banking
• Bimal Roy: Bimal Roy, Director of the prestigious Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) has been removed from the post on an apprehension that he may indulge in indiscipline and mischief including financial impropriety.
  The removal by the central government comes less than two months before the end of his tenure on July 31. Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay, Director-designate, who is at present on the faculty of the ISI, has been asked to discharge all administrative, financial and other duties of Director
  
  till July 31. She will take over as Director from August 1.
  
• Omar al-Bashir: Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted for war crimes, has left South Africa, pre-empting a court ruling over an international warrant for his arrest. The Pretoria High Court was due to decide whether he should be handed over to the International Criminal Court which charged him with the crimes.
  Mr Bashir was in Johannesburg for an African Union (AU) summit. On 14th June, a judge barred Mr Bashir from leaving until the arrest application had been considered. Mr Bashir is accused of committing war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide during the Darfur conflict.
  
• Charles Correa: Charles Correa, the face of modern architecture in India, passed away in Mumbai. Correa played a defining role in developing architecture of post-Independence India and has designed some of the most outstanding structures. He was the man behind the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial in Ahmedabad and Madhya Pradesh assembly building. In the 1970s, he was the chief architect of Navi Mumbai, the new city that came up across the harbor from Mumbai and was later appointed the first chairman of the National Commission on Urbanisation.
  Correa is also known for pioneering work on low-income housing. He won several national and international awards. He was honoured with the Padma Shri in 1972 and Padma Vibhushan in 2006.
  
• Suleyman Demirel: Turkey’s former President and Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel, a political giant for over half a century who survived two military coups and a ban on holding office, died on 17th June. Demirel served as Prime Minister on repeated occasions in the 1960s and 1970s and then again one final time in the 1990s before serving as head of state from 1993 to 2000. In all, he was Prime Minister of seven different governments, serving five separate stints in the post.
  
• Mahesh Neelkanth Buch: Former IAS officer and noted urban planner Mahesh Neelkanth Buch died on 7th June. He is widely regarded as the architect of new Bhopal. Buch, a 1957 batch officer, was awarded Padma Bhushan in 2011.
  
  In his career, he held a number of important positions, including Vice Chairman of Delhi Development Authority (DDA) in 1977 and took voluntary retirement from service in 1984. Born on October 5, 1934, Buch originally hails from Gujarat. After taking VRS, he founded NGO National Centre for Human Settlements and Environment (NCHSE) in Bhopal. He was also awarded UNEP award for implementation of desertification control programme in 1994-95 and Aga Khan Award for architecture in 1998.
  
• Dasaradhi Rangacharya: Legendary Telugu writer Dasaradhi Rangacharya died in Hyderabad on 8th June. Born in 1928 in a tiny village in Khammam district, he took part in the armed struggle against the erstwhile Nizam ruler. Inspired by Marxism and socialism equally, he wrote a number of books highlighting the life and agony of the people at the grass roots level especially in the then Telangana region.
  
  His novels Moduga Poolu, Chillara Devullu are well known for their inspiring role in influencing Telugu people against oppression by the rulers. He received Sahitya Academy award for Chillara Devullu. He translated all four Vedas into Telugu besides Ramayana and Mahabharata.
  
• Vijai Sharma, KV Chowdary:Senior most Information Commissioner Vijai Sharma has been appointed as the new Chief Information Commissioner,CIC while former Chairman of Central Board of Direct Taxes, K V Chowdary has been named as the new Central Vigilance Commissioner, CVC.
  
  Chairman and Managing Director of Indian Bank, T.M. Bhasin has been appointed as the Vigilance Commissioner in the Central Vigilance Commission. Similarly, former Secretary in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment Sudhir Bhargava has been appointed as the Information Commissioner in the Central Information Commission.
  
• Anshu Jain: Germany's biggest lender, Deutsche Bank, appointed John Cryan as its new chief executive on 7th June, after Co-CEOs Anshu Jain and Juergen Fitschen, resigned following criticism from investors
  
  India-born Anshu Jain resigned as the Co-CEO of Germany's biggest bank Deutsche Bank loosing the top spot to former UBS banker John Cryan, who will serve as the Co-CEO and will become the "sole CEO" after 19th May. Jain is the second Indian to resign from a global bank after Vikram Pandit who stepped down as the CEO of Citigroup in 2012. Anshu Jain spent 20 years building Deutsche Bank into a global investment bank that rivalled Wall Street's giants.
  
  The Germany-based bank appointed former UBS banker Cryan as the Co-Chief Executive Officer, effective next month, and he will succeed the existing CO-CEOs Jurgen Fitschen and Jain.
  
• Tayal: Senior IPS officer RC Tayal has been appointed as the new chief of the elite counter-terror force National Security Guard (NSG). The 1980-batch Assam-Meghalaya cadre officer is currently serving as the Special Director General in paramilitary CRPF and is heading its formation in Jammu and Kashmir. Tayal, who is from Haryana, has earlier served as an Additional DG in the Sashastra Seema Bal during his stint at the centre.
  
• MK Sharma: The Board of Directors of ICICI Bank has approved the appointment of MK Sharma as its new non-executive Chairman for a period of five years. Sharma was formerly Vice-Chairman of Hindustan Unilever.
  
  Sharma will succeed KV Kamath, who will step down from the Board to take on a bigger role as the first President of New Development Bank, established by BRICS nations. Sharma was an independent director on the board of ICICI Bank for eight years from 2003 to 2011.At present, he is an independent director at two subsidiaries of ICICI Bank — ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company and ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company.
  
• Sanath Jayasuriya: Former Cricketer Sanath Jayasuriya and three other Sri Lanka Freedom Party Parliamentarians joined the government of President Maithripala Sirisena as Deputy Ministers. Jayasuriya was sworn in as Deputy Minister of Provincial Councils and Local Development.
  
• Dhoni: Cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni is among Forbes magazine's 100 highest-paid athletes in the world, the onlyIndian sportsman on the list that has been topped again by American boxer Floyd Mayweather and includes golfer Tiger Woods, tennis star Roger Federer and Portuguese soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo.
  
  Dhoni has ranked 23rd on the Forbes list of The World's highest-paid athletes 2015, dropping a notch from his ranking of 22 last year. Dhoni's total earnings stood at $31 million, including amount from salary/winnings at $4 million and endorsements worth $27 million.
  
  He is also co-producing M S Dhoni: The Untold Story, an upcoming biopic that has been "fraught with delays but has already funneled some three millions into the Indian star's pockets".
  
  The earnings figures include salaries, prize money and bonuses paid out between June 2014 and June 2015. Mayweather retains the top spot this year with earnings of $300 million, more than double the previous high for an athlete. This is the third time in four years that Mayweather was ranked as the world's highest-paid athlete, Forbes said.
  
  Only two women made the 2015 Forbes list, after the retirement of Chinese tennis player Li Na last year. Russian professional tennis player Maria Sharapova is the top-ranked woman at number 26, with earnings of $29.7 million.
  
  Sharapova bounced back from an injury-riddled 2013 to win the 2014 French Open, triggering lucrative bonuses from sponsors like Nike and Head, Forbes said.
  
  American tennis player Serena Williams earned $24.6 million and ranks number 47 on the list. The world's top-ranked tennis player recently captured her 20th Grand Slam singles title at the French Open. Her $72 million in career prize money is double that of Sharapova, her closest competitor. The 100 highest-paid athletes made $3.2 billion in all over the past 12 months, up 17 per cent from the previous year.Pacquiao ranks second on the list with total earnings of $160 million followed by Real Madrid's Ronaldo with earnings of $79.6 million.
  
  Federer ranks fifth with earnings of $67 million, including $58 million from sponsors, exhibitions and appearance fees. Federer dropped to number seven in the world tennis rankings in 2013 but he rebounded last year to finish 2014 in second. LeBron James is the National Basketball Association's top-earning player and ranks sixth among all athletes at $64.8 million.
  
  The list also includes tennis player Novak Djokovic ranked 13 with earnings of $48.2 million, German Formula One driver Sebastian Vettel (21), tennis star Rafael Nadal (22), soccer player Wayne Rooney (34) and Jamaican runner Usain Bolt (73).
  
• Nek Chand: Rock Garden creator and Padma awardee Nek Chand Saini passed away on 11th June. Nek Chand was born in Berian Kalan village, now in Pakistan on December 15, 1924. He emigrated to India with his family and settled in Chandigarh in 1950. It's here that his transformation from a public transport official to creative genius acclaimed the world over took place.
  
  His death comes days before his 40 figurative mosaic sculptures were to be put on display for the first time in the UK Pallant House Gallery in the charming setting of historic Chichester (West Sussex) from June 13 to October 25. The works are on loan from the Nek Chand Foundation in London.
  
  Pursuing a vision, Nek Chand started off by clearing an area of jungle on the city's outskirts. He amassed stones, bricks and materials retrieved from the city's rubbish heaps in order to construct the Rock Garden. Today this extends over two hectares and is adorned by several hundred sculptures lined up on a series of terraces, arches, waterfalls and winding paths. In 1972, the municipal authorities discovered this environmental marvel, and decided to provide a team of labourers and financial support to enable him to continue his work. The site, which came to be known as the Rock Garden, was officially recognised in 1976, and is a key tourist attraction of Chandigarh.
  
• Chiril Gaburuci: Moldova's Prime Minister Chiril Gaburuci on 12 June 2015 resigned from his post after he was questioned about the authenticity of his high school and university degrees. Gaburuci became the Prime Minister of Moldova in February 2015. He headed a pro-European government that relies on the Communist Party of Moldova. Earlier, he had been Chief Executive Officer of Azerbaijan’s mobile telecom company Moldcell until January 2015.
  
• Vinita Bali: Vinita Bali was appointed as the Chair of Board of Directors of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN). Vinita succeeded Jay Naidoo, who led GAIN in the global fight against malnutrition since its creation in 2002. Vinita has been on the board of GAIN since 2010 and has led large companies in a variety of marketing and general management roles in the India, UK, Nigeria, South Africa, Chile and the US.
  
• MikheilSAakshvili:
  Former Georgian President MikheilSaakashvili has been appointed Governor of Ukraine's southern Odessa region. Announcing the surprise move in the Black Sea port of Odessa, President Petro Poroshenko said MrSaakashvili had been granted Ukrainian citizenship.
  
  MrSaakashvili is widely credited with carrying out radical reforms in Georgia during his terms in office in 2004-13. However, current Georgian authorities accuse him of abuse of power and have demanded his extradition. MrSaakashvili left Georgia after his term as President ended in 2013. He denies the charges against him, which he says are politically motivated.
  
• Kunhikrishnan:
  Dr. P. Kunhikrishnan took charge as director of the SatishDhawan Space Centre (SDSC), also known as the Sriharikota Range, at Sriharikota near Sullurupeta in Nellore district on 31st May. He takes the place of Dr. M.Y.S. Prasad who retired after a term of four years.
  
  Dr. Kunhikrishnan, who was earlier deputy director at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, joined the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) back in 1961 after taking a B.Tech degree in electronics and communications engineering from the College of Engineering at Trivandrum.
  
  In his previous assignments, Dr. Kunhikrishnan played a key role as the certifying authority for the quality of avionics systems, electrical integration and check-out systems used in satellite launch vehicles.
  
• Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa: Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa was on 1st June sworn-in as the governor of Arunachal Pradesh. Rajkhowa’s appointment was necessitated after Lt General (Retired) Nirbhay Sharma was transferred to Mizoram. Rajkhowa was the former Chief Secretary of Assam. He is a retired Indian Administrative Service officer from 1968 batch.
  
• Names of CIC, CVC chiefs cleared
  Government and the opposition on 1st June agreed on the names of Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC), the posts that have been lying vacant for over nine months.
  
  The agreement came at two meetings between Prime Minister NarendraModi and Leader of Congress in LokSabhaMallikarjunKharge in two different committees.
  
  The panels have met and their recommendations have been sent to President's office. All the names against the vacant posts have been sent to the President.
  
  A formal announcement of the names will take place after President Pranab Mukherjee, to whom the recommendations have gone, gives his assent. Both the selection panels are headed by Prime Minister. The last meeting of the panel held on 23rd May had remained inconclusive.
  
• AmeenahGurib-Fakim
  The government of Mauritius 1st June designated AmeenahGurib-Fakim as the Indian Ocean Island nation's new president, making her the first woman to hold the ceremonial position. The appointment of Gurib-Fakim, an internationally-renowned scientist and biologist, is subject to parliament approval
  
  Gurib-Fakim, will be the first female President of the Island, which gained independence from Britain in 1968 and which replaced Britain's Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state in 1992.Former President KailashPurryag, who had been put in place by the previous government, stepped down as the island's figurehead on 29th May.
  
  He had served as president since July 2012, when he was appointed by the island's previous Labour party government of former premier NavinRamgoolam.
  
  The previous government had fought the elections on a platform of delivering constitutional reform, notably with a divisive proposal to strengthen presidential powers.
  
  Ramgoolam himself had hoped to eventually run for the new, strengthened position. Since his election defeat Purryag has been seen as an unwanted figurehead, while Ramgoolam has been embroiled in corruption allegations that have shocked the country.Mauritius is one of the richest, and least corrupt, countries in Africa, a middle-income country of some 1.3 million people with a per capita GDP of just over $9,000 (7,200 euros).
  
  Once dependent on sugar exports, the island has built up a strong outsourcing and financial services sector, and an important tourism industry.
  
• ISRO appoints new directors for major centres
  ISRO has named new directors for three major centres.K Sivan, Scientist and Director at Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), Thiruvananthapuram, will take charge as Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram.
  
  S Somanath, Scientist and Associate Director (Projects), Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), as well as Project Director of GSLV Mk-III, has taken over as the Director of Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), Thiruvananthapuram.
  
  P Kunhikrishnan, Scientist and Deputy Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), has taken over as the Director of SatishDhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota. He obtained his B.Tech degree in Electronics and Communication from College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram.
  
• George Yeo
  Former Foreign Minister of Singapore George Yeo will be the new Chancellor of the Nalanda University, the External Affairs Ministry announced on 30th May. The announcement came over two months after Nobel laureate AmartyaSen withdrew his candidature to the post for a second term. 60-year-old Yeo, who was conferred Padma Bhushan in 2012, is currently serving as a member of the governing board of the prestigious university at Rajgir area of Bihar.
  
  In February, Sen had withdrawn his candidature as Chancellor for a second term, saying the NarendraModi government does not want him to continue, a contention which was rejected by the Government.
  
  The former Singapore Foreign Minister has been playing a key role in reviving the the ancient seat of learning and has been praised for his contribution in the field of “public affairs”. The idea to revive Nalanda University was first mooted in 2005 by then President APJ Abdul Kalam. The university is being built near the ruins of the historic academic place by the same name in Bihar and a number of member countries of the East Asia Summit grouping is involved in the project.
  
  The government had enacted the Nalanda University Act, 2010 to implement the decisions arrived at the Second East Asia Summit held in January, 2007 in the Philippines and subsequently at the Fourth East Asia Summit in Thailand for establishment of the Nalanda University.
  
  East Asia Summit is a forum for co-operation between various countries of the region with ASEAN and includes Australia, China, India, Japan, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Russia and the US, in addition to the ten ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) countries.
  
• Bashir
  Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir was sworn in on 2nd June for another five years after he swept elections in April marked by a low turnout and an opposition boycott.Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges, won the elections with more than 94 percent of the vote.
  
• Prem Nath
  Prem Nath, a gold medallist at the 1974 Christchurch Commonwealth Games, has passed away on 2nd June.Prem Nath, a student of the legendary Guru Hanuman, had hit the headlines at an early age when he made it to the 1972 Munich Olympics and finished fourth in the freestyle bantamweight category.Two years later, he bagged the 57kg Commonwealth Games title in New Zealand.He got the Arjuna Award for the year 1972.
  
• Ashton Carter
  The US Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter who is on a three day India visit and held talks with Defence Minister ManoharParikar today. He also met Prime Minister Modi and External Affairs Minister SushmaSwaraj
  
  Renewal of the 10 year old Defence Framework Agreement and bilateral talks on the DTTI are on the agenda. Ashton Carter is considered to be the architect of the Defence Trade and Technology Initiative signed between Prime Minister NarendraModi and President Obama this year.