PERSONS AUGUST 2016

PERSONS AUGUST 2016

• Dinanath Pathy: Noted painter, writer and art historian Dinanath Pathy passed away on 29th August following a cardiac arrest in Bhubaneswar. A former secretary of the Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi and Bhubaneswar, Pathy was one of the pioneers of the art movement in Odisha. He dedicated his life to promotion of Odia art all over the world though his art work, poetry and teaching.
  
  He published over 60 books on classical, traditional, tribal, folk, rural and contemporary art of Odisha in Odia, English and German languages. Among the books authored by Pathy are Sayonara, Punarnava, Chilika Panire Chhai and Digapandhi Ra Drawing Master. Pathy had received the prestigious
  
  International Rietberg Award of Switzerland-based Rietberg Society in 2014 in recognition of his profound contributions to research on Indian art history and his lifetime dedication to the field of art.
  
  He was also conferred with the President of India’s Silver Plaque for painting, the Orissa Sahitya Akademi Award for creative literature for his autobiography Drawing Master of Digapahandi and Jawaharlal Fellowship for his research work. Pathy was also the former principal of the BK College of Art and Crafts in Bhubaneswar.
  
• Sachin Tendulkar: Kerala government has appointed the Legendary Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar as brand ambassador for anti- liquor and anti-drug campaign in the state. The move was part of the government's initiative to create awareness among people against alcoholism and drug abuse.
  
  The state government has also decided to open up more de-addiction centres for the benefit of the addicted. Reiterating that the government was for restriction of alcohol use gradually, widespread campaign would be conducted at district levels. Tendulkar had given consent to use his name to strengthen the campaign against liquor and drug abuse in the state, earlier.
  
• Punit Goenka: Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), the representative body of television broadcasters, elected Punit Goenka as president at its 17th annual general meeting. Goenka is managing director and chief executive officer of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL). Goenka replaces Uday Shankar, the chief executive officer at Star India, at the helm of the IBF. He was serving IBF as vice-president (measurement) since 2014.
  
• Islam Karimov:Uzbekistan's President Islam Karimov has died after remaining in power for over 25 years, since it gained independence from Soviet Union in 1991.
  
• S.R. Nathan: Singapore’s former President, the Indian-origin S.R. Nathan died on 22nd August. He was the sixth and longest-serving President of Singapore and served two terms from 1999 to 2011. He officially stepped down as President on August 31,2011 after announcing that he would not seek a third term. Mr. Nathan was succeeded by President Tony Tan Keng Yam.
  
  Prior to becoming President, he held key positions in the civil service, as well as in security, intelligence and foreign affairs. He was appointed as Singapore’s High Commissioner to Malaysia in 1988 and later Singapore’s Ambassador to the United States of America from 1990 to 1996.
  
• Najma Heptulla: Acting Chief Justice of High Court of Manipur Rakesh Ranjan Prasad administered the oath of office and secrecy to Heptulla. Meghalaya Governor V Shanmuganathan is currently holding the additional charge as Manipur's governor.
  
• Sakshi Malik: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal honoured Rio bronze medal winner Sakshi Malik at Bahadurgarh. Sakshi Malik was also made ambassador to Beti Bachao Bati Padao Ambassador.
  
• Narendra Modi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pipped Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan to become the most followed Indian on social media site Twitter. As per latest count, Mr Modi has over 22.1 million followers on the social networking platform, while the bollywood actor marginally trailed with 22 million.
  
  In January, Prime Minister Modi's Twitter followers surpassed that of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan. Mr Modi, then, became the second most followed Indian on Twitter with over 17,371,600 followers, compared to Khan's 17,351,100.
  
• Jennifer: Oscar-winning Jennifer Lawrence was named the world's highest-paid actress for the second year running with estimated pre-tax earnings of $46 million. The 26-year-old American raked in the lion's share from a profit share in the final "Hunger Games" movie, which grossed $650 million, Forbes magazine said.
  
  An upfront fee for the forthcoming space thriller "Passengers" also helped the 26-year-old push her pay day above second-ranked Melissa McCarthy, who pocketed $33 million.
  
  The world's 10 highest-paid actresses made a combined $205 million in the 12 months from June 1, 2015 before fees and taxes, said Forbes. But the actors' list due to be published is expected to show once again men banking far more than their female counterparts.
  
  India's Deepika Padukone -- who made $10 million -- was the only other actress from outside Hollywood to feature in the rankings. The 30-year-old, who came 10th, earns far less than her Tinseltown counterparts for her Bollywood roles, but compensates with more than a dozen lucrative endorsements, Forbes said.
  
• Jim Yong Kim: United States nominated Jim Yong Kim to be the World Bank President for a second term, saying he has "ably led" the global development lender's response to major crises and helped it focus on innovative ways to challenge issues like poverty and climate change
  
  According to the US Treasury Secretary Jacob J Lew, the President Kim had used his first term to focus the World Bank on effectively addressing most pressing global development challenges in innovative ways, from ending extreme poverty and tackling inequality, to combating climate change
  
  The US is the World Bank's largest shareholder. Lew said Kim has also "ably led" responses to major crises, including battling the Ebola pandemic and addressing the refugee crisis.
  
  Kim, who became the 12th President of the World Bank Group on July 1, 2012 is a physician and anthropologist, who dedicated himself to international development for more than two decades, helping to improve the lives of under-served populations worldwide.
  
  Prior to the Bank, he served as President of Dartmouth College, a pre-eminent centre of higher education that consistently ranks among the top academic institutions in the United States. He is a co-founder of Partners In Health (PIH) and a former director of the HIV/AIDS Department at the World Health Organisation (WHO).
  
  Born in 1959 in Seoul, South Korea, Kim moved with his family to the US at the age of five and grew up in Muscatine, Iowa. He graduated with an A.B. magna cum laude from Brown University in 1982. He earned an M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1991 and a Ph.D. in anthropology from Harvard University in 1993.
  
• Urjit Patel:Urjit Patel has been appointed as new Governor of Reserve Bank of India. He will succeed Raghuram Rajan. 52 year Urjit Patel was a RBI Deputy Governor prior to this elevation. Mr. Patel will assume office as the 24th RBI governor for three years on 5th September, a day after Rajan’s term ends.
  
  Mr. Patel is a PhD from Yale University and has worked at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), The Brookings Institution at Washington and the Massachusetts-based Boston Consulting Group.
  • He was first appointed as Deputy Governor for three years in January 2013 and was given an extension this January.
  • He will be the eighth Deputy Governor to be made Governor at RBI.
  • The appointment has been made on the recommendation of the Financial Sector Regulatory Appointment Search Committee (FSRASC) headed by Cabinet Secretary.
  • Patel, born on October 28, 1963, received his doctorate in economics from Yale University in 1990) and M Phil from Oxford (1986).
  • Prior to his appointment as the Deputy Governor at RBI in 2013, Patel was advisor (Energy and Infrastructure) with Boston Consulting Group.
  • He has worked with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) between 1990 and 1995 covering the US, India, Bahamas and Myanmar desks.
  • As deputy governor, Patel headed the RBI panel to draft the monetary policy report, which became the basis of the ongoing reforms at the apex bank.
  • The Patel committee report also formed the basis of the monetary policy committee, which takes away a lot of powers of RBI and the governor, as also move to create a public debt management agency.
  • Urjit Patel will take over the charge from Rajan after he demits the office on September 4. The tenure of the present governor Raghuram Rajan is ending on September 4.
  
  
• Bardish Chagger: Indian-Canadian Sikh MP Bardish Chagger has been named as the new Leader of the government in Canada’s House of Commons, becoming the first woman to hold the post in the country’s history. Chagger, an MP from Waterloo who is also the Minister of Small Business and Tourism, was among 19 Indian-origin candidates who won in last year’s general election. Ms. Chagger’s parents had immigrated to Waterloo from India in the 1970s.
  
• Luqmaan Patel: He is an Indian-origin student in the United Kingdom has developed a drone that provides communication immediately after the occurrence of a natural disaster. It will facilitate victims to quickly contact family and rescue groups. The potentially life-saving system, called Exigency, was invented by Luqmaan Patel, a student at Staffordshire University in the UK.
  
• Gurdial Singh: World famous prominent Punjabi writer, novelist and short story writer and Jnanpith awardee Gurdial Singh passed away at Bathinda on 16th August. He was 83. The award-winning Punjabi film, ‘Anne Ghore Da Daan’ (Alms of the Blind Horse), was also based on his Punjabi novel with the same title. He rose to popularity with the publication of his novel ‘Marhi Da Deeva’ in 1964 and later, in 1989; a film based on the novel also came out.
  
  His novels were translated in several Indian languages and also in English. Gurdial Singh was the recipient of various prestigious awards and honours such as Padma Shri, Jnanpith Award, Sahitya Akademi Award. Earlier this year, Sahitya Akademi announced fellowship for him which is the highest honour of the Akademi.
  
• New Governors appointed in Punjab, Assam, Manipur, Andaman & Nicobar Islands
  Former Union Minister Najma A. Heptulla has been appointed as the Governor of Manipur. According to Rashtrapati Bhawan press communique, Banwarilal Purohit will be the Governor of Assam, V.P. Singh Badnore Governor of Punjab and Jagdish Mukhi will be the Lieutenant Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The appointments will take effect from the dates the incumbents assume their charge.
  
• Shahram Amri: In Iran, a nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri detained since 2010 has been executed. He was hanged on charge of spying, Iran’s Nuclear program to USA.
  
• Vijay Rupani: Vijay Rupani was sworn in as the new chief minister of Gujarat at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar on 7th August, along with 24 others, including Nitin Patel as the deputy chief minister.
  
• Roshamma: Dubagunta’ Rosamma, who became famous for her key role in the anti-liquor movement in the united Andhra Pradesh in the 1990s, died in her native village Dubagunta of Kaligiri mandal in the district on 7th August. A small protest she had led in the village against consumption of liquor spread far and wide, and transformed into a mass movement, forcing the government in 1993 to ban arrack.
  
  The agitation had a telling effect on the political parties, which were compelled to promise total prohibition during elections.
  
  Born in 1923, Rosamma lived in penury as her husband died early. With two children, she struggled to make both ends meet.
  
  With her sons taking to liquor and landing in financial problems, and touched by the way women of the village were being treated by drunk men, Rosamma decided to take the menace head-on.
  
  Mobilising a dozen like-minded women, she confronted the persons selling liquor and forced them to close the shops. As the news spread like wildfire, similar protests erupted across the State, which eventually transformed into a mass agitation in which women, youth, and organisations, cutting across all affiliation, took part. Since then, Vardhineni Rosamma became famous as ‘Dubagunta’ Rosamma.
  
  Taking the agitation forward, protestors in Kurnool confronted and stopped liquor shop auctions. The agitation triggered by her made the former Chief Minister, N.T. Rama Rao, put his first signature on the file pertaining to total prohibition in 1995.
  
• Vijay Mallya: In more trouble for Vijay Mallya, a non-bailable warrant was issued against him in a 2012 cheque bounce case by a Delhi court which said that coercive steps were required to ensure his appearance
  
  Metropolitan Magistrate Sumeet Anand passed the order for bringing Mallya in court on November 4, with the direction that the non-bailable warrant be sent to him by Ministry of External Affairs as he is reportedly in London.
  
  The court noted that despite repeated orders, Mallya did not appear in the court and it was inevitable for the state machinery to intervene and ensure his presence.
  
  The trial court had summoned Mallya as accused following a complaint by DIAL, which operates the capital's IGI Airport, claiming that a cheque for Rs one crore issued by Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) on February 22, 2012 was returned to them a month later containing remarks "fund insufficient".
  
  DIAL had filed four cases in June 2012 against Mallya over KFA's cheques totalling Rs 7.5 crore not being honoured. The grounded airline had issued the cheques towards payment for services availed by them at the IGI airport.
  
• Kalikho Pul: Former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Kalikho Pul allegedly committed suicide on 9th August, weeks after the Supreme Court unseated him and restored the Congress government, sparking violent protests in the northeastern state. Pul, was found dead at the chief minister's residence he was yet to vacate, police said, adding one of his wives found him hanging from the fan in his bedroom.
  
  According to doctors, the death occurred between 7 and 7:30 am. Starting as a carpenter, Pul went on to become a guard and was the longest-serving finance minister under chief ministers including Gegong Apang, Mukut Mithi, and the late Dorjee Khandu.
  
• Rani Singh Nair:Senior Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer Rani Singh Nair is set to be appointed the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) chairperson. Nair, a 1979-batch IRS officer, is presently working as member (legislation and computerisation) in CBDT, policy making body of the Income-Tax department. Officials said the government has issued orders for her to take over as acting chief from Jindal and fresh orders by the Prime Minister-headed Appointments Committee of the Cabinet are expected soon, for her to take charge in a full capacity.
  
• Anant Maheshwari: He will succeed Bhaskar Pramanik as the head of Microsoft in India. He will join the IT products and services major on September 1 as President and will take over the operations of the company with effect from January 1, 2017.
  Prior to this appointment, Maheshwari was President of Honeywell in India, taking care of its Aerospace, Automation and Control Solutions, the company’s Performance Materials division and its Technologies business. During his 12-year stint with the firm, Maheswari held various other positions too. Before joining Honeywell, Anant worked with McKinsey for six years.
  
  Pramanik held a key role in Microsoft’s efforts to build data centres in India and in the roll-out of the company’s Mobile First Cloud First strategy.
  
• Prachanda: In Nepal, Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' was elected as Prime Minister on 3rd August. The 61-year-old CPN-Maoist Centre chief was elected Prime Minister with 363 votes in favour and 210 against him.
  Out of a total 595 members, 22 did not vote. He was backed by the largest party in the House, Nepali Congress, constituents of the United Democratic Madhesi Front and the Federal Alliance and some other smaller parties.
  
  Mr. Prachanda has become Prime Minister of Nepal for the second time. He held this post during 2008 - 2009 before a disagreement with the military over his attempt to sack the army chief brought his period in office to an early end. He is also the only communist leader to become the Prime Minister of the country twice.
  
  The Prime Minister's post became vacant on 24th of last month, after CPN-UML chairman K P Sharma 'Oli' resigned. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has congratulated Mr Prachanda. Mr Modi spoke to him over phone and assured him of full support from India.
  
• Anandi Ben: Gujarat Chief Minster Anandiben Patel on 3rd August formally handed over her resignation to the Governor O.P. Kohli. Governor has accepted the resignation tendered by Ms Anandiben Patel.
  Governor has also asked her to continue as care taker Chief Minister till the alternate arrangement has been made.
  
• Nita Ambani: Noted sports promoter and founder chairperson of Reliance Foundation, Nita Ambani was elected as an individual member of International Olympic Committee on 4th August. She became the first Indian woman to join the prestigious body which governs Olympic sports in the world. After being nominated in June by the IOC Executive Board, Nita was elected by IOC members at the 129th Session of the world body in Rio de Janeiro 52-year-old Nita is the only current active individual member of the IOC from India and she will serve at the high-profile world body until she attains the age of 70.

PERSONS JULY 2016

PERSONS JULY 2016

•  K P Oli: Nepal's Prime Minister K P Oli resigned on 24th July ahead of a no-confidence vote, plunging the country into a fresh political turmoil.
  
  Oli, who became prime minister in October last year has been facing a no-trust motion after the Maoists withdrew support from the coalition government.
  
  Oli tendered his resignation after two key ruling alliance partners -- Madhesi People's Rights Forum-Democratic and Rastriya Prajatantra Party -- decided to support the no-confidence motion tabled against him by the Nepali Congress (NC) and the CPN-Maoist Centre led by Prachanda.
  
• Irom Sharmila: In Manipur, civil rights activist Irom Sharmila has decided to end her fast on 9th of next month and contest Assembly elections as an Independent candidate. She has been on hunger strike for the last sixteen years demanding repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act.
  
  Sharmila, who has been forcibly fed through a nasal tube since 2000, said she would join politics as she no longer believes that her fast will lead to the repeal of what she tearmed as "draconian" AFSPA.
  
  Assembly elections in Manipur are scheduled early next year. In the past, many political leaders have met Sharmila and tried to cajole her into joining politics but she has rejected all offers.
  
• Michel Barnier: Former French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier has been appointed to lead the European Union's negotiations with Britain over Brexit. Mr Barnier will take up his post on 1st October.
  
• Nanda Kumar: T Nanda Kumar has resigned as chairman of Gujarat-based National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) from August 1, about 30 months ahead of the end of his tenure. He has been working as the NDDB chief since March 3, 2014, and was the third chairman of the board, after V Kurien (1965-1998) and Amrita Patel (1998- February 2014).
  
  Kumar joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1972 and was allotted the Bihar cadre. He has also attended various short-term training programmes at the universities of UK, France, and the US, including Harvard.
  
  He served as chairman of the Spices Board in Cochin for a period of five years, during which time the changeover to World Trade Organization regime took place globally. He also did an assignment at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in Bangladesh for three years.
  
  Kumar was appointed the food secretary in 2006. He was agriculture secretary in 2008, a position he retired from in 2010.
  
• Anurag Singh Thakur: BCCI President and BJP MP Anurag Singh Thakur was on 29th July commissioned into the Territorial Army (TA) in the rank of Lieutenant.
  
  He was conferred the ranks by Army chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag in a 'Commissioning' ceremony held at Integrated Headquarters of the Ministry of Defence at South Block in the presence of military dignitaries and his family members.
  
  Lieutenant Thakur cleared Services Selection Board (SSB) and was found fit for joining the Territorial Army. The officer has been commissioned in 124 Inf Bn (TA) SIKH
  
  Territorial Army is part of Indian Army and is manned by officers and men who are embodied for training for two months in a year. Their actual role is during national emergencies, war and in support of Army when they relieve Regular Army for operations.
  
  The Territorial Army also guards vital installations like Headquarters, Ammunition Dumps, Airports among others as also vital lines of communications.
  
• Mahasweta Devi: Eminent author and social activist Mahasweta Devi passed away on 28th July in a Kolkata after a multi-organ failure. Her writings focused on the marginalised communities in the country and served as the voice of the oppressed.
  
  Going beyond her role as a writer and journalist, Mahasweta Devi also helped tribals and the rural dispossessed to group them to take up development activities in their own areas. A number of her works have been adapted for the silver screen. Govind Nihalani's 1998 Hindi film 'Hazaar Chaurasi ki Ma' (The Mother of 1084 sons) is based on her Bengali novel.
  
  In 1993, Kalpana Lajmi also made the award-winning 'Rudaali' on her novel by the same name. Italian director Italo Spinelli also made the multi-lingual 'Gangor' based on her short story 'Choli Ke Peeche' about the rights of women. She also won a number of awards including the Padma Vibhushan, Magsaysay, Sahitya Akademi and Jnanpeeth.
  
• Lachu mahraj: Noted Tabla maestro Lachu Maharaj passed away in Varanasi. Table maestro Lakshmi Narayan Singh “lachu Maharaj” was renowned internationally and belonged to Banaras gharana.
  
  
• Pema Khandu: In Arunachal Pradesh, Pema Khandu has been sworn-in as the new Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh today at Raj Bhawan in Itanagar. The Governor Tataghata Roy administered the Oath of Office and Secrecy to him. Chowna Mein was also sworn-in as the Deputy Chief Minister.
  
  Earlier on 16th July Nabam Tuki resigned as the Chief Minister paving the way for Mr. Khandu to take over the CM’s post.
  
• Romar: The World Bank is set to appoint Paul Romer, a New York University professor and economist, as the chief economist when Kaushik Basu’s term ends next week
  
  Romer is also a director of the Marron Institute of Urban Management. He is the founding director of a project that conducts applied research on the many ways in which policymakers in the developing world can use the rapid growth of cities to create economic opportunity and undertake systemic social reform, it added.
  
  Romer earned a bachelor of science in mathematics from the University of Chicago and a doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago. He takes over the coveted job at a time when the world, including developing economies, is facing slowing growth, rising commodity prices and ballooning debt.
  
  Basu, also the senior vice-president of the World Bank, was earlier India’s chief economic advisor. He is currently on leave from Cornell University where he is professor of economics and the C Marks Professor of International Studies, the World Bank said.
  
  He is currently the president-elect of the International Economic Association and will take over as president from 2017.
  
• Siddhu: BJP leader Navjot Singh Siddhu on 18th July resigned from the Rajya Sabha. He was nominated to the Upper House in April this year. Deputy Chairman P J Kurien announced in the House that his resignation has been accepted.
  
• Ahmad Zahid Hamidi: Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of Malaysia Dato Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, is visiting India. He met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 19th July. Hamidi briefed the Prime Minister on the state of bilateral cooperation, especially in the fields of counter-terrorism, cyber security and trans-national crimes.
  
• Rohit Khandelwal: He has become the first Indian to win the coveted title of Mr. World at a grand ceremony on 19th July 2016 at Southport Theatre, Floral Hall, The Promenade, Southport. The competition saw 47 participants from around the world, giving him a stiff competition. Rohit Khandelwal received a whopping cash prize of $50,000/- on winning this celebrated title
  
• Mahammed Shahid: Noted Indian hockey player Mohammed Shahid passed away due to multiple organ failure. Mohammed Shahid was a member of the V Baskaran-led Indian team that won a Gold medal at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
  
  He was known for his dribbling skills, and was considered one of India's greatest hockey players.
  
  The Sports Ministry had announced a medical grant of 10 lakh rupees for him and the Railways had announced that his medical expenses would be taken care of by the Ministry. Shahid recieved the Arjuna Award in 1981 and was honoured with Padma Shri in 1986.
  
• Michelle Kakade: Pune's Michelle Kakade has made her way into the Guinness Book of World Records as the first person to complete the Indian Golden Quadrilateral on foot. Michelle, a 47-year-old mother of two children, received the acknowledgement and her certificate from Guinness after strict verification of her run. It took her 193 days, one hour and nine minutes to cover 5968.4 kms of the Golden Quadrilateral that connects the four major metros of the country.
  
• Ganesh Singh: BJP Lok Sabha member Ganesh Singh has been appointed as the new chairperson of the Joint Committee of Parliament examining the land acquisition bill. Mr Singh who was already in the the panel, replaces S S Ahluwalia who became Minister of the State for Parliamentary Affairs during reshuffle of the council of ministers on 5th of this month.
  
• S H Raza: Modern Indian artist S H Raza died in New Delhi on 23rd July following a prolonged illness. An internationally acclaimed painter, Raza was honoured with the Padma Shri. He was elected as fellow of the Lalit Kala Akademi in 1983.
  
• Tathagata Roy: The Governor of Tripura, Mr Tathagata Roy was sworn-in as the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh. The oath was administered by the Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court Ajit Singh.
  
  Mr Roy will discharge the function of the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh during the absence on leave of Mr JP Rajkhowa.
  
• Aditya Puri:Aditya Puri, the chief executive and managing director of the second largest private sector lender HDFC Bank, has been ranked the best banking chief executive officer (CEO) in Asia by the investor community.
  
  The bank’s chief financial officer (CFO) Sashi Jagdishan has been ranked the best CFO. HDFC Bank was also ranked the best IR Company, thereby making it the most honoured one in the Institutional Investor magazine.
  
  Called the All-Asia Executive Team Rankings 2016, the survey had 1,394 investment professionals from 582 financial institutions participating in it. The survey encompassed 1,541 companies from 18 sectors across Asia, excluding Japan. The research reflects feedback from both buy and sell-side analysts, with an unparallelled level of detail on the IR efforts of companies across the region.
  
• Five Indians on Forbes Asia's Heroes of Philanthropy list
  Five Indians have made it to the Forbes Asia's annual Heroes of Philanthropy list that highlights some of the region's noteworthy givers.
  
  The list, which included 40 philanthropists from 13 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, includes Vineet and Anupama Nayar, founders of the Sampark Foundation; Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India and Pune-based billionaire Cyrus Poonawallas son; Bain India CEO Amit Chandra and his wife Archana Chandra, CEO of Jai Vakeel Foundation
  
  The Sampark Foundation boasts of a USD 100 million outlay funded entirely by the Nayars and represents more than half of their wealth. It is rolling out kits with child-friendly teaching aids to 50,000 government schools and 3 million students across Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh.
  
  Another notable philanthropist is Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India, who pledged USD 15 million last year to clean up Pune city with a fleet of 50 garbage trucks and a crew of 70 people.
  
  Amit Chandra, CEO of Bain India, and Archana Chandra, CEO of Jai Vakeel Foundation, are the other two philanthropists from India.
  
  The husband and wife donate 75 per cent of their earnings each year to causes ranging from education to healthcare. Amit was one of the founding donors to Ashoka University and has funded an upcoming children's hospital in Mumbai that will be the country's largest
  
  The other notable philanthropist is China's Pony Ma, Chairman and CEO of Tencent Holdings, who pledged 100 million shares of his Internet service provider - worth USD 2.3 billion - to the Tencent Foundation, which supports healthcare, environment protection and new technology.
  
  Taiwanese mogul Terry Gou, Chairman and CEO of Hon Hai Precision, donated USD 6 million in disaster relief after a devastating earthquake struck southern Taiwan in February and claimed 115 lives. He also pledged in 2013 to give away 90 per cent of his wealth, which now totals USD 6 billion.
  
• Shah Rukh, Akshay in Forbes list
  Bollywood superstars Shah Rukh Khan and Akshay Kumar are among the world's highest-paid celebrities of 2016, according to an annual list by Forbes. The list has been topped by American singer Taylor Swift with earnings of $170 million.
  
  English-Irish boy band One Direction has claimed the second spot on the list with earnings of $110 million.
  
• Ashok Patnaik: The union government appointed a serving Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer Ashok Patnaik as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID), one of the most ambitious intelligence projects, which failed to take off during United Progressive Alliance (UPA) rule.
  
  The appointment of Mr. Patnaik, a 1983-batch IPS officer of Gujarat cadre, who also happens to be the son-in-law of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is being seen as the government’s effort to revive the project, which was conceived in the wake of the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
  
  The NATGRID is a centralised agency which stores sensitive personal information on citizens from almost two dozen agencies to be made available for counter-terror investigations. Mr. Patnaik is currently serving as Additional Director in the IB and he will continue to hold this post till his superannuation in 2018.
  
  While the clearance for Rs.3, 400-crore project from the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) came in 2011, execution of the project slowed down after the exit of Home Minister P. Chidambaram in July 2012. There are around 70 personnel, drawn from both the government and private sectors, in the NATGRID.
  
• Mandyam Srinivasan: Scientists, led by an Indian-origin researcher Mandyam Srinivasan, are developing biologically-inspired drones that can navigate just like birds and flying insects without needing human input, radar or satellite navigation.
  
  A team at the University of Queensland in Australia is studying flying techniques that budgerigars and bees share, and applying their findings to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) control programmes.
  
  At first glance, insects and birds have very different brains in terms of size and architecture, yet the visual processing in both animals is very effective at guiding their flight. The team compares the flight of bees and budgies in particular because they are easy animals to study.
  
  Comparing the flight behaviours of these animals using high-speed cameras will lead to drastically improved UAV guidance systems.
  
  The biologically-inspired principles we uncover will foster a new generation of fully autonomous UAVs that do not rely on external help such as GPS (Global Positioning System) or radar.
  
• Lionel Messi: Argentina and Barcelona footballer Lionel Messi has been sentenced to 21 months in prison for tax fraud. His father, Jorge Messi, was also given a jail term for defrauding Spain between 2007 and 2009.
  
  The footballer and his father also face millions of euros in fines for using tax havens in Belize and Uruguay used to conceal earnings from image rights.
  
  They were found guilty of three counts of tax fraud in ruling by the court in Barcelona. During the trial, Lionel Messi claimed he knew nothing about the management of his financial affairs, saying he was playing football.
  
• Oscar Pistorius: South African Paralympic gold medallist Oscar Pistorius was sentenced for six years for the murder of his friend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013.
  
  Pistorius was found guilty of murdering Steen kamp by an appeals court last December. He had initially received a five-year sentence for a manslaughter conviction in 2014, a ruling derided by women's groups as too lenient. Pistorius was freed from prison last October after almost a year behind bars to serve out the remainder of his term under house arrest.

PERSONS JUNE 2016

PERSONS JUNE 2016

• Rajesh Agarwal: London's Mayor Sadiq Khan has appointed India-born Rajesh Agrawal as the deputy mayor for business. Khan had tasked Agrawal with championing London's interests following the exit of Britain after the EU referendum, and protecting jobs and growth while the negotiation process for exit takes place. Agrawal was Khan's business adviser during his mayoral campaign.
  
  Born and brought up in Indore, India, Agrawal arrived in London in 2001 and became a fin-tech entrepreneur and innovator.
  
• Sanjoy Mookerjee: The Railway Board Financial Commissioner Sanjoy Mookerjee has resigned citing ‘personal reasons’, just three months ahead of his retirement.
  
• Sujoy Bose: Centre has appointed Mr. Sujoy Bose, Director and Global Co-Head, Infrastructure and Natural Resources, International Finance Corporation, Washington, as the Chief Executive Officer of National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) Ltd.
  
  Bose has extensive international experience in the infrastructure sector including experience in raising funds from international investors.
  
  The NIIF has been established with the aim to attract investment from both domestic and international sources for infrastructure development in commercially viable projects. It has been incorporated as a company under the Companies Act, 2013, duly authorized to act as investment manager of National Investment and Infrastructure Fund.
  
  The establishment activities of the NIIF are underway and steps are being taken to operationalize the initiatives with different investors including RUSNANO, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and Qatar Investment Authority (QIA). An initial budgetary allocation of 4000 crore rupees has also been made in 2016-17 budget. Further allocation would be made as and when necessary.
  
• NS Vishwanathan: N S Vishwanathan is being appointed as a deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), replacing H R Khan, who will retire next week. Vishwanathan, currently executive director, was chosen by a search committee headed by the Cabinet secretary, the first appointment to be done through this panel.
  
  The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved A formal order of his appointment will be issued soon
  
  All appointments of deputy governors to RBI were previously done by a panel headed by the governor. For the first time this has been made through recommendations of the Financial Sector Regulatory Appointment Search Committee, headed by the Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha.
  
  This panel included RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan. Rajan had headed the panel as early as this January that gave a three-year extension to Urjit Patel, another deputy governor.
  
  Khan, in-charge of the financial markets, internal debt management and foreign management department was appointed as a deputy governor in July 2011 and reappointed in 2014.
  
  The central bank has four deputy governors — two from within the ranks (the other being R Gandhi), a former commercial banker (S S Mundra) and an economist to head the monetary policy department (Urjit Patel).
  
  Prior to being appointed as executive director in April 2014, Vishwanathan was principal chief general manager in the department of non-banking supervision. He has also served as chief general manager of vigilance at IFCI Ltd, a Delhi-based government-owned finance company.
  
• K G Subramanyan: Legendary artist K G Subramanyan, credited with being one of the pioneers of Indian modern art, passed away in Vadodara on 29th June
  
  In a career spanning over six decades, had been a painter, sculptor, muralist and print maker besides an author of children's books. He was awarded Padma Vibhushan in 2012, Padma Bhushan in 2006 and Padma Shri in 1975.
  
  He was renowned for his outdoor murals, terracottas, and toys and also experimented with weaving. In the 1970s, he began experimenting with reverse painting, an 18th century craft tradition where the artist paints on a sheet of glass and reverses the glass to view the final image.
  
• Michel Rocard: Former French Socialist Prime Minister Michel Rocard died on 2nd July. Rocard, a fervent advocate of the European Union, served as Prime Minister under President Francois Mitterrand from 1988 to 1991. One of his achievements was the creation of the RMI, a welfare program.
  
• Aida Gemanque: Three years after becoming the world's oldest skydiver, Aida Gemanque became the oldest Olympic torch bearer on 18th June when she carried the flame in the Amazonian city of Macapa, aged 106. Gemanque broke the record formerly held by Alexander Kaptarenko, who was 101 when he took part in the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics relay.
  
  The 95-day torch relay will pass through 325 Brazilian cities and involve some 12,000 runners before ending at Rio's Maracana Stadium for the lighting of the Olympic cauldron on August 5.
  
• S.K. Roy:Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) Chairman S K Roy has written to the government to relieve him of his duties from June 29 this year.
  
  Roy, who took charge as chairman of the country’s largest insurer on the same date in 2013, had a five-year term. The reasons for his resignation are not known.
  
  The approval of his request for being relieved of his duties will be subject to consent of the Cabinet Committee on Appointments.
  
• Yasmin Sooka: South African Indian-origin lawyer and long-time human rights activist Yasmin Sooka has been appointed to chair a UN commission to monitor the human rights situation in South Sudan and make recommendations for their improvement.
  
  Sooka, who has vast experience in global human rights matters, will serve together with Kenneth Scott from the US and Godfrey Musila of Kenya on the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan
  
  The UN resolved to establish the Commission following calls for investigation into alleged atrocities by both government and rebel forces before an independent South Sudan was carved out of the larger Sudan in 2011.
  
• Mehbooba Mufti: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on 25th June won in the Anantnag Assembly by-election by 12,085 votes. Of the 28,500 votes cast, Ms. Mufti polled 17,701. Hilal Shah of the Congress polled 5,616 votes and Iftikhar Misger of the National Conference 2,811.
  
  The PDP’s winning margin has doubled in Anantnag, though the NC and the Congress pegged their campaign on the anti-BJP wave and cornered Ms. Mufti over the PDP’s alliance with the BJP. In the 2014 elections, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, father of Ms. Mehbooba, defeated Mr. Shah of the Congress by 6,000 votes.
  
• Guda Anjaia:Noted Telangana folk poet and lyricist Guda Anjaiah died of heart ailment on 21st June. Born in Lingapuram in Adilabad district in 1955, Guda Anjaiah had penned hundreds of songs only on the tears and travails of the downtrodden sections of society. His popular songs and books including Polimera novel were translated into several languages.
  
  Most popular of his songs 'Vooru Manadira, Yee Vaada Manadira...' was used in Erra Sainyam of Narayana Murthy. Also known as Anjanna, he had also worked for Telangana cultural organization and actively participated in 1969 Telangana movement as a student.
  
  Books: polimera, Dalita Kathalu
  
  Awards: 
  • Sahithya Bandu Ratna award - 1986
  • Rajini Telugu Sahithi Samithi Award -1988
  • Ganda Pendera - 2000
  • Dr. Malaya Sri Sahithi Award -2004
  • Suddala Hanumanthu - Janakamma Award - 2015
  • Komuram Bheem National Award - 2015
  • Telangana Sahithya Puraskaram – 2015
  
  
• Peter Thomson: The United Nations General Assembly on 13th June elected Peter Thomson, Permanent Representative of Fiji, as President of its upcoming 71st session. Thomson, who will replace current General Assembly President Mogens Lykketoft, will begin his tenure in September at the commencement of the 71st General Assembly session.
  
  Made up of all the 193 Member States of the UN, the General Assembly provides a forum for multilateral discussion of the full spectrum of international issues covered by the UN Charter. It meets in regular session intensively from September to December each year, and thereafter as required.
  
• Sunil Mittal: Sunil Bharti Mittal, Founder and Chairman, Bharti Enterprises, has been elected as the Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).
  
  He is the third Indian business leader to hold this position in ICC’s near 100-year-old history. Mittal takes over from Terry McGraw, Chairman Emeritus of S&P Global, who will subsequently become ICC’s Honorary Chairman. The ICC World Council elected the new leaders at a voting held in Sao Paolo, Brazil, Bharti Enterprises said in a statement. Founded in 1919, ICC is the world’s largest business organisation which represents private sector views to national governments and inter-governmental bodies.
  
• Manohar Aich: India's first Mr Universe Manohar Aich passed away in Kolkata on 5th June. Aich, who turned 104 on March 17, was once a household name in Bengal after becoming India's first Mr Universe in 1952. At just four feet and 11 inches, Aich was not the tallest of men but took up bodybuilding and made this his passion during his stint at the Royal Air Force under British colonial rulers.
  
• T Haque: He was former chairman of Commission for Agriculture Costs and Prices, has been appointed the head of the newly created land policy cell in the NITI Aayog. Haque was among the prime mover behind the Model Land Leasing Act, which the central government is planning to bring for the states to follow. Haque has been appointed in the rank of secretary to the government of India for two years, which can be extended for another year.
  
  Haque would now spearhead the Centre’s efforts to convince state governments to modernise their land leasing laws, and update and digitise land records - a task which has been lingering for long due to lack of cooperation by states.
  
  Land being a state subject, any change in laws related to that has to be with their consent. The Model Land Leasing Act proposes legalisation of leasing to ensure that tenants get access to institutional credit, insurance and compensation at the time of a disaster without impacting the legal ownership right of the holder in the rank of secretary to the government of India for two years.
  
• Four Indians among Forbes' 'The World's Most Powerful Women' list
   Four Indian business leaders have made their way into the 2016 edition of The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women list, brought out by Forbes.
  
  The Indian businesswomen on the 13th edition of the annual rankings include State Bank of India Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya (ranked 25); Chanda Kochhar (40), MD and CEO, ICICI Bank; Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (77), Chairman and MD of Biocon; and Shobhana Bhartia (93), Chairperson and Editorial Director, HT Media Ltd.
  
  Bhattacharya is at the helm of the nation’s largest lender, while Kochhar leads the country’s largest private sector bank. Mazumdar-Shaw’s Biocon is a pioneer in the field of biopharmaceuticals and clinical research and Bhartia’s HT Media is a media house with interests ranging from newspapers and radio stations to online job portals and education.
  
  German Chancellor Angela Merkel topped this year’s list, for the sixth consecutive year, and 11 times in total. She is followed by presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen in the second and third spots respectively.
  
  Forbes uses four metrics to arrive at the list of the most powerful women in the world. These include money (net worth, company revenues, or GDP); media presence; spheres of influence; and impact, analyzed both within the context of each woman’s field (media, technology, business, philanthropy, politics, and finance) and outside of it.
  
• Umang bedi: Facebook, the global online social networking service, said it had appointed Umang Bedi, former head at Adobe India, managing director of its operations in this country. Bedi, earlier MD for Adobe in South Asia, would succeed Kirthiga Reddy. She moves to America to take a global role at the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California. Bedi, an engineering graduate from the University of Pune and an alumnus of Harvard Business School, would assume the charge from July.
  
• Hillory Clinton: Hillary Clinton on 8th June made history as she became the first woman to clinch the presidential nomination of a major American political party by winning crucial California and three other state primaries but her Democratic rival Bernie Sanders remained defiant.
  
  Clinton, who won California, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota, now has 2,755 delegates or more than half of the 4,051 total pledged delegates while Sanders has 1,852.
  
  However, Sanders, who won in Montana and North Dakota, refused to concede defeat to Clinton, vowing to stay in the Democratic nomination race.
  
  In the November presidential elections, Clinton would face fellow New Yorker Donald Trump, from the Republican Party, who she said is not fit to lead the country.
  
• Umesh Sachdev: A 30-year old Indian entrepreneur Umesh Sachdev has been named by Time magazine to its 2016 list of “10 millennials who are changing the world” for building a phone which can help people to interact and access critical services by communicating in their native languages.
  
  Sachdev, along with his college friend Ravi Saraogi, founded Uniphore Software Systems. The Chennai-based startup produces software allows people to interact with their phones and access services such as online banking by communicating in their native languages, Time said in its profile on Sachdev.
  
  Uniphore’s products, which include a virtual assistant that is able to process more than 25 global languages and 150 dialects, are being used by over five million people, mostly in India.
  
  Time said through the software, Sachdev is building bridges and helping “hundreds of millions of people cross the divide between the digital and the real world by harnessing the power of speech.
  
• Razak Khan: Veteran comedy actor Razak Khan, who worked in films like “Hera Pheri”, “Raja Hindustani” and “Baadshah” among others, passed away on 1^stJune following a cardiac arrest. The comedian was also seen in Salman Khan’s “Hello Brother”, Shah Rukh Khan-starrer “Baadshah”, and Aamir Khan’s “Raja Hindustani”.
  
  Khan’s notable roles include “Anari No 1”, “Hera Pheri”, “Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega”, “Aamdani Atthani Kharcha Rupaiyaa” and “Hungama”.
  
• Neeraja Sethi:Two Indian-origin women have featured on the Forbes’ annual list of America’s 60 wealthiest and most successful self-made women entrepreneurs who have “crashed ceilings through invention and innovation.
  
  India-born Neerja Sethi, who co-founded IT consulting and outsourcing firm Syntel with her husband Bharat Desai, is ranked 16th on ‘America’s Richest Self-made Women’ list while president and CEO of Arista Networks Jayshree Ullal (55) is ranked 30th.
  
  According to Forbes, the richest self-made woman in America is Diane Hendricks, the owner of ABC Supply, the largest wholesale distributor of roofing and siding in the country.
  
  Hendricks is now worth USD 4.9 billion, USD 1.2 billion more than last year when she was ranked second. The second annual tally of America’s wealthiest, most successful self-made women includes 60 trailblazers -- 10 more than last year.
  
  The 60 women, who are worth a combined USD 53 billion, have created some of the nation’s best known brands such as Gap and Spanx, while a number of them have also helped build some of the most successful companies in tech, including Facebook, eBay and Google."
  
  Sethi (61) has a net worth of USD 1.1 billion. Her company employs more than 25,000 people and boasts a recent market cap of USD 3.6 billion.
  
  She is currently the vice president of corporate affairs, a role she has had since the company’s inception. She also sits on the board of directors alongside her husband, who remains the chairman.
  
  Born in London, raised in New Delhi, Ullal has a net worth of USD 470 million. She became president and CEO of Arista Networks in 2008, when it had no revenues and fewer than 50 employees. The company reported USD 838 million in revenue in 2015, after going public in June 2014.
  
• Nita Ambani: Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's wife Nita Ambani has been nominated for membership in the International Olympic Committee and will become the first Indian woman to be on the apex sporting body if she gets elected at the IOC Session scheduled from August 2 to 4.
  
  The Switzerland-based IOC is the supreme authority of the Olympic Movement and is responsible for holding of the summer and winter Olympics and Paralympics.
  
  Nita Ambani, Founder and Chairperson of Reliance Foundation have been nominated as a candidate to be a new member, pending election, of the IOC. The election will be held at the 129th IOC Session in Rio de Janeiro on August 2-4.
  
  The independent selection process follows a new procedure for recruitment of IOC members based on the Olympic Agenda 2020 recommendations. Once elected, she will continue to be a member until the age of 70. Ambani is the first Indian woman to be nominated to the IOC.
  
• Muhammad Ali: Boxing icon Muhammad Ali has died at the age of 74. The former world heavyweight boxing champion, one of the world's best-known sportsmen, died on 3^rd June
  
  He was suffering from a respiratory illness, a condition that was complicated by Parkinson's disease.
  
  Mr. Ali whose legendary boxing career stretched from 1960 to 1981,dazzled fans with slick moves in the ring, and engaging persona outside it.
  
  His opposition to the Vietnam War saw him banned from the sport for years. Once vilified in some quarters for his outspoken stance on civil rights issues, Ali held firm to earn dozens of tributes, lighting the Olympic torch in 1996 in Atlanta and being named a UN messenger of peace in 1998.
  
  He received the highest US civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 2005.
  
  Mohammed Ali, is counted among the world's greatest sports persons and inspiring personalities. Born in 1942 he was a legend very early in his life winning the world heavyweight championship in 1964 at the age of 22. His fame went beyond the sporting arena as he emerged as the voice against racial discrimination.
  
• Eknath Khadse: Maharashtra Governor C Vidyasagar Rao has accepted the resignation of Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on 4^th June said a retired High Court judge will probe allegations against Eknath Khadse.
  
  Ending speculations and heated debates, Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse submitted his resignation to chief minister Devendra Fadvanis earlier on 4^thJune.
  
  Mr Khadse has been facing heat over a series of allegations including irregularities in a land deal in Pune and allegations levelled by AAP that he received calls from underword Don Dawood Ibrahim's residence in Karachi on his mobile phone.
  
  He is in a controversy over the purchase of a three-acre Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) land in Pune allegedly at a low price of around Rs 3.75 crore from its original owner in the name of his wife and son-in-law. The market value of the land is reportedly Rs 40 crore.

PERSONS MAY 2016

PERSONS MAY 2016

• AR Karve: Vice Admiral AR Karve took over charge as the Flag Officer Commander-in-Chief of Southern Naval Command from Vice Admiral Girish Luthra at Kochi on 29^th May.
  
• Duterte: The Philippine Parliament has officially declared Rodrigo Duterte to be the President-elect. Mr Duterte won a landslide victory in the Presidential election this month, taking about six million votes more than his closest competitor.
  
• Mohammed Alloush: The chief negotiator of Syria's main opposition umbrella group, Mohammed Alloush, has resigned over what he called the failure of peace talks. Mr Alloush, from the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), said the talks had not brought a political deal or eased the plight of Syrians in besieged areas.
  
  The HNC suspended its involvement in the UN-brokered proximity negotiations with a Syrian government delegation in Geneva in April. No date has been set for a resumption. A nationwide truce between rebel and government forces brokered by the US and Russia is officially still in place, but is frequently violated.
  
• Ashok Lavasa: Senior IAS officer Ashok Lavasa was designated as the Finance Secretary. Lavasa, at present serving as the Expenditure Secretary, is a 1980 batch IAS officer of Haryana cadre.
  
  The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved designating Lavasa as Finance Secretary, an order issued by Department of Personnel and Training said.
  
• Bassi:Former Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi, who had a controversial tenure and frequent run-ins with the AAP government, was on 31^st May appointed a member of UPSC — a Constitutional post, with a five-year tenure.
  
  The Centre cleared the name of Mr. Bassi as member of the Union Public Service Commission, which conducts the civil services examination to select IAS and IPS officers among others. The Commission has a maximum strength of 10 members besides a Chairperson.
  
• Sarbanand Sonowal: In Assam, Sarbanand Sonowal has been elected as the BJP legislative party leader. The was elected to the post formally in a meeting held in Guwahati on 22nd May.
  
  Later Sarbananda Sonowal has resigned from the Council of Ministers. President Pranab Mukherjee accepted his resignation. Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office, Dr. Jitendra Singh will hold additional charge of Youth Affairs and Sports Ministry.
  
• Kiran Bedi: Former IPS officer Kiran Bedi will be the new Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry. President Pranab Mukherjee approved her appointment. Currently, Lieutenant Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands Ajay Kumar Singh is holding the additional charge of Puducherry.
  
• Saini: Lt General S K Saini assumed the office of commandant of the prestigious Indian Military Academy (IMA) in Dehradun on May 21. He was earlier a senior directing staff in National Defence College (NDC), New Delhi. Lt General Saini is an alumni of National Defence Academy (NDA) and IMA. In 1981, he was commissioned to the seventh battalion of the Jat regiment. In a career spanning 36 years, he has held many important posts.
  
• Jayalalitha: All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief J Jayalalithaa was sworn in as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu for a second consecutive term on 23rd May. Jayalalithaa is the first chief minister of Tamil Nadu to be re-elected in 32 years. The last was AIADMK's MG Ramachandran, in 1984.
  
  In the elections that were held in May, her party got 134 seats in the 232-seat state Assembly. The state recorded a voter turnout of 74.2% in the elections held on May 16.
  
• Sarbanand Sonowal: He was on 24th May sworn in as the first BJP Chief Minister of Assam. Governor P.B. Acharya administered the oath of office to Mr. Sonowal and 10 of his ministerial colleagues at a grand ceremony in Guwahati. With this, the BJP has formed its first government in North-east. Those who took the oath included Hemanta Biswas Sarma.
  
• Pinarayi Vijayan: CPI (M) leader Pinarayi Vijayan took oath as 12th Chief Minister of Kerala. The Kerala Governor Mr. Justice P. Sathasivam administered oath of secrecy to the Chief Minister and other 18 ministers.
  
• Mamata Banerjee: In West Bengal, Ms. Mamata Banerjee on 27th May sworn in as the Chief Minister of West Bengal for the second consecutive term, heading a 42-member ministry.
  
• Narayana swamy: Former Union Minister and Congress General Secretary V Narayanasamy has been elected leader of the Congress Legislature Party to become next Chief Minister of Union Territory of Puducherry.
  
  Mr Narayanasamy represented Puducherry in Rajya Sabha for four terms and was elected to Lok Sabha in 2009. He served as Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office in UPA Government. Narayanasamy will have to face election within six months as he had not contested the May 16 Assembly Polls.
  
• Baciro Dja: Guinea Bissau President Jose Mario Vaz named Baciro Dja as Prime Minister, according to a presidential decree. Dja succeeds Carlos Correia, who was sacked earlier this month in a move that threatened to deepen political turmoil in the tiny West African nation. The ruling party said it would not support Dja, who held the same post briefly last year but was forced to resign when the supreme court ruled that the appointment was made without consulting all political parties and was therefore unconstitutional.
  
• Two Indian win in competition:Two Indian-American children have won the world's prestigious spelling bee contest, with one of them also becoming its youngest winner, as the community's complete dominance in the annual competition continued.
  
  Jairam Jagadeesh Hathwar, 13, and Nihar Saireddy Janga, 11, were declared co-champions of the Scripps National Spelling Bee today after a tense final with seven of the last 10 finalists being Indian-Americans. Fifth grader Nihar is from Texas, while seventh grader Jairam is from New York. Nihar has also become the youngest winner of the bee on record.
  
  Eighth grader Snehaa Ganesh Kumar from California, who had tied for fourth place last year, came third. The other four Indian-Americans among the finalists were Rutvik Gandhasri, Sreeniketh Vogoti, Jashun Paluru and Smirithi Upadhyayula.
  
  In the penultimate 24th round, Nihar spelled the word 'gesellschaft' correctly, while Jairam spelled the word 'Feldenkrais' correctly.
  
• Sandor Tarics: The oldest living Olympic champion Sandor Tarics, who was a member of Hungary's gold-medal winning waterpolo team at the 1936 Games, has died aged 102. Tarics was born in 1913 in Budapest, passed away at his home in San Francisco.
  
  A keen mathematician from an early age and an engineer by profession, Tarics left Hungary after the Communist Party takeover in 1948 and settled in San Francisco where he worked as a university professor. He later achieved fame for his work in earthquake research, and in particular his design of earthquake-proof building technologies.
  
  After the death in 2011 of Italian cyclist Attilio Pavesi, who won two Gold medals at the 1932 Games in Los Angeles, Tarics became the oldest living Olympic champion.
  
• Mukul Mudgal: In a major development for Indian football and judiciary, world governing body FIFA has appointed Justice Mukul Mudgal as deputy chairman of its governance committee.
   The former Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana, who headed the IPL spot-fixing probe, also involved in overseeing the conduct of international cricket matches and IPL games at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in Delhi, hinted that he would take up the offer.
  
  Portuguese Luis Miguel Maduro, who is a former European Court of Justice Advocate General, will head FIFA's governance committee. Mudgal and Maduro will also head FIFA's International Review Committee, which will assess all major decisions.
  
  Mexico City hosted the 66th FIFA Congress where newly elected president Gianni Infantino moved a slew of resolutions and promised massive reforms.
  
• Rakesh Kumar Mishra: he is a noted expert in the study of function of genes, has been appointed as the new Director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). Mishra had joined CCMB in 2001 as a senior scientist after stints at the IISc, Bangalore, the University Of Bordeaux, France, Saint Louise University, USA and the University of Geneva, Switzerland for post-doctoral experience.
  An MSc from Allahabad University, Mishra's research interests include investigating evolutionarily conserved features of genome organisation, chromatin structure and epigenetic regulation of genes during embryonic development stages.
  
• Pinarayi Vijayan: Pinarayi Vijayan will be the next chief minister of Kerala. He was elected leader of the victorious Left Democratic Front (LDF) legislature party in Thiruvananthapuram on 20th May.
  The Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s Kerala committee met in the presence of party chief Sitaram Yechury. It decided to nominate Vijayan as the next chief minister.
  
  In Chennai, J Jayalalithaa was elected the leader of the AIADMK legislative party and is slated to take oath on 22nd May. In Kolkata, Mamata Banerjee was on 27th May unanimously elected as the leader of the Trinamool Congress legislature party.
  
• Rafiq Shaikh: Constable Rafiq Shaikh (31) of Aurangabad rural police reached the top of the world — Mount Everest — on 19th May. After failing in the previous two attempts, Shaikh finally managed to scale the highest peak in the world and created history by becoming the first policeman from Maharashtra to do so.
  According to the Aurangabad police, Shaikh who always aspired to be a mountaineer, had completed his basic, advance and rescue operations training of mountaineering before making his first attempt to scale Everest. Earler, Shaikh scaled more than seven peaks of the Himalayas like the Sitidhar, the Tamit, the Dhauladhar, Kanchenjanga and others.
  
  Shaikh's earlier attempts at Mt Everest in 2014 and 2015 failed due to bad weather. However, making up his mind for the next expedition, Shaikh left form Aurangabad to Mumbai on April 30 and from Mumbai he reached Kathmandu on May 5. After reaching the base camp he began his march toward Mt Everest with other mountaineer colleagues on May 15.
  
  At one instance, the team was forced to extend their stay for 15 hours due to bad weather. After getting the clearances from the weather and meteorological department to proceed ahead, Shaikh on 19th May morning hoisted the tri-colour and the Maharashtra police flag on Mt Everest.
  
  As soon as the news of Shaikh's success of scaling the 8,848 metre summit reached, his family and Aurangabad police started the celebrations.
  
• Ahmet Davutoglu: Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has announced his resignation, paving the way for the country's president to pursue a tighter grip on power.
  Davutoglu, who had fallen out with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, announced he was stepping aside following a meeting with executives of the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, which has dominated Turkish politics since 2002. The decision is not effective immediately.
  
  The party will hold an emergency convention May 22 to select a new party leader who would also replace the premier.
  
• Pranav Pandya: The Home Ministry on 4th May said President Pranab Mukherjee had nominated Pranav Pandya, head of the All World Gayatri Pariwar, as a member of the Rajya Sabha. His is the seventh name to be announced, filling the last vacancy among nominated berths.
  
  A total of 12 MPs are nominated to the Rajya Sabha from various fields of public life. Seven of these seats had fallen vacant recently. The government had, on April 22, announced six names in this nominated category. Mumbai-born Dr. Pandya, an MD in medicine, is director of the All World Gayatri Pariwar that claims to be a modern adoption of Vedic values and has its headquarters in Haridwar.
  
• Sunil Lamba: Vice-Admiral Sunil Lanba will be the next chief of the Indian Navy. He will take over on 31st of this month following the retirement of Navy Chief Admiral R K Dhowan. Presently he is serving as Flag Officer Commanding in chief in the Western Naval command in Mumbai. He will be the 23rd chief of Indian Navy.
  
• Enda Kenny: Enda Kenny has been re-elected as Irish Prime Minister, 70 days after a general election which had produced no outright winner. He held the role of acting Irish Prime Minister over the past 10 weeks as talks took place between parties and independents on how to form a new government.
  
  His Fine Gael party won the most seats in the election but fell short of the quota needed to rule without support. It is now expected that Mr Kenny will lead a minority Fine Gael government.
  
  He has made history in the Irish Parliament by becoming the first Fine Gael Irish Prime Minister to be re-elected to the office. He was re-appointed with 59 votes in favour and 49 votes against.
  
  However, it was the fourth attempt to appoint a new Prime Minister since the general election of Friday 26 February returned a hung Irish Parliament, in which no party won enough seats to govern without support from rivals.
  
• Sadiq Khan: Sadiq Khan has been elected the new Mayor of London - boosting Labour after it slumped in Scotland's elections. Mr Khan is the city's first Muslim mayor, after beating Tory Zac Goldsmith by 1,310,143 votes to 994,614.

PERSONS APRIL 2016

PERSONS APRIL 2016

•  Denis Sassou Nguesso: Congo's President Denis Sassou Nguesso named former Finance Minister Clement Mouamba as the Prime Minister, bringing a one-time opposition leader into the government.
  
  The appointment comes a month after Sassou Nguesso was elected to a five-year term that extends his long rule over the oil producing country. Sassou Nguesso led Congo between 1979 and 1992 and returned to power after a civil war in 1997. The central African country has been gripped by political violence since the election.
  
• Ajay Mittal: Ajay Mittal has been appointed as the new Information and Broadcasting Secretary. Mr. Mittal, a 1982 batch IAS officer of Himachal Pradesh Cadre, will succeed Sunil Arora who is retiring on 30th of this month.
  Environment and Forests Secretary Ashok Lavasa will replace Expenditure Secretary Ratan P Watal who is also retiring this month.
  
  The other senior appointment cleared by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet include Ajay Narayan Jha as Environment and Forests Secretary, Snehlata Srivastava as Secretary Department of Justice, Vijay Shankar Pandey as Fertilizers Secretary, Hem Kumar Pande as Consumer Affairs Secretary, Prabhas Jha as Parliamentary Affairs Secretary and Leena Nair as Women and Child Development Secretary.
  
• Lobsang Sangay: The Tibetan people living in asylum at Dharmshala in Himachal Pradesh reelected its incumbent Prime Minister Dr. Lobsang Sangay for another five year term. He defeated speaker of Tibetan Parliament Penpa Tsering. Dr Lobsang Sangay has got a total of 33,876 votes (57.08 % of the total vote share) as against the 24,864 votes (41.89% of the total vote share) in the name of Penpa Tsering.
  
• Sudarshan Pattnaik: Eminent Sand artist Sudarshan Pattnaik has won the gold medal at the 9th Moscow Sand Sculpture Championship. Sudarshan won the award for his creation 15 feet high sand sculpture- titled Mahatma Gandhi and World Peace.
  
• Elizabeth: The world’s oldest-serving royal, the longest-serving British royal, and now the longest lived British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II turned 90 on 21st April.
  
• Pachauri: Environmentalist R. K. Pachauri, accused of sexual harassment by his former women colleagues in the recent past, has stepped down as a member of the governing council of TERI.
  
  Mr. Pachauri, however, maintained that his term as a member of The Energy and Resources Institute’s (TERI) governing council ended on March 31, 2016 and he felt it was time.
  
• Subramanian Swamy: BJP leaders Subramanian Swamy and Navjot Singh Sidhu and journalist Swapan Dasgupta have been nominated to Rajya Sabha.
  
  Official sources said, economist Narendra Jadhav, Malayalam actor Suresh Gopi and Boxer Mary Kom have also been nominated to the Upper House.
  
  There are 12 nominated members in Rajya Sabha and at present seven seats are vacant. Persons having special knowledge in literature, science, art and social service and sports are nominated in this category.
  
  Although independent, the nominated members always vote along with the government and the filling of vacancies will bolster the NDA's numbers in the Upper House where it lacks majority.
  
  Lyricist Javed Akhtar, Therater artist B Jayashree, Journalist H K Dua, Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar, Economist Bhalchandra Mungekar, Proffesor Mrinal Miri, Dr Ashok Ganguly had completed their terms as nominated members.
  
• Bhupendra Kainthola: Indian Information Service officer Bhupendra Kainthola has been appointed as Director of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII).
  
  Kainthola, a 1989 batch IIS officer, has been appointed to the post for three years, an order issued by Department of Personnel and Training.
  
  Pune-based FTII is an autonomous body under Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and country's premier institute that provides training for acting, film making, video editing, direction and production.
  
• Idriss Deby: Chad's veteran leader Idriss Deby has won a fifth term in office after taking more than 60 per cent of the vote in the first round of presidential polls. The country's Electoral Commission said, Deby secured 61.56 per cent of votes in the polls, which was held on the 10th of April
  
  Opposition leader Saleh Kebzabo was a distant second on 12.8 per cent. Sixty-four year old Deby took first office in a 1990 military coup. More than six million people were asked to choose between 13 presidential hopefuls in the vote.
  
• Time Powerful persons
  RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, tennis star Sania Mirza, actress Priyanka Chopra, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and founders of Flipkart Binny Bansal and Sachin Bansal have been named by Time magazine in its list of the '100 Most Influential People in the World'
  
  Time's annual list, includes pioneers like American composer Lin Manuel-Miranda, leaders like IMF head Christine Lagarde and icons like Oscar-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
  
  On RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, TIME said, While serving as the youngest chief economist of the IMF from 2003 to 2006, Rajan predicted the subprime crisis that would lead to the Great Recession.
  
  On Priyanka Chopra, who was awarded the Padma Shri this year, Time said she is a "star rising higher" and lauded her "drive, ambition, self-respect, and she knows there's no substitute for hard work.
  
  Environmentalist Sunita Narain has been featured in the list for the first time. The Magazine said in her profile that, 'Hers is a voice that urgently needs to be heard in this era of climate change. It added, despite resistance from many quarters, some of their key recommendations have been embraced by the courts.
  
  Time magazine said Flipkart founders Binny Bansal and Sachin Bansal may have come across as arrogant when they told investors the company they started in 2007 as an online bookstore could be worth USD 100 million in a decade... It said Flipkart now has 75 million users and a USD 13 billion valuation
  
  Time said Indian-born CEO of Google Sundar Pichai has helped change the world... He worked on Google Chrome, Gmail, and Android phones. A great many of us can't tell which side of a street we're on without checking Google Maps.
  
• Salman Khan: Bollywood actor Salman Khan was on 23rd April named goodwill ambassador of the Indian contingent for the upcoming Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. The announcement was made in the presence of Olympic medalists and Rio star athletes such as boxer M C Mary Kom, hockey captain Sardar Singh, and shooter Apurvi Chandela, among others.
  
• Arseniy Yatseniuk:
  Ukraine’s prime minister tendered his resignation on 10th April afternoon, accusing the president’s party of plunging the war-scarred and recession-ravaged country into an “artificially created” crisis. In announcing his decision after months of pressure to step down, Arseniy Yatseniuk made clear that his party — second largest in the legislature after the president’s — was keen to stabilise the country by joining a new ruling coalition.
  He signalled that his political allies would back Volodymyr Groysman as prime minister. Mr Groysman is currently parliament speaker and a close confidant of President Petro Poroshenko.
  
• Olivier Solonandrasana:
  Madagascar`s President Hery Rajaonarimampianina on 10th News appointed a new prime minister, two days after the island nation was plunged into confusion when the previous premier denied having stepped down.
  
  The new head of government was named as current interior minister Olivier Solonandrasana, according to a statement read out by Roger Ralala, secretary general of the presidency. The development comes after the presidency on Friday announced the resignation of Prime Minister Jean Ravelonarivo following weeks of political conflict, only for Ravelonarivo to swiftly deny the claim.
  
• Barnabas Sibusiso Dlamini:
  He is the Prime Minister of Swaziland, he visited the plant of JSW Steel at Torangal on 13th April. Torangal in Karnataka
  
  According to sources in JSW Steel, the Prime Minister’s two-day visit was in a private capacity and as part of his personal tour of India.
  
  Prime Minister Dr. Barnabas Dlamini also visited Vijayanagar township and had a virtual 3D tour of Hampi, the erstwhile seat of the Vijayanagar empire with a glorious past, at the Kaladham set up in the township.
  
• Jacqueline Galant:
  Belgium's Transport Minister, Jacqueline Galant has resigned after being accused in damning EU reports of ignoring the poor state of security at the country's airports that were laid bare by last month's suicide attacks in Brussels.
  
  Ms Galant was under fire after the EU reports were leaked to media and following the shock resignation of a top transport official who accused her of incompetence and "Gestapo-like" behaviour.
  
  According to a statement from the royal palace, Transport Minister Jacqueline Galant has offered her resignation to the King, which was accepted.
  
• P.C.Thakur:
  Gujarat Police chief P C Thakur was 15th April appointed as Director General, Fire Services, Civil Defence and Home Guards.
  
  Thakur, a 1979 batch IPS officer of Gujarat cadre, has been appointed to the post for a period upto the date of his superannuation on December 31, 2016, an order issued by Department of Personnel and Training. The Appointments Committee of Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the appointment of Thakur as Director General, Fire Services, Civil Defence and Home Guards, it said. He was appointed as Director General of Gujarat Police in December 2013.
  
  The Directorate General of Civil Defence was established in the Home Ministry in 1962 to handle all policy and planning matters related to civil defence and its running partners home guards and fire services.
  
• Mehbooba Mufti: PDP Chief Mehbooba Mufti took oath as the first woman Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir on 4th April. Governor NN Vohra administered oath to Ms Mufti along with her 22 member council of ministers at Raj Bhawan in the winter capital city of Jammu.
  
  BJP leader Nirmal Singh took oath as Deputy Chief Minister of the state. Barring a few changes, majority of Ministers, who were the part of former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed led council of ministers, are repeated by both the parties.
  
• Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson:Iceland's Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson has resigned, his party said on 5th April, the first major political casualty to emerge from the leak of the so-called Panama Papers financial documents.
  
• CP Gurnani: National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) announced the appointment of C P Gurnani as its Chairman for 2016-2017, effective. He succeeds B V R Mohan Reddy, who served as Chairman of NASSCOM for 2015-16.
  
  Gurnani is part of NASSCOM's Executive Council and is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Tech Mahindra. The Executive Council also announced the appointment of Raman Roy, Chairman and Managing Director of Quatrro Global Services, as the Vice Chairman of NASSCOM for 2016-17. Gurnani along with Vice-Chairman Roy and President R Chandrashekhar would lead NASSCOM to carry out its diverse array of priorities to enable NASSCOM in achieving the 2020 vision for the industry.
  
• Hashim Thaci: In Kosovo, new President Hashim Thaci was sworn-in on 6th April in a Parliamentary session boycotted by Opposition parties. Thaci, who replaces Atifete Jahjaga, was elected on 26th of February in the absence of nearly all opposition lawmakers who had earlier tried to disrupt the voting with tear gas. After taking the oath, Mr Thaci said, his goals were Kosovo's integration into NATO and European Union, and the continuation of the process of normalizing relations with Serbia.
  
• Forbes list
  Forbes magazine has named Nita Ambani, Director of Reliance Industries, as the most powerful business woman in Asia.
  
  Other prominent women to feature in the magazine’s ‘Asia’s 50 Power Businesswomen’ list include Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairperson, SBI (ranked 2); Ambiga Dhiraj, CEO, Mu Sigma (14); Dipali Goenka, CEO, Welspun India (16); Vinita Gupta, CEO, Lupin (18); Chanda Kochhar, Managing Director, ICICI Bank (22); Vandana Luthra, Vice-Chairman, VLCC Health Care (26) and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairperson, Biocon (28).
  
  The list also features women from China, Indonesia, Australia, Vietnam, Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, the Philippines and New Zealand.
  
  The magazine has taken note of the role played by Nita Ambani in society, sports venture and telecom venture Reliance Jio Infocomm. Similarly, under the leadership of Dipali, Welspun has become the largest exporter of home fashion products, supplying to 14 of the top 30 global retailers in the world.
  
• Ratnakumar Bugga: US space agency NASA has selected Indian-origin scientist Ratnakumar Bugga's proposal for support under its Innovative Advanced Concepts programme. The programme is aimed at revolutionising future space missions to Mars and beyond.
  
  Mr. Bugga belongs to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California. He was selected for his Venus Interior Probe Using In-situ Power and Propulsion project.

PERSONS MARCH 2016

PERSONS MARCH 2016

• Nandita Bakshi: Indian-American Nandita Bakshi has been appointed the President and Chief Executive Officer of Bank of the West, a unit of French banking giant BNP Paribas.
  
  Ms Bakshi, will replace Michael Shepherd as Bank of the West's next President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and is expected to join the bank as a CEO-in-training on April 1 and will take the helm officially on June 1. She earned a bachelor's degree in History at the University of Calcutta and a masters in International Relations and Affairs at Jadavpur University.
  
  A New England News 'Woman of the Year' award recipient in 2002, Ms Bakhshi also serves on the board of the Consumer Bankers Association.
  
• Susheela: Renowned playback singer P. Susheela Mohan, who has won several awards and earned accolades in a career spanning five decades, has added two more to her awards cabinet.
  
  She has now been recognised by both the Guinness World Records and Asia Book of Records for recording the most number of songs in Indian languages.
  
  While Guinness World Records has credited her for singing 17,695 songs (solo, duet and chorus-backed songs) in 12 Indian languages, the Asia Book of Records has recognised her for singing close to 17,330 songs.
  
• Faustin Archange Touadera: In Central African Republic, newly elected President Faustin Archange Touadera took the oath of office on 29th March, ushering in the first elected leader since Muslim rebels overthrew the government more than three years ago.
  
  The inauguration came as former coloniser France said its troops plan to leave the country by the end of the year. Touadera, a former math Professor and Prime Minister won the February 14 runoff with nearly 63 percent of the vote. Touadera's presidency puts an end to a two-year transitional government that came into force in early 2014.
  
• Thi Kim Ngan: Vietnam named a woman for the first time to the influential role of chairperson in its National Assembly on 31st March - the country's fourth most powerful position. Veteran lawmaker and senior Communist Party official Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan was elected with 95.5 per cent of votes after a poll in the country's 500-strong legislative body
  
  Her appointment means she is the highest ranking female party official. The majority of Communist Party officials are men, but women are reasonably well represented in the ranks, with around 25 per cent of National Assembly delegates being female.
  
  Vietnam is in the midst of a leadership handover after the country's top communist leader, Nguyen Phu Trong, was reelected as party secretary general in January in a victory for the party's old guard.
  
• Rajiv Gauba: he is an IAS officer of Jharkhand cadre (1982 batch), and he has taken charge as Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development. Prior to this, he was Chief Secretary, Jharkhand for 15 months. Apart from Ministries of Home, Defence, Finance, Environment and Forests and Department of Electronics and Information Technology, Gauba has also served in the International Monetary Fund representing the country for four years on the Board of IMF.
  
• Permod Kohli: Retired Chief Justice of Sikkim High Court Justice Permod Kohli has been appointed as the Chairman of Central Administrative Tribunal. It was approved by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet. Justice Kohli will be in the post for a period of five years with effect from the date of assumption of charge of the post or till attaining the age of 68 years, whichever is earlier.
  
   
• Andy Grove: Andy Grove, the Silicon Valley elder statesman who made Intel into the world's top chipmaker and helped usher in the personal computer age, died on 21st March
  
  Grove was Intel’s first hire after it was founded in 1968 and became the practical-minded member of a triumvirate that eventually led “Intel Inside” processors to be used in more than 80 per cent of the world’s personal computers.
  
  With his motto “only the paranoid survive,” which became the title of his best-selling management book, Grove championed an innovative environment within Intel that became a blueprint for successful California start-ups.
  
  Grove, who was named man of the year by Time magazine in 1997, encouraged disagreement and insisted employees be vigilant of disruptions in industry and technology that could be major dangers - or opportunities - for Intel.
  
  In doing so, he could be mercurial and demanding with employees who he thought were not doing enough and in 1981 required the staff to work two extra hours a day with no extra pay.
  
• Ananda Gajapati Raju: Former minister Pusapati Ananda Gajapathi Raju passed away in a corporate hospital in Visakhapatnam on 26th March, following a brief illeness.
  
  Besides serving as the Health and Education Minister in the State Cabinet of Andhra Pradesh, Ananda Gajapathi Raju was elected twice as Lok Sabha member from Vizianagaram.
  
  He is also the hereditary trustee of Sri Varaha Lakshmi Nrusimha Swamy Devasthanam of Simhachalam as well as the chairman of MANSAS Trust, one of the top educational institutions in the region. The learned scholar with two PhDs (one in economics from Andhra University and another in education from the US), is known for his patronage for education institutions, research and also cricket.
  
• Mother Teresa: Pope Francis on 15th March approved sainthood for Mother Teresa, the missionary nun who became a global symbol of compassion for her care of the sick and destitute. The pontiff set September 4 as the date for her canonisation, elevating her to an official icon for the Catholic faith.
  
  The move comes 19 years after the death of the Albanian nun who dedicated most of her adult life to working with the poor of Kolkata.
  
  There was no immediate word from the Vatican on the location of the canonisation ceremony, which is expected to take place in Rome with a thanksgiving ceremony held at a later date in Kolkata where Teresa is buried.
  
  Teresa, who was 87 when she died in 1997, was revered by Catholics and many others around the world.
  
  Teresa took the first step to sainthood in 2003 when she was beatified by Pope John Paul II following the recognition of a claim she had posthumously inspired the 1998 healing of a critically-ill Bengali tribal woman.
  
  Last year she was credited by Vatican experts with inspiring the 2008 recovery of a Brazilian man suffering from multiple brain tumours, thus meeting the Church’s standard requirement for sainthood of having been involved in two certifiable miracles.
  
• Ritu Beri: Noted fashion designer Ritu Beri has been appointed advisor to the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) for the promotion of khadi across the world.
  
  Announcing her appointment, KVIC Chairman Vinay Kumar Saxena said, Beri would advise on introduction of state of the art multi-fashion designs and styles in khadi readymade garments and on promotion of Khadi in India and abroad.
  
• Lloyd S. Shapley: He is a researcher of strategic decision-making called "game theory" who had won the 2012 Nobel Prize in economics, passed away on 13th March. The American mathematician had come up with formulas to match supply and demand in markets.
  
• Anita Brookner:The Booker prize-winning British author and renowned art historian Anita Brookner has died, according to a notice in the Times. Brookner, who won the Booker in 1984 for her novel Hotel du Lac, was a bestselling author who wrote 25 books. She died on 10th March.
  
• Shehnai: Eminent Shehnai exponent Ustad Ali Ahmad Hussain Khan, one of the best-known players of the shehnai after the legendary Bismillah Khan, passed away in Kolkata on 16th March, following a prolonged illness. Doordarshan's Signature Tune which is embedded in our minds was composed by Ustad Ali Ahmed Hussain Khan and Pandit Ravi Shankar in 1974.
  
• Enda Kenny: Enda Kenny has tendered his resignation as Irish Prime Minister but will continue as acting Prime Minister until a successor is appointed.
  
   
• Ray Tomlinson: E-mail inventor, Ray Tomlinson, passed away in Washington on 6th March. Tomlinson invented direct electronic messages between users on different machines on a certain network in 1971. Before then, users could only write messages to others using the same computer.
  
• MV Rao: Noted agriculture scientist and one of the key persons in India’s Green Revolution, MV Rao, passed away on 8th March in Hyderabad.
  
  In the company of Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug, MS Swaminathan, C Subramanian and many others who ushered in the Green Revolution during the early 1960s, Mangina Venkateswara Rao did his bit in testing and identifying the best varieties of wheat from Mexico that were grown in the country and changed the agriculture scenario forever.
  
  Born on June 21, 1928 at Perupalem, in West Godavari District in Andhra Pradesh, Rao joined the joined the Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI) in 1956 as an assistant wheat breeder, after his master’s degree from the Purdue University.
  
  He became the coordinator of the All India Wheat Improvement Project in 1971. Rao was asked by the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to head the Technology Mission on Oilseeds (one of the four tech missions) in 1986. Post-retirement, he became an agriculture expert with the World Bank in 1990.
  
  A former vice-president of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (2000–2003), Rao also chaired the Committee of the New National Seed Policy. He served as member of the board of directors of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), member of the Wheat Advisory Committee of the Food and Agricultural Organisation etc.
  
• Martin Crowe: Former New Zealand captain Martin Crowe has died of cancer on 3rd March in Auckland. The ex-Black Caps batsman had been suffering from lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system, for a second time. Auckland-born Crowe is widely regarded as one of New Zealand's best ever batsman, having scored 17 centuries and 5,444 runs in 77 tests at an average of 45.36.
  
  Crowe captained the Kiwis in 16 Test matches and his highest score was 299 against Sri Lanka in Wellington in 1991. He was named one of Wisden's Cricketers of the Year in 1985 and was player of the tournament in the 1992 World Cup after scoring 456 runs in nine matches.
  
• Ashok Ghosh:Left Front patriarch and Forward Bloc state secretary Ashok Ghosh died at a private hospital in Kolkata on 3rd March. The 93-year old veteran Leftist had been admitted with severe lung infection.
  
  Ghosh's death drew the curtains on a political journey spanning decades. Born in 1923, Ghosh took a plunge in the freedom struggle when he was just 16, and worked in close association with Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. He was behind bars at Dum Dum Central Jail for six months while taking part in the August movement in 1942. Ghosh was made the Forward Bloc convenor in 1948 and remained so till he became Bloc state secretary in 1951.
  
• PA Sangma: Former Lok Sabha Speaker P A Sangma passed away in New Delhi on 4th March. Sangma was sitting member of Lok Sabha from Tura Constituency in Meghalaya.
  
  Mr Sangma served as the Chief Minister and leader of opposition of Meghalaya. He served in the Union government as Cabinet Minister for Information and Broadcasting. He also served as Minister of State of Home Affairs, Labour, Commerce and Coal. He also contested the presidential election in 2012.

PERSONS FEBRUARY 2016

PERSONS FEBRUARY 2016

• Amar Singh: An Indian-origin Sikh has been appointed the Police Commissioner of Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur. It is the highest police rank achieved by a Sikh in the Malaysia. Deputy Commissioner Amar Singh, in his late 50s, will replace Tajuddin Mohamed. His appointment as Kuala Lumpur police chief was announced along with several other transfers and promotions.
  
• HL Dattu: Former Chief Justice of India H L Dattu will be the next Chairman of National Human Rights Commission. The post had been lying vacant since May 11 last year, when Mr. K.G. Balakrishnan demitted office after his five-year term. Justice Cyriac Joseph had been functioning as the acting chairperson since then. Justice H.L. Dattu had retired as the Chief Justice of Supreme Court on 2nd of December last year.
  
• PK Thungon: A Delhi court on 24th February convicted former union minister P K Thungon for his alleged role in a scam relating to allotment of government shops in the national capital during 1993-94. Mr Thungan is already in jail in another graft case. Special CBI Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal, however, acquitted two other accused in the case.
  
  A case was registered by the CBI in 1996 against him and other accused for allegedly hatching a conspiracy in allotting shops and stalls in 1994. Mr Thungon was awarded a four-and-a-half year jail term in July last year in a 1998 graft case relating to misappropriation of central funds.
  
• 3 information commissioners appointed: Government announced the names of three information commissioners in the Central Information Commission, New Delhi.
  
  They are former Chairman of Staff Selection Commission Amitava Bhattacharya, former Information and Broadcasting Secretary Bimal Julka and former Secretary (Security) in the Cabinet Secretariat Divya Prakash Sinha.
  
  An official release said, the appointments have been made for a term of five years from the date on which they enter upon their office or till they attain the age of sixty five years.
  
• Rajendra Singh: Rajendra Singh on 27th February took charge as the Director General of the Indian Coast Guard, the first non-Navy officer to be elevated to the top post. Singh, who belonged to the first batch of Indian Coast Guard in 1980 and was the Inspector General (West region) during the 26/11 terror attacks, took charge from Vice Admiral H C S Bisht. Singh was the Additional Director General of the Indian Coast Guard. His elevation as the DG was approved by the Appointments Committee of Cabinet on February 24.
  
• Srinivasan K Swamy: Asian Federation of Advertising Associations (AFAA) elected Srinivasan K Swamy representing the Advertising Council of India as Vice-Chairman recently in Taipei. Raymond So, representing the Taipei Association of Advertising Agencies was elected the Chairman of its Executive Committee for a period of four years.
  
  Ramesh Narayan also representing ACI was elected Chief Strategy Officer as part of a four-person Executive Committee comprising Chief Revenue Officer — Lee Soon Dong, Korea Federation of Advertising Associations; Chief Knowledge Officer — Bharat Avalani, Malaysian Advertisers Association; Chief Marketing Officer — Harris Thajeb, Komisi Periklanan Indonesia. AFAA will conduct AdAsia 2017 in Bali in November.
  
• Sushanta Dattagupta: Indian President Pranab Mukherjee has approved the dismissal of Viswa Bharati Vice Chancellor Sushanta Dattagupta, the first instance of sacking of the VC of a Central University, HRD ministry officials said.
  
  Ghanshyam Goel, the spokesperson for the HRD ministry said that the President, who is the Visitor of Central Universities, has approved the dismissal of Viswa Bharati VC Dattagupta, as proposed by the ministry. Previously this month, the HRD ministry had sent the file to the President recommending dismissal of Dattagupta, who was facing allegations of financial and administrative irregularities, after the Law Ministry and the Attorney General approved the procedures followed by it in the issue.
  
• UK Sinha: In an unprecedented move, the Centre has extended for the second time UK Sinha’s term as Chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India. Sinha was appointed the market regulator in 2011 for a three-year term, which was extended by two years in 2014.
  
  Sinha’s three predecessors — CB Bhave, M Damodaran and GN Bajpai — had three-year terms. Sinha has got an extension till March 2017.
  
• Tyagi: South Asian University professor Yogesh Kumar Tyagi has been appointed the new vice-chancellor of Delhi University after his name was selected by President Pranab Mukherjee from among four persons. The human resource development (HRD) ministry had forwarded the four names to the President who, as Visitor of Central Universities, makes the final selection.
  
  Apart from Tyagi, who is the Dean of the Law Faculty at South Asian University, the other names on the panel were JNU professor Rameshwar Nath Kaul Bamezai, former IIT professor and UPSC member Hemchand Gupta and Bidyut Chakraborty, a professor in the DU Political Science department. According to reports, Tyagi was the front-runner for the position as he was the HRD ministry’s choice.
  
  Earlier, it was reported that while appointing the JNU Vice Chancellor, the President had ignored the HRD ministry's preference and appointed IIT professor M Jagadesh Kumar to the post. Tyagi will assume charge of the new assignment from Dinesh Singh, whose tenure saw controversy over the Four-Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP), which was later rolled back after intervention by University Grants Commission.
  
• Suhhani Lohia: Suhaani Lohia, a six-year-old from Mumbai, made a little bit of history when she was ranked among the top six ranked players for players of around her age. Her rating of 1156 is behind two Russians, two Iranians and one Danish player. Suhaani joins the list of the world's youngest rated players in the girls' category. Suhaani had won a silver medal in January 2016 at the National Schools Chess Championships at Nagpur in the Under-7 category with a commendable score of seven points out of possible nine.
  
• Christine Lagarde: Christine Lagarde has been appointed as the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund for a second five-year term.
  
  Her new term will start on 5th of July. IMF on 19th February said she was the sole candidate nominated for the post. It said that the decision was taken by consensus among its Executive Board.
  
  Ms Lagarde, a former French Finance Minister, took over as head of the IMF in 2011 following Dominique Strauss-Kahn's resignation amid scandal.
  
• Amit Mitra: West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra has been appointed as the new chairman of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers on Goods and Services Tax (GST). He will succeed Kerala Finance Minister K M Mani who had to resign in November last year over corruption charges. Mr Mitra, who is an economist was elected at the meeting of State Finance Ministers that was also attended by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. The panel is tasked with framing rules for roll out of the ambitious GST regime, which will subsume all indirect taxes and create one national market.
  
• Mukesh Ambani: Reliance Industries chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani has been elected to the prestigious National Academy of Engineering, a non-profit organisation based in the US. Ambani is one of only 10 Indians elected to the institution since its inception in 1964, and one of only 22 members the institution elected from outside the US in 2016. Tech evangelist Sam Pitroda is the other Indian elected to the NAE this year.
  
  Ambani and Pitroda will be formally inducted during a ceremony at the NAE's Annual Meeting in Washington, DC on 9 October, 2016.
  
  Other Indian members include P.C. Kapur of IIT-Delhi, scientist R.A. Mashelkar, Narayana Murthy of Infosys, scientist Roddam Narasimha, Pradip P. of TCS, scientist P. Ramarao, chemical engineer M.M. Sharma and industrialist Ratan Tata.
  
  Founded in 1964, the academy is a private, independent and non-profit that provides engineering leadership with a mission to promote a vibrant engineering profession and giving insights to the US government on related matters.
  
  The institution has more than 2,000 peer-elected members and foreign members, who are considered among the world's most accomplished engineers -- people who provide leadership for numerous projects to link their domain with better quality of life.
   
• RK Pachauri:, the former Director-General and current Executive Vice-Chairman of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) RK Pachauri, has gone on an indefinite leave from the organisation as well as its affiliated TERI University.Pachauri, however, retains his positions as both Executive Vice-Chairman of TERI as well as Chancellor of the TERI University.
  
  The council had created the new position with executive powers for Pachauri on February 8, despite the organisation's own Internal Complaint Committee finding him guilty.
  
  TERI also announced that BV Sreekantan has resigned from his post as the Chairman of TERI and Ashok Chawla, former Chairman of the Competition Commission, would succeed him.
  
  It further clarified that Ajay Mathur, who took charge as the Director-General of the organisation on February 8 will operate with full executive powers. Mathur was inducted as a member of the council.
   
• Abhinav Bhushan: Indian lawyer Abhinav Bhushan has been appointed the regional director for South Asia in the International Court of Arbitration, which is under the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). The first Indian to be appointed as deputy counsel of the ICC earlier, Bhushan will be based in its Asia offices in Singapore and will take on part of the role of the outgoing regional director
  
  The appointment of Bhushan is in continuation of ICC's efforts to expand its on-the-ground presence in Asia. Bhushan brings to his new role first-hand experience working on arbitrations arising out of common law jurisdictions, in particular working with parties from India, Singapore and other regions of Asia. Bhushan's appointment brings together more than 300 members from 40 countries, representing multi-national companies, law firms, trade associations, and small and medium-sized enterprises. ICC is a private sector global business organisation with a central role in world trade and commerce.
  
  It provides a forum for businesses and other organisations to examine and better comprehend the nature and significance of the major shifts taking place in the world economy.
   
• DJ Pandian: India nominee D J Pandian has been appointed as Vice-President and Chief Investment Officer of the newly formed 100 billion dollar Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
  
  According to the Finance Ministry, the primary responsibility of the Chief Investment Officer is leading the planning and supervision of the bank's infrastructure investment by promoting sustainable investment throughout Asia.
  
  The Beijing-based 100 billion dollar multi-lateral lender AIIB was set up to boost lending for infrastructure projects. China, India and Russia are the three largest shareholders, in the newly-formed bank.
  
  Dr. Pandian has had an extensive career spanning 30 years with the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), holding key positions at the State, National, and International levels in the energy, infrastructure, finance, and industry sectors.
  
  He was instrumental in liberalizing the policy regime to attract international investment to crucial infrastructure sectors including power, airlines, ports and telecoms.
   
  Obituary
• Nida Fazli: Noted Urdu Poet and well known Bollywood lyricist Nida Fazli passed away in Mumbai on 8^th February at Versova.. Nida Fazli, the son of poet Murtaza Hasan Baidi, was born on October 12, 1938 in Delhi, to a Kashmiri family.
  
  He worked for film magazines 'Blitz' and 'Dharamyug'. He has also written several songs for Indian films.
  
  Nida Fazli received various awards including Khusro Award, Best Poetry Award from Maharashtra Urdu Academy, Hindi Urdu Sangam Award and Sahitya Akademi Award in 1998.
  
  He was honoured with t National Harmony Award for writing on communal harmony. He has 24 books to his credit in Urdu, Hindi and Gujarati- some of which are assigned as school textbooks in Maharashtra. He received the Mir Taqi Mir award for his autobiographical novel 'Deewaron Ke Beech'.
  
  His works include Lafzon ke Phool (collection of sher-o-shayari), Mulaqaten (character-sketches), Mor Naach (collected works) in 1978, Aankh aur Khwab ke Darmiyan, Safar Mein Dhuup to Hogi, etc. His most acclaimed shers include; 'Duniya jise kehte hain jaadu kaa khilona hai, Mil jaaye to mitti hai, kho jaaye to sona hai'. Few of the popular film songs written by him are; Aa bhi jaa (Sur), Tu is tarah se meri zindagi mein (Aap To Aise Na The) and Hosh waalon ko khabar (Sarfarosh).
   
• Koirala: Former Nepal Prime Minister Sushil Koirala, who spent 16 years in exile in India, died on 9^th February.
• Hanumanthappa: Siachen survivor Lance Naik Hanumanthappa passed away on 11^th February. The nation is grieving the loss of its braveheart Lance Naik Hanumanthappa Koppad, the soldier who survived for six days under tonnes of snow at the Siachen Glacier but lost the battle for life on Thursday at an Army hospital in Delhi.
  
  Madras Regiment's Lance Naik Hanumanthappa breathed his last at Delhi's Army Research & Referral Hospital. 33-year-old Hanumanthappa joined the Indian Army in October, 2002. He was part of the 19th battalion of the Madras Regiment.
  
  During his 13 years of service he spent nearly 10 years in extremely challenging postings in the North East and Jammu & Kashmir. 10 soldiers were buried alive under a snow wall at the North Siachen glacier on the 3rd of February.
  
   
• O.N.V. Kurup: Renowned Malayalam poet and Jnanpith winner Prof. O.N.V. Kurup has passed away in a private hospital in Thiruvananthapuram. Popularly known as "ONV", Ottaplakkal Nambiyadikkal Velu Kurup, has made significant contributions to the Malayalam film music, too.
  
  A winner of the Kerala and Kendra Sahitya Academy awards, ONV won the Jnanpith in 2007 for his overall contributions to the Malayalam literature in the last six decades.
  
  ONV was awarded Padma Shri in 1998 and Padma Vibhushan in 2011. His notable works include Agnishalabhangal, Aksharam, Uppu, Bhoomikkoru Charamageetham, Ujjayini and Swayamvaram.
  
  Prof. Kurup, who began his career as a lecturer in Maharajas College, Ernakulam later taught at the University College, Thiruvananthapuram, the Arts & Science College, Kozhikode and Brennan College, Thalassery. ONV was Chairman of the Kerala Kalamdandalam and held several top positions in various arts and literary bodies.
  
• Vice Admiral Sunil Lanba: Vice Admiral Sunil Lanba took over the reins of Western Naval Command (WNC) as the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief on31st January from Vice Admiral SPS Cheema at a ceremonial parade held at INS Shikra. Later in the day, officers of the Western Naval Command accorded Vice Admiral Cheema a warm send off, with the traditional ‘Pulling Out’ ceremony. Vice Admiral Cheema retired, after completing nearly four decades of service to the nation and the Navy.
  
  Vice Admiral Lanba, a specialist in Navigation and Direction and an alumnus of Defence Services Staff College, has served as Navigating Officer of INS Sindhudurg (Corvette) and INS Dunagiri (Frigate).
  
• Archana Ramasundram: Tamil Nadu Cadre IPS officer Archana Ramasundram has become the first woman to head a paramilitary force. Ramasundram was on 31st January appointed as the Director General of Sashastra Seema Bal, SSB that guards India's frontiers with Nepal and Bhutan. 58-year-old Ramasundram is currently the Director of National Crime Records Bureau.
  
  Besides her, IPS officer K Durga Prasad has been appointed Director Generals of Central Reserve Police Force. Another IPS officer K K Sharma will be new Chief of the Border Security Force.
  
• Saroj Kumar: Saroj Kumar Jha has been appointed to a key position in the World Bank. Jha assumed the position of Senior Director for the Fragility, Conflict and Violence Group at the World Bank on 1st February. He has to work across the Bank Group and in close collaboration with partners. Jha is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur.
  
  He joined the World Bank in 2005 as a Senior Infrastructure Specialist in the Sustainable Development Network, after significant experience with the Indian Government and the United Nation's Development Program (UNDP). Earlier, Jha worked as the World Bank's Global Manager for Disaster Risk Management Practice.
  
• Balram Jakhar: Former Lok Sabha Speaker Balram Jakhar passed away in New Delhi on3rd February. Balram Jakhar was elected as the Lok Sabha Speaker for two consecutive terms from 1980 to 1989. He was elected to the Lok Sabha four times and also served as the Union Agriculture Minister. He was elected to the Punjab Legislative Assembly for two terms and served as Minister in the state and also Leader of Opposition. Mr Jakhar also served as the Governor of Madhya Pradesh.
  
• Jaishanker Menon: Major General Jai Shanker Menon of India has been appointed as the Head of Mission and Force Commander of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
  
  In a statement, the UN said, Maj Gen Menon succeeds Lt Gen Purna Chandra Thapa of Nepal, who will complete his assignment on 7th of this month.
  
  Maj Gen Menon brings to his new position extensive command experience and knowledge of peacekeeping affairs at the national and international levels. Till now, Maj. Gen. Menon was Additional Director General Equipment Management in the Indian Army. From 2012 to 2013, he was General Officer, Commanding of an Infantry Division.
  
• Parameshwar Iyer: The government has appointed World Bank's water and sanitation specialist, Parameshwaran Iyer, as the new Secretary of the Drinking Water and Sanitation Department. Iyer is a key architect of the framework of the $1,500 million proposed loan from World Bank for the Swach Bharat Mission which is pending Cabinet approval.
  
  Iyer's appointment is expected to create more synergy between the Swachh Bharat Mission and the objectives of the World Bank project . An IAS officer of the UP cadre, who launched Jal Suraj program, Iyer took voluntary retirement in 2009 and joined the World Bank.
  
  Before that, he worked with the UN World Food Programme (UNWFP) for nearly a decade till 2006 as a Senior Rural Water Sanitation specialist on foreign assignment. He was then served a show-cause notice by the Indian government to return and he quit in 2009.
  
• Sudhir Tailang: Famous political cartoonist Sudhir Tailang, passed away Saturday afternoon in a Hospital in Gurgaon, Haryana. Sudhir Tailang had been battling with brain cancer for a long time. Tailang was awarded Padma Shri in 2004 for his contribution to the art of cartooning.