APPOINTMENTS

 APPOINTMENT

Nadia Murad Basee Taha

23-year-old Yazidi woman appointed Ambassador for Survivors of Human Trafficking.

- Nadia Murad Basee Taha, who survived captivity by ISIS in Iraq to become an activist for her Yazidi people, has been appointed as a goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations.

- The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said that Murad’s appointment as an ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking marks the first time that a survivor of atrocities has been awarded this distinction.

V K Sharma

State-run life insurance behemoth LIC said its managing director V K Sharma has taken additional charge as chairman, replacing S K Roy who was relieved of his duties.

- Roy resigned in June, nearly two years ahead of his retirement. V K Sharma, managing director, LIC of India has taken additional charge as chairman, LIC of India in place of S K Roy, who has been relieved of his duties.

- Sharma has been serving as the managing director of the company since November 2013.

Soundarya Rajinikanth

Rajinikanth’s daughter Soundarya Rajinikanth has been co-opted as a member of the Animal Welfare Board of India besides being appointed as its Ambassador to the film fraternity.

- Animal Welfare Board of India is delighted to announce Soundarya Rajinikanth has accepted our invitation to be a co-opted Member of Board and in addition, to serve as a Member of its Performing Animals Sub Committee (PASC).

Alka Sirohi

President Pranab Mukherjee appointed Alka Sirohi, a member of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) as its Chairman. Sirohi’s appointment was effective from September 21. The post of UPSC Chairman had fell on September 20, consequent upon demitting of office by Deepak Gupta on attaining 65 years of age.

- Sirohi was sworn in as Member of UPSC in January 2012, after a long and successful career in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS).

- UPSC is headed by its chief, and the Commission can have a maximum of ten members.

- Other members of the Commission David R. Simlih academician, professor Hem Chandra Gupta and Kumar Joshi, former Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi, former head of the Railways Board Vinay Mittal, former.

- IAS officer and intelligence agency RAW Chattar Singh and aviation research center then include Arvind Saxena.

Ravi Reddy

An Indian-origin South African has become the first person from the African continent to head a global organization of medicine professionals working for the safety of blood transfusion worldwide.

- Ravi Reddy, currently the Chief Operations Officer of the South African National Blood Service (SANBS), will head the International Society for Blood Transfusion (ISBT), headquartered in Amsterdam.

- Although Reddy has been credited with transforming the safety of blood donation and transfer in South Africa with its very high incidence of HIV/AIDS, he has insisted that this was a team effort by the staff of SANBS.

- He has served in various capacities for more than three decades after starting out as a volunteer at the age of 16 at SANBS.

- He subsequently qualified as a medical technologist with an MBA from the University of Natal in South Africa.

Anita Praveen

Antia Praveen, Joint Secretary in the Commerce Ministry, has been given the additional charge of Chairman of the agri-export promotion body Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA).

- The additional charge has been given for a period of three months from July 22, 2016 or till such time the post is filled up on a regular basis, according to a government notification.

- Praveen is a 1989 batch IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre.

- APEDA was established by the Government of India under the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority Act passed by Parliament in December 1985.

- It is mandated with the responsibility of export promotion and development of food items such as fruits, vegetables and their products as well as meat, poultry and dairy products among others.

Junaid Ahmad

Junaid Ahmad has become the World Bank’s Country Director for India, replacing Onno Ruhl who served a four-year term based out of the national capital.

- Hailing from Bangladesh, Ahmad was Chief of Staff to the World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim before being elevated to the current position.

- Junaid’s strong experience in the critical areas of water, urbanization, and social development will ensure that the Bank’s future strategy for India is formulated and implemented in line with the country’s own development goals.

- Ahmad holds a PhD in Applied Economics from Stanford University, a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University, and a BA in Economics from Brown University.

- India is the World Bank Group’s largest client.

Monika Kapil Mohta

Monika Kapil Mohta was appointed as the India’s Ambassador to Sweden.

- She is presently the Additional Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs and looks after India’s relations with a large part of the Asia-Pacific region.

- Mohta is a 1985 batch Indian Foreign Services officer. Previously, she has served as the ambassador of India to Poland and Lithuania.

Jack Ma

An UN trade body has named Chinese billionaire Jack Ma a special advisor on youth entrepreneurship and small business, in a bid to promote growth and development around the world.

- Ma, one of the richest man in China and the founder of commerce giant Alibaba, will be offering his experience and insight to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad).

- The appointment came after Ma represented small businesses in the G20 meetings that took place in China’s eastern city of Hangzhou earlier this month.

- Ma also hosted politicians and business leaders at his Alibaba headquarters, which are also in Hangzhou.

Chetan Ghate, Pami Dua, Ravindra Dholakia

Government has appointed three academics as members of a new monetary policy committee that central bank decisions are made in the country.

- Allowed to select three members of the new six members board, the government chose Chetan Ghate, a professor at Indian Statistical Institute;

- Pami Dua, a director at the Delhi School of Economics; and Ravindra Dholakia, a professor at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat.

- They will each serve for a term of four years, “or until further orders, whichever is earlier,” according to the statement. All are low-profile, India-based economists, unlike former Reserve Bank of India chief Raghuram Rajan.

- The other three members of the monetary policy committee will come from the RBI and will include new Governor Urjit Patel, who will be the tie-breaker in any split decision, along with two senior officials from the monetary policy department.

- The committee will be responsible for ensuring consumer inflation stays within a range of 2 to 6 percent, a target that was previously announced by the government.

Vijay Kelkar

Former petroleum secretary Vijay Kelkar has been elected president of the prestigious Indian Statistical Institute (ISI).

- Kelkar succeeded former RBI governor C Rangarajan.

- He was elected at the general body meeting of the institute, which functions under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, an ISI release said.

Navtej Sarna

India’s High Commissioner to UK Navtej Sarna was appointed as Ambassador to the US, a high-profile posting where he will face the task of engaging with a new administration in Washington following the November 8 Presidential poll.

- Sarna, an Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer of the 1980 batch, was serving as Secretary (West) in the Ministry of External Affairs before he was posted in London in January.

- He succeeds Arun Singh, who is due for retirement.

- The 59-year-old diplomat was among the longest serving spokespersons of the MEA. He had held the post between 2002 and 2008.

- Government has also appointed 1988-batch IFS officer Taranjit Singh Sandhu as the next High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka. He will replace Yash Sinha.

- Sarna wrote so many books last year he wrote book titled “second thought : on books, authors and the writerly life. From 2008-2012 he gave service as high commissioner in Isreal.

Rakesh Ranjan Prasad

Justice Rakesh Ranjan Prasad was sworn in as the new Chief Justice of Manipur High Court by Governor Najma Heptulla.

The swearing-in ceremony was held at the Raj Bhawan in Imphal attended by Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh among others.

Justice Rakesh Ranjan later during an interaction with the media said that his priority would be to complete the pending cases in the High Court.

Sudhir Pratap Singh & OP Singh

Senior IPS officers Sudhir Pratap Singh and O P Singh were appointed as Directors General of counter terrorism force National Security Guard (NSG) and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) respectively.

- O P Singh, a 1983-batch IPS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, is at present working as Director General of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).

- Another senior IPS officer R K Pachnanda has been appointed in place of O P Singh.

- Pachanada is currently working as Additional Director General (ADG) in CISF.

- Sudhir Pratap sigh, a 1983 batch IPS officer of Rajasthan cadre, is ADG, Central Reserve Police Force.

- The CISF is entrusted with responsibility of providing security to national installations including airports.

Arun Goyal

Senior IAS officer Arun goyal has been appointed as Additional Secretary in the Goods and Service Tax (GST) Council.

- The Council, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, is mandated to decide on tax rate, exempted goods and the threshold limit.

- The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has approved Goyal’s appointment against the newly created post, an order issued by Department of Personnel and Training said.

- Goyal, a 1985 batch IAS officer of Union Territory cadre, is at present working as Additional secretary, Project Monitoring Group, Cabinet Secretariat.

- The Union Cabinet had recently approved appointment of the Secretary (Revenue) as the ex-officio Secretary to the GST council and inclusion of the chairperson, Central Board of Excise and Customs, as a permanent invitee.

- The Cabinet had also approved creation of one post of Additional Secretary and four posts of Commissioner in the secretariat.

Rahul Deep Singh

Rahul Deep Singh has been appointed managing director of Royal Dutch Shell-promoted Hazira LNG Pvt and Hazira Ports Pvt.

- He will replace Nitin Shukla, who will superannuate after 15 years of service in the Hazira Group companies on September 30.

- Since the commissioning of Hazira LNG in 2005, the terminal has rapidly expanded from an initial regasification capacity of 2 million tones per annum (mtpa) to 3 mtpa in 2008 and then further to 5 mtpa in 2013.

Jeffrey De Laurentis

The United States has tapped Jeffrey De Laurentis, America’s top diplomat in Havana, to become the first official ambassador to Cuba in five decades.

- Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announced a thaw in relations in December 2014.

- Since then, Washington and Havana have taken once unthinkable steps to mend ties after more than half a century of enmity.

- President Obama has visit Cuba and relaxed portions of the US embargo imposed since 1962. Flights have resumed and cruise ships can now sail from Miami to Havana.

- US companies like Airbnb and Netflix now operate in Cuba and American hotel group starwood recently opened a Sheraton in Havana.

- De Laurentis is already in Havana and previously worked in Bogota and at the United Nations.

Jim Young Kim

The board of the World Bank has unanimously agreed to name Jim Yong Kim to a second term as president.

- The Bank’s board offered a strong endorsement of Kim’s record, including setting the goal of eliminating extreme global poverty by 2030 and an internal reorganization to promote better coordination which provoked staff dissent.

- The board also said an effort under Kim to cut bank spending had reduced administrative costs by USD 400 million, money then reinvested to support the bank’s goals.

Cyrus Mistry

Tata group chief Cyrus Mistry is among the top global industry leaders, including Unilever CEO Paul Polman and McKinsey & Co Global.

Managing Partner Dominic Barton, to have been appointed as board members of FCLT Global – a body dedicated to encouraging long-termism in business and investment decision-making.

- The organization said it is making a transformation from an initiative to an independent not-for-profit organization dedicated to encouraging long-termism in business and Investment decision-making.

- It had started as an initiative formed in 2013 by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), and McKinsey & Company.

Somesh Sharma

Somesh Sharma of Rashtradoot Saptahik was elected President of the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) for the year 2016-17 its 77^th Annual General Meeting.

- He succeeds P V Chandran of Grihalakshmi (Mathrubhumi Group).

- Akila Urankar (Business Standard) is the new Deputy President, K Balaji (The Hindu Weekly) Vice President and Sharad Saxena (Hindustan Times) Honorary Treasurer of INS for the year 2016-17.

- V Shankaran will continue to be the INS Secretary General.

N P Narvekar

Harvard has brought in a new manager from Columbia University to run its $36-billion endowment, the largest of any university.

- N P Narvekar, 54, was appointed president and CEO of Harvard Management Company, the university stated. He succeeds Stephen Blyth, who resigned in July, citing health reasons, after 18 months on the job.

- Narvekar comes to Harvard after 14 years at Columbia, where he was chief executive of the university’s Investment Management Company, a $9-billion endowment portfolio that posted annualized returns of more than 10 per cent during the last decade.

- Robert A Ettl, who had been leading the endowment since Blyth’s departure, will become chief operating officer.

Rajeev Sharma

Rajeev Sharma has taken over as the Chairman and Managing Director of state-run Power Finance Corporation (PFC).

- Sharma succeeds M K Goel who retired on September 30, 2016 on attaining the age of superannuation. Prior to joining PFC, Sharma was the CMD of Rural Electrification Corporation (REC).

- Under his leadership, REC scaled greater heights in excellence by doubling the revenue and profits in the last five years. He is considered the architect of Government’s flagship schemes like Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY).

- Sharma holds B Tech (Electrical) and Masters Degree in engineering from IIT Roorkee and also an MBA degree from FMS, Delhi University.

- He has more than 30 years of experience and has served in various positions in Central Electricity Authority (CEA), Power Grid Corporation & PFC (as Director, Projects).

Kalyana Rama

V. Kalyana Rama has taken over as the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Container Corporation of India Ltd (CONCOR), a navratna PSU under Railways Ministry. Prior to this, he was serving as Director (Projects & Services), CONCOR since June 2015.

- Having worked in BHEL, BHPV before joining Indian Railways, Rama has held various challenging assignments in his career with Indian Railways and CONCOR.

- CONCOR is a network of 64 terminals, offering scheduled and on demand rapid rail and road services between the hinterland and ports, and between terminal across the country.

- Rama, a mechanical engineer, was also the CEO of Infinite Logistic Solutions, a JV of Reliance Logistics Private Ltd and CONCOR.

Ashish Vohra

Ashish Vohra has been appointed as the head of Reliance Nippon Life Insurance.

- The Board of Directors of Reliance Nippon Life Insurance (RNLI), a part of Reliance Capital, has announced the appointment of Ashish Vohra as the new CEO of the company. Before this, Vohra spent eight years with Max Life Insurance, serving as Senior Director and Chief Distribution Officer.

- Nippon Life Insurance, one of the largest life insurance companies in the world, is a strategic partner in Reliance Nippon Life Insurance with 49 per cent stake.

- Vohra is a mechanical engineer from IIT BHU and an MBA from IIM Bangalore.

- He has over 25 years of experience working with companies like Max Life Insurance, Fullerton India Credit, Citibank and Eicher Motors.

B.P. Pandey

Special secretary in the Power Ministry, B P Pandey, has been assigned the additional charge as the CMD of state-owned REC for 3 months.

- The Ministry of Power has assigned the additional charge of the post of Chairman and Managing Director, REC to B P Pandey, Special Secretary in the Ministry of Power w.e.f. October 1, 2016 for the period of 3 months i.e. October 1, 2016 to December 31, 2016 or until further orders, whichever is earlier.

BVR Mohan Reddy

Fomer Nasscom Chairman BVR Mohan Reddy has been appointed as honorary consul of Germany for Hyderabad.

- Reddy is Executive Chairman of Cyient Limited (Formerly Infotech Enterprises Limited).

- KCR, after briefing the visiting dignitary about the state industrial and IT policies, handed over a copy of Industrial Policy and said this is the best single window policy in the world.

- The Ambassador expressed his country’s preparedness to bring German companies to Telangana and invest here in future.

U R Rao

Former ISRO Chairman and Space Secretary, Professor U R Rao, has been inducted into the prestigious “The 2016 IAF Hall of Fame” by the International Astronautical Federation.

- Professor Raos citation read states that “Prof U R Rao is hereby inducted into THE 2016 IAF HALL OF FAME for his outstanding contributions to development of space technology in India and for his relentless efforts towards sharing the greater benefits of space technology with developing countries and the world at large.”

- In 2013, Rao was inducted into the Satellite Hall of Fame, Washington, by the Society of Satellite Professionals International. A press release said.

- The Induction was done during the closing ceremony of the International Astronautical Congress 2016 held at Gaudlajara, Mexico September 30.

- Physical Research Laboratory (Ahmedabad) Governing Council  Chairman, Rao is an internationally-renowned space technology in India and its extensive application to communications and remote sensing of natural resources since start of his career in 1960.

- He is responsible for the creation of Indias space and satellite capabilities and their application to the nations development.

- He undertook the responsibility for the establishment of satellite technology in India in 1972.

- Under his guidance, beginning with the first Indian satellite Aryabhata in 1975, over 20 satellites were designed, fabricated and launched.

- He also accelerated the development of rocket technology in India, resulting in the successful launch of ASLV rocket in 1992 and the operational PSLV launch vehicle.

- He has promoted the use of space technology for broadcasting, education, meterology, remote sensing and disaster warning.

- Rao, who has published over 360 scientific and technical papers in various journals, has received many honours and awards, including the Padma Bhushan.

Antonio Guterres

Former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres has been unanimously selected by the UN Security Council as the next UN Secretary-General.

- Guterres will succeed Ban Ki-moon on 1 January 2017.

- The 15-nation Security Council’s decision will be sent, following the formal approval, to the 193-member General Assembly for final formal approval.

About Antonio Guterres

- Antonio Mauel de Oliveira Guterres is a Portuguese politician.

- He served as the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002.

- He also served for a time as President of the Socialist International.

- He served as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from June 2005 to December 2015.

Shami Chakrabarti

A 47-year-old Indian-origin human rights lawyer has been appointed the Shadow Attorney General by UKs Opposition Labour party which will see her holding the government’s chief legal advisor to account for their actions.

- Shami Chakrabarti, who recently became a Labour member of the House of Lords and also chaired the partys anti-Semitism inquiry, was confirmed in the new role in a reshuffle of his top team by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

- The Attorney General is UK government’s chief legal advisor and is drawn from the legislature; their shadow holds them to account and develops alternative policies.

Uttam Bagri

BSE Brokers Forum has elected Uttam Bagri as its chairman and Anurag Bansal as vice-chairman for the current financial year.

- Other office bearers elected unanimously at the meeting include Purav Fozdar as Secreatry and Harin Mehta as Joint Secretary.

- BSE Brokers Forum was set up in 1993 with an objective to foster, encourage and spread the knowledge investments in capital markets.

Luo Zhaohui

Chinese President Xi Jinping has appointed Luo Zhaohui as China’s new ambassador to India.

- Prior to the Indian assignment Luo, 54, was China’s ambassador to Canada from 2014 to 2016.

- Before that, Luo served as director general of the Department of Asian Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2011 to 2014, according to the website of the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi.

- Former Chinese ambassador to India Le Yucheng left New Delhi in April.

G Mahalingam

Government has appointed Reserve Bank’s Executive Director G Mahalingam as a Whole-Time Member of markets regulator Sebi.

- Apart from the Chairman, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) can have three Whole Time Members (WTMs). Mahalingam’s appointment follows the retirement of Prashant Saran as WTM in June this year.

- In a recent notification, the Finance Ministry said Gurumoorthy Mahalingam has been appointed as WTM for a period of five years or till he attains the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier.

- He would be getting a consolidated monthly salary of Rs 3.75 lakh.

Anup Bagchi

In a major rejig of senior management positions, ICICI Bank appointed its brokerage business head Anup Bagchi as executive director of the bank and head of retail banking, replacing Rajiv Sabharwal. Shilpa Kumar will replace Bagchi as MD and CEO of ICICI Securities. Shilpa will be succeeded by B Prasanna as Group Executive and Head of Markets and Proprietary Trading at ICICI Bank, as per the decisions taken by its board.

India-Sweden Relations

The two countries have a cordial relationship and growing economic cooperation.

The development cooperation between Sweden and India began in 1953 and was initially mainly in the form of import support. In the 1990s.

India became the largest recipient of Swedish aid and the support included loan-financed projects in the energy sector.

The other members of the Executive Committee are:

L Adimoolam (Health and The Antiseptic), S Balasubraniam Adityan (Daily Thanthi), Girish Agarwal (Dainik Bhaskar, Bhopal), Samahit Bal (Pragativadi), V K Chopra (Dainik Asan), Vijay Kumar Chopra (Punjab Kesri, Jalandhar), Vijay Jawaharlal Darda (Lokmat), Jagjit Singh Dardi (Charhdikala Daily), Viveck Goenka (The Indian Express, Mumbai), Mohit Jain (Economic Times), Mahendra Mohan Gupta (Dainik Jagran), Pradeep Gupta (Dataquest).

About Secretary-General of the United Nations

- The Secretary-General of the United Nations is the head of the United Nations Secretariat.

- The Secretary-General also acts as the de facto spokesperson and leader of the United Nations. Their role is laid out by Chapter XV (Articles 97 to 101) of the United Nations Charter.

- The Secretary-General was envisioned by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a world moderator.

- Article 97 under Chapter XV of the United Nations Charter states that the Secretary-General shall be the chief administrative officer of the Organisation, but does not dictate their specific obligations.

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