Current Affairs April 2016 - Appointments

News 1 - Congress MLA Geeta Reddy joins as the PAC Chairperson of Telangana

The Congress MLA J Geeta Reddy has been appointed as the Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Telangana.

She will be the first woman legislator to be appointed for the post in India replacing Mr. Venkat Reddy who passed away on 4 March 2016 due to illness.

Generally, there is a convention in Legislature that a senior MLA from the main Opposition party is appointed as the chairman of the Committee.

News 2 - Jitendra Jagota joins as the Chairman of IDSA

Indian Direct Selling Association announced Jitendra Jagota, Director Legal & Government Affairs at Avon Beauty Products, as its Chairman, replacing Rajat Banerji, who serves as National Head, Corporate Affairs at Amway India.

The elected members of the IDSA will each serve one-year term for the financial year 2016-17. The new executive committee comprises of Vice Chairman, Vivek Katoch, Director Corporate Affairs, Oriflame, Treasurer, Rajat Banerji, National Head Corporate Affairs, Amway India Enterprises and Secretary Rini Sanyal, Head, Worldwide Regulatory, Govt. and Industry Affairs, India, Herbalife, along with Jitendra as the new Chairman.

News 3 - Rajiv Gauba takes charge as the Secretary of Urban Development Ministry

Mr. Rajiv Gauba took over charge as the Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of Urban Development. An IAS officer of the 1982 batch from the Jharkhand cadre, Gauba joins the Ministry on superannuation of Mr. Madhusudhan Prasad.

He has served in the International Monetary Fund representing the Country for four years on the Board of IMF. He has also acted as the Collector and District Magistrate for 7 years in the districts of Gaya, Nalanda and Muzaffarpur as well.

News 4 - Kallol Roy appointed as the new CMD of Bhartiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam

The Bhartiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Ltd (BHAVINI) appointed Mr. Kallol Roy as the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) on the superannuation of P Chellapandi. He has a Ph.D. in fault diagnostics-systems and control from IIT-B and a post doctorate degree in computer process control from the University of Alberta, Canada. Before joining BHAVINI, Roy was heading the research reactor maintenance division at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai.

BHAVINI is responsible for the construction, commissioning, operation and maintenance of the 500-MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor at Kalpakkam.

News 5 - Wolfgang Prock-Schauer elevated as the Managing Director of GoAir

The Wadia group’s budget airline, Go Airlines (India) Ltd. promoted its present CEO Wolfgang Prock-Schauer as the Managing Director. He joined the company in June 2015. He will hold the Managing Director’s post along with the promoter of GoAir, Mr. Jeh Wadia.

Presently, the low cost budget airline company, GoAir has 72 Airbus A320neo on order.

Prior to GoAir, he headed different airlines like Jet Airways (2003-2009), British Midland Airways and Air Berlin.

News 6 - Panasonic appointed Manish Sharma on its Global Executive Council

Japanese electronics giant, Panasonic has appointed senior executive Manish Sharma to its global executive council. Sharma is the first Indian and fourth non-Japanese member of the 50-member Council. His induction into the global role comes along with an elevation in his role at the Indian subsidiary too.

Sharma has been elevated as the President and CEO of Panasonic's India and South Asia operations. He was earlier the MD of its Indian operations.

News 7 - NASSCOM appointed CP Gurnani as the Chairman for 2016-2017

The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) appointed CP Gurnani as its Chairman for the period of 2016-2017. He succeeds Mr. BVR Mohan Reddy.

Gurnani is a part of NASSCOM’s Executive Council and is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Tech Mahindra as well. The Executive Council also announced the appointment of Mr. Raman Roy, Chairman and Managing Director of Quatrro Global Services, as the Vice Chairman of NASSCOM for the period of 2016-17.

News 8 - S Balaji Arunkumar appointed as the new KoPT deputy chairman

Mr. S Balaji Arunkumar has been appointed as the deputy chairman of Kolkata Dock System under Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT). M.r Arunkumar is an IRTS officer of 1997 batch. Before joining KopT, he was working with Container Corporation of India, Chennai as a Senior General Manager.

M T Krishna Babu, the chairman of Visakhapatnam Port Trust, has taken over as the new chairman of KoPT as an additional charge. R P S Kahlon lost his job as chairman of KoPT. Mr. Kahlon was arrested after he allegedly received bribe from a private firm that handles containers at Kolkata Dock System (KDS).

News 9 - Lamborghini India Pvt. Ltd appointed Sharad Agarwal as its Country Head

Lamborghini India Pvt. Ltd has appointed Sharad Agarwal as its country head. Mr. Agarwal has been given the responsibility to oversee the functions of sales, marketing, after sales and network development of the company.

Before joining Lamborghini India Pvt. Ltd, Mr. Agarwal was the head of Field Force for Audi India. He had been working for Audi India since May 2012. He has a vast experience of 15 years in the automotive industry.

News 10 - Permod Kohli takes over charge as the Chairman of Central Administrative Tribunal

Retired Chief Justice of Sikkim High Court, Permod Kohli has been appointed as the Chairman of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) succeeding Justice Syed Rafat Alam and will be in the office for a period of 5 years or till attaining the age of 68 years, whichever is earlier.

The CAT has been established for adjudication of disputes with respect to recruitment and conditions of service of persons appointed to public services and posts under the control of the Union government.

News 11 - Amitabh Coomar - Speciality logistics firm GoJavas’ New CEO

The former executive of FMCG firm ITC Ltd, Amitabh Coomar has been appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of GoJavas’ replacing Vijay Ghadge. GoJavas’ counts online retailers such as Jabong, Fabfurnish, Lenskart and Healthkart as clients.

Prior to this, Amitabh Coomar has served as the Divisional Manager, Brand Marketing, at ITC, Kolkata. He also served the Indian Army for almost 12 years before joining the corporate world. Coomar has a post graduate diploma in business management from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

News 12 - Debraj Pradhan joins as the new Ambassador of India to Norway

The present Ambassador of India to Chile, Debraj Pradhan has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to Norway. He is to visit the Chilean bases in the Ice Continent ANTARCTICA. The visit was arranged by the Chilean Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defence. The visit ended with a Toast with Antarctica Ice.

Prior to this, he was appointed as the Ambassador of India to Angola in October 2011 and continued as Ambassador of India in Luanda till February 2014. Mr. Debraj Pradhan was born on 27 June 1958. He holds a Masters degree in Political Science.

News 13 - Hemant Kumar Ruia appointed as the CFO of Indus Towers

Indus Towers appointed Hemant Kumar Ruia as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO). He has over 23 years of experience in various finance functions across diverse industries.

He was earlier working as the CFO at the Reliance Retail Ltd. He started his career with Larsen & Toubro and worked with various firms such as Reckitt Benckiser India and Agro Tech Food Limited.

Indus Towers is a telecom infrastructure company and maintains 118,687 mobile towers in India.

News 14 - Meeran Borwankar appointed to head the Bureau of Police Research & Development

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has appointed Ms. Meeran C. Borwankar, a senior Maharashtra cadre IPS officer, as the Director General in the Bureau of Police Research & Development (BPR&D). She will hold the post till the date of her superannuation i.e. 30.9.2017, from the date of assumption of the charge or until further orders, whichever is earlier.

She was the first woman police commissioner in Maharashtra. She was also the first woman to be the Joint Commissioner of Police, heading the sensitive Crime Branch in its 150-year history.

News 15 - Union Government appointed Ram Bahadur Rai as the President of the reconstituted IGNCA Trust

The Union Government reconstituted the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) Trust with immediate effect and appointed Senior Journalist Ram Bahadur Rai as the new President of IGNCA. Ram Bahadur Rai will replace Chinmaya Gharekhan, a former diplomat. Rai is a former news editor of Hindi daily, Jansatta.

The Board comprises 19 other members including classical dancers and other known personalities The reconstituted trust of IGNCA, an autonomous institution under the Ministry of Culture, will be functional with immediate effect.

News 16 - Susmita Pande appointed as the Chairperson of National Monument Authority

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has appointed Susmita Pande as the new chairperson of the National Monument Authority (NMA) a three-year term. The position was lying vacant since the last five months after the term of Himanshu Prabha Ray, professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, ended. She is currently a professor at Ujjain's Vikram University.

NMA works under the Ministry of Culture and is responsible for the protection and preservation of centrally protected monuments and sites.

News 17 - Geeta Johri appointed as the first woman DGP of Gujarat

A 1982-batch IPS officer, Geeta Johri, was promoted as the Director General of Police (DGP) by the state government of Gujarat. She was the first woman IPS officer of Gujarat and now became the first female DGP of the state. She was promoted to the post after the State DGP PC Thakur was transferred to the centre as the Director General of Civil Defence and Home Guards on deputation.

Ms. Johri presently serves as the Managing Director of the Gujarat State Police Housing Corporation in Gandhinagar.

News 18 - Shri Deepak Mishra appointed as the Addl. DG in CRPF

The Competent Authority of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has approved the appointment of Shri Deepak Mishra, Senior IPS, as the Additional Director General in CRPF from the date of assumption of charge of the post and up to 30.11.2018 (i.e. date of his retirement on superannuation) or until further orders, whichever is earlier.

Mr. Deepak Mishra is an IPS officer of the 1984 batch of the Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory (AGMUT) cadre.

News 19 - Indian-American Geeta Pasi nominated as the US envoy to Chad by the US President

The US President Barack Obama nominated Indian-American Geeta Pasi as the country's next envoy to Chad. Currently, she is the Director of the Office of Career Development and Assignments in the Bureau of Human Resources at the Department of State. She has served at a number of diplomatic positions in Cameroon, Ghana, India and Romania. She served as the United States Ambassador to Djibouti from the year 2011 to 2014.

News 20 - BCCI appoints Rahul Johri as its CEO

The BCCI has appointed Rahul Johri as its first Chief Executive Officer (CEO) effective from 1^st June 2016. The creation of this post of the CEO was a change recommended by the three-member Lodha panel in its report in January this year. Mr. Johri will report to the BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur.

Before joining BCCI, Mr. Rahul Johri, was working with Discovery Networks as their Asia Pacific Executive Vice President and General Manager for the South Asia region.

News 21 - Justice PK Mishra to be appointed as the Lokayukta by the Goa Government

The Goa Government has decided to appoint Justice P. K. Mishra as the Lokayukta of the state. The post has been lying vacant after Justice (Retd.) Sudarshan Reddy, Goa’s first Lokayukta, had resigned within seven months of his appointment.

Justice Mishra had worked as the Chairman of the Goa State Human Rights Commission. He has also served as the Chief Justice of Patna High Court. He served as a judge at the Odisha High Court for three years and was transferred to Madras High Court where he served for eight years.

News 22 - Centre appoints A Ajith Kumar as the Rubber Board Chief

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Senior IAS Officer A. Ajith Kumar as the Chairman of the Kerala based Rubber Board, Kottayam. The post has been lying vacant since August 2014.

He has been appointed for a period up to May 31, 2018, which is the date of his superannuation. The vacancy has been a political issue in the state. Congress had late last month criticized the Union government for not appointing a full-time Board chairman.

News 23 - Bhupendra Kainthola appointed as the new FTII director

Mr. Bhupendra Kainthola has been appointed as the new Director of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). He is an Indian Information Service (IIS) officer of 1989 batch. The post was lying vacant after D J Narain, former institute dire ctor, completed his term in July 2015. Prashant Pathrabe, a director with the Press Information Bureau was taking care of the role for last nine months as a part-timer. Bhupendra is presently serving as Director (newsroom) with Doordarshan since January 2015. He holds a Masters in International Relations from the University of Mumbai.

In the past, he has worked with PIB, Directorate of Audio Visual Publicity (DAVP), Directorate of Film Festival (as Director, National Film Awards and Indian Panorama) and Lok Sabha Television.

News 24 - IPS Officer Surender Kumar Bhagat assumed charge as the DG in-charge of Railways Protection Force

A 1982 batch IPS Officer of Uttarakhand cadre Mr. Surender Bhagat has been selected as the Director General (DG) of Railways Protection Force (RPF), for protecting the railway property and passengers. He will serve the Railway Board till 30th June 2017. His appointment was approved by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC).

He is presently working as Special Director General in Central Reserve Police Force, Jammu & Kashmir Sector.