Current Affairs August 2019 - Appointments

1 - Girraj Prasad Gupta appointed as the Controller General of Accounts

1983-batch Indian Civil Accounts Service (ICAS) Officer, Girraj Prasad Gupta took over as the Controller General of Accounts (CGA). Gupta has worked at higher positions in the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), Ministry of Rural development, and Ministry of Finance and as the Director of National Institute of Financial Management (NIFM), Faridabad.

Mr. Gupta is credited for his work in development and implementation of Public Financial Management System (PFMS), a backbone IT infrastructure for Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) and other financial management modules in Government of India.

2 - IFSG appointed Justice A.K. Sikri as ombudsman

The Indian Federation of Sports Gaming (IFSG) has appointed Justice Arjan Kumar Sikri as its ombudsman and ethics officer. Justice A.K. Sikri will be responsible for investigating queries/complaints raised by the users of the online fantasy sports gaming platforms.

Sikri has served as a former judge of the Supreme Court of India. He was recently appointed as a judge in the Singapore International Commercial Court. IFSG is India's self-regulatory industry body for the online fantasy sports gaming sector.

3 - Rajiv Kumar appointed as Finance Secretary

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved the appointment of department of financial services (DFS) secretary Rajiv Kumar as the new finance secretary. Kumar succeeded 1983-batch IAS officer Subhash Chandra Garg. He is a 1984-batch Jharkhand cadre IAS officer.

A finance secretary is the senior-most bureaucrat among the finance ministry’s five departments—economic affairs, revenue, expenditure, financial services and department of investment and public asset management (DIPAM).

4 - Noel Quinn appointed as interim CEO of HSBC

HSBC has appointed Noel Quinn as interim Group Chief Executive and as a Director of HSBC Holdings. He replaced John Flint.

Mr. Quinn was appointed as the Chief Executive, Global Commercial Banking in December 2015. He became a Group Managing Director in September 2016. From 2011 to 2015, he was the Regional Head of Commercial Banking for Asia-Pacific, based in Hong Kong. He has since taken up postings including Head of Specialised and Equity Finance at HSBC.

5 - Mindtree appointed Debashis Chatterjee as MD & CEO

Mindtree Ltd has appointed Mr. Debashis Chatterjee as its new CEO & MD. Prior to joining Mindtree, Mr. Chatterjee was President, Global Delivery and Global Leader for the Digital Sytems and Technology practice at Cognizant.

This is the first top management change at Mindtree since the company was taken over by Larsen and Toubro Ltd (L&T). Mindtree also appointed S.N. Subrahmanyan as its non-executive Vice Chairman. L&T's takeover of Mindtree marked India's first-ever hostile takeover in the IT space.

6 - Sonia Gandhi named interim Congress President

The Congress Working Committee (CWC) has named Sonia Gandhi as the interim Congress President. She has been made the President after Rahul Gandhi resigned as party president on May 25. She will be interim party chief till AICC elects new President.

Sonia Gandhi took primary membership of Congress in 1997 and became its president in 1998. She went on to create history as the longest serving president from 1998 to 2017. She was first elected to the Lok Sabha from Amethi in 1999.

7 - Kandikuppa Sreekant takes over as CMD of Power Grid Corporation

Kandikuppa Sreekant has taken over as the Chairman and Managing Director of state-owned Power Grid Corporation. Prior to taking up this assignment, he was serving as the director (finance) of Power Grid.

Sreekant has been appointed as CMD till December 31, 2023, the date of his superannuation, or until further orders, whichever is earlier. He has more than 33 years of experience in the power sector, involving finance and accounting functions.

8 - Indian National Science Academy appointed Chandrima Shaha as its President

Renowned biologist Chandrima Shaha became first woman president of Indian National Science Academy. She has experience of working as Director of the National Institute of Immunology, Delhi. She has served as Vice President of INSA between 2016 and 2018. She has penned over 80 research papers. She received Shakuntala Amirchand Award of ICMR in 1992 and DNA Double Helix Discovery special award in 2003.

The Indian National Science Academy in New Delhi is the apex body of Indian scientists, established in January 1935 with the objective of promoting science in India and harnessing scientific knowledge.

9 - Harshad Pandurang Thakur appointed as NIHFW's director

Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi appointed Harshad Pandurang Thakur as director of National Institute of Health and Family Welfare for a period of 5 years.

Harshad is professor of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. National Institute of Health and Family Welfare is an autonomous organization, under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India for the promotion of health and family welfare programmes in the country.

10 - Paytm promoted CFO Madhur Deora as its President

Paytm has promoted its CFO and senior vice-president Madhur Deora as President. He will be responsible for Paytm’s consumer services business besides overseeing multiple business lines at the company. Prior to joining Paytm in October 2016, Deora served as Managing Director in Citigroup's investment banking business.

Paytm is the single largest platform for banks, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) payments. It has announced to invest Rs 750 crore to approximately double its monthly active user base on mobile to 250 million by March 2020.

11 - Ravinder Takkar appointed as CEO of Vodafone Idea

Vodafone Idea has appointed Ravinder Takkar as its CEO after the current CEO Balesh Sharma stepped down. Mr. Sharma would take up a new role within the Vodafone Group.

Ravinder Takkar is currently Vodafone Group’s representative in India. He has been in the Indian telecom industry since 2007 when the Vodafone Group entered the Indian market. He has held a number of senior roles in strategy and business development and was the CEO of the enterprise business.

12 - Paytm appointed Amit Nayyar as President of FSB

Paytm has appointed ex-Goldman executive Amit Nayyar as President in the financial services business. He will look after all the financial services business like lending, insurance, wealth management, stock broking at the company. He has experience of working in ICICI Securities, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs.

Prior to this appointment, Amit Nayyar was Managing Director at Mumbai-based investment bank Arpwood Capital. He has enormous experience in BFSI sector (Banking, financial services and insurance). Paytm is an Indian e-commerce payment system and digital wallet company based in Noida.