Current Affairs Dec 2018 - Persons in NEWS
1 - Salome Zurabishvili Elected as the First Woman President of Georgia
Salome Zurabishvili finally has won Georgia's presidential election and became the first woman president of this country. The French-born ex-diplomat had received 59% of the vote; whereas her rival Grigol Vashadze won only 40%.
66 years old Ms Zurabishvili was born in Paris after her parents fled Georgia in 1921 following its annexation by Soviet forces. She began her career in the French foreign service and in 2003, she was posted as ambassador to the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. Later, she gave up her post and the then-president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, appointed her as the foreign minister.
2 - López Obrador Sworn in As First Leftist President of Mexico
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has been elected as the first leftist president in Mexico in over 70 years of history. Mr. Obrador promised a peaceful and orderly transition.
Mr. Obrador won a crushing victory in the July 1 elections; however, his two previous attempt was unsuccessful. Now, he became the country’s first president since the Mexican Revolution to rise to prominence as a protest leader.
The country’s 65-year-old new leader, Mr. Obrador has moved the presidential office fully back to the centuries-old National Palace that lines one side of the square. However, he refused to live at the luxurious, heavily guard presidential residence rather preferred to reside at his private home.
3 - RBI Governor Urjit Patel Resigned
Because of some personal reason, Urjit Patel, has resigned from the post of the Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI). However, his resignation came amidst the backdrop of increasing tensions between the Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank of India.
Mr. Patel took over as the 24th Governor of the RBI on 5th September, 2016. Because of his early retirement (through resignation) made him the shortest serving Governor of RBI since 1992.
Another matter of fact is, in the recent months, there was no synchronization between Government of India and the RBI, they were at loggerheads. RBI has been more aggressive towards the default lenders. Most likely, because of these reasons, there is drop in economy growth rate.
4 - Four Indians Made Space in World's 100 Most Powerful Women, 2018
The 15th list in reference to the ranking of the 'World's 100 most powerful women, 2018, is released. The four Indian women namely Roshni Nadar Malhotra, Kiran Muzumdar Shaw, Shobhana Bhartia, and Priyanka Chopra have secured their places in top 100 most powerful women.
Roshni Nadar Malhotra
37 years old, Roshni Nadar Malhotra, has placed at 51st, which is the top among all four Indian women. She is the CEO at the HCL Technologies and responsible for all strategic decisions for the 8.1 billion enterprise. Major operating areas of HCL Technologies are technology, infosystems, and healthcare.
In addition to this, Roshni Nadar Malhotra also acts as the trustee to the Shiv Nadar Foundation. The major focus of Shiv Nadar Foundation is in education, which has set up some of the top colleges and schools in India.
Kiran Muzumdar Shaw
Kiran Muzumdar has placed at 60th, which is second highest rank among four Indian women. She is India’s richest self-made woman. She has set up India’s largest biopharmaceutical firm in 1978.
Her style of working is different as she does not believe in following the tradition to run her business rather she has invested much money in Research and Development based biotech firm.
Besides, she also runs Mazumdar Shaw medical Center, with an objective is to provide sustainable and affordable cancer care.
Shobhana Bhartia
Shobhana Bhartia has bagged the 88th rank, which is the third highest among all four Indian women. Shobhana Bhartia is the Chairperson and Managing Director of HT Media.
After launching her business weekly MintAsia in Singapore, 2013, she bought Webitude, a social and digital media outfit.
Priyanka Chopra
The former Miss World and actress and producer, Priyanka Chopra is placed at 94th position, which is the last among all four Indian women. Priyanka Chopra is one of the most successful Bollywood actors. She, later, also made her US big screen debut in 2017.
Priyanka also has launched her own production company namely Purple Pebble Pictures with the objective to promote regional filmmakers. Recently, she married an American musician and actor Nick Jonas.
Besides, following women are the top ten in the list of 100 most powerful women - 2018 −
Angela Merkel − She is a politician and chancellor of Germany.
Theresa May − She is a politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Christine Lagarde − She is a French lawyer and politician who is currently serving as the Managing Director and Chairwoman of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Mary Barra − She is American business woman and Chairwoman and CEO of General Motors Company.
Abigail Pierrepont Johnson − She is an American businesswoman and since 2014, she is president and Chief Executive Officer of US investment firm Fidelity Investments, and chairman of its international sister company Fidelity International.
Melinda Ann Gates − She is an American philanthropist. She is a former Microsoft employee and co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Besides, she is the winner of Padma Bhushan.
Susan Diane Wojcicki − She is an American technology executive. She has been serving as the CEO of YouTube since February 2014.
Ana Patricia Botin − She is a Spanish banker. In 2014, she was appointed as the Executive Chairman of Santander Group.
Marillyn Adams Hewson − She is an American and the Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Lockheed Martin.
Ginni Rometty − She is an American business executive. She is the current chair, president, and CEO of IBM, and the first woman to head the company.
5 - Mexican Beauty Vanessa Ponce de Leon Crowned Miss World 2018
The Mexican beauty Vanessa Ponce de Leon of Mexico won the Miss World 2018 title. She is crowned by outgoing queen Manushi Chhillar (the Indian beauty) in the coastal city of Sanya, China. Vanessa won the title among 117 other hopefuls from all around the world.
She is the first Mexican queen to have won the title Miss World. Nicolene Limsnukan of Thailand was named first runner-up. The 26-year-old beauty completed her degree in International Business. Currently, she is on the board of directors of a rehab centre for girls and volunteers for ‘Migrantes en el Camino’.
6 - Philippino Beauty Gray Crowned Miss Universe 2018
Catriona Elisa Gray of Philippines has been crowned as Miss Universe 2018 at a gala ceremony. She was crowned by 2017 Miss Universe Demi Leigh Nel-Peters, who comes from South Africa.
The beauties from South Africa namely Tamaryn Green and Venezuela namely Sthefany Guterrez have secured the first runner-up and second runner-up spots respectively.
7 - Former US President Barack Obama Named as Most Admired Man
As per the report of Gallup survey, the former US President Barack Obama has been named as the most admired man in America. He is named so in the 11th surprising year in a row. However, the current President, Donald Trump has been ranked 2nd for the fourth consecutive year.
Besides, the former first lady and wife of former President Barack Obama, Michelle Obama named as most admired woman in the country. She has replaced Hillary Clinton.
Surprisingly, in the last 17 years, it was the first time Clinton did not make place at the top in the list.
