Current Affairs June 2020 - Appointments

1 - Raveesh Kumar appointed as the next Ambassador of India to Finland

Former spokesperson of the External Affairs Ministry Raveesh Kumar has been appointed as India's next Ambassador to Finland. He is a 1995-batch Indian Foreign Service officer. Kumar served as the spokesperson of the MEA from July 2017 to April 2020.

In Finland, Kumar succeeds Vani Rao. In the past, he has looked after the East Asia desk in the headquarters of the MEA in Delhi and served as Deputy Chief of Mission in Jakarta followed by his posting as Consul General in Frankfurt.

2 - Gaitri I. Kumar appointed as the next High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom

Seasoned diplomat Gaitri I Kumar has been appointed as India's next High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. She succeeds Ruchi Ghanashyam. Prior to this appointment, the 1986-batch Indian Foreign Service Officer was serving as Indian Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and the European Union.

Ms Kumar served in multiple Indian missions including in Paris, Kathmandu, Lisbon and Geneva. She also served as Joint Secretary in the Americas division at the ministry's headquarters in Delhi.

3 - Arun Singhal appointed as Chief Executive Officer of FSSAI

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Arun Singhal as the new Chief Executive Officer of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). He will replace GSG Ayyangar.

Prior to this appointment, Singhal was serving as Special Secretary, Department of Health and Family Welfare. FSSAI is India’s apex food regulator and is responsible for setting up standards for the food industry and regulate the manufacturing, storage, distribution, sale, and import of foods.

4 - PR Jaishankar appointed as Managing Director of IIFCL

The Banks Board Bureau has appointed PR Jaishankar as the Managing Director of India Infrastructure Finance Company (IIFCL). He is the Executive Director at National Housing Bank. The position at IIFCL was lying vacant since June 13, 2017.

Banks Board Bureau is a body of eminent professionals and officials to make recommendations for appointment of whole-time directors as well as non-executive chairpersons of public sector banks (PSBs) and state-owned financial institutions.

5 - Pradip Kumar Tripathi assumed charge as Secretary in Ministry of Steel

Mr Pradip Kumar Tripathi has taken over as Secretary, Ministry of Steel. He succeeds Binoy Kumar. Mr Tripathi is an IAS officer of 1987 batch of Jammu and Kashmir cadre.

Prior to this appointment, Mr Tripathi had been posted as Special Secretary and Establishment Officer in Department of Personnel and Training. The appointment of Mr Tripathi was approved by the Appointment Committee of Cabinet. The Ministry of Steel is responsible for formulating all policies regarding steel production, distribution and pricing in India.

6 - Sushil Kumar Singhal appointed as High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea

Sushil Kumar Singhal has been appointed as the next High Commissioner of India to the Independent State of Papua New Guinea. He is presently serving as the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs. He will replace Vijay Kumar.

Sushil Kumar Singhal had earlier served as Ambassador to Angola, Deputy High Commissioner to Kenya and he was also DPR to UNEP and UN Habitat in Nairobi. He had also served in Indian Missions in Tanzania, Belgium, Bangladesh, Hungary in different capacities.

7 - Mr. Sibi George appointed as Ambassador of India to Kuwait

Sibi George, an Indian Foreign Service officer of 1993 batch, has been appointed India's next Ambassador to Kuwait. He is at present India's Ambassador in Switzerland. He will replace K. Jeeva Sagar.

Sibi George was first appointed as Political Officer in Egypt. He has worked in Indian Missions at Doha, Islamabad, Washington DC, Tehran and Riyadh in various capacities. The Ministry of External Affairs awarded him the SK Singh Award for Excellence in Foreign Service in 2014.

8 - Rahul Shrivastava appointed as next Ambassador of India to Romania

The government has appointed Rahul Shrivastava as the new Ambassador of India to Romania. He is presently serving as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs. He will replace Mr. Thanglura Darlong.

The 1999-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) Officer was the Ambassador to Venezuela from 2016-18. In the past, he has also served in Russia, the UK and Kazakhstan. Several Indian firms such as Ranbaxy, Gujarat Heavy Chemicals (GHCL), WIPRO, Genpact and Raymonds have a presence in Romania.

9 - VN Datt took over as Chairman and MD of National Fertilizers Limited

Virendra Nath Datt has taken over as Chairman & Managing Director (CMD) of National Fertilizers Limited (NFL). Currently, he is Director (Marketing) since October 2018. Prior to the appointment, he served as the Executive Director (ED) in GAIL Limited.

Datt has a professional experience of over 35 years with premier Central Public Sector Enterprises -CPSEs such as GAIL and ONGC besides the Fertilizer Industry. He was with ONGC before joining GAIL in 1995.

10 - Krishnendu Majumdar appointed as Chairperson of BAFTA

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has appointed Krishnendu Majumdar as the Chairperson, making him the first person of colour to hold the prestigious role. The Emmy-winning and Bafta-nominated television producer and director will succeed Pippa Harris.

Majumdar also became the youngest person to hold the role in 35 years. He has been deputy chair for one year. Majumdar has been closely working with BAFTA for 14 years now.

11 - Twitter appointed ex-Google CFO as new board Chairman

Twitter has appointed former Google Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pichette as the company’s new Chairman of the Board. Pichette has joined Twitter’s board of directors in 2017. He had earlier served as Google’s CFO from 2008 until 2015.

Pichette will take over from Omid Kordestani. Kordestani will remain on Twitter’s board. kordestani had served as Twitter’s board chairman since October 2015. Pichette also is on the board of the Trudeau Foundation.

12 - Uday Kotak took over as CII President

Veteran banker Uday Kotak has assumed office as the President of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for 2020-21. He is Managing Director and CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited. Mr Kotak took over from Vikram Kirloskar.

T V Narendran, CEO and Managing Director of Tata Steel Limited, is now the President Designate of CII for 2020-21. Chairman and Managing Director of Bajaj Finserv Limited, Sanjiv Bajaj, took over as CII Vice President for 2020-21.

13 - Brajendra Navnit appointed as India's new ambassador to WTO

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has appointed senior IAS Officer, Brajendra Navnit, as India’s new ambassador to the World Trade Organization (WTO). He will be posted at the Permanent Mission of India (PMI) to the WTO in Geneva. He will replace JS Deepak at the PMI.

Navnit is a 1999-batch officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre. Prior to this appointment, he was serving as Joint Secretary in the PMO. Anwar Hussain Shaik has been appointed Counsellor, Permanent Mission of India to the WTO.

14 - Rajeev Topno appointed as Senior Advisor at World Bank

The government has cleared appointment of senior IAS officers Rajiv Topno as Senior Advisor to the Executive Director (ED) at World Bank. He is a 1996-batch bureaucrat of the Gujarat cadre and currently serving as private secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Similary, Senior IAS officer Ravi Kota has been appointed as Minister (Economic) at the Indian embassy in Washington. Lekhan Thakkar, a Central Secretariat Service (CSS) officer, has been appointed Counsellor (Economic) at the Indian Embassy in Beijing, China. H Atheli, a 2000 batch officer of the Indian Civil Accounts Service (ICAS), will be Advisor (Director level) to ED, Asian Development Bank, Manila, Philippines.

15 - Monika Mohta appointed India’s next Ambassador to Switzerland

Monika Kapil Mohta, presently Ambassador of India to Sweden was appointed as the next Ambassador of India to Switzerland. She replaced Sibi George. Prior to this appointment, she has served as Ambassador of India to Poland and Lithuania, in the Permanent Delegation of India to UNESCO and as Director of The Nehru Centre and Minister (Culture) at the High Commission of India to the United Kingdom.

Monika Mohta has handled various positions including Additional Secretary, Director (Pakistan), Director (Gulf), Director (External Publicity) and Deputy Spokesperson, Director (United Nations).

16 - Vice Admiral Biswajit Dasgupta assumed charge as Chief of Staff, Eastern Naval Command

Vice Admiral Biswajit Dasgupta assumed charge as the Chief of Staff, Eastern Naval Command, Visakhapatnam. He replaced Vice Admiral S N Ghormade who has been transferred as Controller Personnel Services at the Integrated Headquarters, Ministry of Defence (Navy), New Delhi.

Mr Dasgupta is an alumnus of National Defence Academy and was commissioned into the Indian Navy in 1985. He is a recipient of the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal and Vishisht Seva Medal for distinguished service. He was also awarded the Yudh Seva Medal for coordinating evacuation operations from strife-torn Yemen in 2015 under Operation Raahat.

17 - Anil Valluri appointed as senior director for Google Cloud India

Google Cloud appointed Anil Valluri as Senior Director for Google Cloud in India. Prior to this appointment, he served as president of India and SAARC operations in NetApp. He has handled various responsibilities in sales and marketing in the hi-tech industry. He has worked as Vice President and MD for Sun Microsystems in India.

Google Cloud Platform, offered by Google, is a suite of cloud computing services. Valluri has headed several technology transitions in India for customers across banking, telecommunications, public sector and manufacturing.

18 - Shambhu S Kumaran appointed India's next envoy to Philippines

1995-batch Indian Foreign Service Officer, Shambhu S Kumaran has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Philippines. Kumaran is presently Ambassador of India to the Kingdom of Morocco.

Kumaran's diplomatic assignments abroad include postings in Frankfurt and Berlin (1997-2002), as Political Counsellor in Kathmandu (2007-2009) and as Deputy High Commissioner to South Africa (2009-2012). He has also served as Joint Secretary (Planning and International Cooperation) in the Ministry of Defence while on deputation.

19 - KK Venugopal to continue as Attorney General of India for 1 more year

Attorney General of India, KK Venugopal, has got a 1-year extension of service. His tenure is due to end on June 30. He took over as Attorney General on July 1, 2017 and succeeded Mukul Rohatgi. He is the 15^th person to serve as Attorney General for India.

Attorney General is the central government’s top law officer and chief legal advisor. AG represents the Government of India in crucial cases before the Supreme Court.

20 - UTI MF appoints Imtaiyazur Rahman as full-time CEO

The Board of UTI Mutual Fund has appointed Imtaiyazur Rahman as the Chief Executive Officer. He had been serving as the acting CEO of the company since Aug 2018. Rahman joined the UTI Group in 1998 and is with UTI since 2003.

Rahman was involved in the transformation of the organisation after restructuring of the erstwhile Unit Trust of India while working with earlier Chairmen M Damodaran and UK Sinha.

21 - Urjit Patel appointed as Chairman of NIPFP

Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Urjit Patel was appointed as Chairman of the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) for a period of four years. Mr Patel replaced outgoing Chairman Dr. Vijay Laxman Kelkar.

NIPFP is an autonomous research institute under India's Ministry of Finance and is based in New Delhi. It conducts research on public finance and contributes to the process of policy-making relating to public finance. Rathin Roy is the present Director of the institute.

22 - Nirakar Pradhan joined as Chief of PRMIA

The Professional Risk Managers’ International Association has appointed Dr Nirakar Pradhan as the Chief Executive Officer of its new India office. Pradhan has led teams at State Bank of India and Generali Group in India and Europe.

PRMIA is a non-profit led by top professionals dedicated to promoting best practices in risk management. Its focus on training and certification has been recognised by the Government, Reserve Bank of India, State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and HSBC, among others.

23 - T. Rabi Sankar appointed as new Chairman of IFTAS

IFTAS, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reserve Bank of India, appointed T Rabi Sankar as the Chairman and Dr. N Rajendran as the CEO of the organization. T Rabi Sankar is currently serving as Executive Director, Reserve Bank of India for Payment systems, Information Technology, Risk Management and Fintech.

Dr. N Rajendran is a leading expert in the field of Payments & Banking Systems. He has operationalized National Financial Switch (NFS) and Cheque Truncation System (CTS), Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), National Automated Clearing House (NACH), Aadhar Enabled Payment System (AEPS), etc.