Current Affairs March 2020 - Appointments
1 - Smt Amita Pandove took oath as Information Commissioner
Smt Amita Pandove took oath as Information Commissioner, Central Information Commission (CIC) by the Chief Information Commissioner, Shri Bimal Julka. With her induction, the total number of Information Commissioners in the Central Information Commission including Chief Information Commissioner has gone up to 7.
According to rules, the CIC and ICs are appointed by the President on the recommendation of a committee consisting of the Prime Minister as its head, the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and a Union cabinet minister to be nominated by the Prime Minister.
2 - Sanjay Kumar Panda appointed as India’s next Ambassador to Turkey
Shri Sanjay Kumar Panda, presently Consulate General of India, San Francisco was appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Turkey. He replaced Sanjay Bhattacharya.
Panda will be responsible for handling India-Turkey relations that are under strain, at present. Turkey criticized India after communal riots in Delhi. India cautioned Ankara against encouraging cross-border terrorism and refrained Turkey from commenting on the internal affairs of the country.
3 - Ajay Bhushan Pandey appointed as new Finance Secretary
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet appointed the current Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey as the new Finance Secretary. He replaced the current Finance Secretary Rajiv Kumar. He has served as GSTN Chairman and as CEO of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).
Special Secretary in the Department of Revenue Girish Chandra Murmu was appointed as new Expenditure Secretary. Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash was appointed as additional secretary in the Department of Telecommunications.
4 - Nokia announced Pekka Lundmark as its new President & CEO
Nokia's Board of Directors appointed Pekka Lundmark as President and Chief Executive Officer of Nokia. He replaced Rajeev Suri who will serve as the President & CEO of Nokia till August 31, 2020. Lundmark is currently President and CEO of Fortum, a leading energy company based in Espoo, Finland.
Prior to Fortum, Lundmark served as President and CEO of Konecranes, a global material-handling technology leader, and from 1990-2000 he held multiple executive positions at Nokia, including Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at Nokia Networks.
5 - Shivakumar and Anil Chaudhary appointed as chiefs of Karnataka and Delhi units for Congress
The Congress party appointed new chiefs for its Karnataka and Delhi units. While senior leader DK Shivakumar was appointed as its Karnataka unit chief, former MLA Anil Chaudhary was appointed to lead the Delhi state unit.
Shivakumar replaced Dinesh Gundu Rao and Mr Chaudhary took charge from Subhash Chopra. Congress has also appointed Abhishek Dutt, Shivani Chopra, Jaikishan, Mudit Agarwal and Ali Hassan as vice-presidents of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee.
6 - Lt Gen KJS Dhillon joined CDS Staff as DG-D.I.A
Lt Gen KJS Dhillon will take over the post of Director General Defence Intelligence Agency and Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (Intelligence). This department comes under the Chief of Defence Staff in the newly created Department of Military Affairs.
Lt Gen Dhillon,as DG DIA and DCIDS, will be responsible for collating technical as well as human intelligence for the three armed forces. He recently handed over the charge of XV Corps to Lt Gen BS Raju.
7 - ECI appointed Hirdesh Kumar new Chief Electoral Officer of Jammu and Kashmir
The Election Commission of India has appointed Hirdesh Kumar as the new Chief Electoral Officer of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. He replaced Shailendra Kumar.
Hridesh Kumar, a 1999 batch IAS officer is presently serving as Commissioner Secretary in the School Education Department of J&K. The appointment comes at an important time when delimitation of the legislative assembly seats is around the corner and Union Government has already constituted the delimitation commission.
8 - Surjit Singh Deswal gets additional charge of BSF DG
Surjit Singh Deswal took over the additional charge of Director General (DG) of Border Security Force (BSF). He is 1984-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of Haryana cadre and is currently the Director-General of Indo-Tibet Border Police.
Deswal took over from Director-General Vivek Johri, who has been appointed Director-General of Madhya Pradesh Police. The Border Security Force (BSF) is a paramilitary force charged with guarding India's land border during peace time and preventing transnational crime.
9 - Prashant Kumar appointed as new CEO & MD of Yes Bank
Prashant Kumar has been appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Yes Bank under the restructuring scheme. Kumar was the former Chief Financial Officer and Deputy Managing Director of the State Bank of India (SBI).
Sunil Mehta, former non-executive Chairman of Punjab National Bank has been appointed as the non-executive Chairman of Yes Bank. Mahesh Krishnamurthy and Atul Bheda have been appointed to the post of non-executive Directors of the bank.
10 - Karan Bajwa appointed as new MD of Google Cloud India
Karan Bajwa appointed as Managing Director of Google Cloud in India. He will be responsible for handling various operations for Google Cloud’s extensive solution portfolio such as Google Cloud Platform and G Suite. He has earlier served as the Managing Director of IBM for India and South Asia, worked with Microsoft for nine years and with Cisco Systems in India and Singapore.
Google Cloud Platform, offered by Google, is a suite of cloud computing services that runs on the same infrastructure that Google uses internally for its end-user products, such as Google Search, Gmail and YouTube.
11 - Ravinder Singh Dhillon appointed as new CMD of PFC
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved appointment of Ravinder Singh Dhillon as Chairman and Managing Director of Power Finance Corporation (PFC). Power Finance Corporation Ltd. is a non-banking financial company engaged in providing financial assistance to the power sector. Prior to this appointment, he was serving as a Director (Projects, Public Grievance) in Power Finance Corporation (PFC) Limited.
Other appointment includes IFS officer Somnath Ghosh as officer on special duty in the Department of Defence.
12 - Sameer Aggarwal appointed as new CEO of Walmart India
Sameer Aggarwal has been appointed as CEO of Walmart India. He will report to Dirk Van Den Berghe, Executive Vice-President and Regional CEO of Asia and Global Sourcing, Walmart. He succeeds Krish Iyer.
Aggarwal was working as the Chief Finance, Development and Supply Chain Officer for KFC Thailand. Prior to KFC, he worked with Sainsbury’s in its UK and China operations as Head of Strategy and then Executive Assistant to the CEO.
