Current Affairs May 2016 - Appointments
News 1 - Dilip Tuli to be In-charge as the Senior Vice President of Housing.com
The renowned real estate platform, Housing.com, hands over the charge of Senior Vice President - Strategy & New Business Initiatives to former KPMG Director Dilip Tuli to assist with strategy and oversee the new business initiatives, such as transaction facilitation and fulfilment services. Tuli’s appointment follows closely on the heels of the recent addition of Vineet Singh, Former Business Head of 99acres, who joined the company in a senior advisory role and invested an undisclosed amount in Housing.com.
At KPMG, he was a Director with the Deal Advisory Practice assisting a cross section of clients in evaluating Financial, Commercial and Forensic Risks and Opportunities of their investment plans. During the last two years, Dilip was a senior member of the sector team responsible for Logistics and Industrial Markets at KPMG.
News 2 - Eminent Statistician, Dr. Radha Binod Barman, Nominated as the Chairperson of the National Statistical Commission
Dr. Radha Binod Barman, an eminent statistician, has taken over as the part-time Chairperson in the National Statistical Commission. Prof. S. Mahendra Dev, Prof. Rahul Mukherjee, Dr. Rajiv Mehta and Dr. Manoj Panda are the other part-time Members in the Commission.
The Chief Executive Officer, NITI Aayog is the ex-officio Member in the Commission. The Commission is an advisory body on all statistical matters, set up to enhance public trust in official statistics.
News 3 - Kishore Biyani Appointed as the MD of Bharti Retail
Future Group's Chief Executive Kishore Biyani has been appointed as the Managing Director of Bharti Retail. Future group, in May 2015, agreed to merge its retail business with rival Bharti Retail in an all-stock deal worth Rs. 750 crores to create one of the biggest supermarket chains with Rs. 15,000 crore turnover.
Mr. Rakesh Biyani, who is also a director at the Future Group, has also been appointed as the Joint Managing Director of Bharti Retail, which will be later renamed as the Future Retail Ltd.
News 4 - Sameer Chadha Appointed as the CEO in KPMG India
KPMG's offshore arm in India appointed Mr. Sameer Chadha as their Partner and CEO. Chadha was earlier working with Barclays Shared Services, where he was the Chief Executive Officer. Prior to working with Barclays, he held strategic leadership roles at firms such as Bank of America, First Source Solutions and Lehman Brothers. He has 25 years of experience with leading organizations across the financial services and consumer goods sectors.
He is a chartered accountant and holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University.
News 5 - Sunil Lanba to Assume Charge as the Next Chief of Naval Staff
Vice Admiral Sunil Lanba, the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief (FOC-in-C) of the Western Naval Command will assume charge as the new Chief of Naval Staff. He will replace Admiral RK Dhowan. The 58-year-old Lanba is a specialist in Navigation and Direction and also a recipient of the Param Vishisht Seva Medal and the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal. He will assume charge on the 31st of May and will have the full three-year tenure as the Navy Chief.
Lanba was commissioned into the executive branch of the Navy on January 1, 1978 and has held several commands as well as staff appointments during his 38-year career with the Navy.
News 6 - Ferrari Named Sergio Marchionne as its CEO
Ferrari announced Sergio Marchionne as its CEO. It has though retained his position as the Chairman. Marchionne, who is also the CEO of the mass-market carmaker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, replaces long-time CEO Amedeo Felisa, who is retiring after 26 years at Ferrari.
The appointment was followed after Ferrari posted its best first-quarter earnings ever, a 19 percent increase in the net profit which went up to 78 million euros ($89.5 million). That compares with the €65 million (US$75.1 million) in the same period last year.
News 7 - SC Collegium Recommended the Transfer of Uttarakhand Chief Justice to Andhra Pradesh
The Supreme Court (SC) Collegium, headed by the Chief Justice of India TS Thakur recommended transfer of Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice KM Joseph to Andhra Pradesh High Court.
Justice Joseph, 57, was appointed as the Chief Justice of the Uttarakhand High Court by the President in July 2014. He was elevated to the post of the Chief Justice on recommendation of the then CJI Rajendra Mal Lodha. In April 2016, a bench of Uttarakhand High Court, presided over by him quashed the Union Government’s decision to impose President's rule in the state. However, the ruling was stayed by the Supreme Court.
News 8 - SC Collegium Recommended 4 Names for Elevation to the Apex Court
The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended elevation of three High Court Chief Justices and a senior lawyer to the apex court. The Collegium headed by the Chief Justice of India T S Thakur has recommended the elevation of Chief Justice A M Khanwilkar of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud of the Allahabad High Court and Chief Justice Ashok Bhushan of the Kerala High Court to the Supreme Court. The Collegium also recommended the appointment of former Additional Solicitor General and Senior Advocate L Nageswara Rao as a Supreme Court judge.
This now takes the number of Supreme Court Judges to 29 from 25, still two short of its approved strength.
News 9 - Kumar Rajesh Chandra Appointed as the Chief of Bureau of Civil Aviation Security
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the name of the Senior IPS officer Kumar Rajesh Chandra as the Chief of Bureau of the Civil Aviation Security (BCAS). He has been appointed in the place of IPS Officer G S Malhi. The position was lying vacant since November 2012. Chandra is currently working as the Additional Director General (Modernisation), Bihar Police.
The main responsibility of a BCAS is to lay down standards and measures in respect of security of civil flights at the international and domestic airports in India.
News 10 - Sudhir Yadav is the new Tihar Director-General
Sudhir Yadav has been appointed as the new Director-General (DG) of the Tihar Central Jail. Mr. Yadav is a 1985 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer. Currently, he is serving as the Special Commissioner of Police (Provision and Logistics) in Delhi. He had earlier served as the DGP of Andaman and Nicobar Islands in 2013.
Yadav has been appointed in the place of J K Sharma who had resigned hours after taking charge on April 20. Mr. Sharma was appointed by the Aam Admi Party and his appointment order was nullified as the government had not sought prior approval of the Lt Governor Najeeb Jung before the appointment.
News 11 - Somnath Ghosh appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Tajikistan
Shri Somnath Ghosh (IFS – 1997), presently the Ambassador of India to Mongolia, has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Tajikistan. He is expected to take up his assignment shortly.
He has so far served in Russia, Tajikistan and Belgium (European Union Headquarters). He has also served as the Assistant High Commissioner of India in Bangladesh. Apart from that, he has also handled various desks in the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi.
News 12 - Bombay HC Senior Advocate Atma Ram Nadkarni appointed as the Additional Solicitor General
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) appointed the Senior Advocate of the Bombay High Court, Atma Ram Nadkarni, as the Additional Solicitor General (ASG) in Supreme Court for a period of three years.
An Additional Solicitor General acts as the law officer to advice the Central government on various legal matters. Solicitor General and Additional Solicitor General’s assist the government's top legal adviser Attorney General. He was the Advocate General for the state of Goa since 2012.
News 13 - Sanjay Kaul is the new Country Head for Apple India
Mr. Sanjay Kaul has been promoted to the position of the Country Manager for Apple India. Kaul has been associated with Apple since November 2011. He has now taken over the role of Country Head from Manish Dhir, who had quit the company in January.
Kaul was associated with BlackBerry as the Director of Channel Sales for India for over two years before joining Apple. He completed his Msc (Tech) Engineering Technology, Industrial Engineering from BITS Pilani. He completed his MBA in International Business from Gustavson School of Business, Canada in 1998.
News 14 - Mrugank Paranjape takes charge as the MD & CEO of MCX
Mr. Mrugank Paranjape today took charge as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (MD & CEO) of the Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX), and as a Director on the Board. Mr. Paranjape’s appointment has been approved by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), for a period of three years with effect from May 09, 2016. Prior to joining MCX, he was the India Head/CEO of DB Centre — a unique front office desk extension of Deutsche Bank.
Mr. Paranjape is an alumnus of IIT Mumbai (Electrical Engineering), and holds a PGDM (Specialization in Information Systems) from IIM Ahmedabad.
FYI: Chairman of the MCX is Mr. Satyananda Mishra.
News 15 - Indian-American, Manjit Singh, appointed to a key administration post by President Obama
US President Barack Obama has appointed Indian-American engineer, Manjit Singh, as the member of the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Manjit Singh is the co-founder of the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF). He is also the President of Agilious, a software technology consulting firm founded by him in 2013.
He completed his Bachelor of Engineering from University of Bombay in India. He received his Master of Science degree from the State University of New York at Albany.
News 16 - NSE welcomes Mr. Ashok Chawla as its Chairman
With the approval of SEBI, the Board of directors of NSE has elected Mr. Ashok Chawla as the Chairman. The appointment is effective from 3rd May 2016 and is valid till the 27th March 2019.
Prior to joining NSE, Mr. Ashok Chawla was till recently, the Chairman of the Competition Commission of India (“CCI”). He obtained his Masters in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics in 1972 and joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1973. He started his career in the State of Gujarat and also served as Finance Secretary and Civil Aviation Secretary, among other posts.
News 17 - Justice Naveen Sinha sworn-in as the new Chief Justice of Rajasthan HC
Justice Naveen Sinha was sworn in as the 31st Chief Justice of Rajasthan. Governor Kalyan Singh administered the oath to the new Chief Justice. He was appointed by the President Pranab Mukherjee as per the provisions of Article 222 of the Constitution as per the recommendation of the Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) T.S. Thakur. He was earlier the Chief Justice of the Chhattisgarh High Court.
He was a Judge in the Patna High Court since 2004 before moving to the Chattisgarh HC.
News 18 - Justice Tinlianthang Vaiphei sworn in as the acting Chief Justice of the Tripura High Court
Justice Tinlianthang Vaiphei was sworn in as the acting Chief Justice of the Tripura High Court. Governor Tathagata Roy administered the oath of office to Vaiphei at the Raj Bhavan in Agartala. He succeeds Justice Deepak Kumar Gupta, who was transferred as the Chief Justice of the Chhattisgarh High Court. Currently Vaiphei is the Acting Chief Justice of the Guwahati High Court.
He has been practicing since 1980 in Manipur. He was also the Advocate General of Mizoram. He was made a permanent Judge of Guwahati High Court in February 2005. In October 2015, he was appointed as the acting Chief Justice of the High Court.
News 19 - Justice Deepak Gupta sworn-in as the Chief Justice of the Chhattisgarh High Court
Justice Deepak Gupta has been sworn-in as the new Chief Justice (CJ) of the Chhattisgarh High Court. He was administered the oath of office by the Chhattisgarh Governor Balram Das Tandon at the Raj Bhawan in Raipur.
Justice Deepak Gupta was transferred from the Tripura High Court by President Pranab Mukherjee following recommendation of the Supreme Court Collegium headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) T.S. Thakur. He will take over from Justice Naveen Sinha who was the Chief Justice of the Chhattisgarh High Court since 2013. He was elevated as the Judge of Himachal Pradesh High Court in October 2004.
News 20 - Barco Appoints Rajiv Bhalla as the MD for India
Barco, a global leader in visualization technology, has appointed Mr. Rajiv Bhalla as the Managing Director for India. Rajiv will help formulate and execute business strategy with the goal of tapping into India’s enormous potential and expand Barco’s local business presence.
Rajiv holds a BE (Electronics) degree as well as an MBA with more than 22 years of senior leadership experience in technology organizations like Thomson Consumer Electronics, Microsoft, NEC and Intel & has a deep understanding of the B2B and B2C aspects of the business.
News 21 - Manzil Saini Appointed as the First Woman SSP of Lucknow
Manzil Saini, a 2005 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, has been appointed as the First Woman Police Chief of Lucknow. She is popular as “Lady Singham”. Saini has replaced outgoing SSP Rajesh Pandey. She was earlier the District Police Chief of Etawah.
Her priority would be safety of woman and sensitizing the lower-level police personnel towards the public. She topped MBA from Delhi School of Economics and cleared the civil services exam in her first attempt.
News 22 - IndiGo appoints Rohit Philip as its new CFO
Rohit Philip has been appointed as the new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Indigo. Philip replaces Pankaj Madan and will assume charge from July 18. Rohit is currently working with global document management and business services major Xerox Corporation. He also worked at United Airlines for 17 years as a senior vice-president, corporate strategy and business development.
IndiGo is the country’s largest carrier by market share.
News 23 - Shell India appoints Mr. Nitin Prasad as their new Country Head
Shell India appointed Nitin Prasad as its new India head with effect from October 1, 2016. Dr. Yasmine Hilton, currently the Chairman of Shell Companies in India and VP of the IT Project Excellence, Royal Dutch Shell (Shell) will end her assignment on 30th September 2016, after a distinguished career spanning 37 years.
Mr Prasad took up his current appointment in 2011 as General Manager. Currently he is the cluster general manager for lubricants sales and marketing for India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
News 24 - Rakesh Kumar Mishra appointed as the CCMB director
Rakesh Kumar Mishra has been appointed as the new Director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
He had joined CCMB in 2001. He was also elected as a fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, India, Indian National Academy of Sciences and Andhra Pradesh Academy of Sciences. He has more than 95 articles published in the national and international journals.
News 25 - UN Secretary-General appoints Mexican Diplomat to head the UN Climate Change Framework
The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon appointed Patricia Espinosa Cantellano of Mexico as the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on the Climate Change (UNFCCC). She will succeed Christiana Figueres of Costa Rica.
Currently the Ambassador of Mexico to Germany (since 2012 and from 2001 to 2002), Ms. Espinosa Cantesssllano was the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico from 2006 to 2012, bringing more than 30 years of experience at the highest levels in international relations, specialized in climate change, global governance, sustainable development, gender equality and protection of human rights.
News 26 - Mary Robinson and Macharia Kamau appointed as Special Envoys on El Niño and Climate
Mary Robinson of Ireland and Macharia Kamau of Kenya have been appointed as Special Envoys on El Niño and Climate by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Ms. Robinson is currently the President of the Mary Robinson Foundation — Climate Justice. She was the President of Ireland and previously served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Mr. Kamau is the Permanent Representative of Kenya to the United Nations. He is a former President of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Board.
News 27 - Ratan P Watal to take charge as Niti Aayog’s Principal Adviser
The NITI Aayog has appointed Former Finance Secretary Ratan P Watal as their Principal Adviser (Social Sector) for 3 years, as per the order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Arvind Panagariya are the Chairperson and the Vice Chairperson of the institution respectively. Amitabh Kant is the Chief Executive Officer of the NITI Aayog.
Retired IAS officer Watal of Andhra Pradesh cadre, had been the Finance Secretary between August last year and April this year.
News 28 - S K Sharma to take charge as the CMD of Nuclear Power Corporation of India
Shri S K Sharma has been appointed for 5 years as the new CMD of NPCI. Shri Sharma takes responsibility for neighborhood development under the Corporate Social Responsibility. Sharma will be responsible for design, construction, commissioning and operation of nuclear power reactors.
He introduced a number of new initiatives for improving safety & reliability of nuclear power stations and was a part of the leadership team when MAPS-2, NAPS-2 and RAPS-5 were established following new records of continuous operation.
News 29 - Vice Admiral Girish Luthra Takes Over Western Naval Command
Vice Admiral Girish Luthra took over the reins of Western Naval Command (WNC) as Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief (FOC-in-C) on 31 May 16 from Vice Admiral Sunil Lanba at a ceremonial parade held at INS Shikra. Vice Admiral Sunil Lanba will take over as the Chief of Naval Staff.
Vice Admiral Luthra was commissioned in the Executive Branch of the Indian Navy in July, 1979. He was awarded Ati Vishisht Seva Medal in 2012 and Vishisht Seva Medal in 2008.
News 30 - Vice Admiral Karambir Singh, AVSM assumes charge as Vice Chief of Naval Staff
Vice Admiral Karambir Singh, AVSM, assumed charge as the Vice Chief of Naval Staff. He was commissioned into the Indian Navy in July 1980. He is a graduate of Defence Services Staff College, Wellington and College of Naval Warfare Mumbai.
The Admiral has been commended by the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief and is a recipient of the prestigious Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (AVSM) awarded by the Hon’ble President of India.
