Jagjit Pavadia, the former Narcotics Commissioner of India and a retired officer of the Indian Revenue Service (Customs), has been elected president of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB). She is the first Indian to be heading the Vienna-based organization and the second woman to hold this office.
The Board will pay particular attention to the timely supply of and access to controlled drugs during emergency situations. It will also continue its work on the development of guidelines for the control and monitoring of cannabis and cannabis-related substances. INCB monitors the compliance of UN Member States with the three international drug control conventions and the functioning of the international drug control system.
May 27, 2021
H.S. Doreswamy, Freedom Fighter Passes Away
Freedom fighter and activist H. S. Doreswamy died in Bengaluru. He was 103.
Born on April 10, 1918, Harohalli Srinivasaiah Doreswamy took part in the Quit India Movement and was jailed for 14 months. He had also participated in the 'Mysuru Chalo' movement to compel the then Mysuru Maharaja to accede to the Indian State post independence.
An alumni of the Central college in Bengaluru, Doreswamy was into the teaching profession and even ran a newspaper called 'Pauravani'.
He had taken part in various agitations till COVID-19 outbreak.
May 25, 2021
China's 'Father of Hybrid Rice' Yuan Longping Passes Away
Chinese scientist Yuan Longping, renowned for developing a hybrid rice strain that vastly improved the grain output in the country, passed away at the age of 91.
Born in Beijing in 1930, Yuan succeeded in cultivating high-yield hybrid rice strain in 1973, which was later grown on a large scale in China and other countries to substantially raise output.
Over the next four decades, he continued to research and upgrade hybrid rice, which has now reached its third generation. Until early this year, he had been conducting research at a seed breeding base in Hainan Province.
May 24, 2021
Music Director Ram Laxman Passes Away
Veteran music director Vijay Patil aka Laxman of Raam Laxman duo, who is known for his work in films such as Maine Pyaar Kiya, Patthar Ke Phool, Hum Saath Saath Hain and Hum Aapke Hai Kaun passed away. He was 79.
He had the rare distinction of working with the three Mangeshkar sisters, Lata, Usha and Asha. He gave Salman Khan the two biggest hits of his career. He reintroduced S.P. Balasubrahmanyam to Hindi film lovers. He gave Rajshri Films its most memorable box office success stories and he was the only one who survived the group's transition from making shoestring budget cinema to roaring multi-starrers. A sensitive man, he retained his composer partner's name (Raam had passed away in 1976) alongside his until he breathed his last following a cardiac arrest earlier today in Mumbai. He was none other than Vijay Patil, better known as music composer Raam Laxman.
Former Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Passes Away
Srikumar Banerjee, former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission passed away. He was 70.
He retired as chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission and secretary of the Department of Atomic Energy in 2012.
Banerjee also served as the director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) for six years till 2010.
He was a recipient of many awards in his career, including the Padma Shri in 2005 and the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in 1989.
May 22, 2021
Former Union Minister Babagouda Patil Passes Away
Former Union Minister and eminent farmer leader Babagouda Patil died at a hospital in Belagavi. He was 76.
He became an independent MLA from Kittur in 1989 and he won the Lok Sabha election from Belgaum constituency on a BJP ticket in 1998.
Patil then became Minister of State for Rural Development (independent charge) in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.
Sundarlal Bahuguna, Noted Environmentalist and Chipko Movement Leader, Dies
Sunderlal Bahuguna, veteran environmentalist and pioneer of the Chipko movement, died at the AIIMS in Rishikesh after battling Covid-19. He was 94.
Born in an affluent family in Maroda in Tehri on January 9, 1927, Bahuguna was influenced by freedom fighter Sridev Suman, a prominent figure in the Garhwal region. Suman introduced young Sunderlal to the Gandhian way of peace and non-violence and spearheaded the anti-liquor movementin the region.
Bahuguna was awarded the Padma Shri in 1981, which he refused to accept. In 1987, he was awarded the Right Livelihood Award and the Padma Vibhushan in 2009 for his work in the conservation of the environment.
The Chipko movement was a Gandhian form of protest against deforestation by locals in the Himalayan region. To stop deforestation, locals - primarily women - would make circles around trees and stop men from cutting them down.
The first Chipko action took place in April 1973 in Mandal village, now in Uttarakhand, and spread over the next five years to many Himalayan districts.
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