General Awareness

PERSONS IN NEWS - March 2019

Mar 2019

Sep 03, 2019

Abdul Sattar Joins Shiv Sena

Two-term Congress MLA and former Maharashtra Minister Abdul Sattar joined the Shiv Sena. Sattar, who represents Sillod Assembly seat in Aurangabad district, joined the Sena in the presence of Party Chief Uddhav Thackeray at the latter's residence in Mumbai.
Sattar resigned as Congress MLA before the General Elections held in 2019 and helped the then BJP State President Raosaheb Danve, who won from Jalna Lok Sabha constituency, which also covers the Sillod Assembly segment.

Sanjeev Kumar Jha Sets New World Record

Sanjeev Kumar Jha, a resident of Madhubani, Bihar broke the World Record for the 'Fastest Full Contact Kick' which is an integral part of every Marshal Art form at Erisha Auditorium, Perungudi, Chennai.
During his attempt, the fastest speed recorded was 200 milliseconds which was calculated using the values from a Digital Stopwatch.
He attempted the world record within the guidelines of the Guinness World Records (GWR) and all the rules and regulations were followed during the event.
The high-speed camera and the common camera for capturing the move were operated by Mango Tree Production House, Chennai.
The eminent witnesses present there were Vekteshwara of OMR Taekwondo Dojo Chennai and Suresh Altran (Aeronautical Engineer). Sanjeev attempted the record as a member of the OMR Taekwondo Dojo Chennai.

Sep 02, 2019

Lt Gen Naravane Takes Over As Vice Chief

Eastern Army Commander Lt Gen Manoj Mukund Naravane has taken over as Vice Chief of Army Staff (VCAS) and is widely expected to take over the reins of the world's second-largest standing army by 2019 end.
Lt Gen Naravane, who has strong operational and command experience, would be the senior-most officer when General Bipin Rawat finishes his tenure as Army Chief at the end of December 2019. Gen Rawat is set to take over as the first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and his successor will have his task cut out as big reforms are expected to roll out in top defence management.
A Sikh Light Infantry officer who has commanded a Rashtriya Rifles battalion in Kashmir, has served in the Assam Rifles and has been posted as defence attache to Myanmar, Lt Gen Naravane will have a few months of transition time to settle into the Army HQ.
While the government has made it clear that seniority is no longer the only criteria for selection to the post of a service chief – both Gen Rawat and Navy Chief Karambir Singh are examples of that – there will be little to choose when the appointment is finalised by this year-end (2019).

IndiGo Replaces Its CFO, Brings In GE Veteran Aditya Pande

InterGlobe Aviation Ltd., which runs India's largest airline IndiGo announced the appointment of GE-Healthcare official Aditya Pande as its new Chief Financial Officer (CFO). The announcement follows the resignation of the airline's current CFO Rohit Philip, who leaves IndiGo on 16th September, 2019.
Pande who is a qualified chartered accountant comes with an over 27 years of experience in finance leadership. He was with GE since 1998 and is currently serving as the CFO of GE Healthcare (India, Africa, ASEAN and Asia-Pacific).
Prior to this, Pande was GE Healthcare's Group CFO for its South Asia division

Trump Nominates Indian American Attorney Shireen Matthews As Federal Judge

President Donald Trump has nominated prominent Indian-American attorney Shireen Matthews as a judge of the US District Court for the Southern District of California. If she is confirmed, Matthews will be the first Asian Pacific American woman and first Indian-American to serve as an Article III federal judge in the Southern District, National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA).
The White House announced her nomination. She now awaits approval from the senate. She is a partner with the elite law firm Jones Day, where she specialises in white-collar crimes.
Matthews served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Criminal Division of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California
Matthews was an associate with Latham and Watkins LLP in San Diego
Matthews earned her BA from Georgetown University and her law degree from Duke University School of Law.

Sep 01, 2019

Hyderabadi Youth Sets Guinness World Record

23-year-old B Sai Deepak Patel set a new Guinness World Record by doing 87 one leg full contact knee strikes in 3 minutes while wearing 5-kilogram ankle weights.
Deepak already has two other records, namely most full contact elbow strikes in one minute (alternate elbows),142, and most full contact knee strikes in three minutes (one leg) 175 to his name.
Patel credited his guru and Grandmaster M Jayanth Reddy for the guidance which made him possible to set this record.
Deepak broke the record on April 7, 2019 following which a certificate was issued by the Guinness Book of World Records.
The Hyderabadi lad dedicated his achievement to the Indian Army personnel who laid down their lives while safeguarding the nation and wants to promote the Fit India movement through this record.

Italian Actor, Bodybuilder Franco Columbu, Dies At 78

Italian bodybuilder, boxer and actor Franco Columbu, one of Arnold Schwarzenegger's closest friends, has died aged 78.
Columbu died in a hospital in his native Sardinia after being taken ill while he was swimming in the sea.
After starting his career as a boxer, Columbu progressed into Olympic weightlifting, powerlifting, and later bodybuilding, winning the prestigious title of Mr. Olympia in 1976 and 1981.
Besides his athletic career, Columbu also acted in popular TV series and movies. He appeared in Schwarzenegger's films The Terminator, The Running Man and Conan the Barbarian.
Columbu was Schwarzenegger's best man at his marriage to Maria Shriver in 1986.

Tetra Pak Billionaire Hans Rausing Dead At 93

Swedish businessman Hans Rausing, credited with turning food packaging company Tetra Pak into a global giant, died in England aged 93.
His father, Ruben Rausing, co-founded a company in southern Sweden that was an early innovator in food packaging, seeking to move away from bulk sales of foods such as flour and sugar to consumers.
Ruben Rausing developed the first cardboard container in the shape of a tetrahedron -- a shape made of four triangular sides, also known as a triangular pyramid. It is the shape that gave the company its name.
The new packaging was most notably used to sell milk, replacing glass bottles in a pre-plastic revolution for beverage packaging.
Born in 1926, Hans Rausing was appointed managing director of Tetra Pak International in 1954, and with his brother Gad led the company for four decades.
He retired as president in 1993, having grown the company from seven employees to 36,000 and giving it a global presence.

Barbara Probst Solomon Dies At 90

Barbara Probst Solomon, an American memoirist and essayist known for documenting life in Spain during and after the regime of Gen. Francisco Franco, died on September 1, 2019 at her home in Manhattan.
She was 90.The cause was renal disease.
Esteemed by critics for her observations on 20th-century culture and politics, Ms. Solomon was renowned in particular for her 1972 memoir, "Arriving Where We Started," which chronicled her youthful involvement with the anti-Franco resistance movement, including her naïvely brazen rescue of two resistance members from a Spanish labor camp.
Her essays appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The New Republic, HuffPost and elsewhere. She was also a novelist and a translator from the Spanish.

Aug 31, 2019

Rohit Philip of IndiGo Resigns

Rohit Philip, Chief Financial Officer of IndiGo resigned. His last day in office would be September 15, 2019.
The board appointed Aditya Pande to replace Philip as the Chief Financial Officer with effect from September 16, 2019.
The resignation of Rohit Philip came at a time when two promoters of the airline are engaged in a fued.

Nripendra Misra to Step Down

Nripendra Misra, who has been serving as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's principal secretary for over five years, has conveyed his intention to step down.
On the Prime Minister's request, Misra would continue in his post for two weeks.
Former cabinet secretary Pradeep Kumar Sinha, a retired UP cadre IAS officer from the 1977 batch, has been appointed as Officer on Special Duty in the PMO.
As per reports, P. K. Mishra, a 1972-batch retired IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre, who is serving as additional principal secretary to the Prime Minister, will be the most experienced IAS officer in the PMO, after Misra's exit.

Aug 30, 2019

Fraud-hit CG Power Sacks Gautam Thapar As Chairman

After its Board-instituted investigation unearthed a multi-crore financial fraud, CG Power & Industrial Solutions removed its founder Gautam Thapar as chairman of the company, prompting the tycoon to break his silence to say that there was neither any fraud nor any misappropriation of funds.
The Board of the fraud-hit firm through a circular resolution approved by a majority of the members removed Thapar as the chairman, the company said in a regulatory filing.
Thapar opposed the resolution, while CEO and managing director KN Neelkant, whose continuance has been questioned by investors, abstained from voting on the resolution.
The Board is likely to elect a new chairman. In all likelihood, one of the independent directors will be appointed as the non-executive chairman.

ICRA Terminates Employment Of MD And CEO Naresh Takkar

Ratings agency ICRA, on August 29, 2019 has announced that the employment of its Managing Director and Group CEO Naresh Takkar has been terminated, effective immediately.
According to a release filed with the exchanges, the company's board of directors also stated that they will commence a search for a replacement. No reason was mentioned for the termination of Takkar's employment.
The release also stated that Vipul Agarwal, who was appointed interim COO on July 1, 2019, remains responsible for the day-to-day operation of the company until a new CEO has been appointed.
Takkar was sent on forced leave in July 2019, following a review by the rating agency pending an enquiry into the "concerns" raised by the capital markets watchdog SEBI.
Takkar's forced leave in July 2019 was seen as an unprecedented step, a first in the industry, which occurred at a time when the rating agencies were under a cloud following the IL&FS debacle.

Government Extends CBDT Chairman Pramod Chandra Mody's Tenure By One Year

The tenure of CBDT Chairman Pramod Chandra Mody has been extended by an year. According to the order, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved "re-appointment" of Mody for a period of one year.
Mody was to retire on August 3, 2019. A 1982-batch Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax cadre) officer, Mody took over as the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) chief in February 2019. His appointment came after Sushil Chandra, the then CBDT chief, was appointed as an Election Commissioner.
The ACC in an another order appointed 1983-batch IRS officer Prabhash Shankar as a new member in the CBDT. The other members are P K Dash, Akhilesh Ranjan and Neena Kumar. There are still two vacancies in the Board.

Lakshmi Vilas Bank MD & CEO Announces Resignation

Parthasarathi Mukherjee, MD & CEO of Lakshmi Vilas bank, has submitted his resignation letter dated August 28, 2019, owing to personal reasons. The letter was placed before the board in the meeting held and the board has accepted the same.
Mukherjee will be relieved of his responsibilities on August 31, 2019.
The bank is in the process of getting approvals from the regulators for a proposed merger of Indiabulls Housing Finance (IBHFL) and its wholly owned subsidiary Indiabulls Commercial Credit with LVB.
According to the plan, IBHFL is to hold around 90.5% of the post-merger enhanced equity capital of the merged entity, while shareholders of LVB are to hold around 9.5%.

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