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PERSONS IN NEWS - May 2019

May 2019

Aug 29, 2019

Shri Pavan Kapoor Appointed As The Next Ambassador Of India To The United Arab Emirates

India appointed Pavan Kapoor as its next Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.
The 1990 cadre IFS officer will replace Navdeep Singh Suri, who has been heading the Indian mission in UAE since October 2016.
Pavan Kapoor is 1990 lFS (Indian Foreign Service) cadre.
He will take up the assignment shortly.

Ferdinand Piëch Died At The Age Of 82

Piech, the grandson of sports car and VW Beetle pioneer Ferdinand Porsche, died on Sunday in Rosenheim, Bavaria at the age of 82.
Piëch, the son of Ferdinand Porsche's daughter Louise, spent nearly his whole life holding posts within VW Group.
His engineering career began at Porsche before then-CEO Ferry Porsche ordered his dismissal along with all other family members from the company.
He moved to Audi before heading up VW Group as its CEO from 1993 to 2002. Following his CEO role, he became VW Group chairman and retired from the position in 2015.
Famously, Piëch stopped a hostile takeover of VW by Porsche in 2008. Following former Porsche chairman Wendelin Wiedeking's announcement that he intended to acquire 75% of VW shares during the course of 2009, Piëch swooped in.

Aug 28, 2019

Architect Of Volkswagen's Global Expansion Dies

Ferdinand Piech, Volkswagen AG's former chairman and chief executive, who transformed the German company from a struggling midsized car-maker into a global automotive powerhouse, has died.
Piech, 82, died in Rosenheim, Bavaria.
A brilliant engineer, Piech turned around VW after betting on a modular construction technique which allowed Audi, Skoda and VW brands to share up to 65% common parts, helping Volkswagen Group to attain greater economies of scale.
Piech was a grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, the father of the iconic Volkswagen Beetle and part of the Porsche and Piech clans which today still control VW Group.

India's First Woman DGP Kanchan Chaudhary Bhattacharya Dies At 72

India's first female director general of police, Kanchan Chaudhary Bhattacharya, died in Mumbai after a long illness. She was 72.
Kanchan Chaudhary Bhattacharya, a 1973 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, made history when she was appointed the DGP of Uttarakhand in the year 2004. She retired as the DGP on October 31, 2007.
Born in Himachal Pradesh, she was country's second female Indian Police Service (IPS) officer after Kiran Bedi.
After her retirement, she tried her hand at politics and fought the general elections in 2014 on Aam Aadmi Party's ticket but lost.
During her 33 years of service, she also served as an inspector general in the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).
In 1997, she was awarded the President's police medal for distinguished service. She was awarded the Rajiv Gandhi award for Excellent All-Round Performance. She was chosen to represent India during the Interpol meeting held in Mexico in 2004.
She also handled some sensitive cases including the murder of badminton national champion Syed Modi and the Reliance-Bombay Dyeing case.
She also made a guest appearance on the hit television series Udaan on Doordarshan, directed by her sister Kavita Chaudhary. It was based on her life showing her struggles to become an IPS officer.

Naval War Hero Noel Kelman Dies At 92

Naval war hero and Kirti Chakra awardee, Commander Noel Kelman, passed away at the age of 92 in Porvorim following a brief illness.
Commander Kelman was awarded the Kirti Chakra for valour during the liberation of Goa in 1961. He was involved in an operation to flush out the Portuguese from the Anjadip Island.
Kelman had also been awarded the King's commendation in the Second World War for his role in sinking a Japanese submarine.
He was a founder member of the Goa Branch of the All India Anglo Indian Association.

Aug 27, 2019

TAFE Appoints CEO

Tractors and Farm Equipment Ltd. (TAFE) has appointed a new chief executive officer and elevated two top officials.
Sandeep Sinha, former managing director, Cummins India, has been named as the chief executive officer. S. Chandramohan has been elevated as group president (finance and investment strategy) and T.R. Kesavan as group president (corporate relations and alliances).
All of them will report to Mallika Srinivasan, chairman, TAFE.

Lt Gen Puri Became First Serving First Serving Lt Gen To Complete 1,200 Km Paris Brest Paris Circuit

Lieutenant General Anil Puri has become the first serving Lieutenant General-rank officer of the Indian Army to complete France's oldest cycling event, 1,200-km Paris-Brest-Paris circuit.
The 56-year-old officer completed the circuit on August 23, 2019 by cycling non-stop for 90 hours.
Over 31,125 riders have managed to complete Paris-Brest-Paris Randonneur ever since the event started in 1931.
In 2019, the picturesque town of Rambouillet hosted the departure and arrival for the event.

Aug 26, 2019

Ajay Kumar Appointed New Defence Secretary

Ajay Kumar was appointed the new Defence Secretary. He will replace Sanjay Mitra whose term ends on August 23, 2019.
Subash Chandra, IAS (of 1986 batch), Special Secretary, Department of Defence, is the new Secretary, Department of Defence Production. He will take over from Ajay Kumar, IAS (1985 batch).
Brij Kumar Agarwal, IAS (1985 batch) has been appointed Secretary to the Lokpal in the rank and pay of Secretary to the Government of India.

Alejandro Giammattei Elected Guatemala President

Conservative Alejandro Giammattei was elected as Guatemala's President, defeating former first lady Sandra Torres in a run-off.
Giammattei will succeed corruption-tainted outgoing President Jimmy Morales, who leaves office in January, 2020.

Arun Jaitley dies at 66

Arun Jaitley, the former finance minister and a stalwart of the Bharatiya Janata Party, passed away at AIIMS hospital in New Delhi. He was 66 years old.
Arun Jaitley was rushed to All India Institute of Medical Sciences on August 9, 2019 after he complained of breathlessness and restlessness. He was kept under observation at the Cardio-Neuro-Centre of the hospital, however, his condition kept on deteriorating.
Jaitley, 66, a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), stepped down as finance minister in January 2019 due to ill health, just months before elections that returned Modi's Hindu nationalists to power.

Arun Jaitley's achievements
Jaitley, the lawyer-turned politician was an important part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Cabinet in the BJP government's first term.
Before opting out of the new Modi government in 2019, he looked after the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
He was also the Minister of Defence 2014-2017, and the Minister of Information and Broadcasting from 2014-2016.
Arun Jaitley's biggest achievements as the finance minister in Modi Cabinet were the successful implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) and Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), both of which formalised the Indian economy.
He also laid the roadmap for direct tax reforms and extensively worked toward opening up the economy by easing out foreign direct investment (FDI) rules.

Aug 25, 2019

Scarlett Johansson tops Forbes highest-paid actresses list

The 34-year-old's income of $56m (£45.7m) lands her below seventh-placed male actor Adam Sandler.
She earned $15.5m (£12.6m) more than she did in 2018, thanks largely to the success of Avengers: Endgame.
Modern family actor Sofia Vergara is the only other woman to break into the overall top 10.
Notably all of the top 10 actresses earned above $20m (£16.3) in 2019, compared with 2018 when only the top two - Johansson and Angelina Jolie made that amount.
Johansson is set to reprise her title role in the Avengers spin-off Black Widow in 2020.

Akshay Kumar takes 4th spot in Forbes highest paid actors list

National Award-winning actor Akshay Kumar has made it to the fourth position on the Forbes magazine's Worlds Highest-Paid Actors Of 2019 list.
According to the list on forbes.com, Akshay has raked in $65 million.
Hollywood star Dwayne 'Rock' Johnson tops the Forbes list of the 10 highest-paid actors, collecting $89.4 million between June 1, 2018, and June 1, 2019.
Australian actor Chris Hemsworth took the second spot with $76.4 million — one of many actors from Marvel's superhero universe.
The Thor star is followed by most of the Avengers stars —— Iron Man Robert Downey Jr. at No. 3, Rocket Bradley Cooper in sixth, Captain America Chris Evans in eighth and Ant Man Paul Rudd at the ninth spot.

NDTV Interim CEO Suparna Singh Resigns

Media company NDTV, CEO Suparna Singh has resigned from her role with immediate effect. Singh who was the former head of NDTV Convergence was named as its CEO in December 2017.
Suparna Singh has informed the company that she will step down from her responsibilities as Interim CEO with immediate effect.
The development comes a day after the CBI booked NDTV promoters Prannoy Roy and his wife Radhika Roy, and others in connection with alleged violation of foreign direct investment rules in a 2007-09 investment.
The probe agency has also booked the media outlet's former CEO Vikramaditya Chandra under charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating and corruption.
It is alleged that the company floated 32 subsidiaries in several tax haven countries to bring foreign funds to India through sham transactions.

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