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PERSONS IN NEWS - August 2019

Aug 2019

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%.

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.

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