- Current Affairs March 2017
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Current Affairs March 2017 - Appointments
News 1 - Neil Gaiman appointed as the UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador
Internationally acclaimed author Neil Gaiman has been appointed as a global Goodwill Ambassador by the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.
Mr. Gaiman had been working closely with UNHCR since 2013 to raise awareness about the plight of forcibly displaced people and to generate much needed funds. He has championed UNHCR’s work through media interviews and via his social media channels. He has supported several fundraising initiatives and UNHCR campaigns and events.
News 2 - IAS officer Sumit Mullick appointed as the Chief Secretary of Maharashtra
Senior IAS officer Sumit Mullick was appointed as the Chief Secretary of Maharashtra. He will succeed Swadheen Kshatriya.
Mr. Mullick, a 1982 batch IAS officer is Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) and currently serving as the Chief Protocol Officer in the General Administration department. He had earlier served as the Divisional Commissioner of Amravati and worked as Secretary of School Education. He was also Secretary to the Governor.
News 3 - Senior IAS officer Ajay Tyagi became the SEBI Chairman
Senior IAS officer Ajay Tyagi became the 9th Chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India. He took over the charge from U K Sinha and was appointed for a period of three years.
Mr. Tyagi is 1984 batch IAS officer of Himachal Pradesh cadre. Prior to this appointment, he has handled capital markets division in the Finance Ministry. He was the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change before joining the Finance Ministry in November 2014 as an Additional Secretary. He has also worked in ministries of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Steel and Rural Development.
News 4 - JS Deepak named as India's next Ambassador to the WTO
Telecom Secretary J S Deepak has been named as India's next Ambassador to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) beginning June 2017.
A 1982 batch IAS officer from Uttar Pradesh, Deepak, has been shifted from the Telecom Ministry and has been made Officer on Special Duty in the Commerce Department. During his earlier stint in the Commerce Ministry, he was India's chief negotiator at the WTO and for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement.
News 5 - P K Purwar announced as the CMD of MTNL
The Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) appointed P K Purwar, as the Chairman and Managing Director of MTNL, for 5 years. Prior to this appointment, he has been working as Director (Finance) in MTNL. He has experience of working as additional charge of the post of MTNL CMD between June 2014 and June 2015.
The Committee under the Chairmanship of Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) has appointed CMD of MTNL, as post was vacant, since the superannuation of A K Garg.
News 6 - Cairn India appointed Melody Meyer and Atul Gupta as advisors
Melody Meyer and Atul Gupta have been appointed as Technical Advisors by Cairn India. Meyer and Gupta would be heading specific projects to drive the company’s aim of contributing 50% of India’s overall crude production.
Meyer is a US citizen and has 37 years of experience across nine countries. Gupta, a British citizen of Indian origin, has over 36 years of experience. Mr Gupta has also served as the Managing Director of Hindustan Oil Exploration Company.
News 7 - Dr. K Srinath Reddy appointed as the adviser to the Odisha Govt
Professor Dr. K Srinath Reddy has been appointed as the adviser to the Odisha Government. He will advise the State Government on proper implementation and smooth delivery of the ongoing health service programs.
Mr. Reddy would be accorded the rank of a Cabinet Minister in the State. He is a Padma Bhushan awardee. He was the former head of the Department of Cardiology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi.
News 8 - Harm Ohlmeyer selected as the CFO of Adidas
Supervisory Board of Adidas AG has appointed Harm Ohlmeyer (49) as the successor for longtime Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Robin J. Stalker (59). Harm Ohlmeyer has been appointed to the Executive Board as an ordinary member with immediate effect and as the CFO of Adidas AG effective May 12, 2017. Harm Ohlmeyer started his career with Adidas in 1998 and gained extensive experience in the areas of Finance and Sales.
Prior to this, Harm Ohlmeyer held various positions within the company’s Finance organisation, including SVP Finance Adidas Brand.
News 9 - Narendra Kumar takes over as the Chairman of the Central Water Commission
Shri Narendra Kumar, an officer of the Central Water Engineering Service (1979 Batch) has assumed the charge of Chairman, Central Water Commission (CWC). He has served in various capacities in CWC as an Assistant Director in the Design Organisation, Deputy Director in Project Appraisal Directorate and Director in Dam Safety Organisation and Project Monitoring Directorate.
Shri Kumar was also a member of Experts Committee for Scientific Assessment of flood prone area in India and Standing Committee for Morphological studies of Indian rivers. He took over as a Member (River Management) of Central Water Commission in October 2014.
News 10 - Pradeep Nair appointed as the Regional Director of Ford Foundation for India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka
The Ford Foundation has appointed Pradeep Nair as their Regional Director for India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Mr. Nair will succeed David Hulse and guide the foundation’s operations out of New Delhi.
Mr. Nair has more than 20 years of experience building partnerships among the government, corporate, philanthropic and civil society partners in the South Asia region. He was the Country Director of the U.S. based Institute for Sustainable Communities.
News 11 - HSBC named AIA Group boss Mark Tucker as their Chairman
Europe's biggest bank, HSBC Holdings Plc, has named an insurance veteran and AIA Group boss Mark Tucker as their Chairman. Tucker will replace Douglas Flint later this year. Tucker will take over as the Group Chairman designate from September 1 and as their Non-Executive Group Chairman on October 1.
Tucker would become the bank's first-ever external Chairman. Tucker's main challenge will be to oversee a return to profit growth.
News 12 - KPMG appointed Bill Thomas as their Global Chairman
William B Thomas has been elected as the Chairman of KPMG International. He will lead the KPMG Global Network of professional services firms for a 4-year term, effective October 1, 2017, succeeding John B Veihmeyer.
Bill has served as the Chairman of KPMG’s Americas region since 2014 and has been a member of the Global Board since 2009. He was CEO and Senior Partner of KPMG in Canada from 2009 to 2016.
News 13 - Indian-American Seema Verma to head a top US Healthcare Agency
Indian-American Seema Verma has been sworn-in as the Head of a key healthcare agency in the Donald Trump administration.
Ms. Verma will head the 1-trillion US Dollar Centres of Medicare and Medicaid Services that provides health services to 130 million Americans. Ms. Verma is the second IndianAmerican to be inducted into the Trump administration. US Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley was the first cabinet rank official from the community to serve in any presidential administration.
News 14 - Justice Ramalingam Sudhakar appointed as the Acting Chief Justice of J&K Court
Justice Ramalingam Sudhakar has been appointed as the Acting Chief Justice of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court after Chief Justice Paul Vasanthakumar retired from service. Justice Sudhakar is the senior-most judge of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court. He was transferred from the Madras High Court.
Delhi High Court Judge Justice Badr Durrez Ahmed will be the next Chief Justice of the J&K High Court. Justice Paul Vasanthakumar took oath as the Chief Justice of the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir in February 2015.
News 15 - Justice Chittaranjan Sharma was sworn in as the Assam's Upalokayukta
Justice Retd. Chittaranjan Sharma was sworn in as the Assam's Upalokayukta. He was administered the oath of office by Assam Governor Banwarilal Purohit. Justice Sharma was a former Judge of the Gauhati High Court.
The Lokayukta is an anti-corruption ombudsman organization in the Indian states. Karnataka Lokayukta is considered as the most powerful Lokayukta in the country. There are no Lokayuktas in Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura and West Bengal.
News 16 - Shri Upendra Tripathy appointed as Full Time Interim Director General of ISA
Mr. Upendra Tripathy has been appointed as the Interim Director General (IDG) of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) on a fulltime basis.
Mr. Upendra Tripathy was the Former Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy from 1st April, 2014 until 31st October 2016. Mr. Tripathy is an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Karnataka Cadre. He has worked with local, provincial and union governments in India for the last 36 years.
News 17 - Madhabi Puri Buch appointed as a SEBI whole time member
The Government has appointed Madhabi Puri Buch as new whole time member of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). She has been appointed for a period of three years. She, thus, became the first women and a person from private sector to be appointed for the key post with SEBI.
She is currently serving at the New Development Bank in Shanghai. Buch has an experience of over 20 years where she has worked with several private banks. She was the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer at ICICI Securities Ltd.
News 18 - PV Sindhu roped in as the brand ambassador of PepsiCo
PepsiCo has roped in Rio Olympic Silver Medalist PV Sindhu as the brand ambassador for its sports drink, Gatorade. Sindhu, currently ranks amongst the top 10 players in badminton, became the first Indian woman to win an Olympic silver medal in 2016.
The company will unveil an all new SweatMore campaign with Sindhu through a digital film. Gatorade is the official sports drink of the Indian Cricket Team, UEFA Champions League, NBA etc. It was launched in India in 2004.
News 19 - ICC appointed Ankur Khanna as new CFO
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has appointed Ankur Khanna as its new Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
Prior to joining ICC, Mr. Khanna was working with Air Asia India where he has held the post of CFO for the last one year. Khanna was the Regional Finance Director at Air France.
He has also worked in senior roles at KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and ITC, an associate company of British American Tobacco.
News 20 - Jason Kothari selected as the CEO of FreeCharge
Snapdeal, e-commerce website announced to invest $20 million in the mobile platform FreeCharge and appointed Jason Kothari as the Chief Executive Officer of its digital payment platform, FreeCharge.
Prior to this appointment, Kothari has experience of working as the CEO of Softbank-backed online real estate company, Housing.Com.
He also has experience of working as the CEO and Vice Chairman of character-based entertainment company, Valiant Entertainment. FreeCharge is presumed to achieve the target of bringing digital payments over $1 trillion (roughly Rs. 65,39,812 crores) by 2025.
News 21 - Justice Navniti Prasad Singh took oath as the Chief Justice of Kerala High Court
Justice Navniti Prasad Singh took oath as the Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court. Governor P. Sathasivam administered him the oath at Raj Bhavan in Thiruvanathapuram. Singh, earlier, served as a judge at the Bihar high court.
Justice Singh will replace Justice Thottathil B Radhakrishnan, who had been serving as the acting Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court. Justice TB Radhakrishnan has been appointed as the Chief Justice of the Chhattisgarh High Court.
News 22 - Minoru Kato named as the India President and CEO of HMSI
Minoru Kato has been appointed as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt Ltd (HMSI), the local two-wheeler unit of the Japanese automaker.
Kato replaces Keita Muramatsu. He started his career in Honda Japan in 1988 and has over 29 years of experience with expertise in production control, motorcycle planning, and sales across Europe, Japan, and South-East Asia. Kato has been CEO of Honda Vietnam Co from April 2014.