Person in News

APPOINTED

• M. Veerappa Moily (Free
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• Angela Merkel (Free Available)

• Vinod Kumar Duggal (Free
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• Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed (Free
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• About Somalia (Only
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• Lal Thanhawla (Only
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• S.B. Nayar (Only
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• Ranjan Mathai (Only
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• Ashraf Jehan (Only
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• Anurag Bhushan (Only
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• Sushma Singh (Only
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• J.N.Chaudhary (Only
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• Harsh Kumar Bhanwala (Only
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• Lt Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag (Only
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• Subrahmanyam Jaishankar (Only
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• Ahmet Uzumcu (Only
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• Siddarth Birla (Only
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• CVR Rajendran (Only
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• Krishna Iyer (Only
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• Devendra Kumar Pathak (Only
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• P.H. Parekh (Only
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• Arvind Ranjan (Only
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• Shivakumar appointed as the CEO of PepsiCo India (Only
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• Pradeep Kumar (Only
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• Usha Sangwan (Only
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DEATH

• Nelson Mandela (Free
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• Farooq Sheikh (Free Available)

• Marthanda Varma (Only
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• Mikhail Kalashnikov (Only
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• Sis Ram Ola (Only
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• Shivarudrappa (Only
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• Michiaki Takahashi (Only
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• Ronnie Biggs (Only
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• Narasimharaja Wodeyar (Only
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• Pran Chopra (Only
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• Paul Walker (Only
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• Paul Torday (Only
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• Peter O’ Toole (Only
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ACCUSED/RESIGNED/CONTROVERSY

• Jayanthi Natarajan (Free
  Available)

• Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Free
  Available)

• Sheila Dikshit (Only
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• Hisham Qandil (Only
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• Ali Osman Taha (Only
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• Chandra Kant Birla (Only
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• Panruti Ramachandran (Only
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HONOUR

• Pope Francis (Free Available)

• Alyz Henrich (Only
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BOOKS/AUTHORS

• Nirbhaya: Ek Atmachintan (Free
  Available)

• Unbreakable unveiled (Only
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VARIOUS

• Kisan Diwas (Free Available)

• Sashi Tharoor (Free Available)

• World AIDS Day (Free
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• Prithvi -2 Missile (Only
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• TEJAS Team Set New Record (Only
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• AGNI-III (Only
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• Yellowstone National Park (Only
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• International Anti-Corruption Day (Only
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• Tyler Armstrong (Only
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• Procurement of Israeli Barak-I missile approved by DAC
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• Hoquiam (Only
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• Human Rights Day (Only
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APPOINTED

M. Veerappa Moily

Marpadi Veerappa Moily , the petroleum and natural gas Minister on 24
December 2013 took an additional charge of the Environment and Forests Ministry
after the exit of Jayanthi Natarajan. The last Environment minister from
congress was Jayanthi Natarajan. Marpadi Veerappa Moily (born 12 January 1940)
is a congress MP from the state of Karnataka, and the current Minister of
Petroleum and Natural Gas. He was the former Minister of Corporate Affairs and
Minister of Power in the Indian government. Moily was elected as MP of the
Chickballapur district. Moily was the former Chief Minister (and the first
ethnic Tuluva CM) of the Indian state of Karnataka (19 Nov 1992 – 11 Dec 1994).
He was elected to Karnataka state legislative assembly from Karkala constituency
of Udupi district. He is also currently serving as the All India Congress
Committee General Secretary in charge of Andhra Pradesh.

Angela Merkel

Angela Merkel was on 17 December 2013 elected as the German Chancellor for
third term by the German Parliament- Bundestag. Angela Merkel’s conservative
Union bloc – the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) had secured a stunning
hattrick win in the 22 September 2013 elections but failed to grab an outright
majority, forcing them to enter into coalition with the rival Social Democrats (SPD).
With a whopping 504 of the 631 seats,
Angela Merkel’s centre-right Christian Democrats Union (CDU) bloc and the SPD
now hold a comfortable majority in the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament.
Angela Merkel was confirmed by 462 votes on 17 December 2013, with nine
abstentions. For the vote, 621 members of parliament were present, of whom 150
voted against Merkel. Angela Merkel is the third chancellor to win a third
four-year term after Helmut Kohl (1982-1998) and Konrad Adenauer (1949-1963).
Germany, as the EU’s most industrialised and populous state, with its biggest
economy, it dominates decision-making for the Eurozone.

Vinod Kumar Duggal

Vinod Kumar Duggal, the former Home Secretary has been appointed the new
Governor of Manipur on 23 December 2013. His appointment will come into effect
from the date on which, he will assume the charge of the office. He will replace
the present Governor of the state, Ashwani Kumar, who was given an additional
charge of Manipur, while being a Governor of Nagaland. The post of Manipur
Governor had fallen vacant in July 2013, when former Jammu and Kashmir Police
Chief Gurbachan Singh Jagat’s tenure of five years had ended. Ashwani Kumar was
given the additional charge till Duggal appointment. At the time of appointment,
he was serving as a member of the National Disaster Management Authority and was
the in charge of the relief operations after the natural disaster that struck
Uttarakhand and Odisha in 2013.

Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed

Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed appointed as Prime Minister by the President Hassan
Sheikh Mohamoud last week was approved overwhelmingly by the Somalian
Parliament. Abdiweli replaced outgoing Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon. Abdi
was ousted in November 2013 by the Parliament following a rift with the Somali
President over policy differences. In the voting held for the endorsement of the
new Prime Minister in the Parliament, 239 votes out of total 243 were put in
favour of Abdiweli. The result was announced by the Somali Parliament Speaker
Mohamed Sheikh Osman Jawari on 22 December 2013.The endorsement of Abdiweli
Sheikh Ahmed as Prime Minister was welcomed by the head of the UN Assistance
Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) Nicholas Kay.

DEATH

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela, the antiapartheid revolutionary of South Africa died on 5
November 2013. He was of 95 years old. He died in his house at Johannesburg
following a long illness. He was also known as Madiba in South Africa. He was
receiving intensive medical care at home for a lung infection after spending
three months in hospital. His death was announced by the South African
President, Jacob Zuma. He announced that Mandela will receive a full state
funeral and the flags would be flown at half-mast until the state funeral.
Nelson Mandela was one of the world’s most revered statesman for preaching
reconciliation despite being imprisoned for 27 years. He was the first black
South African to hold the office of President from 1994 to 1999, and the first
elected in a fully representative multiracial election. Mandela was married
three times, fathered six children and had 17
grandchildren. The three wives were Evelyn Ntoko Mase, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela
and Graca Machel Mandela.

About Nelson Mandela

• He was born on 1918 in Eastern Cape
• He joined the African National Congress in 1943
• In 1962, he was arrested and was convicted of incitement and leaving
  country without a passport. He was sentenced to five years in prison
• In 1964, he was charged with sabotage, sentenced to life
• He was freed from the prison in 1990
• In 1999, he stepped down as leader
• In 2001, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer

Awards received by Nelson Mandela

Mandela has received more than two hundred and fifty awards over four
decades, some of the awards are:

• He was the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993
• He was the recipient of Bharat Ratna and Mahatma Gandhi peace award
• The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 18 July, Mandela’s
  birthday, as Mandela Day, for his contribution to the anti-apartheid
  struggle
• In 1973 a nuclear particle discovered by scientists at the University of
  Leeds was named Mandela nelson
• In 1979 he became the recipient of the Jawaharlal NehruAward for
  International Understanding, by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations
  New Delhi, India
• In 1981, a panel of International Judges, Vienna, Austria, chose him for
  the Bruno Kreisky Award for merit in the field of human rights

Politically an African nationalist and democratic socialist,
he served as the President of the African National Congress (ANC) from 1991 to
1997. Internationally, Mandela was the Secretary General of the Non- Aligned
Movement from 1998 to 1999. Mandela served 27 years in prison, initially on
Robben Island, and later in Pollsmoor Prison a n d Victor Verster Prison.
Mandela published his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom and opened negotiations
with President F.W. de Klerk to abolish apartheid and establish multiracial
elections in 1994, in which he led the ANC to victory. As South Africa’s first
black President Mandela formed a Government of National Unity in an attempt to
defuse racial tension. He al so promulgated a new constitution and created the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate past human rights abuses.
Continuing the former government’s liberal economic policy, his administration
introduced measures to encourage land reform, combat poverty, and expand
healthcare services. Internationally, he acted as mediator between Libya and the
United Kingdom in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial, and oversaw military
intervention in Lesotho. He declined to run for a second term, and wa s
succeeded by his deputy, Thabo Mbeki. Mandela subsequently became an elder
statesman, focusing on charitable work in combating poverty and HIV/ AIDS
through the Nelson Mandela Foundation. Awarded the US Presidential Medal of
Freedom, and the Order of Canada he was the first living person to be made an
honorary Canadian citizen. The last recipient of the Soviet Union’s Lenin Peace
Prize from the Soviet Union, in 1992 received Pakistan’s Nishan-e-Pakistan. In
1992 he was awarded the Atatürk Peace Award by Turkey which he accepted in 1999.
Elizabeth II awarded him the Bailiff Grand Cross of the Order of St. John and
the Order of Merit.

Farooq Sheikh

Veteran Bollywood actor Farooq Sheikh died on 28 December
2013 due to heart attack in Dubai. He died at the age of 65 and was born on 25
March 1948. He is survived by wife Rupa and daughters Shaista and Sanaa. He was
best known for roles in films like Garam Hawa (1973), Shatranj Ke Khiladi
(1977), Noorie (1979), Chashme Baddoor (1981), Umrao Jaan (1981), Bazaar (1982)
and Kissi Se Na Kehna (1983). He
won 2010 National Film Award for best supporting actor in Lahore (a sports
film). He started his Bollywood career in 1973 with Garam Hawa and his last
performance was in’Club 60′. Earlier he was seen in the film Yeh Jawaani Hai
Deewani in 2013. He was a theatre personality. He was the host of the popular
show Jeena Issi Ka Naam Hai on television, in which he interviewed the
celebrities of Bollywood. Sheikh worked with Directors like Satyajit Ray,
Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Muzaffar Ali. He started his Bollywood career in 1973
with Garam Hawa and his last performance was in Club 60. Earlier, he was seen in
the film Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani
in 2013. He was a theatre personality. He was the host of the popular show Jeena
Issi Ka Naam Hai on television, in which he interviewed the celebrities of
Bollywood. Sheikh worked with Directors like Satyajit Ray, Hrishikesh Mukherjee
and Muzaffar Ali.

ACCUSED/RESIGNED/CONTROVERSY

Jayanthi Natarajan

Smt. Jayanthi Natarajan resigned as the minister of state for environment and
forest from the Council of Ministers (COM) on 21 December 2013. The President of
India, as advised by the Prime Minister, accepted the resignation of Jayanthi
Natarajan from the Council of Ministers. The Prime Minister advised the
President of India that M. Veerappa Moily, Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas
shall be given additional charge of the work
of Ministry of Environment & Forests. Jayanthi Natarajan expected to return to
party work which is relating to manifesto and other election matters of the
Congress Party.

Shivraj Singh Chouhan

Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh
resigned from the Vidisha assembly seat on 20 December 2013 and retained the
Budhni seat. Earlier, he was elected from Budhni and Vidisha assembly segments
in the recently concluded state assembly elections. As per the rules, if a
person is elected from two constituencies, he/she has to tender resignation from
one segment within 14 days of the constitution of the new Assembly. He submitted
his resignation from Vidisha seat to Vidhan Sabha Secretariat on 20 December
2013, which was accepted. In the recent concluded election, Chouhan declared
that he will retain the seat that will give him the highest victory margin. From
Budhni seat, he won by 84805 votes, which was the second highest margin in
Madhya Pradesh, whereas from Vidisha seat, he won by 16996 votes gap against
Shashank Bhargava of Congress. Earlier, in the last assembly elections the
Vidisha seat was represented by a former leader of BJP Raghavji. In July 2013,
Raghavji resigned from the seat over the allegations of sexually harassing his
domestic help and was later expelled from BJP and arrested.

HONOUR

Pope Francis

Pope Francis on 11 Decmber 2013 was named as the Person of
the Year 2013 by Time Magazine. He was named the Person of the Year for changing
the perception of the Catholic Church within nine months. As per Time magazine,
Pope’s dedication to humility and his fight against poverty placed him at the
top position of the year. Edward Snowden the person who leaked the secret
documents about NSA surveillance activities was selected at the second position
in the list. Edith Windsor–the gay marriage pioneer, Bashar Al-Assad–President
of Syria and Ted Cruz–the US Senator from Texas has placed on the top five
slots. Earlier, Vanity Fair Italia also named Pope Francis, the Man of the Year
in July 2013.Time Magazine has chosen a Pope as its Person of the Year for the
third time and the others to be honoured with the title were Pope John XXIII in
1962 and Pope John Paul II in 1994. Pope Francis is the first non-European pope
in almost 1300 years and first pontiff from the America. He took Francis as his
Papal name after Saint Francis of Assisi, who was the reformer of 13th Century.
His original is Jorge Bergoglio, who was chosen as the new Pope by the cardinals
of the Roman Catholic Church on 13 March 2013 after the resignation of Pope
Benedict XVI. He is a first Pope from Latin America and the first Jesuit.

BOOKS/AUTHORS

Nirbhaya: Ek Atmachintan

Mumbai University on 16 December 2013 launched a book titled
‘Nirbhaya: Ek Atmachintan’ to mark a year since the brutal gangrape of a Delhi
paramedic student. The book’s prologue is written by Justice Chandrashekhar
Dharamadhikari and is edited by the vice-chancellor of the Mumbai University,
Rajan Welukar. Several notable writers and thinkers, such as, Nirja Dhulekar,
Kumar Ketkar, Asha Bage, Vijaya Wad, Judge Mrudula Bhatkar, etc have contributed
to the book. The topics that these writers have covered include women
empowerment in the fields of economic, social and political spheres, the rights
which are given to them and their safety. The 23-year old para-medical student
(also known as Damini or Nirbhaya) was gang raped in New Delhi on 16 December
2012. She passed away in Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore on 29 December
2012. She was raped in the moving bus by six men, one of which included a minor.
The 16 December gang rape led to massive protests across the country.

VARIOUS

Kisan Diwas

Kisan Diwas was observed across the country on 23 December
2013 to celebrate the birthday of Chaudhary Charan Singh. On this occasion,
farmer seminars were organised at the divisional, district and block levels.
Political leaders cutting across party lines paid tributes to fifth PM of India
on his 11th birth anniversary. Leaders visited the former PM’s samadhi at Kisan
Ghat in New Delhi. Government in 2001 had decided to observe 23 December every
year as Kisan Diwas (Farmers Day).

Sashi Tharoor

Sashi Tharoor, the Union Minister of State for Human Resource
Development was named as the Person of the Year by the animal rights body PETA –
India for taking steps to advance animal protection. The director of National
Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) was encouraged by Tharoor
to examine PETA’s Central Board of Secondary Education approved programme for
incorporation into its textbooks. He also wrote a letter to Health Minister
Gulam Nabi Azad urging him to implement nonanimal methods of teaching in medical
courses. In 2012, the Ministry of Environment and Forests issued a directive
instructing all the institutes or establishments associated with teaching of
medical, pharmacy and other courses in life sciences to follow UGC guidelines
for discontinuation of dissection and animal experimentation in universities and
colleges and introduce use of alternatives to animal experimentation. Past
recipients of the award are Hema Malini and R Madhavan.

World AIDS Day

World AIDS Day was observed on 1 December 2013 across the globe to raise
awareness about the HIV/ AIDS. The theme for the year 2013 is:

Getting to Zero

• HIV/AIDS remains a major global issue, having claimed more than 36
  million lives so far since the discovery of the virus more than 20 years
  ago.
• According to the World Health Organisation, there were approximately
  35.3 million people living with HIV in 2012.
• Since the inception of World AIDS Day in 1988, it has been observed on
  1st December every year with different themes.
• The theme for this year is “Getting to Zero”- means zero new infections,
  zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths.
• The theme will be repeated until 2015, focusing on “Zero AIDS Related
  Deaths” as well as pushing towards better access to treatment for all.

World AIDS Day is celebrated around the world on December 1st
each year. It has become one of the most recognized international health days
and a key opportunity to raise awareness, commemorate those who have passed on,
and celebrate victories, such as increased access to treatment and prevention
services.

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