Persons in News – 2010

Persons in News December 2010

• Congress Veteran Karunakaran passes away
  Veteran congress leader Karunakaran finally breathed his last after a prolonged bout of illness. He was 92 and is survived by his daughter Padmaja Venugopal and son K Muraleedharan. He was a four time CM of Kerala and is affectionately called ‘Leader’ by his admirers. He was known to be a master tactician and often played the role of troubleshooter for his party.
• Premji Donates 8,846 crores to improve education in India
  Aziz Premji . Chairman of WIPRO will transfer 213 million equity shares valued at 8846 crores to an irrevocable trust for charity. This will add a lot of muscle to the Aziz Premji Foundation which was set up few years back in its quest to improve the standard of education. The foundation will focus on providing quality education in rural India and the the government has also pitched in to open the Aziz Premji foundation where higher education will be provided.

Persons in News November 2010

• Leslie Nielson passes away
  Beloved actor Leslie Nielson best remember as bumbling police detective Lt. Frank Drebin of the Naked Gun series of movies, passed away recently aged 84 from complications arising as a result of Pneumonia. He was surrounded on his death bed y his loving wife, friends and long time agent. Leslie Nielson had over a 60 year long career in motion pictures which started back in the 1950s. He was initially cast as a leading man in serious movies such as The Forbidden Planet and Poseidon Adventure. The former flopped while the latter was a big success in its time. However, Nielson soon found his forte in comedy movies when he first acted in the 1980 comedy motion picture, Airplane. The movie was a huge hit and Nielson’s popularity as a comedy actor soared. He then appeared in a number of comedy movies, the most famous of them being the Naked Gun series, all of which were big hits. Some of these were repossessed, Dracula- dead and loving it and Spy hard. Leslie was married thrice in his lifetime and has two daughters with his second wife.
• I-phone versus Google Android
  Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Inc. recently praised the operating system on Google’s smart phones. The operating system called Android was further praised by Mr. Wozniak who said that these phones had more features to offer as compared to the I-phone. He however, further added that while Google’s smart phones offer people more number of choices, Apple I-phones on the other hand were much better in terms of quality.

Persons in News August 2010

• Michael Kirk Douglas diagnosed with throat cancer
  Michael Kirk Douglas, winner of three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards, was diagnosed with throat cancer in August this year. He received the AFI (American Film Institute) Life Achievement Award in 2009. The 65-year-old actor, a heavy smoker, was informed of his condition labeled as Stage 4 cancer after his doctor’s appointment for an extremely sore throat. Douglas who is to undergo chemotherapy and radiation is optimistic about his chances for recovery
• Archie Panjabi
  Recently 62nd Emmy awards were held and the best part was to hear about actress Archie Panjabi from the Indian-origin who has won the award for best supporting actress in the movie “The Good Wife”. Her performance has been rated to be the best in the international release recognized as “Bend it like Beckham”. Many others were nominated for the same designation but because the best performance deserves to be on the top hence the results proved it and Archie Panjabi took the award.
• Anil Aggarwal to overtake Mukesh Ambani
  It was Anil Aggarwal who laid the foundation of Vedanta Resources Corporation, a UK based corporation and all by the virtue of it that he has been designated as the non-resident Indian billionaire. By this effort he has become the largest promoter of a corporate house thus overtaking Mukesh Ambani.
• Pallava Bagla
  Pallava Bagla from India has won the David Perlman Award for Excellence in Science Journalism by American Geophysical Union (AGU). Pallav won this award for his articles on the impact of change in climate on the Himalayan glaciers. Bagla is an author and freelancer for BBC and the likes. His latest book is “Destination Moon: India’s Quest for Moon, Mars and beyond”.

Persons in News July 2010

• Fidel Castro
  Fidel Castro a Cuban revolutionary visited Havana scientific facility; it was his first public appearance.
  The former Cuban President, now 83, who went into seclusion four years back after falling ill looked healthy said the reports.
• Roman Polanski
  The Swiss government rejected US government’s request to extradite Roman Polanski where he is charged with unlawful sex with a minor on the ground that the US authorities failed to provide confidential testimony about Polanski’s sentencing procedure in 1977-1978. Polanski, who has been held under house arrest in Switzerland since December, has been declared a free man by the Swiss authorities. However, the American prosecutors vowed to continue their pursuit of the film director.

Persons in News June 2010

• Former CJI K G Balakrishnan is appointed as Chairman of National Human Rights Commission.
• O P Bhatt has been elected as Chairman , Indian Banker’s Association for the year 2010-11.
• Tenzin Norzon, a resident of Varanasi crowned as Miss Tibet 2010.
• J G Farrell won the Lost Man Booker Prize for his novel ‘Troubles’.
• Sachin Tendulkar conferred with Indian Air Force’s honorary rank of Group Captain. Till now 21 persons have been granted honorary ranks by the IAF. The first person was Raja of Jawhar- Raja Yaswant Rao in 1994. Tendulkar is the first sportsperson to be conferred with this honour.
• Sharad Pawar will be 7th President of ICC. He become 2nd Indian after Jagmohan Dalmia to occupy the position. He succeeded David Morgan.
• Wrestler and 1970’s Asian Games Gold medalist, Chandagi Ram Kaliram died.

Persons in News May 2010

• Gita Gopinath an Indian origin associate professor at Harvard Univ has been appointed a full professor, the first Indian woman in the Institution’s history to ge given this appointment.
• Former Vice President of India, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat died.
• Rima Fakih was crowned Miss USA 2010. She became the first ever muslim American Miss USA. She is of Lebanese muslim descent.
• Singer Christina Aguilera was named Ambassador against hunger by the United Nations World Food Programme.
• Rushanara Ali became first person of Bangladesh origin to be elected to the British Parliament.
• David Cameron elected Prime Minister of Britain. Nick Clegg became the Dy Prime Minister. Britain gets first coalition govt since World War-II. It is between Conservative and Liberal Democrats.
• Justice S H Kapadia sworn as new Chief Justice of India.
• Hari S Bhartia elected as President of Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) for 2010-11.
• Jessica Watson became the youngest person to sail unassisted around the world in a yatch.

Persons in News April 2010

• Justice Gyan Sudha Mishra was sworn in as Judge of Supreme Court of India. She became the 4th women judge to be elevated to the Supreme Court of India.
• Justice S H Kapadia will be next Chief Justice of India.
• Mukul Sangma shown in as Meghalaya Chief Minister.
• Poland’s President Lech Kaczynski died in a air crash at Moscow.
• Juan Antonia Samaranch, Former President of International Olympic Committee (IOC) died.

Persons in News March 2010

• Rajan Bharti Mittal appointed President FICCI.
• Major Dimple Singla became first women army officer in the country who has been sentenced to imprisonment for corruption.
• Bhubneshwar Kalita has been choosen as the Chef de Mission of the Indian contingent at Commonwealth Games 2010.
• Cricketer Kapil Dev has been inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame.
• Former Supreme Court judge P V Reddy appointed as Chairman, Law Commission of India.
• Lt Gen V K Singh appointed as new Army Chief.
• Sonia Gandhi appointed head of National Advisory Council. NAC advice the govt on policy matters, monitor flagship programmes and prepare the ground for other pro-poor legislatures.
• Lyricist Javed Akhtar, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Dr Ram Dayal Munda, Dr Balchandra Mungekar and Kannada Actress B Jayashree are among other persons nominated to Rajya Sabha.
• Austrian base jumper Felix Baumgartnar will became the first person to leaps from the edge of space at a height of 37 km above earth’s surface. He become the first man to break the speed of sound hitting a top speed of about 11000km/hr. He will jump on 11 April 2010.
• Katie Spotz became the youngest person to complete a solo journey across the Atlantic Ocean.
• Girija Prasad Koirala, Nepal Ex Prime Minister died. He was 5th time Nepal PM.

Persons in News February 2010

• Horst Kochler , Germany President visit India in Feb 2010.
• Abdullah Gul, Turkey President visit India in Feb 2010.
• Economist Kokkadan Nandanath Raj, who made a significant contribution in the preparation of first Five Year Plan(1951-56) died.
• Sharad Chandra Sinha is appointed as Director General of National Investigation Agency(NIA).
• Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian President visit India in Feb 2010.
• Muhammad Shahrul Ikram Yaakob of Malaysia appointed Chairman, International Atomic Energy Agency.
• Govt appointed R S Pandey as its mediator for talk with NSCN(IM) in Nagaland to carry forward the peace process.
• Former Justice P V Reddy will be appointed as Chairman, Law Commission of India.
• Ram Baran Yadav, Nepal President visit India in Feb 2010. It was the first visit by Yadav to any foreign country after taking over as Nepal’s President. Yadav is the first President of Nepal since monarchy ended in 2008. India extended $ 250 million soft line of credit to Nepal.
• Rajinder Singh became first non-white and also first Asian member of the right wing British National Party, after it amended its constitution to allow black and Asian to be its member.
• Amitabh Bachan became the brand ambassador of Gujarat state.
• Amnesty International, the global human right organization has appointed Salid Shetty as its next Secy General from June 2010. He will be the first Indian to head the organization.
• Shah Rukh Khan & Kajol become the first Indian bollywood actors to ring the opening bell of the world’s biggest stock exchange’ NASDAQ’.
• Rajiv Satav appointed President, Indian Youth Congress.
• Katrina Kaif awarded with 2009 Excellence in Performing Arts Award established by ASSOCHAM.
• M H Hussain, famous painter accepted citizenship of Qatar.

Persons in News January 2010

• Billy Arjan Singh, wildlife conservationist and Padma Shri awardee died.
• P D Dinakaran, Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court faces impeachement motion. The process was initiated in the Parliament. He is the first High Court Chief Justice against whom impeachment motion have been initiated. Justice V Ramaswami is the only judge to have faced impeachment proceedings in parliament.
• Justice V S Sirpurkar appointed to head a three member panel to look into allegation of land grab and misconduct against Chief Justice P D Dinakaran in the wake of impeachment motion initiated against him in Parliament.
• Fahmida Mirza is the first woman Speaker of Pakistan National Assembly.
• Ricky Ponting, Australian cricket team captain, has been named as ESPN Cricinfo Player of the Decade for 2000.
• Jyoti Basu, former West Bengal Chief Minister, died.
• Mrinal Pande, appointed as Chairman, Prasar Bharti Board.
• Lee Myung Bak, South Korea President was the Chief Guest at 2010 Republic Day Parade.
• Shiv Shankar Menon is appointed as National Security Advisor.
• Vikram Srivastava appointed as Director General of CRPF(Central Reserve Police Force).
• Ranjit Kumar Bhatia appointed as Director General of ITBP (Indo Tibetan Border Police).