Appointments - Current Affairs for December, 2017

Uttar Pradesh has already given India its first woman Governor and Chief Minister but Lucknow is set to make history on Sunday by electing its first woman Mayor in 100 years namely BJP's Sanyukta Bhatia. A woman has never before been elected as head of the municipal body after the Uttar Pradesh Municipalities Act came into existence. This time, however, the Lucknow mayoral seat has been reserved for women, hence all parties have fielded women candidates. This includes the Samajwadi Party which selected Meera Vardhan, kin of educationist Acharya Narendra Dev and the Congress which pitched Prema Awasthi, wife of the former Congress legislator Surendra Nath. Freedom fighters Sarojini Naidu and Sucheta Kriplani were the country's first female Govenor and Chief Minister respectively. Lucknow has thrice sent a woman to the Lok Sabha as its representative with Sheila Kaul being elected in 1971, 1980 and 1984. Sarojini Naidu

• Naidu, popularly known as the 'Nightingale of India', was the Governor of the United Provinces, now known as Uttar Pradesh, from 1947 to 1949.
• She was born in a Bengali family on February 13, 1879 in Hyderabad and was educated in Chennai, London and Cambridge.
• Naidu was a follower of Mahatama Gandhi and participated in the freedom struggle. She, later, went on to become the president of the Indian National Congress.
• A poet of modern India, she wrote a collection, comprising children's poems, nature poems, patriotic poems and poems of love and death.

• Kriplani, who held the Chief Minister's office from 1963 to 1967, had come to the forefront during the Quit India Movement in 1942.
• She worked closely with Mahatma Gandhi during the Partition riots.
• She was one of the few women who were elected to the Constituent Assembly and was part of the sub-committee that drafted the Constitution.

Ms. Smita Nagaraj took the oath of office and secrecy as Member, Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), on Dec 1^st, 2017. The oath was administered by Prof. David R. Syiemlieh, Chairman, UPSC. An Officer of the 1984 Batch of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) of Tamil Nadu Cadre, Ms. Nagaraj, during her career spanning over 33 years, has held several important positions in the Central Government as well as in the Government of Tamil Nadu. She served as Executive Director of the Central Social Welfare Board, Director in the Department of Personnel & Training, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Defence and prior to her joining the Commission, she was working as Director General (Acquisition) in the Ministry of Defence. In the State also, she held various important positions in the Energy, Finance, Health and Small Industries Department.

Infosys, India's No.2 IT services company, named Salil S Parekh as chief executive on Saturday, picking an outsider for the job a second time and handing him the twin challenges of reviving growth and making peace between its founders and board. Parekh, who will join from consultancy firm Capgemini where he is currently an executive, has been given a 5-year term effective January 2, an Infosys filing to exchanges showed. UB Pravin Rao who was serving as the interim CEO has been re-designated as chief operating officer from January 2, Infosys said. Parekh has Master of Engineering degrees in Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University, and a Bachelor of Technology degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. Former CEO Vishal Sikka announced a sudden exit in August after a protracted public spat with the company's founding executives, led by Narayana Murthy, over strategy and alleged corporate governance lapses. Sikka, who joined from German software maker SAP SE in 2014, was the first outsider to be appointed CEO of the Bengaluru-headquartered company. His exit and the prolonged public row led to a reshuffling of the Infosys' board with Nandan Nilekani, a co-founder and former CEO, returning as non-executive chairman.