Appointments - Current Affairs for January, 2016

Senior revenue officer Ashok Kumar Mehta was appointed as the Private Secretary to President Pranab Mukherjee. Mehta is a 1987 batch IRS officer is working as Kolhapur Commissioner in Maharashtra as per service records. Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has appointed Mehta as PS to the President in an order issued by DoPT.

Senior revenue service officer Atulesh Jindal on 21st January 2016 was appointed chairman of CBDT. Jindal will succeed AK Jain who has finished his term towards the close of January 2016. Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Jindal as chairman of the apex policy making body of the IT department.

UrbanClap, mobile based services marketplace has acquired sales service platform HandyHome in an equity swap deal. Mumbai based HandyHome permits users for booking brand authorised repairs and services for electronic appliances online. HandyHome was founded in earl 2015 and half a million dollars have been raised from Bessemer Venture Partners and Kae Capital in June. Bessemer is an early backer of Skype and Pinterest. UrbanClap was founded in 2014 by Abhiraj Bhal, Varun Khaitan, and Raghav Chandra.

Well known environmentalist Ravi Chellam on 20th January 2016 took charge as ED of Greenpeace India, an NGO. Chellam succeeded former ED Samit Aich. He is a wildlife biologist and conservation scientist by training. Prior to joining Greenpeace India, he worked with Wildlife Institute of India and UNDP.

PayU is one of the largest payment services platform appointing Laurent Le Moal as the new global CO. It has operations in 16 nations and is part of the leading global media and internet group, Naspers. Lemon will be reported directly to Naspers Group CEO Bob Van Dijk. PayU has its subsidiary PayUIndia based out of Delhi which operates through PayUIndia and PayUMoney and manages small and medium level businesses get access to payments through its platform.

IIT Bombay alumnus Buxy has been the creator of Housing dot com’s early vision and design, as per a Mumbai based company according to a statement. Deep understanding of the real estate market has made a difference following her appointment.

Commercial vehicle marker TATA Motors has made the announcement that Guenter Butschek has been appointed as the CMD. Butschek will work to lead operations of TATA Motors in India as well as South Korea, South Africa, Thailand and Indonesia. Butschek will be joining the company by February 15, 2016.

India is one of the founding members of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank has been elected to the board of directors of China sponsored AIIB expected to commence loan approvals towards the close of the year. Dinesh Sharma Additional Secretary of Ministry of Finance has been elected to the 12 member board for which a secret ballot has been held. Authorised capital of USD 100 billion and subscribed capital of USD 50 billion will yield investment of various sectors such as urban construction and energy as well as transportation.

Mid-tier IT company Mindtree has named Rostow Ravana as the new CEO and appointed Krishna kumar Natarajan as executive chairman as one looks for growth acceleration. Bangalore based IT company also purchased US based Magnet360 for USD 50 million that includes an upfront payment of USD 37 million and earnest and additional payments of USD 13 million over a span of the next 2 years. Company’s board has also made the recommendation of a 1:1 issue of bonus shares.

French IT services firm Capgemini has appointed Srinivas Kandula as the CEO of the Indian operations. He has played a key role in acquiring Patni by iGate in 2011 and iGate by Capgemini in 2015. Capgemini has purchased iGate in a USD 4 billion cash deal replacing Aruna Jayanthi who moved to a global role in the group. Kandula joined iGate in 2007 while he was ex EVP member of the Executive Council and Chief People Officer. Capgemini employs 1.8 lakh people in more than 40 nations and reported revenue of 10.57 billion euros in 2014 internationally.

Well known among colleagues as Lady Dabang, Archana Singh of the 1996 batch has been appointed as first woman station house officer of Government Railway Police. Singh has been given in charge of the Agra Fort station. She has served for 20 years in UP.

Additional Secretary of Home Affairs Sailesh on 7th January 2016 was appointed as Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India. A 1985 batch Assam-Meghalaya cadre IAS officer, he will succeed C. Chandramauli completed his central deputation tenure on 7th January 2016. Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, Ministry of Home Affairs is responsible for conducting the decennial Census. Users can attain information about Census 2011 including census schedules, circulars, manuals and house listing as well as administrative atlas.

Devender Kumar Sikri has been appointed on 7th January 2016 as chairman of fair trade regulator Competition Commission of India. He succeeded Ashok Chawla whose tenure ended on January 7, 2016. Sikri will have a tenure of two and half years till he attained the age of 65 years. Sikri is a former IAS officer of Gujarat cadre. Various positions were held in Centre as well as cadre state Gujarat by him.

He became the first South Asian to occupy this post in the state. He was sworn in as acting Bergen County prosecutor on 4th January 2016. He succeeded John Molinelli who retired after 15 years. He is a former deferral prosecutor and was nominated for the post by New Jersey governor Chris Christie.

Senior diplomat Pavan Kapoor has been appointed as Indian ambassador to Israel, succeeding Jaideep Sarkar. He is a 1990 batch IFS officer and is currently the High Commissioner of India in Mozambique capital Maputo. He is an MBA from IIM-A and also holds a master’s degree in international political economy from LSE. He has served at different Indian missions in Kiev, London, Geneva and Moscow as well. He was also the Political Adviser on Asia and Europe at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London. Israel is currently one of India’s largest supplier of military hardware, and India is its largest buyer.

Satyanarayan Gangaram Pitroda well known as Sam Pitroda was on 6th January 2016 appointed Technology Advisor to the Odisha Government. He was appointed as technology advisor for telecom, IT, ITES and electronics sectors of the rile. He will play a key role in preparing the vision document for 2036 for celebrating 100 years of the formation of the state. Pitroda is also director of the Young Indian Company and served as an adviser to UN and Rajiv Gandhi, India’s late PM on various Technology Missions. He is also the founding chairman of India’s Telecom Commission.

After the elevation of COO Abidali Neemuchwala as CEO Wipro has appointed new COO Bhanumurthy BM. He was earlier president and chief executive of the business application series, beating three other presidents in Wipro for the post. BAS business headed by Bhanumurthy contributes 47% of revenue. Within the new role, all service lines will be reporting to him. Meanwhile GK Prasanna, president and CEO of Global Infrastructure Services has been made president of newly created Marketing, Innovations and Technology/MIT. The freshly carved digital business will be headed by Rajan Kohl while business outcome services led by Anurag Srivastava will be mentored by Kurien over next few months.

Lieutenant General Suresh Sharma has taken over as the 24th Director General for Border Roads, holding the appointment of Director General Combat Engineers at Army HQ. He was commissioned into Corp of Engineers from Indian Military Academy, Dehradun.

Former defence secretary RK Mathur has been sworn in as 8th CIC by President Pranab Mukherjee in Delhi. As the CIC, Mr. Mathur will have tenure of about three years, till he attains the age of 65 years. The Central Information Commission has been headless twice since the BJP government came to power in 2014. At present there are 7 information commissioners with 3 posts lying vacant.

Marry Barra was on January 4th 2016 elected as Chairman of GM Board of Directors with immediate effect succeeding Theodore Solso, who will continue serving as the Lead Independent Director of the Board. She was earlier GM’s CEO in January 2014. She began her career as a GM in the company and has served the firm in various capacities.

Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) has named Kunal Shah, co-founder and chief executive officer of FreeCharge as the new chairman of the association. He will replace Nsiahnt Rao who relocated to Chennai to launch a startup called Freshdesk. Shah founded Free Charge in August 2010 and in 2014 it was acquired by Snapdeal. IAMAI also announced Vishwas Patel, who is chief executive officer of CCAvenue as the new treasurer.

Wipro appoints T. K. Kurien as executive vice chairman and Abidali Z. Neemuchwala as the CEO and member of the company board and both appointments are effective w.e.f February 1st, 2016. Kurien will complete his 5 year tenure as CEO in January. He has restructured Wipro and made major efforts to energise it. The third largest IT services company has a lot of catching up to do with rivals.

Air Marshall Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria has taken over as Deputy Chief of Air Staff. He is an alumnus of NDA and was commissioned in the IAF in June 1980. Before taking over as DCAS, he was Senior Air Staff Officer at Central Air Command of IAF. He is also an experimental test pilot and pilot attack instructor with 4200 hours of experience on 25 types of fighter and transport aircraft. He has commanded the prestigious NDA in the past. He is also a recipient of the Ati Vishisht Medal and Vayu Sena Medal.

PSEB has recommended D. K. Hota to be the new CMD of defence PSU BEML when the post falls vacant on July 1, 2016. He is currently the director HR of this PSU and has been on deputation to BEML from HPCL. He will succeed P. Dwarkanath who is scheduled to superannuate.

Appointments Committee of the Cabinet on 30th December 2015 approved the appointment of Dr. G. D. Badgaiyan as DG of the National Centre for Good Governance. He will be appointed for three years and is extendable for another 2 years. Hailing from MP, he is former IAS officer of UT cadre. He is the Ex-Chief Economist of UNDP.