Appointments - Current Affairs for July, 2017

Global software giant Adobe has appointed Shanmugh Natarajan as the Managing Director for Adobe Systems in India.

Natarajan was formerly serving as Adobe’s executive Director and will continue to lead the company’s operations in the country in addition to his ongoing responsibility as Vice President, Engineering, Digital Media at Adobe.

Natarajan joined Adobe in 2008 and has been instrumental in leading product development of products like Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Flash and Lightroom.

He has also contributed to the development of several mobile and web products for Adobe Creative Cloud.

Natarajan will continue to lead R&D and operations for Adobe India while South Asia managing director Kulmeet Bawa will continue to lead Adobe’s field operations in the country.

Facebook has hired Uber’s former top public relations executive as vice-president of communications for its multiple platforms like Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.

Rachel Whetstone, who has worked for some of the Britain’s most powerful Conservative politicians, stepped down as head of public policy and communications at Uber in April following a string of corporate scandals.

Whetstone in her new role at Facebook will oversee communications for Instagram and WhatsApp, which are both owned by Facebook.

Whetstone worked at Google as the head of communications and public policy prior to Uber.

Whetstone left Uber earlier this year amid a number of public relations crises after a former employee’s accusation of sexual harassment stirred a major controversy, surrounding claims of rampant sexism and discrimination within the company.

Ms. Whetstone has not commented on the scandals since she left Uber.

She is a friend of David Cameron and George Osborne.

She served as Howard’s political secretary and was a major player in Conservative politics when the party was up against Tony Blair’s Labour government.

UNICEF on July 16 2017 appointed Indian-origin Canadian YouTube star Lilly Singh as its newest Global Goodwill Ambassador at a special event here.

Lilly was in the capital to support UNICEF’s Youth4Change initiative, a programme for youth that brings them together to support their peers and communities.

She will encourage communities in taking action on issues such as health, hygiene, child labour and gender equality.

The YouTuber, famous as ‘Superwoman’, said she would come up with few videos in Hindi and would try to put Hindi subtitles in her English videos to increase the reach of her vlogs and channel.

As the UNICEF ambassador Lilly, who has 11.9 around million subscribers on the video sharing website, will use her channel to showcase the organisation’s work.

She will also urge millions of her followers to work for children’s rights.

The 28-year-old star has also started a new initiative on social media - #GirlLove - which aims to end girl-on-girl hate.

Tata Sons on July 13, 2017 appointed Aarthi Subramanian, executive director at TCS, as the Tata Group’s chief digital officer.

Ms. Subramanian will report to N. Chandrasekaran, executive chairman of Tata Sons, in her new role and continue to serve on the board of TCS as a non-executive director.

Aarthi has a great track record of successfully leading large teams to achieve excellence in customer service delivery and has been a strong advocate of proactive value addition for customers.

As the group’s chief digital officer, she will play a key role in driving digital adoption across group companies as well as the group’s digital initiatives.

Shri Subhash Chandra Garg, IAS (RJ:1983) on 12th July 2017 assumed office as the new Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance.

Shri Garg was Executive Director, World Bank, Washington D.C. in his immediate preceding posting.

He has widespread administrative experience in more than 30 years of service during which he held various important assignments.

This is including the Administrative postings in his home State of Rajasthan. Shri Garg has also worked in the Central Government in various capacities.

He was posted as Director, Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), Ministry of Finance from May, 2000 to September, 2003.

Later he took over as Joint Secretary, Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance and continued to hold that position till May, 2005.

He has also worked in the Cabinet Secretariat where he held the position of Joint Secretary/Additional Secretary from February, 2012 to December, 2013.

Saima Wazed Hossain was on 6 July 2017 appointed as the WHO’s Goodwill Ambassador for Autism in the South-East Asia region.

A globally renowned champion for the cause of autism spectrum disorder, Hossain has been appointed for a period of two years.

In the last one year while championing for the cause of autism for WHO, Hossain facilitated the ‘Thimphu Declaration’ on autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders at an international conference in Bhutan in April 2017.

As WHO Goodwill Ambassador, Hossain will be promoting the Thimphu declaration which emphasises on integrating the needs of autism affected people into national health and socioeconomic development plans.

Hossain was designated as WHO Regional Champion for Autism in May 2016.

Autism: Know More

• Autism is a life- long disability that affects brain functioning.
• When left without proper treatment and support, Autism can cause significant impairment in exercising of an individual’s human rights and fundamental freedoms.
  Globally, autism prevalence rates are estimated to be 160 cases in a population of 10000.
• In low and middle income countries, children with autism do not get the medical attention and care they need.

Somesh Goyal, a 1984-batch IPS officer of Himachal Pradesh cadre, was on 5 July 2017 appointed as the Director General of Police (DGP) of Himachal Pradesh.

He succeeds Sanjay Kumar who has now been appointed as Director General of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).

Goyal was presently serving as the DGP (Prisons) of the state.

Goyal’s main concern as the DGP would be to improve the delivery system, project a people-friendly image of police, root out drug menace and ensure safety of women.

A trained commando, Goyal had worked with the Black Cats (National Security Guard), a trained special protection group responsible for the security of the prime minister.

He has served in Kashmir and West Bengal as DIG and as Inspector General in the Border Security Force. He has also served in the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and provided direction to its operations in Kashmir and Naxal-affected areas such as Chhattisgarh and Bihar.

He has been conferred with various medals for his work including President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Services- the Kathin Sewa Medal, the High Altitude Medal, the Internal Security Medal and the Police Medal for Meritorious Service.

He has also been conferred the Tinka Tinka Award for best prison management for 2016.

Shri Sanjay Kumar, 1985-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, Himachal Pradesh Cadre, took charge as the Director General (DG) of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).

The post of DG, NDRF fell vacant after incumbent Shri R K Pachnanda was appointed as the Director General of Indo-Tibetan Border Police.

Prior to the appointment as DG, NDRF, Shri Sanjay Kumar was serving as Director General of Police in Himachal Pradesh.

The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on 3 July 2017 appointed a French legal expert and former judge Catherine Marchi-Uhel as the head of the independent panel.

The panel aims to assist in the investigation and prosecution of those responsible for most serious violations of international law in Syria.

Marchi-Uhel is the first Head of the Mechanism.

The former judge has been serving as the ombudsperson for the Security Council committee monitoring sanctions against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, ISIS) group and al-Qaeda.

Catherine Marchi-Uhel previously served as a judge in France.

Catherine Marchi-Uhel also served as an international judge with the UN mission in Kosovo and at the Cambodia court prosecuting leaders of the Khmer Rouge.

She worked as a senior legal officer at the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and worked in legal positions at the French foreign ministry.

The panel was established by the UN General Assembly in December 2016.

It was formally known as the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism to Assist in the Investigation and Prosecution of Those Responsible for the Most Serious Crimes under International Law Committed in Syrian Arab Republic since March 2011.

In close cooperation with the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, the investigative body will collect, consolidate, preserve and analyse evidence pertaining to violations and abuses of human rights and humanitarian law.

It will also prepare files in order to facilitate and expedite fair and independent criminal proceedings, in accordance with international law standards, in national, regional or international courts or tribunals.

These would be courts that have or may in the future have jurisdiction over these crimes, in accordance with international law.

It will initially be funded by voluntary contributions.

Crimes against humanity during the Syrian civil war have been numerous and serious.

The United Nations reports state that the war has been characterized by a complete lack of adherence to the norms of international law by the warring parties who have caused civilians immeasurable suffering.

The war has been marked by “devastation and extreme suffering among civilians” and international aid groups “have long denounced the indiscriminate brutality” that has characterized the conflict.

War Crimes in Syria

• In March 2017, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 465000 people had died in the conflict.
• Of this there were 96000 civilians, and an additional 145000 civilians were missing.
• According to various human rights organizations and the United Nations, human rights violations have been committed by both the government and the rebels.
• The Assad regime has been blamed for using chemical weapons against civilians and conducted torture and extrajudicial killings.
• War crimes reported being committed by the Free Syrian Army and other rebel groups include recruiting child soldiers, shelling civilian-populated areas.
• They were taking hostages and murdering members of religious minorities, and use of poison gas.

Tata Global Beverages Ltd (TGBL) on 3 July 2017 appointed Tata Sons head Natarajan Chandrasekaran as its Chairman with immediate effect.

The TGBL board approved the appointment of N. Chandrasekaran as an additional director and as chairman of the board of the company in place of Harish Bhat who expressed a desire to step down as chairman.

The board also appointed Siraj Azmat Chaudhry as a Non-Executive Independent Director in the company.

Born in 1963, Natarajan Chandrasekaran is the Chairman of Tata Sons.

He took over as the CEO of Tata Consultancy Services on 6 November 2009 prior to which he was COO and Executive Director of TCS.

He is one of the youngest CEOs within the Tata Group.

In January 2017, he was selected to become the next chairman of Tata Sons.

He assumed chairmanship on 21 February 2017 and soon after was announced the chairman of Tata Motors.

Ex Calcutta Police Commissioner RK Pachnanda on 30 June 2017 took over as the Director-General of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).

He was handed over the baton of the about 90000 mountain warfare-trained force by outgoing Director General Krishna Chaudhary.

He is a 1983 batch IPS officer of Bengal cadre.

Presently, he is also serving as the Director General of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).

He will continue to hold this position until his successor is appointed.

Pachnanda owns the rare distinction of serving in all the major central paramilitary forces and organisations.

These are including the CRPF, the CISF, the BSF, the Special Protection Group (SPG), the CBI and the NDRF.

He also took charge of the paramilitary force in the backdrop of a face-off between Indian and Chinese troops on the border in Sikkim.

ITBP: Know More

• The ITBP guards the 3488km border with China.
• The border passes through five states – Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir.
• On the Chinese side, the People’s Armed Police, also a paramilitary force, stands as the guards.
• The People’s Liberation Army remains behind this first line of defence.

Union Bank of India announced Rajkiran Rai G has assumed charge as Managing Director & CEO.

Prior to his elevation as MD & CEO of Union Bank of India, Rai was Executive Director of Oriental Bank of Commerce.

He started his career in 1986 as an Agricultural Finance Officer in Central Bank of India.

Rai has been appointed by the government to head Union Bank of India for a period of three years from the date of his taking over charge of the post or until further orders, whichever is earlier.

Syndicate Bank announced Melwyn Rego has assumed charge as Managing Director & CEO.

Prior to joining Syndicate Bank, Rego was MD & CEO of Bank of India.

He started his career with IDBI Bank Ltd in 1984 and rose to the position of Deputy Managing Director.

Rego will be at the helm of the bank till the remainder of the term up to August 13, 2018.