Famous Personalities - Current Affairs for December, 2016

Department of Post under the Ministry of Communications on 26^th Dec 2016 released the special stamp on freedom fighter Gaya Prasad Katiyar.

The government also released a series of 8 commemorative postage stamps on “Personalities Series: Bihar.”

The postal department also launched a commemorative postage stamp on Hardyal Municipal Heritage Public Library to honor it as one of the few oldest library of the country.

The ministry released postage stamps on these following 8 personalities of Bihar:

• Vidyapati
• Kailashpati Mishra
• Kunwar Singh
• Sachchidananda Sinha
• Karpoori Thakur
• Dashrath Manjhi
• Phanishwar Nath Renu
• Krishna Sinha

Gaya Prasad Kaityar was a dedicated Indian freedom fighter. Born at Jagadishpur, UP and joined Hindustan Socialist Republican Association in 1925. He got connected with Chandra Shekhar Azad and Bhagat Singh during the freedom struggle.

A participant in the Lahore Conspiracy Case, he was arrested in 1929 from Saharanpur.

He also went on a hunger strike at the Cellular Jail in Andaman.

He was repatriated in 1937 and arrested and transported to the cellular jail from where he was released in 1946.

Know About Hardayal Municipal Public Library

• Location: Chandni Chowk, New Delhi
• Oldest building in the locality to withstand years and advent of modern times.
• Library was set up in 1862.
• It has more than 1 lakh seventy thousand books in various languages such as Hindi, English, Urdu, Persian, Sanskrit and Arabic.
• This is one of the few libraries in the world with a collection of 8000 rare books.

Uttarakhand CM Harish Rawat on 19th Dec 2016 unveiled the statue of renowned Tamil philosopher and poet Thiruvalluvar in Haridwar.

Thiruvalluvar is a renowned poet who lived between 3rd and 1st century BC.

Thiruvalluvar is a celebrated Tamil poet who contributed a work on ethics called Thirukural, in Tamil Literature. It is one of the most revered ancient works in the Tamil language.

He was born either in Thiru Mylai (Mylapore) Chennai in Tamil Nadu or in Thirunainar Kuruchi, a village in Tamil Nadu’s Kanyakumari district.

Tamil poet Mamulanar of the Sangam period mentioned that Thiruvalluvar was the greatest Tamil scholar.

The first mention of the name Thiruvalluvar was found in 10th century text called Thriruvalluvarmalai. He is believed to have been a weaver and the house he lived in is now a temple.

There is a 133 foot tall statue of the celebrated poet in the southernmost tip of the Indian subcontinent, Kanyakumari.

There is also a statue of the poet at Russell Square in London.

The statue of the celebrated poet was to be unveiled in June 2016, but was deferred as local ascetics objected to it being installed near Har ki Pauri on the banks of the river Ganges. Project was opposed by Ganga Sabha and Akhil Bharatiya Teerth Purohit Mahasabha.

The opposition resulted in a decision in consultation with the district administration to install the statue near Shankaracharya Chowk, which also has a statue of Adi Shankaracharya.

Know More About Thirukural

• 1330 couplets or kurals dealing with virtue
• Originally published: 1812
• Author: Thiruvalluvar
• Genre: Poetry
• Country: India
• Published in English: 1840
• Subjects: Ethics, Morality

Time magazine on Dec 7, 2016 named President - elect Donald Trump its Person of the Year. Time editor Nancy Gibbs indicated Democrat Hillary Clinton was the No. 2 finalist.

Gibbs said the choice of Trump this year was “straightforward”.

The Time cover reads, “Donald Trump - President of the Divided States of America” and the cover image features a photograph of the President-elect sitting in his private residence at Trump Tower.

Gibbs said Time gives the title to the person who has had the greatest influence on events “for better or worse”.

The No.3 finalist for the Person of the Year was “The Hackers,” which Gibbs said referred to “a new cyber security threat we saw this year of state-sponsored hackers looking to delegitimise an American election”.

This isn't the first time TIME has chosen a polarising figure for its world-famous annual profile. Stalin, Hitler and Khomeini were previous choices.

This year, Trump beat out five other contenders, including his election rival Hillary Clinton, musician Beyonce, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to be named "the person who had the greatest influence, for better or worse, on the events of the year.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi won the readers' poll for the second time this year.