Obituary - Current Affairs for November, 2016

Fidel Castro, the revolutionary leader of Cuba died on 25th Nov 2016 at the age of 90. His death was announced by President Raul Castro who is also his brother.

The former Cuban President and leader of the Communist revolution ruled Cuba as a one party state for 50 years before handing power to brother Raul in 2008.

His supporters held that he was a man who gave back Cuba to its people.

Fidel Castro was born on 13th August 1926 and governed Cuba as the prime minister from 1959 to 1976. He belonged to the Marxist Leninist political leaning.

He served the country as its president from 1976 to 2008. Through his administration, Cuba turned into a one party socialist state. State socialist reforms implemented through society, industry and business underwent nationalisation under him.

He was the first secretary of Cuba’s Communist Party. He held the post from 1961 to 2011.

In 1956, he threw out the Cuban President Fulgenico Batista by leading a guerrilla war against him. He was also assisted in his mission by brother Raul along with Che Guevara

The Marxist Leninist mode of development led to the conversion of Cuba into a one party socialist state under Communist Party rule. This was the first instance of its kind in the Western world.

Castro introduced central economic planning, extension of healthcare and education, state control of the press and suppression of dissenters. He also survived many assassination attempts by America.

He was decorated with several international awards such as the Order of Good Hope by S. Africa.

He also supported anti Imperialist revolutionary groups across the world, backing the establishment of Marxist governments in Chile, Grenada and Nicaragua

From 1979-1983, he helped establish the NAM movement.

Know Cuba

• Capital: Havana
• Current president is Raul Castro
• Currencies: Cuban peso, Cuban convertible peso
• Official language: Spanish

Noted journalist and ex Editor-in-Chief of Times of India, Dilip Padgaonkar passed away on 25th Nov 2016.

He died of a heart attack and multiple organ failure at the age of 72.

Padgaonkar along with Information Commissioner Prof. MM Ansari and Prof. Radha Kumar formed a 3 member interlocutors team.

He was chosen by Union Government in 2010 to conduct dialogues with people of J&K.

Born in Pune in 1944, he was educated at St. Vincent’s High School following graduation from Fergusson College.

He completed a doctorate in humanities from Sorbonne in France.

About Dilip Padgaonkar

Padgaonkar joined TOI as a correspondent from Paris and continued to serve different positions in the company till he was appointed as an editor in 1988.

• He worked in UNESCO at Bangkok and Paris from 1978-1986.
• He was a liberal who spoke out against communalism and terrorism.
• He wrote a book entitled “When Bombay Burned” based on the 1992-1993 Mumbai riots.
• He also wrote a book on Roberto Rossellini’s visit to India “Under Her Spell” which was published in 2008.

Well known physicist MGK Menon passed away on 22nd Nov 2016 at the age of 88. He has played a major role in the development of science and technology in India over 50 years.

One of the most critical contributions was nurturing the TIFR in Mumbai.

From the Royal Institute of Science Mumbai, he moved to University of Bristol for PhD under Nobel Laureate Cecil F. Powell in 1953.

He took on research with cosmic rays to explore the properties of fundamental particles.

He was involved in setting up balloon flight experiments and deep underground experiments with cosmic ray neutrinos in Kolar Gold Field mines.

In May 1970, asteroid 7564 Gokumenon was named after him.

About MGK Menon

• Former President of the Indian Statistical Institute
• President of National Academy of Sciences
• Director of TIFR, Chairman Board of Governors IIT Bombay
• Chairman of the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad
• Elected as Fellow of Royal Society in 1970
• Served as chairman of ISRO from Jan to Sep 1972

Indian Carnatic vocalist and award winning musician M. Balamuralikrishna died on 22nd Nov 2016 in Chennai at the age of 86

Balamuralikrishna is the recipient of Padma Vibhushan.

He hailed from Sankaragupthan village in East Godavari, AP. He started his career at the age of 8 and has performed in over 25,000 concerts.

He excelled not only as a musician and playback singer, but also as a composer and an actor. Many universities awarded him honorary doctorates.

He was credited for creation of ragas like Lavangi and Mahati.

He won the Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from France and the Mahatma Gandhi Silver Medal from UNESCO.

He was the winner of many awards such as Padma Vibhushan, Padma Shri, Sangeet Natak Akademi.

About Balamuralikrishna’s film career

• Won National film award for Hamsageethe – "Himadri Suthe Pahimam" (1976)
• Won the National film award for best music director for Madhvacharya in 1987
• Named Sangita Kalanidhi by Music Academy of Chennai
• Most famous role - Narada in Bhakta Prahlada

Former MP governor Ram Naresh Yadav passed away in Lucknow after prolonged illness.

Yadav served as MP governor from Aug 26, 2011 to Sept 7, 2016.

He was also UP CM from 1977-1979.

MP is the largest central Indian state.

It is home to the Kandariya Mahadeva, a temple with more than 800 sculptures.

The eastern Bandhavgarh and Kanha national parks, noted Bengal tiger sanctuaries, offer guided safaris.

Established in Nov 1, 1956, it has a population of over 73m in 2012.

Bhopal and Jabalpur are the state capitals.

It is India’s second largest state.

Renowned and eminent heart surgeon Denton Cooley who performed the world’s first artificial heart transplant in the US has passed away at the age of 96 in Houston, Texas

• He was the founder of the Texas heart institute and pioneered many techniques used in heart surgery
• He performed 118,000 open heart operations
• He performed the first implantation of a total artificial heart
• He was founder and surgeon in chief of the Texas Heart Institute
• Other posts held by him included chief of Cardiovascular Surgery at St Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, consultant in Cardiovascular Surgery at Texas Children’s Hospital, and a clinical professor of Surgery at the University of Texas Health Science Centre at Houston.
• Heart transplant is a surgery to remove the diseased heart from the person, replacing it with a healthy heart from an organ donor
• Two or more healthcare providers must declare the donor brain dead to remove his heart

Kanu Ramdas Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and the former NASA scientist, breathed his last at a private hospital on 7th Nov, 2016.

• 87 year old Kanubhai was survived by wife Shivalaxmi.
• He was famous as the boy who walked ahead of Gandhiji holding one end of his stick on the beaches of Gujarat’s Dandi village during the historic Salt Satyagraha of March-April 1930.
• Mahatma’s third son Ramdas Gandhi was his father.
• The grandson of Gandhiji had been staying at the Radha Krishna Temple run by Punjabi Samaj for the past three months.
• He was put on life support following a paralytic attack after he had survived a heart attack.
• He also suffered lung failure.
• A graduate of MIT, Kanubhai had worked with the US Defence Department on the wing structure of the fighter aircraft before deciding to spend his life in India.

Janet Reno is the first woman US Attorney General and a lightning rod for Republican attacks during the presidency of Bill Clinton.

• She died in Florida according to US media reports.
• Reno was 78.
• She died due to complications from Parkinson’s disease and was one of the longest serving attorney generals.
• Department of Justice, led by her, handled prosecutions during the 1993 World Trade Centre Bombing.
• She also led efforts against two cases of domestic terrorism- the 1995 Oklahoma City Federal building bombing and the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski.

Former Jammu & Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Mangat Ram Sharma has passed away on 3rd Nov 2016 after a prolonged illness at the age of 85.

• He is survived by 6 sons.
• He launched the cooperative movement in the state and headed the Kathua district cooperative society before becoming a member of the legislative council.
• Six time member of the state legislature, he has also been elected to the LS once and the Jammu-Pooch parliamentary constituency.
• He also served as speaker of the J&K Legislative Assembly.
• He served as Deputy CM in the Mufti Mohammad Sayeed-led PDP Congress Coalition government.
• He also served as health minister of the state in 2006 when Ghulam Nabi Azad took over as J&K CM.
• He served important positions in the J&K Pradesh Congress Committee.

Eminent Sri Lankan singer and composer Pandit Amaradeva who has won many honours including Padma Shri died on 3rd Nov at 88.

• He was known for his contribution to the world of music.
• Pandit Amaradeva, born Wannakuwatta Waduge Don Albert Perera, was inspired by classical Indian ragas and Sri Lankan music.
• The musician has been the recipient of several awards including Ramon Magsaysay Award, Padma Shri and Sri Lankan President’s Award of Kala Keerthi and Deshmanya Award.

Former Cambodian PM Pen Sovann who was installed and imprisoned by the Vietnamese after the defeat of the Khmer Rouge regime has passed away.

• He died at the age of 80 on 29th Oct 2016 in his hometown in Takeo province.
• Pen Sovann was the first post Khmer Rouge PM of the country holding office from June to December 1981.
• In late 1981, Pen Sovann was removed from power by the Vietnamese in an ouster triggered by his calls for the withdrawal of Vietnamese forces from Cambodia.
• He was also imprisoned for 10 years in Hanoi.
• Pen Sovann founded the Cambodian National Sustaining Party which took place in the 1998 election but did not win a parliament seat.
• In the year 2012, he joined the Cambodia National Rescue Party and won the parliamentary seat in the 2013 general election.
• Pen Sovann was an exiled Cambodian communist who fled the nation after criticising the Khmer Rouge regime.