Person in News - April 2015

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General Awareness Updates April 2015

Persons in News
India-born Punit Renjen was appointed the next CEO of U.S.-based accounting giant Deloitte’s global operations, becoming the first Indian-origin person to head a ‘Big-Four’ audit firm.
Mr Renjen joins a growing list of persons of Indian origin like Indra Nooyi, Satya Nadella and Anshu Jain, who have made to the top posts at multi-billion dollar global corporations like PepsiCo, Microsoft and Deutsche Bank, respectively.
Deloitte, which is present across 150 countries including India and employs over two lakh people, is one of the four largest audit firms in the world and competes with PwC, KPMG and EY.
Hailing from Rohtak, Haryana, Mr Renjen will assume his new role of Deloitte Global Chief Executive Officer from June 1. He will succeed Barry Salzberg in this role and is currently serving as U.S. business Chairman and CEO of the group.
Mr Renjen, who has been with Deloitte for over 27 years, grew up in India and holds a bachelor’s degree with honours and a master’s degree in management fromWillamette University, U.S.. He did his schooling at Lawrence School, Sanawar, Himachal Pradesh, after which he left for the U.S. to pursue higher studies.
Outside of Deloitte, Mr Renjen is a member of the boards of directors at United Way Worldwide and the U.S.-India Business Council. He was named an honoree to the 2012, 2013, and 2014 National Association of Corporate Directors’ ‘Directorship 100’ and was named a ‘Top 25 Consultant’ in 2007.
East Timor independence hero Xanana Gusmao resigned as prime minister, stepping down ahead of an expected restructuring of the government. He is a former guerrilla leader who spearheaded East Timor’s drive for independence when Indonesian rule ended in 2002. He was the first president of the new country, from 2002 to 2007, and then prime minister for more than seven years.
East Timor voted overwhelmingly in 1999 to end 24 years of brutal Indonesian occupation that had left more than 170,000 dead, but the country has struggled since then to develop economically. About half of the population of 1.2 million people live in poverty.
Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi retracted his resignation after escaping house arrest in the militia-controlled capital. The embattled leader had tendered his resignation in January this year after the Shiite militia, known as Houthis, seized the presidential palace and besieged his residence in Sana’a.
On February 24, he made a surprise escape and resurfaced in Aden, the capital of the formerly independent south Yemen, where he resumed his duties and said all measures taken by the Houthis were “null and illegitimate”.
The Houthis, whose power base is in the mainly Shiite northern highlands, overran Sana’a unopposed in September. They have pushed their advance south and west into mainly Sunni areas, where they have met with fierce resistance from tribesmen and Yemen’s powerful branch of Al-Qaeda.
Mr Hadi is a southerner who spent nearly three decades in the north, serving as defence minister and vice president. He became president in 2012 after long-time strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh was forced from power by a year-long uprising.
People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader Mufti Mohammed Sayeed was sworn in as the 12th Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. His oath of office and secrecy was administered by Governor N. N. Vohra. The PDP has a coalition with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Mr Sayeed will be heading a coalition government for the second time; in 2002, he led a PDP-Congress alliance government and was Chief Minister for three years.
Nirmal Singh, of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is the Deputy Chief Minister. This is the first time that BJP has become a part of the government in J&K after PDP and BJP agreed to form a coalition government as no party secured an absolute majority in the J&K Assembly elections in December 2014.
Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar was sworn in as the 34th Chief Minister of Bihar. He succeeded Jitan Ram Manjhi, who resigned from his office just before the trust vote wherein he was supposed to prove majority in the 243-member Bihar Legislative Assembly.
Mr Kumar’s oath of the office and secrecy was administered by Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi. With this, he took oath as the state’s chief minister for the fourth time. His previous three terms are listed as follows: First term – 3 March 2000 and 10 March 2000 – he resigned after he failed to prove majority; Second term – 24 November 2005 and 24 November 2010, and third term – 26 November 2010 and 17 May 2014 – he resigned from his office after his party performed poorly in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. 
Former President of Maldives Mohamed Nasheed was arrested by the police under anti-terrorism laws after a court said that he might flee the country to avoid hearings on terrorism charges. He is facing criminal charges over his order to arrest a Criminal Court judge Abdulla Mohamed in January 2012.
He is a leader of Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and was the first democratically elected President of Maldives. He stepped down as the President of Maldives in 2012.
Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic is the new President of Croatia. She is Croatia’s first female President and overall fourth President since Croatia gained independence fromYugoslavia in 1991. She succeeds her vanquished left-wing predecessor Ivo Josipovic.
Boris Nemtsov, the former Deputy Prime Minister of Russia and a leading Russian opposition politician, was shot dead in Moscow. He had served Russia as its first Deputy Prime Minister under the late President Boris Yeltsin during 1997 - 1998. During this period he also served as Minister of Fuel and Energy of Russia.
The 55-year-old Nemtsov is one of the leading critics of the Russian President Vladimir Putin. He opposed the Russian policy of intervention in Ukraine. He was co-chair of the Republican Party of Russia – People’s Freedom Party (RPA-PARNAS). He also was one of the founders of Young Russia Movement in 1998.
Daggubati Ramanaidu, famous film producer and recipient of India’s highest cinema award, Dada Saheb Phalke Award, had died, aged 78.
In 2013, he was awarded with the Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian award, and received the Dadasaheb Phalke in 2009. He held the Guinness World record for producing the highest number of films (over 150) in several languages like Telugu (and all other South Indian languages), Hindi, Punjabi, and English. He was a Member of Parliament from Bapatla constituency in Andhra Pradesh in the 13th Lok Sabha (1999–2004).
Some of his famous films were Staten Island (in English), Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rehte Hain (in Hindi), Asukh (in Bengali), and Jeevana Tarangalu, Soggadu, Preminchu (all in Telugu).
Renowned American actor Leonard Nimoy has died, aged 83. He was best known for his half-human, half-Vulcan character of Mr Spock in the cult scientific-fiction series ‘Star Trek’. The character of Mr Spock had a significant cultural impact and garnered Nimoy with three Emmy Award nominations.
Born on 26 March 1931, he started his career in the 1950s by teaching acting classes at Hollywood and making minor film and television appearances. His first starring movie role came in 1952 with Kid Monk Baroni, in which he played a disfigured Italian street-gang leader who becomes a boxer.
In 1965, he appeared in Star Trek as pilot The Cage. From 1966-69, he played the role of Spock in original Star Trek series. He also had appeared in multiple films like Queen for a Day and Rhubarb. He directed the movies Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986).
Michele Ferrero, Italy’s richest man and the owner of a global chocolate and confectionery empire that was built on the popular Nutella spread, has died, aged 89.
Forbes estimated Ferrero and his family’s wealth at around U.S.$23, making him Italy’s richest man. It was Michele’s father Pietro who had laid the groundwork for the Nutella recipe by adding hazelnut to the mix to save money on cocoa. But it was Michele who turned the paste into the Nutella now known across the world.
Ferrero group now produces around 3.6 lakh tonnes of Nutella every year in 11 factories around the world.
Other confectionary and chocolate brands that are produced by Ferrero Group include Kinder Chocolate, Ferrero Rocher, and Kinder Eggs. 
Dr Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, who is facing allegations of sexual harassment, resigned as Chairperson of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He will be replaced by acting chair Ismail El Gizouli until the election for a new chairperson is conducted.
Mr Pachauri had chaired the IPCC since April 2002 and his second term was due to end in October 2015. Currently, he is also the Director General of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and is also a member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change.
Kshatrapati Shivaji, a 1986 batch IAS officer, is the new Chairman and Managing Director (MD) of Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI). Prior to this, he served as the Principal Secretary (Expenditure), Finance Department in Maharashtra government.

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