Appointments - Current Affairs for August, 2015

Dr. Girish Sahni, who had been the Director, CSIR-Institute of Microbial Technology (CSIR-IMTECH), Chandigarh, assumed charge as the next Director General of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) and Secretary, Department of Scientific & Industrial Research (DSIR), Ministry of Science & Technology, with effect from the 24th August 2015.

The world government body of athletics, the International Association of Athletics Federations - the IAAF, has chosen the British former Olympic champion Sebastian Coe as its new president. His election comes at a time, when the organisation is facing allegations of widespread doping in the sport. He succeeds Senegalese Lamine Diack, 82, who has led the IAAF for 16 years.

On 20th Aug’15 Ashwani Lohani was appointed as Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of national carrier Air India for three years. He will be replacing Rohit Nandan, whose extended tenure ends on 21st August. The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has approved appointment of Lohani, a 1980 batch Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers (IRSME) officer, as CMD, Air India Ltd. He is presently working as Managing Director of Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation in Bhopal.

The three-member team will be headed by the Registrar of Newspapers in India (RNI) SM Khan and comprise two more I&B Ministry officials.

He is an IPS officer of 1984 batch of union territories cadre, currently serving as Special Director in Centre Region of Enforcement Directorate and will replace Rajan S Katoch.

He is a 1974-batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, completed his extended tenure of four years at the Cabinet secretariat on 13th June 2015.

Justice Khawaja, the senior-most sitting judge, will serve as chief justice for only 23 days as he is due to retire on the 9th of next month.

Rakesh Sharma is chosen from private sector to head the Public Sector Bank.

This is the first time the government has chosen the candidate from the private sector to head the Public Sector Banks.

The elections were held with Justice P K Bhasin (Retired Judge of Delhi High Court) acting as the Returning Officer in the presence of HS Bhadu, IOA Observer and R K Saxena, Government Observer.

Justice Patel has replaced Justice V. M. Sahai who retired as acting chief justice on superannuation. Gujarat High Court has received a notification from the Supreme Court of India regarding the appointment of Justice Jayant Patel as the acting Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court on 12th Aug’15.

Law Ministry said, the appointment of former Madhya Pradesh cadre IAS officer Mr Rawat will come into effect from the day he assumes office.

The Chennai born 43-year-old IIT Kharagpur graduate is the second person of Indian-origin to head an IT company after Hyderabad-born Satya Nadella, who became the CEO of software giant Microsoft in February 2014.

He became the second Indian origin diplomat to be posted after Richard Rahul Verma.

Mr Acharya Dev Vrat has been working as Principal in a Gurukul in Haryana's Kurukshetra. He has been a recipient of American Medal of Honor awarded by American Biographical Institute towards selfless dedication in the field of social service.

He is the senior BJP leader. Mr Kovind, who had been a two-time Rajya Sabha member between 1994 and 2006, hails from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh. His appointment comes barely a few months ahead of the Assembly elections in Bihar.

Roy will head the three-member Executive Committee (EC), a key body of the Council, for a period of three years.