February

Vice Admiral Anurag G Thapliyal --on 28 February 2013 he took over as the twentieth Director General of the Indian Coast Guard. He is the successor of the outgoing Vice Admiral MP Muralidharan. He was commissioned on Indian Navy on 1 July 1977 and since then held different sea and operational appointments. He is a Navigation and Aircraft Direction specialist

Park Geun-hye (61)-Park Geun-hye sworn-in as the first woman President of South Korea on 25 February 2013. After swearing-in, she vowed for zero tolerance against nuclearised North Korea as well as economic prosperity of the country. Park Geun-hye took charge of the office of the President of South Korea just a little over 50 years after Park Chung-hee, her father had taken over the office in 1961. Park Geun-hye was elected as the first female President of South Korea on 19 December 2012. She belongs to the conservative Saenuri party. Former President of South Korea was Lee Myung-bak.

Rajeev Shahare –Rajiv Shahare was appointed as the new High Commissioner to Maldives on 28 February 2013, replacing D M Mulay.At present, Shahare is a Joint Secretary in the West Asia North Africa division of Ministry of External Affairs. D M Mulay, on the other hand, has now been appointed as the India’s Consul General in New York. He would take up office in March 2013. The appointment of Rajeev Shahare came at a time when bilateral relations between India and Maldives are suffering because of termination of contract to GMR for Male International Airport modernization.

A Chennai Bengaluru Industrial Corridor Being Planned The Finance Minister, P Chidambaram in his Budget speech in Lok Sabha on 28 February, said that the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) project has made rapid progress. Plans for seven new cities have been finalized and work on two new smart industrial cities at Dholera, Gujarat and Shendra Bidkin, Maharashtra will start during 2013-14. We acknowledge the support of the Government of Japan. In order to dispel any doubt about funding, The Government will provide, if required, additional funds during 2013-14 within the share of the Government of India in the overall outlay for the project. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) are currently preparing a comprehensive plan for the Chennai Bengaluru Industrial Corridor. The corridor will be developed in collaboration with the Governments of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The next corridor will be the Bengaluru Mumbai Industrial Corridor on which preparatory work has stared.

Kalyan kumar Chakravarty - The President of India on 12 February has appointed Kalyan Kumar Chakravarty, as Chairman of Lalit Kala Akademi. Kalyan Kumar Chakravarty is a 1970 batch Indian Administrative Service Officer and retired in the rank of Secretary to Government of India. He acted as the vice chancellor, National Museum Institute. Chakravarty will hold office till the end of the calendar year in which he completes 70 years of age i.e. upto 31.12.2017.

Subodh Kumar Agrawal- A fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) with 24 years of standing has taken over as the new President of the Institute w. e. f. 12 February. Agrawal has been serving as Central Council member of the Institute for two terms since 2007. He has specialization in the area of internal and statutory audit of private and public sector entities viz. banks and insurance companies. He has been actively involved with the functioning of the Central Council of the Institute in various capacities, viz. as Vice President and Chairman, Vice-Chairman and Member of its various Committees.

C.R. Krishnaswamy Rao(86) - Former Cabinet Secretary C.R. Krishnaswamy Rao Sahib, who was a distinguished IAS officer of the Andhra Pradesh cadre, passed away at Chennai on 13 February. Rao Sahib had the distinction of working with three Prime Ministers as he was Principal Secretary to Charan Singh and Cabinet Secretary during 1981-85 in the Governments of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. He also served as secretary to then Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jalagam Vengal Rao while serving in the State.A dedicated and able administrator, Rao Sahib was honoured with the second highest civilian award of Padma Vibhushan in 2006 in recognition of his yeoman services, over 20 years after his retirement. He was also conferred with the Great Maratha Award in 2009.He was a visionary and played a stellar role in the making of the Integrated Guided Missile Programme of the country during the 1980s.

Mohan Parasaran- The Additional Solicitor General was on 13 February 2013 appointed as the Solicitor General of India after senior advocate Rohinton Nariman resigned from his designation. Mohan Parasaran will serve as the Solicitor General of India for a term of three years. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) cleared his name for Solicitor General of India. Rohinton Nariman resigned from his post in Early February 2013. Mohan Parasaran is a senior advocate of the Supreme Court. He was appointed by first UPA Government as Additional Solicitor General (ASG) in July 2004.The Solicitor General of India is the second highest law officer of India and a subordinate to the Attorney General for India, who is the Indian government's chief legal advisor.

Ashok Kumar Mukerji - A.K. Mukheji was appointed as the next Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations on 13 February 2013. Mukerji replaced Hardeep Singh Puri who retired in February 2013 after the tenure of two years. Ashok Kumar Mukerji was chosen by the Ministry of External Affairs of the Union Government of India. At present, Mukerji is Special Secretary in the External Affairs Ministry. He also served as the Consul General in Dubai as well as the Deputy High Commissioner in London.

Y. Bhaskar Rao(75) - The former Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court, sworn in as the Lokayukta on 14 February 2013. The post of Lokayukta was lying vacant since September 2011. Y. Bhaskar Rao will succeed Justice (Retd) Shivaraj Patil who resigned as the Lokayukta in September 2011 after allegations about illegal possession of government site. Y Bhaskar Rao served as the member of National Human Rights Commission. Rao was sworn- in by the Governor HR Bhardwaj at Raj Bhavan.

Lt Gen K Surendranath took over as Chief of Staff of Southern Army Command on 11 February. He was commissioned into 71 Armoured Regiment in 1975 and later went on to Command the same Regiment, a Defence Ministry release said in Chennai. Lt Gen Surendranath has held number of challenging Command appointments in Western, Northern and Eastern theatres that include command of an Independent Armoured Brigade, an Infantry Division in Counter Insurgency environment and a Corps deployed along the International Border opposite Tibet Administrative Region. He has also been awarded Ati Vishisht Seva Medal, Bar to Ati Vishisht Seva Medal, Sena Medal and Vishisht Seva Medal for his meritorious service. The officer has headed the operations branch of Southern Command in 2010-11, where he oversaw the operationalisation of Exercise Sudarshan Shakti, aimed at starting the transformation of the forces into a modern, lean, and agile fighting combination capable of leveraging new-age technologies. Lt Gen Surendranath is an alumnus of Bishop Cotton School, Bangalore, the National Defence Academy, Khadakvasala and a graduate of the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington. A post graduate in Global Security from Cranfield University, UK, he is an acknowledged expert in strategic affairs.

Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) appointed K. Raghu as its new Vice-President on 12 February 2013. K. Raghu is specialized in areas of business, taxation and technology consultation. He served as the member of the central council of ICAI from 2007 to 2010 and during this period he served ICAI as the Chairman of Information Technology Committee and brought forward the e-learning and web-casting initiatives of the organization

Governor ESL Narasimhan on 13 February appointed noted soil scientist A Padma Raju as vice-chancellor of Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University for a term of three Years. The University had been without a head for the last two years with Telangana protagonists insisting that the post should go to a Telangana professor this time. In October last year the board of management of the university had finalised the name of Padma Raju for appointment as vice-chancellor. But the government, in pursuance of the decision of the board, forwarded Raju’s name to the governor who, in his capacity as chancellor of the university, issued the notification appointing him as the vice-chancellor. The appointment is for three years from the date of assumption of office by him..
Anita B Pfaff- Daughter of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose presented the first copy of the book ‘Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Germany’ to the President of India Pranab Mukherjee at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on February 6, 2013. The book is brought out by Federation of Indo-German Societies in India and Prof. Anita B. Pfaff. The Federation of Indo-German Societies in India was established in 1971 to strengthen the existing friendly relations between India and the Federal Republic of Germany.

Ayesha Haroon(46)- The renowned Pakistani journalist died on 2 February 2013 in New York following 4-year long fight with cancer. Ayesha Haroon is a highly respected journalistic figure in Pakistan. She was former Lahore Resident Editor for The News International. She played an important role in setting up as well as launching Waqt TV channel under The Nation group. She bagged various awards for working as the leading journalist