07 January 2016 Current Affairs
J&K Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed dead
Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mufti Mohammad Sayeed passed away in New Delhi on 7 January 2015 due to multiple organ failure. He was 79.Mr Sayeed, a two-time chief minister, started his second tenure on March 1st, 2015 in alliance with the BJP, after having led the State government between 2002-05 previously. He was the founder of the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Democratic Party (JKPDP) that he founded in 1999.
Amitabh Kant to take over as NITI Aayog CEO
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appointed Amitabh Kant as the chief executive officer of NITI Aayog on 7 January 2016. The appointment will take effect after Mr.Kant retires from service in March.A 1980 batch Kerala cadre IAS officer, Mr.Kant is currently serving as the Secretary in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.January 4, the Cabinet’s Appointments Committee had given Mr.Kant additional charge of the NITI Aayog CEO from January 1, with the extended tenure of the previous CEO Sindhushree Khullar coming to an end on December 31.
Cabinet approves MoU with Singapore to manage airports
The Union Cabinet on 6 January 2016 approved the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with Singapore for operating and maintaining the terminal building of airports at Jaipur and Ahmedabad. This is the first time the Airports Authority of India will award operation and maintenance contract to any entity for terminal building. The objective of this MoU is to establish mutual cooperation in the field of civil aviation.The MoU envisages collaboration with Singapore in areas such as traffic development, commercial development, master planning and design, training and development, cargo handling and management among others.
Israeli journalist, Palestinian pastor won Swedish rights prize
Israeli journalist Gideon Levy and Palestinian pastor Mitri Raheb on 7 January 2016 won the 2015 Olof Palme human rights prize for their “fight against occupation and violence”.Levy, a journalist at the left-leaning Israeli daily Haaretz, and Raheb, a preacher and pastor in the Lutheran church in Bethlehem, were honoured for their “courageous and indefatigable fight against occupation and violence, and for a future Middle East characterised by peaceful coexistence and equality for all”. Levy has published articles opposing the Israeli army’s operations in Gaza in December 2008-January 2009 and in July-August 2014.The Olof Palme Prize is an annual prize worth $75,000 (69,000 euros) awarded by the Swedish labour movement.It commemorates the memory of the Nordic country’s Social Democratic prime minister Olof Palme, an outspoken international human rights advocate who was assassinated in the Swedish capital in 1986.Since 1987 the award has honoured human rights defenders around the world including Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi and former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
D K Sikri appointed CCI chief
Devender Kumar Sikri, a former Gujarat cadre IAS officer, was appointed as Chairman of fair-trade regulator Competition Commission of India (CCI) on 7 January 2016. 62-year-old Sikri succeeds Ashok Chawla, whose over four-year tenure as CCI chief ended January 7. Chawla has been the former Finance Secretary and had succeeded Dhanendra Kumar, who demitted office in June 2011. Sikri will have a tenure of about two and half years, i.e till he attains the age of 65 . He superannuated as Secretary, Department of Justice on July 31, 2013. The former IAS officer had also been Secretary in Ministry of Women and Child Development, Registrar General of Census and Collector of Rajkot and Jamnagar, among others.
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