Persons in News-General Knowledge Questions and Answers

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* Binny Bansal appointed as CEO of Flipkart January 12, 2016

-> Homegrown e-commerce giant Flipkart has promoted co-founder Binny Bansal to the post of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) from current post Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the company. He will succeed incumbent CEO Sachin Bansal (since inception of company) who has been appointed as newly-created post of Executive Chairman of the company.

-> In his new role, Binny Bansal will provide strategic direction to the company and also mentor its senior leadership and look for new investment opportunities.

About Binny Bansal

* Binny Bansal by profession is an Indian Software engineer and Internet entrepreneur especially in ecommerce business.
* In 2007, he had co-founded the e-commerce platform Flipkart along with Sachin Bansal.
* Prior to co-founding Flipkart, Binny was previously employed with global ecommerce giant Amazon for 9 months.
* Before joining Amazon, he was rejected by Google twice. He had graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi with a degree in Computer Science and Engineering.

* Sailesh appointed as Registrar General and Census Commissioner January 11, 2016


-> Senior IAS officer Sailesh has been appointed as Registrar General and Census Commissioner (RGCC) of India.

-> His appointment was confirmed by Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

-> He has been appointed for a period till July 28, 2017 and shall succeed C Chandramouli after he completed his tenure.

-> Sailesh is a 1985 batch IAS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre.

-> Prior to this appointment he was serving as Additional Secretary in the Union Home Ministry.

About Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India

* The post of the RGCC of India is usually held by a civil servant holding the rank of Joint Secretary to Government of India.
* It is responsible for conducting the decennial Census He heads the Census organisation (mentioned in entry 69 of seventh schedule of Constitution) which functions under the aegis of Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

* First female F1 driver Maria Teresa de Filippis passes away January 12, 2016

-> Maria Teresa de Filippis The first female F1 (Formula One) driver Maria Teresa de Filippis passed away on 8 January 2016 in Italy. She was 89.

-> She is remembered as a first female pioneer in motor racing, a sport mainly dominated by men after she had participated in the five World Championship Grand Prix for the Maserati team in 1958.

About Maria Teresa de Filippis

* She was born on 11 November 1926 in Naples, Italy.
* She had stated her racing career at the age of 22 and had won first race on a 10 km drive between Salerno and Cava de’ Tirreni by driving a Fiat 500.
* She was given the opportunity to represent the Maserati team in Monaco Grand Prix of Formula one in 1958.
* She was also a founding member of the Maserati Club and later on she become its President.

* Government reappoints Urjit Patel as Deputy Governor of RBI for a second term

-> The Union Government has reappointed Dr Urjit Patel as Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for a second three-year term.

-> As Deputy Governor of RBI, Dr Patel looks after Monetary Policy, Economic Policy Research, Deposit Insurance, Statistics and Information Management and Right to Information etc.

About Urjit Patel

* By profession Urjit Patel is an eminent economist, consultant and banker.
* He has two decades of rich experience across sectors including financial, energy and infrastructure sectors.
* He had received his doctorate in Economics from Yale University in 1990 and is a graduate of the University of London and Oxford.
* Between 1990 and 1995, he has worked with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) covering the India, US, Bahamas and Myanmar desks of it.
* For first time, he was appointed as the Deputy Governor of RBI in January 2013 for three year term.
* He had headed committee to review the monetary policy framework and had proposed monetary policy committee to set interest rates (currently solely decided by the RBI governor).
* It also had recommended targeting consumer inflation to control volatile prices by shifting the current focus away from wholesale prices.
* Between 2000 and 2004, he had worked closely with several central and state government high level committees such as, Task Force on Direct Taxes (TFDT),Advisory Committee (on Research Projects and Market Studies) and Competition Commission of India (CCI) etc.

* Devender Kumar Sikri appointed as Chairman of CCI

-> Union Government has appointed former IAS Devender Kumar Sikri as Chairman of Competition Commission of India (CCI).

-> He will succeed Ashok Chawla whose tenure ended as the Chairman of CCI.

-> He will have tenure of two and half years i.e. till he attains the age of 65 years.

About Devender Kumar Sikri

* Devender Kumar Sikri is a former IAS officer of Gujarat cadre.
* He has held various positions in his cadre state Gujarat as well as in Centre.
* He was superannuated as Secretary, Department of Justice in July 2013.
* He had also served as Secretary in the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development, and Registrar General of Census (RGC).

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