Events; Appointments; Etc.: June 2009

EVENTS; APPOINTMENTS; ETC.: JUNE 2009

APPOINTED; ELECTED; Etc. Hans Raj Bhardwaj: He has been appointed as the Governor of Karnataka. Rameshwar Thakur: He has been appointed as the Governor of Madhya Pradesh. Devanand Konwar: He has been appointed as the Governor of Bihar. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank: He has been elected as the Chief Minister of Uttarkhand. Meira Kumar (Mrs): She has been elected as the first woman—who also happens to be a Dalit—as the Speaker of Lok Sabha. Her deputy would be BJP leader Karia Munda. Pawan Kumar Bansal: Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister, he has been given additional charge of Water Resources Ministry. Air Chief Marshal Pradeep Vasant Naik: He has taken over as the Chief of Indian Air Force. Goolam E. Vahanvati: He has been appointed as the Attorney-General of India. He is the first Muslim to hold the top law officer’s post.

Gopal Subramaniam: Former additional Solicitor-General, he has been appointed as the Solicitor-General, the second most important law officer of the central government. Montek Singh Ahluwalia: He has become the first deputy chairman of Planning Commission to retain the post after the government reconstituted the plan panel, which will also have three new members. The new entrants to the Commission are: Saumitra Chaudhuri,former member of the PM's Economic Advisory Council, Narendra Jadhav,honorary vice-chancellor of Pune University, and Mihir Shah, Secretary of Samaj Pragati Sahayog. Kamlesh Chandra Chakrabarty: He has taken charge as Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Nandan Nilekani: Co-chairman of Infosys, he has been appointed as the chairperson of the Unique Identification Authority of India, constituted to provide national identity cards to Indian citizens. G.K. Pillai: He has been appointed as the Home Secretary of India. Peter Varghese: He has been appointed as Australia’s High Commissioner to India.

RESIGNED Bhuvan Chand Khanduri: Chief Minister of Uttarkhand.

DISTINGUISHED VISITORS General Bismilah Khan Mohammadi: Army Chief of Afghanistan. Hillary Clinton: Secretary of State of USA. Samuel Aba: Minister of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Immigration of Papua New Guinea.

DIED Corazon Aquino: Former President of Philippines who had led millions of Filipinos in protests against Dictator Ferdinand Marcos, in a popular revolt in 1986, before taking over as the President. She was 76. Gangubai Hangal: Doyen of Hindustani vocal music. She was 97. Devendra Dwivedi: Governor-designate of Gujarat. He was 73. Gayatri Devi: Erstwhile Rajmata fo Jaipur. She was 90. She was once listed among the world’s ten most beautiful women by Vogue magazine. Leela Naidu: Hindi film actress, who mesmerised audiences with her classic beauty in films like "Anuradha" and "Yeh Raaste Hain Pyaar Ke”. She was 69. Tyeb Mehta: Noted Indian painter. He was 84. Walter Cronkite: America’s legendary broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman Walter Cronkite. He was 92.

EVENTS JUNE

1—An Air France plane with 228 persons on board crashes into Atlantic Ocean after hitting heavy turbulence during a flight from Rio de Janerio to Paris.

5—In raging violence in Pakistan’s restive north-west, a suicide bomber blows himself in a mosque at Hayagai Sherqi in Upper Dir district near Peshawar, killing more than 40 people.

18—The rate of inflation, as measured by the wholesale price index, turns negative for the first time in over 30 years.

20—Security forces re-capture Lalgarh police post in West Bengal from Maoists. The post had been under the control of Maoists for last eight months.

21—Saina Nehwal scripts history by becoming the first Indian Badminton player to win a Super Series tournament.

29—In Central America’s first military coup since the end of Cold war, Honduras President Manuel Zelaya is overthrown and exiled by the army.

MILESTONES Farah Pandith: A Kashmiri-origin woman, she has been appointed by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as a Special Representative to Islamic communities to reach out to the Muslim world, providing momentum to US President Barack Obama’s efforts for a “new beginning” with the community.