April-2009 • Pramod Bhasin, Presiden and CEO of Genpact, took over as the new Chairman of National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) for 2009-10, succeeding Ganesh Natarajan. • The former Indian ambassador to the United Nations, Nirupam Sen, is appointed Special Senior Adviser to the president of the 192-member General Assembly on the world financial and economic crisis. • Naina Lal Kidwal is appointed as the country head of HSBC group companies in India. • Balwinder Singh, a 1976 batch IPS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre, took over as Additional Director in the Central Bureau of Investigation. • Marris Zare music director of the movies A Passage to India and Lawrence of Arabia died in Los Angeles. • Denmark's Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen was appointed as the new NATO chief. • Israel's Likud party Chief Benjamin Netanyahu sworn in as the new prime minister of the Jewish state. • Senior Election Commissioner Navin B. Chawla took over as the 16th chief Election Commissioner of India in New Delhi. • The Government removes Raghu Menon from the post of Chairman and Managing Director of Air India and appoints EK Bharat Bhushan as the interim chairman and managing director. • President Barack Obama has appointed Indian American management consultant Anju Bhargava, who is also an ordained ‘pujari’ (priest), as the member of a faith-based advisory council of the White House. • V.S. Sampath is new Election Commissioner Union Power Secretary Veeravalli Sundaram Sampath, a 1973 batch IAS officer of the Andhra Pradesh cadre, will be the new Election Commissioner. • Sonal Shah joins Obama administration Indian-American Sonal Shah, who formerly led the philanthropic arm of Google, has been appointed head of the new Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation in the Obama administration. • Senior advocate Ghulam E.Vahanvati was appointed as the new Attorney General of India.He was the Solicitor General during the previous UPA Government. May-2009 • The famous director , producer died in Mumabai. He directed fasmous movies like Zanjeer, Lavarees etc. • President Obama Nominated Gen. Charles Bolden to be NASA Administrator. • Robert Furchgott who developed Viagra died at the age of 92. He won the Noble Prize in Pharmacology. He proved that Nitric Oxide gas is useful for various reactions taking place in the body which lead to the invention of Viagra. • Eminent Historian, A R Kulkarni was dead at the age of 84. He is credited with the setting up the History Department at the University of Pune in 1969. • Prasara Bharati Chairman, Arun Bhatnagar has resigned to his job. • Justice Pasayat was appointed as the chairman of the Competition Appellate Tribunal. June-2009 • Nandan Nilekani of Infosys has been appointed as the Chairperson of Unique Identification Scheme (UID), a project by the union central Government. This newly created position will be equivalent to a Cabinet Rank minister. • Obama administration has appointed Farah Pandith as Special Representative to Muslim Communities under the aegis of the State Department and Secretary Hillary Clinton. • Justice Ashok Kumar Mathur, a retired judge of the Supreme Court has been appointed as Chairperson of the Armed Forces Tribunal. • Lord Swaraj Paul was appointed by the British Queen as a member of her Privy Council, the British monarch|s advisory group whose members include the Prime Minister, Cabinet ministers and other eminent personalities. • Ramesh Pokhariyal is the new Uttarakhand CM • Senior associate editor and bureau chief of The Hindu Harish Khare will be the media advisor to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh • Nirupama Rao to be next Foreign Secretary : she was High Commissioner to Sri Lanka. Her other diplomatic jobs included being Ambassador to Peru, deputy head of the Indian embassy in Moscow, and Minister (Press) at the Indian embassy in Washington, DC. • Karia Munda was elected as deputy speaker. • Habib Tanvir, one of the greatest stalwarts of Indian theatre, died due to a brief illness. July-2009 • Nirupama Rao is the new foreign secretary. • AP state’s 1st woman High Court Judge, Justice Amareswari was dead. • Legendary Hindustani vocalist Gangubai Hangal died in Hubli. She was 97. • Padmanathan takes over as new LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam) chief. • Indira Jaisingh was appointed as the first woman Additional Solicitor General. • Sri Vatsava is the new Director General of BSF. • August-2009 The Medal of Freedom Awardee Edward Kennedy, brother of John F Kennedy died at the age of 75. Hind Samachar Group Editor in chief, Vijaykumar Chopra was appointed as the Board Chairman of Press Trust of India (PTI). Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma was elected as the Chancellor of UK’s Queen’s University Belfast. VijayKumar Saraswat is the new chief of Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO). Sonia Gandhi was ranked the 13th most influential women in the world by Forbes magazine. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was ranked 1st. Sheela Beyer, America Federal Deposit Insurance Chairperson was ranked 2nd. Pepsi Co CEO, Indra Nooyi -3rd , ICICI bank CEO Chanda Kochar – 20th and Biocon chairman, Kiran Mozumdar Shah – 91st. Jaswant Singh has released his controversial book ‘Jinnah: India-Partition- Independence’. The 13 Militant groups association, Therik-e-taliban announced Hakimullah Mehsud as the new Pak Taliban Chief. A postal stamp, in commemoration of Pingali Venkaiah, designer of the Indian Tricolor, was released by the CM of AP. Guitar legend Les Paul has died at 94. He invented the solid-body electric guitar. Rangarajan Was reappointed Economic advisor to PM. September 2009 Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug, the father of the "Green Revolution" who is widely credited with saving millions of lives by breeding wheat, rice and other crops that brought agricultural self-sufficiency to developing countries around the world, died in Texas. He was also conferred with Padmavibushan by India. Former BCCI chairman Raj Singh Dungarpur died in Mumbai. Jack Kramer, a tennis champion in the 1940’s and 50’s died in Las Angeles. Retired IAS officer JM Girglani passed away. He was the chairman of the One- Man Commission on Six Point Formula. Girglani was instrumental in implementation of the popular GO 610 pertaining to repatriation of non-locals to their native zones. Northern Army Commander Lieutenant General P. K. Bhardwaj will be the new Vice-Chief of Army Staff. General Deepak Kapoor, took over as the Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee from outgoing Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta. Vice Admiral Nirmal Kumar Verma took over as the new Navy Chief. October 2009 • Indian – American Mr. Suresh Kumar, president and managing partner of KaiZen Innovation, known for his expertise of public-private partnership, has been nominated Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Director-General of the United States and Foreign Commercial Service in the U.S. Department of Commerce. • Global rating agency Standard and Poor’s (S&P) Asia-Pacific Chief Economist Subir Gokarn will be the new Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). • The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Monday elected Chhagan Bhujbal as the leader of its legislature party, thereby making him the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra. • Dr. K. Radhakrishnan was appointed as the new Chairman of ISRO. He is the Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Center. • Admiral Suresh Mehta was appointed the new High Commissioner to New Zealand. He is the 1st to be appointed to such post after retirement. • Joseph Wiseman, the actor who played the sinister scientist and title character of Dr. No in the first James Bond feature film, has died. • G Madhavan Nair, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, has been appointed President of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA). • Sujatha Koirala was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister of Nepal. • The US-based food and beverages giant PepsiCo has named Indian-born senior executive Jaya Kumar as president of its two billion dollar Quaker Foods and Snacks division • A veteran freedom fighter and disciple of Mahatma Gandhi, Chote Singh Rathore, died. Rathore had played an active role in the Satyagrah and Quit India Movement. • C.B. Muthamma, India’s first woman career diplomat and first woman Ambassador, died in Bangalore. • Noted civil rights activist and Lawyer K Balagopal died of cardiac arrest. He worked as a Professor in Kakatiya University. He wrote books like Naxalbari Udyamam, Gamyam Gamanam, Chikati Konam. Sam Pitroda was appointed as the PM’s advisor. Pitroda, who is also the chairman of National Knowledge Commission, will advise Singh on integrating information communication technology in the sectors of infrastructure, health, justice and information. November-2009 • U.S. President Barack Obama has nominated Indian-American Rajiv Shah to head the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). • Oxford fellowship has been given a philosophy student of Indian origin, Amia Srinivasan. With this fellowship she joined the band of scholars that includes the Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen. • Asok Chavan sworn as the new Chief Minister of Maharashtra. • P.S. Veeraraghavan, a rocket technologist, took over as Director of Vikram Sarabahi Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram, from K. Radhakrishnan. Mr. Veeraraghavan was till now Director of ISRO Inertial Systems Unit (IISU), Thiruvananthapuram. • Srikumar Banerjee, a leading expert in Materials and Technology in the country and director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) has been appointed as chairman of Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) • Vinita Kamte wrote a book titled “TO THE LAST BULLET” in search of truth behind her husband, 26/11 martyr Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok Kamte’s death. It was co-authored by senior journalist Vinita Deshmukh.? • Veteran journalist Naresh Chandra Rajkhowa, who broke the news about the Dalai Lama’s flight from Tibet through Tawang in March 1959, passed away. • International Monetary Fund Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato has appointed Siddharth Tiwari as Director of the IMF's Office of Budget and Planning (OBP).