Persons in News (2012-13)

• This list is not exhaustive. This is just “minimum essential system requirement”, otherwise Government gave more than 6 dozen Padma Shris in 2012, but time is not a luxury we cannot afford right now.

• This is list is subject to revision (based on your additions via comments)

• As the exam date comes near, people start making more and more ambitious plans (like I’ll finish all Pratiyogita Darpan issues of last 2 years. I’ll cover all The Hindu newspapers of last 12 months from its website and so on…).

• But, Ambitious study plans =often unrealistic study plans= #EPICFAIL.

• So, when it comes to Persons in News (PIN), Sports, Books and Misc.GK , you’ve to draw a line somewhere otherwise book market is flooded with “current affairs” material worth 10000 pages (and more will come, as the March-April floods approach.).

• But beyond a point it starts giving “diminishing rate of return”.

International Leaders:-

Country	Name	Info
Bhutan	Jigme Khesat Namgyel Wangchuck	King of Bhutan. Chief guest for 2013 Republic Day
Brazil	Dilma ROusseff	I Woman President of Brazil. She replaced Lula da Silva (winner of Indira Gandhi Peace Prize)
China	Xi Jinping	Replaced Hu Jintao. To become President in March 2013
China	Li Kequiang	New PM of China. Replaced Wen Jiabao
China	Bo Xilai	Corrupt leader in Chinese polit bureau. Expelled
Cuba	Raul Castro	President of Cuba. Replaced Fidel Castro
Egypt	Mohd. Morsy	President of Egypt
EU	Herman Van Rompuy	PM of Belgium. President of European Council
France	Francois Hollande	President of France. Defeated Sarkozy. Belongs to Socialist party
Greece	Atonis Samras	PM of Greece
Iran	Aytollah Khamenei	Supreme Leader of Iran
Iran	Ahmedijad	President of Iran
Israel	Shimon Peres	President of Israel
Israel	Benjamin Netanyahu	PM of Israel
Japan	Shinzo Abe	PM of Japan. Defeated Yoshiko Noda
Liberia	Ellen Johnson Sirleaf	President of Liberia. Indira Gandhi Peace Prize (2012)
Maldives	Waheed	Waheed took charge as President after coup. Nasheed was ousted.
Mali	Diarra & Traore	After coup, Diarra was replaced by Traore
Mauritius	Rajkeshwar Purryag	President of Mauritius. Chief guest for PBD 2013
Mexico	Enrique Nieto	Mexico President
Myanmar	Thein Sein	Myanmar President
Myanmar	Aung San Suu Kyi	Opposition Leader of Myanmar. Nobel Peace Prize winner (1991); Her party is National League for Democracy
North Korea	Kim Jong-Un	North Korea President.
Pakistan	Raja Parvez	PM of Pakistan. SC ordered to arrest him
Germany	Angela Merkel	German Chancellor
Palestine	Mohd. Abbas	President of Palestine Authority
South Korea	Park Geun-hye	I female President of South Korea. She replaced Lee Myung-bak
Sri Lanka	Gen. Sarath Fonseca	Ex-General of Sri Lankan Army. Was jailed after power struggle with President
Sri Lanka	Mahinda Rajapakse	Sri Lankan President. He threw out CJI Shri Bandaranyake
Syria	Wael Halqi	PM of Syria
Syria	Bashar Al Asad	President of Syria
Thailand	Yingluck Shinawatra	I female President of Thailand. Chief guest of 2012 Republic Day
UK	David Cameron	PM of UK. Conservative party. Replaced Gordon Brown
UK	Nick Clegg	Deputy PM of UK. Liberal Democrats Party
USA	Obama	Won second time Presidential election
Venezuela	Hugo Chavez	President. Right now getting treatment for cancer in Cuba.

International Leaders (Non-political):-

Name	Org
Ban-Ki-Moon	UN General Secretary
Jin Yong Kim	President, World Bank
Justice Dalveer Bhandari	Indian. Became Judge of International Court of Justice
Christine Lagarde	Chief of IMF
Pascal Lamy	Chief of WTO
Jacques Rogge	President, International Olympic Committee
S k Jain	I Indian to become chairman of World Association of Nuclear operators
Nkosazana Zuma	Head of African Union (I woman)

Indians (non-political):-

Name	Org
Ashok Chawla	Competition Commission of India
Brajesh Mishra	India’s first NSA died recently
Altamas Kabir	Chief Justice of India
Duvvuri Subbarao	RBI Governor
Urjit Patel	Deputy Governor of RBI
Ela Ramesh Bhatt	Founder of SEWA. Got Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace (actually won in 2011, but was awarded in 2013)
Madhav Gadgil	Committee on Western Ghats ecology
Gopi Chand Narang	Associated with Urdu literature. Got Pakistani award Sitara-i-Imtiaz. The highest civilian award in Pakistan is Nishan-i-Imtiaz (Moraji Desai  Dilip Kumar got it)
Gulzar	Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration
JS Verma	Committee on women safety after Delhigangrape
Justice DK Jain	20th Law Commission
Kaushik Basu	World Bank Chief Economist
KC Chakrabarty	Committee: financial inclusion; Deputy Governor of RBI
Major Abup J Manjali	Kirti Chakra
Mrinal Gore	Noted Socialist. Dead
Naina Kidwai	Chief of HSBC India. Became first woman President of FICCI
Parthasarthi Shome	Committee for GAAR (General Anti-Avoidance Rules)
Raghuram Rajan	Previously with IMF. Now Chief Economic Advisor to Finance Ministry
Rahul Khullar	TRAI
Rangachari	Committee: Taxation in IT sector
Rangarajan	Domestice gas price. Rangarajan is also Chairman of Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council
Ranjit Sinha	CBI
Sam Pitroda	National Knowledge Commission
Satyanand Mishra	Chief Information Commissioner
Shivshankar Menon	National Security Advisor
Tessy Thomas	Defence scientist; Lal Bahadur Shashtri National Award
UK Sinha	SEBI
Vinod Rai	CAG. Also no 01 enemy for UPA government particularly A. Raja, Kapil Sibal, Manish Tiwari and countless.
VS Sampath	Chief Election Commissioner
YV Reddy	Chairman of 14th Finance Commission (2015-2020)

Indian Diaspora abroad:-

Name	Post
Ami Bera	California, House of Representative
Bobby Jindal	Louisiana Governor (Republican Party)
Fareed Zakaria	Worked for CNN & TIME. Suspended for plagiarism
Halimah Yacob	Singapore’s I woman Speaker
Jacintha Saldana	She was a nurse in London, treating Kate Willaim. She committed suicide after two Australian DJ mocked her.
Kamla Persad Bissessar	PM of Trinidad & Tobago. Chief guest of PBD-2012
Nikky Haley	South Carolina Governor (Republican Party)
Patricia Maria Razario	UK musician. Won PBD 2013 award
Rajat Gupta	Jailed for insider trading in USA. Was associated with Goldman Sachs
Rajkeshwar Purryag	President of Mauritius. Chief guest for PBD 2013
Rasik Joshi	Sanskrit Literature, Mexico; won PBD 2013 award
Tulsi Gabbard	First Hindu in US House of Representatives; elected from Hawai State; Democrat party; She took oath in Bahavad Gita; served in US army and also deployed in Iraq.

Nobel Prize 2012:-

Category	Who	Why
Medicine	Gurdon & Yamanaka	Regenerative medicine. Cure disease by growing tissues in lab.
Physics	Haroche & WIneland	Measure quantum particles, without destroying them
Chemistry	Lefkowitz & Kobilka	Protein receptors that let body cell respond to signals
Literature	Mo Yan	First Chinese writer to get this award
Economics	Roth & Shapley	Stable allocation and market design

Beauty Queens:-

Olivia Culpo (USA)	Miss Universe 2012
Wen xia Yu	Miss World 2012
Tereza Fajksova	Miss Earth 2012

Following names have become so clichéd in current affairs related books, magazines and sites:

Homai Vyarawala: India’s first woman photojournalist. Dead

Chanda Kochhar: ICICI

Malala Yousufzai: Pakistani girl shot by Talibans, survived.

Pandit Ravi Shankar: Sitar Maestro passed away recently. Won Grammy award posthumously

Sports (India in Olympics):-

Name	Event (Olympics 2012)	Medal
Gagan Narang	Shooting (Air rifle)	Bronze
Vijay Kumar	Shooting (Pistol)	Silver
Saina Nehwal	Badminton	Bronze
Mary Kom	Boxing (flyweight)	Bronze
Yogeshwar Dutt	Wrestling (60 kg freestyle)	Bronze
Sushil Kumar	Wrestling (66 kg freestyle)	Silver
Paralympics 2012:-
Girisha Hosanagara Nagarajegowda	Men High jump	Silver