APPOINTED; ELECTED

Jeroen Dijsselbloem: Dutch Finance Minister, he has taken over as the Chairman of the key euro-zone Finance Ministers forum.


John Kerry: He has been appointed as the Secretary of State of USA. He took over from Hillary Clinton.


Y.V. Reddy:  Former RBI governor, he has been appointed Chairman of 14th Finance Commission.


Justice D.K. Jain: He has been appointed as the Chairman of the 20th Law Commission of India, with a three-year term ending on August 31, 2015.   The Law Commission gives advice to the government on complex legal issues. 


Urjit Patel: He has been appointed as Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India for a three-year term ending January 2016.


Rajnath Singh: He has been appointed as the President of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).

RESIGNED

Arjun Munda: Chief Minister of Jharkhand.

DISTINGUISHED VISITORS

Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck: King of Bhutan. He was the Chief Guest at the 2013 Republic Day parade.

Rajkeswur Purryag: President of Mauritius. He was the Chief Guest at the 11th Parvasi Bharti Divas (PBD), held at Cochin.

Bob Carr: Foreign Minister of Australia. During his visit, wide-ranging talks were held on bilateral issues as well as global developments. India and Australia also announced that they would launch negotiations on a civil nuclear cooperation agreement in New Delhi in March, which will facilitate the export of uranium to India to meet its growing energy needs.

G.L. Peiris: Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka. During bilateral talks India impressed upon Sri Lanka the need to do more to rehabilitate the Tamils displaced due to the prolonged conflict in the island nation. The two countries also signed accords on combating international terrorism and drug trafficking and avoidance of double taxation.

DIED

Aaron Swartz: Internet activist and computer prodigy, who helped create an early version of the Web feed system RSS. He was facing federal criminal charges in a controversial fraud case. He committed suicide at age 26.

MILESTONES

C.N.R. Rao: Eminent scientist and head of the Science Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India, he has been awarded a top Chinese science award for his contribution to scientific cooperation between the two countries.  Rao, 79, founder of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore, shared the 2012 award with Herbert Jaeckle of Germany’s Max Planck Society and Russian space physicist G.A. Zherebtsov.

Shah Rukh Khan: Hindi film industry star, he has topped the inaugural Forbes India Celebrity 100 list. Actor Salman Khan is at the second spot while India’s cricket captain M.S. Dhoni is third in the list. Among the top 10 in the list are Akshay Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Sachin Tendulkar, Kareen Kapoor, Virender Sehwag, Virat Kohli and Katrina Kaif.