Person in News Current Affairs February 2016

Arun Kumar Jain

1) The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) approved the appointment of Arun Kumar Jain as Chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the supreme policy making body of Income Tax on December 15, 2015.

2)  Arun Kumar Jain is a 1978 batch Indian Revenue Services officer. The tenure of Arun Kumar Jain as Chairman of CBDT will be of two months (till January, 2016).

3) He replaced Anita Kapur who retired on November 30, 2015. Now Anita Kapur has been appointed as the adviser on tax reforms in the Union Ministry of Finance for six months.

Pravin Gordhan

1) Veteran Indian-origin politician Pravin Gordhan has been appointed as South Africa’s new Finance Minister on December 14, 2015 by President Jacob Zuma who fired two of his predecessors within a week amid a raging economic turmoil in Africa’s second largest economy.

2) Gordhan’s appointment comes after a huge controversy amid mounting pressure on Zuma to quit after he dismissed Nhlanhla Nene as Finance Minister, without giving reasons, drawing widespread criticism even from within the ranks of his own African National Congress.

Mauricio Macri

1) Mauricio Macri of Republican Proposal Party (RPP) took office as Argentina’s first non-Peronist President in more than a decade on December 10, 2015. He promised to end policies of leftist populism and revive the South American country’s ailing economy.

2) Presidential election held in November, 2015 where Macri had won the election by securing more than 53% votes. He had defeated his rival Daniel Scioli of ruling Peronist Party who secured 47% votes. His victory had ended the 12 years of leftist rule in Argentina.

3)  Macri began his 4-year term in a cererqony snubbed by his predecessor, Cristina Fernandez, following a rancorous argument over where the handover of power should take place.

Kaher Kazem

1) Kaher Kazem has been appointed President and Managing Director of General Motors India on December 6, 2015. He replaced Arvind Saxena and will take over his new role on January 1, 2016. Presently, Kazem is serving as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of GM India.

2) He had started his career as a senior engineer with GM Holden in Australia in 1995. Recently, he had managed the industrial side of the business and was President and MD of GM Uzbekistan from 2012.

3) Arvind Saxena was with the company for less than two years. He joined General Motors from Volkswagen India where he was Managing Director from August, 2012 to February, 2014.

Persons Died

Natalie Cole

■    Natalie Cole, the daughter of jazz legend Nat King Cole, has died on December 31, 2015 at the age Of 65. She had her greatest success in 1991 when she re-recorded her father’s classic hits (with him on the track) for the album ‘Unforgettable… With Love’.

■    Natalie Cole was inspired by her dad at an early ag and auditioned to sing with him when she was just 11 years old. She w 15 when he died of lung cancer, in 1965.

*    She carved out her own success with R&B hits ‘Our Love’ and ‘This V Be’ before triumphantly intertwining their lega to make his ‘Unforgettable’ their signature hit through technological wizardry.

Ian Murdock

*    Ian Murdock, known creating the Debian L OS, one of Linux’s fnc popular open-source operating systems, p away on December 3 2015 at the age of 42. Debian was started in August, 1993 by Ian he was also an emp at Docker.

■    Debian was created Murdock while he still a student at P-University and was regarded as one of most successful open-source proj Currently, over a 1 people involved in Debian OS. Gordhan served as South Africa’s Finance Minister from 2009 until 2014.