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General Awareness Updates – April 2014

Persons in News

Ukraine’s parliament voted to remove President Viktor Yanukovych, even as the embattled leader remained defiant, calling

the country’s political crisis a “coup” and saying he has no intention of resigning or leaving the country. Parliament also

appointed opposition leader Oleksander Turchynov as speaker, the nation’s third highest constitutional position (currently

there are full-time president and prime minister in the country). Mr Turchynov has been recognised by the European Union as

the country’s Interim President.

In the vote, parliament also moved to have early elections on May 25 2014. In a deal brokered to stop the violence, early

elections were set for December 2014. Imprisoned opposition leader and former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko was released

after spending 2 1/2 years in prison. The death toll in clashes between protesters and police has reached 100.

The protests broke out in November last year following Mr Yanukovych’s unwillingness to sign a trade deal with the European

Union and instead accept financial help from Russia. The protests remained largely peaceful until January, when up to five

were killed. But the violence escalated after the president’s forces attacked following a broken truce, leaving dozens dead.

Tammam Salam (left) is the new Prime Minister of Lebanon. The appointment breaks a 10-month

political deadlock during which spill over violence from neighbouring Syria worsened internal instability.

A caretaker government has run the country since former Prime Minister Najib Mikati resigned in March

2013 as parties aligned with the Shi’ite Hezbollah movement and a Sunni-led rival bloc pursued a power

struggle exacerbated by their support for opposing sides in Syria’s almost three-year-old civil war.

Matteo Renzi, a centre-left politician, has been sworn in as the new Prime Minister of Italy. He succeeds Enrico Letta.

Mr Renzi, 39, will be the youngest prime minister in the country’s history, and one of its least experienced. A former mayor of

Florence, he has never been elected to parliament or served in a national government.

Veteran Nepali Congress leader Sushil Koirala was elected Prime Minister of Nepal with the support of the CPN-UML, ending

months of political instability following last year’s elections.

Mr Koirala, the sole contestant in the premier race, was elected with 405 votes in the 601-member Constituent Assembly. As

many as 148 lawmakers from UCPN-Maoist, Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal and some small parties in the Maoist-led alliance

voted against 75-year-old Mr Koirala. The standing committee of the CPN-UML - the second largest party which has 173

lawmakers - backed Koirala for the top post after the party reached a six-point deal with the NC, which as 194 lawmakers.

The two largest parties in the Constituent Assembly inked the deal after several rounds of negotiations on the issue of power

sharing. Under the six-point agreement, they agreed to promulgate the new constitution within a year and to hold elections

for the posts of president, vice president and chairman of the Constituent Assembly after it approves the new constitution.

The agreement also mentioned about taking ownership of the past agreements of the dissolved Constituent Assembly

regarding the drafting of the constitution.

Tata Motors Managing Director Karl Slym died after apparently falling from a hotel building in Bangkok where he had gone to

attend a board meeting of the company’s Thailand arm.

Slym, 51, joined the auto major in 2012 as part of a major management overhaul and was responsible for charting out the

company’s strategy to regain momentum in the domestic market.

Before joining Tata Motors, Slym was the executive vice president, SGMW Motors, China (a General Motors Joint Venture).

Prior to that, he was president, managing director and board member of General Motors in India between 2007-11. For over

two decades, Slym was with Toyota and General Motors in various positions across geographies.

India-born Satya Nadella, (right) 46, was named as the new CEO of U.S.$78 billion tech giant Microsoft.

He is the third CEO of the Redmond-based firm and the first Indian to head the world’s largest software

firm in its 38-year history. He succeeds Steve Ballmer.

Hyderabad-born Mr Nadella, who had joined Microsoft in 1992, previously served as the Executive Vice

President of Cloud and Enterprise Group.

John Thompson, who is currently lead independent director, will succeed Microsoft founder Bill Gates as

Chairman.

Mr Nadella takes on as the CEO at a time when the company is facing a slow erosion of its PC-centric Windows and Office

businesses and is looking at refuelling its mobile ambitions with the takeover of Finnish handset maker Nokia. Before joining

Microsoft Mr Nadella was a member of the technology staff at Sun Microsystems.

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Harish Rawat is the new Chief Minister of Uttarakhand. He succeeds Vijay Bahuguna. Mr Rawat resigned from the Union

Council of Ministers following the decision of his party (INC) to install him as Uttarakhand Chief Minister.

Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has received the additional charge of water resource ministry following follows resignation

by Water Resources Minister Harish Rawat.

Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has approved composition of the Seventh Pay Commission, which will revise the salaries of

over 50 lakh central government employees. Former Supreme Court Justice Ashok Kumar Mathur has been appointed as

chairman of the Commission, with Oil Secretary Vivek Rae as full time Member. Rathin Roy (Director, NIPFP) will be part-time

Member and Meena Agarwal (OSD, Department of Expenditure) its Secretary.

The Commission has been mandated to submit its report in two years time and its recommendations would be implemented

from January 1, 2016. The setting up of the Commission, whose recommendations will benefit about 50 lakh central

government employees, including those in defence and railways, and about 30 lakh pensioners, comes ahead of the general

elections.

The government constitutes Pay Commission almost every ten years to revise the pay scales of its employees and often

these are adopted by states after some modification. The Sixth Pay Commission was implemented with effect from January 1,

2006, the fifth from January 1, 1996 and fourth from January 1, 1986.

Libya’s parliament voted Prime Minister Ali Zeidan out of office after rebels humiliated the government by loading crude on a

tanker that fled from naval forces, in a sign of the worsening chaos in the OPEC member state. Mr Zeidan, a liberal weakened

for months by infighting with Islamists, will be temporarily replaced by Defence Minister Abdallah al-Thinni.

Libyan gunboats later chased the tanker along Libya’s eastern Mediterranean coast and opened fire, damaging it. Western

powers fear the vast North African state could even break apart with the government struggling to rein in armed militias and

tribesmen who helped oust dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 but want to grab power and oil revenues.

Mr Zeidan, who came to power in 2012 after Libya’s first free parliamentary vote following four decades of quirky one-man

rule by Gaddafi, had been facing opposition from Islamists and the public blaming him for Libya’s anarchic transition since

2011.

After nine years in office, Estonian PM Andrus Ansip announced his resignation to enable a successor to lead his party into

2015 elections. At 57, he is the longest-serving prime minister in the European Union. His successor has not been announced

yet. He implemented harsh austerity measures as Estonia entered recession after the global financial crisis in 2008. He also

brought Estonia into the eurozone in 2011. Estonia has been widely praised for introducing tough measures from 2008-2009

and the economy bounced back in 2011, climbing 9.6%. But the recovery has faltered in recent months with growth

expectations little above 2% this year and Mr Ansip’s popularity has also dipped.

Egypt’s interim government headed by newly-appointed Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab was sworn in, with the military chief,

General Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, remaining in office as the defence minister.

If Gen. Sisi, who also kept his post as the first deputy prime minister, announces that he will run for president which is widely

expected, he will have to resign as the minister and head of the armed forces.

Mr Mahlab, who survived an assassination bid last September, is facing a tough task to keep the country’s stability and

security amid a string of terrorist attacks hitting the country and the growing militant insurgency in the restive Sinai

peninsula, which killed dozens of policemen.

U.S. President Barack Obama has planned a U.S.$3.9-trillion budget for the 2015 fiscal year, which will be used to fund

infrastructure upgrading, education and other social programmes.

Mr Obama has budgeted a deficit of U.S.$564 billion for 2015, or 3.1 per cent of the estimated Gross Domestic Product

(GDP). Deficit in the next decade will stay between U.S.$400 billion and U.S.$500 billion. The deficit to GDP ratio will lower to

1.6 per cent by 2024. In the new budget outlined for the fiscal year starting October 1, he aims to invest in infrastructure,

job training and pre-school, cut taxes for working Americans while closing tax loopholes enjoyed by the wealthy.

“The budget I sent Congress ... lays out how we will implement this agenda in a balanced and responsible way. It is a

roadmap for creating jobs with good wages and expanding opportunity for all Americans.” Mr Obama said. “At a time when our

deficits have been cut in half, it allows us to meet our obligations to future generations without leaving them a mountain of

debt.”

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