Zee Learn, education branch of Essel Group, on 6 July 2016 appointed Debshankar Mukhopadhyay as Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
•    Essel Group is among India’s most prominent business houses with a diverse portfolio of assets in media, packaging, entertainment, education etc.
•    Debshankar Mukhopadhyay holds over 20 years of experience in educational and financial sectors across South Asia.
•    Prior to joining Zee Learn, he was the Head of Educational Sales, Financial Services and Insurance at Manipal Global Education Services.
•    He has also been associated with Max Life Insurance, Western Union, Scholastic India, Zee Interactive Learning Systems and DHL Worldwide.
•    Zee Learn is India’s leading company in education segment.
•    It operates chain of K-12 schools, such as Mount Litera Zee School and Kidzee, which is Asia’s No 1 chain of pre-school network.
•    Mount Litera Zee School was awarded as the K-12 School Chain of the Year at Indian Educational Congress in 2015.
 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 5 July 2016 expanded his Council of Ministers which included inducting of some new Ministers of State, changes in portfolio of some ministers and dropped 5 Ministers from CoM.
Prime Minister
•    Narendra Modi - Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions; Department of Atomic energy; Department of Space; and all important policy issues, and all other portfolios not allocated to any Minister
Cabinet ministers
•    Rajnath Singh - Home affairs
•    Sushma Swaraj - External affairs
•    Arun Jaitley – Finance and Corporate Affairs
•    Venkaiah Naidu - Urban Development and Housing; Urban Poverty Alleviation; Information and Broadcasting
•    Nitin Jairam Gadkari - Road Transport and Highways; Shipping
•    Manohar Parrikar - Defence
•    Suresh Prabhu - Railways
•    DV Sadananda Gowda - Statistics and Programme Implementation
•    Uma Bharati - Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation
•    Najma A Heptulla - Minority Affairs
•    Ramvilas Paswan - Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
•    Kalraj Mishra - Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
•    Maneka Sanjay Gandhi - Women and Child Development
•    Ananth Kumar - Chemicals and Fertilizers; Parliamentary Affairs
•    Ravi Shankar Prasad - Law and Justice; Electronics and Information Technology
•    Jagat Prakash Nadda - Health and Family Welfare
•    Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati - Civil Aviation
•    Anant Geete - Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises
•    Harsimrat Kaur Badal - Food Processing Industries
•    Narendra Singh Tomar - Rural Development; Panchayati Raj; Drinking Water and Sanitation
•    Chaudhary Birender Singh - Steel
•    Jual Oram - Tribal Affairs
•    Radha Mohan Singh - Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
•    Thaawar Chand Gehlot - Social Justice and Empowerment
•    Smriti Zubin Irani - Textiles
•    Harsh Vardhan - Science and Technology; Earth sciences
•    Prakash Javadekar - Human Resource Development
Ministers of state
•    Rao Inderjit Singh - Planning (Independent Charge); Urban Development; Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation
•    Bandaru Dattatreya - Labour and Employment (Independent Charge)
•    Rajiv Pratap Rudy - Skill development and Entrepreneurship (Independent Charge)
•    Vijay Goel - Youth Affairs and Sports (Independent Charge); Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation
•    Shripad Yesso Naik - AAYUSH (Independent Charge)
•    Dharmendra Pradhan - Petroleum and Natural Gas (Independent Charge)
•    Piyush Goyal - Power (Independent Charge); Coal (Independent Charge); New and Renewable Energy (Independent Charge); Mines (Independent Charge)
•    Jitendra Singh - Development of northeastern region (Independent Charge); Prime Minister’s Office; Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions; Department of Atomic Energy; Department of Space
•    Nirmala Sitharaman - Commerce and industry (Independent Charge)
•    Mahesh Sharma - Culture (Independent Charge); Tourism (Independent Charge)
•    Manoj Sinha - Communications (Independent Charge); Railways
•    Anil Madhav Dave - Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Independent Charge)
•    VK Singh - External affairs
•    Santosh Kumar Gangwar - Finance
•    Faggan Singh Kulaste - Health and family welfare
•    Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi - Minority Affairs; Parliamentary Affairs
•    SS Ahluwalia - Agriculture and Farmers Welfare; Parliamentary Affairs
•    Ramdas Athawale - Social Justice and Empowerment
•    Ram Kripal Yadav - Rural Development
•    Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary - Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
•    Giriraj Singh - Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
•    Hansraj Gangaram Ahir - Home Affairs
•    GM Siddeshwara - Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises
•    Ramesh Chandappa Jigajinagi - Drinking Water and Sanitation
•    Rajen Gohain - Railways
•    Parshottam Rupala - Agriculture and Farmers Welfare; Panchayati Raj
•    MJ Akbar - External Affairs
•    Upendra Kushwaha - Human Resources Development
•    Radhakrishnan P - Road Transport and Highways; Shipping
•    Kiren Rijiju - Home Affairs
•    Krishan Pal - Social Justice and Empowerment
•    Jasvantsinh Sumanbhai Bhabhor - Tribal Affairs
•    Sanjeev Kumar Balyan - Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation
•    Vishnu Deo Sai - Steel
•    Sudarshan Bhagat - Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
•    YS Chowdary - Science and Technology; Earth Science
•    Jayant Sinha - Civil Aviation
•    Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore - Information and Broadcasting
•    Babul Supriyo - Urban Development Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation
•    Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti - Food Processing Industries
•    Vijay Sampla - Social Justice and Empowerment
•    Arjun Ram Meghwal – Finance; Corporate Affairs
•    Mahendra Nath Pandey - HRD
•    Ajay Tamta - Textiles
•    Krishna Raj - Women and Child Development
•    Mansukh L Mandaviya - Road transport and Highways, Shipping; Chemicals and Fertilizers
•    Anupriya Patel - Health and Family Welfare
•    CR Chaudhary - Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
•    PP Chaudhary - Law and Justice; Electronics and Information Technology
•    Subhash Ramrao Bhamre - Defence

Union Council of Ministers was reshuffled and expanded with inclusion of 19 new Ministers of State on 5 July 2016. The new inductees were administered the oath of office and secrecy at the Rashtrapati Bhavan by President Pranab Mukherjee.

Besides, Minister of State with independent charge, Prakash Javdekar was elevated to the Cabinet rank.
Of the inductees, three each are from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. Rajasthan has got four berths in expansion while Maharashtra two. There is one Minister each from West Bengal, Assam, Karnataka and Uttarakhand.
Of the nineteen new ministers, 17 are from the BJP, one each from Apna Dal and RPI. There are two minority leaders - MJ Akbar and SS Ahluwalia and two women Anupriya Singh Patel and Krishna Raj.
•    Faggan Singh Kulaste – A prominent tribal leader and MP from Barbati in Madhya Pradesh.
•    Surendrajeet Singh Ahluwalia – He is MP from Darjeeling.
•    Ramesh Chandappa Jigjinagi - a Dalit leader and Lok Sabha MP (five times) from Bijapur, Karnataka. 
•    Vijay Goel – He is a BJP leader from Delhi and was elected to Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan.
•    Ramdas Athawale – He is the chief of Republican Party of India.He is the lone Rajya Sabha member.
•    Rajen Gohain – He is a BJP MP from Assam.
•    Anil Madhav Dave – He is a Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh and is an environmentalist. 
•    Parshottam Rupala – He is a Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat.
•    MJ Akbar - Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh.
•    Arjun Ram Meghwal – He is a Lok Sabha MP from Bikaner, Rajasthan.
•    Jaswant Sinh Bhabhor – He is a tribal leader and a Member of the Parliament from Dahod constituency in Gujarat.
•    Dr Mahendra Nath Pandey – He is a BJP Lok Sabha MP from Chandauli, Uttar Pradesh. 
•    Ajay Tamta - He is a Lok Sabha member from the Almora constituency. 
•    Krishna Raj – She is a Dalit leader and a Lok Sabha member from UP's Shahjahanpur.
•    Mansukh Mandaviya – A native of Bhavnagar in Gujarat and  Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat.
•    Anupriya Singh Patel – She is a Lok Sabha MP from Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh. 
•    C R Chaudhary – He is a BJP MP from Nagaur, Rajasthan.
•    P P Chaudhary - He Lok sabha MP from Pali, Rajasthan and belongs the OBC Seervi caste. 
•    Dr Subhash Bhamre – He is BJP Lok Sabha MP from Dhule, Maharashtra.
Five ministers were dropped from the Council of Ministers and they are Minister of State (MoS) for Chemicals and Fertilizers Nihal Chand Meghwal, MoS HRD Ram Shankar Katheria, MoS Water Resources Sanwar Lal Jat, MoS Tribal Affairs Manuskhbhai D Vasva and MoS Agriculture MK Kundariya.

Noted scientist Madhav Dhekane on 1 July 2016 assumed the office of Director at ISRO Inertial Systems Unit (IISU), Department of Space, at Vattiyoorkavu in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

Dhekane is the seventh director of IISU.
•    Madhav Dhekane obtained a B-Tech degree in electrical engineering and an M-tech degree in Systems and Control from Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai.
•    He had joined Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in 1983.
•    He holds wide experience and expertise in the launch vehicle control and guidance design, onboard software development and mission design, and analysis.
•    He had also held various significant positions in ISRO such as Deputy Director, Control, Guidance & Simulation Entity at VSSC, Chief Controller at VSSC and Associate Director (R&D) at VSSC.
•    The ISRO Inertial Systems Unit is a research and development unit of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
•    IISU is located in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
•    It specialises in inertial sensors and systems in satellite technology.
•    Its specialized fields include the fields of launch vehicle inertial systems, spacecraft inertial systems, inertial sensors evaluation and simulation, inertial system production and more.
•    The unit has the total capability to design, engineer, develop, qualify and deliver inertial systems for the entire Indian Space programme.

RBI today said it has appointed Sudarshan Sen as an Executive Director in place of N S Vishwanathan, who has been elevated as Deputy Governor at the central bank.

•    Sen has taken charge from today, RBI said in a release.
•    Sen will look after Department of Banking Regulation, Department of Co-operative Bank Regulation and Department of Non-Banking Regulation.
•    Sen is a career central banker and has a long association with bank supervision and regulation. Earlier, he was in charge of the Department of Banking Regulation.
•    He also served as the Regional Director of Ahmedabad office of the Reserve Bank of India.
•    Sen holds an MBA in International Banking and Finance from the University of Birmingham, UK.
•    Sen holds an MBA degree in International Banking and Finance from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. 
•    He has rich experience as the central banker and has a long association with the RBI in the field of supervision and regulation
•    Earlier, he had served as in charge of the Department of Banking Regulation. 
•    He also had served as the Regional Director of Ahmedabad office of the RBI.

Rodrigo Duterte was sworn in as the Philippines' 16th president on 30 June 2016 inside the Malacanang presidential palace in Manila. He will have a six-year term.
Firebrand leader Duterte’s anti-crime programme includes plans to reintroduce the death penalty, issuing shoot-to-kill orders to the security services and offering them bounties for the bodies of drug dealers. He has also called on people to kill suspected criminals.
•    He was born in 1945 into a political family with a modest background.
•    He has served the southern city of Davao, as its mayor for 22 years.
•    He is also known as “Dirty Harry” and often compared to the US presidential candidate Donald Trump.
•    He captured the public imagination after promising to improve security by killing 100000 suspected criminals.
•    As the mayor of Davao he gained popularity across the archipelago, where crime rates dropped drastically under his leadership.
•    He has also served as vice-mayor and as congressman for the city.
•    He is a lawyer by profession is nicknamed as ‘Digong’, ‘The Punisher’.

MIT Technology review editors pick the 50 companies that best combine innovative technology with an effective business model.

•    Each year it identifies 50 companies that are “smart” in the way they create new opportunities. 
•    Some of this year’s stars are large companies, like Amazon and Alphabet, that are using digital technologies to redefine industries. 
•    Others are wrestling with technological changes: companies like Microsoft, Bosch, Toyota, and Intel.
•    Jeff Bezos-led online retail giant Amazon has topped MIT's annual list of the world's smartest companies of 2016 for combining innovative technology with an effective business model. 
•    Chinese web services company Baidu and the world’s largest DNA-sequencing company Illumine have been ranked second and third respectively. 
•    The list also includes Tesla Motors, Alphabet, Facebook, SpaceX and Snapchat.
•    Last year it included Amazon on its list of the 50 Smartest Companies for incorporating robots into its fulfillment centers. 
•    This year the standout is the surprising success of its Alexa Voice Service and the growing family of devices it powers (the Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, and Tap). 

History professor and political newcomer Gudni Johannesson (48) has won the 2016 Presidential election in Iceland. 
•    He will succeed Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, who served as President of Iceland for 20 years i.e. four five year terms as the head of state. 
•    In the 2016 Presidential election, as an independent Gudni Johannesson was able to secure 39.1% votes. 
•    He defeated Halla Tomasdottir, a businesswoman without party affiliation, who was able to secure 27.9% votes. 
•    While David the former conservative party Prime Minister and Central Bank Governor David Oddsson was placed third and he won just 13% votes.
•    Gudni Johannesson is historian and lecturer at the University of Iceland, Bifrost University and University of London. 
•    He is the son of teacher and journalist Margrét Thorlacius and sports instructor Jóhannes Sæmundsson.
•    His brother Patrekur Jóhannesson is a former Icelandic handball national team player.
•    He has also studied German and Russian at a university level.
•    In 1999, he completed an MSt degree in history from the University of Oxford.
•    In 2003 he received a PhD in history from Queen Mary, University of London.

Sujoy Bose was on 27 June 2016 appointed as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF).

•    His appointment was made by the Union Government following his selection by the Selection Committee constituted under Department Of Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das.

•    Bose has extensive international experience in the infrastructure sector, including experience in raising funds from international investors. 
•    At present, Bose works as the Director and Global Co-Head of infrastructure and natural resources at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a part of the World Bank group.
•    He has been associated with the IFC for last 24 years.
•    He holds an MBA from Rice University and a Bachelor of Commerce degree from St Xavier's College, Kolkata, India.
•    NIIF is a quasi sovereign wealth fund announced in 2015 budget with a corpus of around 40000 crore rupees.
•    NIIF was incorporated as a company under the Companies Act, 2013, duly authorized to act as investment manager.
•    It was constituted with an aim to finance the requirements of India’s infrastructure sector, mainly through foreign investment.
•    The government has already signed pacts with investors from Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Russia for the NIIF.