NATIONAL:

Shailesh Sadashiv Tinaikar resumed his office as the Force Commander of UNMISS

• Lieutenant General Shailesh Sadashiv Tinaikar has been newly appointed as the Force Commander of the UN mission in South Sudan. He assumed charge in Juba on July 6. The appointment was announced by the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in May.

• Tinaikar:

Tinaikar has a long and distinguished career with the Indian Army spanning over three decades. He graduated from the Indian Military Academy in 1983.  He did his Master of Philosophy (M Phil) in Defence and Strategic Studies from The University of Madras, India. He was awarded in December 2014.

He served in the United Nations Angola Verification Mission III from 1996 to 1997. He served in the United Nations Mission in Sudan from 2008 to 2009. He has served as the Additional Director General of Military Operations at Army Headquarters from 2017 to 2018.

He was awarded the Vishisht Seva Medal and the Sena Medal for his Distinguished Service.  India is the second highest troop contributor to UNMISS, as of March 2019. India contributed with 2,337 troops deployed with the mission.

INTERNATIONAL:

Kyriakos Mitsotakis sworn in as the Prime Minister of Greece

• Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Greek conservative leader, sworn in as the Prime Minister of Greece. The election result gave New Democracy an outright majority with 158 seats in the 300-member Greek parliament. He is EU's most indebted member who promised to end a decade of economic crisis.

About Kyriakos:

Kyriakos Mitsotakis,  51 years old, is a Greek politician. He was previously the Leader of the Opposition from 2016 to 2019. He served as the Minister of Administrative Reform from 2013 to 2015. Mitsotakis in his campaign promised further reforms with a focus on fewer taxes, attracting investment and improving the job market.

Greece:

President: Prokopis Pavlopoulos

Prime Minister: Kyriakos Mitsotakis

Capital: Athens

Official language: Greek

Currency: Euro (€) (EUR)

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY:

LinkedIn chooses Ashutosh Gupta as country manager for India

• LinkedIn appointed Ashutosh Gupta as its new country manager for India effective

September 2, 2019. He will replace Mahesh NarayananHe was the country manager for India from January to June 2019.

• Gupta joined LinkedIn as the head of Marketing Solutions (LMS) business in 2013.He moved to Singapore to build LMS’ Online Sales Organisation (OSO) for the Asia Pacific(APAC) and China.He will report to Olivier Legrand, LinkedIn’s Managing Director(MD) for the APAC and he will continue to lead the LMS’s OSO.

• He is an alumnus of IIM-Lucknow and IIT (BHU), Varanasi worked in organizations like Google, Cognizant, and Infosys. The two decades of experience on the internet and IT and software services industriesMicrosoft-owned LinkedIn over 630 million users globally more than 57 million members in India.

AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS:

Gully Boy won NETPAC award in Bucheon film festival

• Film-maker Zoya Akhtar's directorial 'Gully Boy' won the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) Award at the 23rd Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN) in South Korea.

• NETPAC Jury Committee, comprised of NETPAC members and film professionals which features newer genres and varied stories of comedy, fantasy and drama

'Gully Boy', features actors Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt, is based on the lives of street rappers.

• The film performed well in the Indian and overseas market.

It will also be screened at the 2019 Indian Film Festival of Melbourne.

Akhtar recently made the Indian film industry proud by joining the list of new members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that organizes the annual Oscar awards.

APPOINTMENTS AND RESIGNATION:

Dravid appointed as the Head of Cricket at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru

• Former India captain Rahul Dravid has been appointed as the Head of Cricket at the National Cricket Academy (NCA)in Bengaluru. The appointment was announced and approved by Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on 8 July. He is currently the vice-president of India Cements.

Roles and Duties:

Dravid will work closely with the National Head Coaches and Cricket Coaches for India Developmental teams which includes India A, India Under 19, India Under 23 teams, in the identification of key training and development objectives.

He will monitor progress against these objectives for the developmental teams. The role expects him to provide necessary inputs on the same to the Senior Men’s and Women’s Head Coaches.

SPORTS:

MS Dhoni became the only second Indian player to reach the 350-game mark in ODI

• MS Dhoni became the only second Indian player to reach the 350-game mark in One-Day International cricket (ODI). The first Indian to set the record was Sachin Tendulkar.

• MS.Dhoni:

He has been tagged as one of the best finishers in the sport. Dhoni led India from 2007 to 2017. Under Dhoni's captaincy won its second championship in the cricket world cup. He also led India to No. 1 position in the ICC Rankings.

• He is regarded as one of the greatest captains in the world of cricket. MS Dhoni is the only skipper to have won every major ICC tournament. The former Indian captain is also the first wicketkeeper to play in 350 ODI matches.

• He is also the first captain in the world to win three different ICC trophies. Dhoni also led India to a memorable 2013 Champions Trophy triumph in England.

In his more than 14-years of international career, Dhoni has played an integral part in many of India's famous victories.

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