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Umesh Sachdev only Indian in Time's next-gen leaders list

For building a phone "that can understand almost any language", an Indian software engineer has found a place in Time magazine's 2016 list of “Next Generation Leaders”. 
•    He is Umesh Sachdev.
•    His new telephone allows the user to use internet almost in any language. 
•    Thirty-year-old Sachdev is co-founder and CEO of Uniphore Software Systems since 2008. 
•    The other co-founder is Ravi Saraogi. 
•    The Chennai-based startup produces software that allows people to interact with their phones and access services such as online banking by communicating in their native languages, Time said in its profile on Sachdev.

•    Prior to Uniphore, Umesh co-founded Singularis Technologies, whose Mobile Theft Security product received global recognition. 
•    In 2009, Umesh was identified as an innovative entrepreneur by the Ministry of Science and Technology’s Technopreneur Promotion Programme (TePP), according to his profile in Uniphore.
•    Through the software, Sachdev is building bridges and helping “hundreds of millions of people cross the divide between the digital and the real world by harnessing the power of speech.

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Pedro Pablo wins Peru presidential election

The economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski have won the majority of votes in Peru's cliff-hanger presidential election.
•    The electoral commission said he received 50.12% of votes, against 49.88% for his rival, Keiko Fujimori.
•    About 50,000 ballots must first be settled by an electoral court before a winner can be officially declared.
•    This has been the tightest fought election in Peru in five decades.
•    As the last few votes were counted, the candidates remained neck-and-neck, with Mr Kuczynski leading by a tiny margin.
•    The closeness of the result came as a surprise after polls in the run-up to the election had suggested Ms Fujimori had a comfortable lead.
•    Analysts said corruption scandals in Ms Fujimori's Popular Force Party may have dented her support since April, when she comfortably won the first round of voting.
•    She is the daughter of Peru's former President, Alberto Fujimori, who is in jail for crimes against humanity.
•    'Promoting economic growth'
•    Mr Kuczynski, who is an ex-Wall Street financier, said he would use his international financial experience to promote economic growth.
•    He has the support of prominent figures such as Nobel-Prize-winning novelist Mario Vargas Llosa and left-wing candidate Veronika Mendoza, who came third in the first round of voting.
•    But he has faced scrutiny over his close relationship to Peru's business elite.

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4 Indian Women in Forbes 100 Most powerful Women List

Forbes recently released a ranking of ‘The 100 Most Powerful Women In the World’. It includes four Indian women Arundhati Bhattacharya(30), Chairperson of SBI bank; Chanda Kochhar (40), MD and CEO of  ICICI Bank; Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (77), Chairman and MD of Biocon; and Shobhana Bhartia (93), Chairperson and Editorial Director of HT Media Ltd.
•    Bhilai-born Arundhati’s background does not have anything to do with banking or finance; she graduated from Jadavpur University as an English Honours student. 
•    She converted her first job into her passion, which swiftly led her up the corporate ladder. On the way, she became an icon for every banker in the country.
•    Born in Jodhpur, Chanda Kochhar was a brilliant student who dreamt of becoming an IAS officer. She received the Wockhardt Gold Medal for Excellence in Management Studies as well as the J. N. Bose Gold Medal in Cost Accountancy for highest marks in the same year. 
•    She met her husband, wind energy entrepreneur Deepak Kochhar, at the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies in Mumbai and is today the proud mother of a son and a daughter. 
•    Bangalore-born Mazumdar Shaw started her professional career as a trainee brewer in Carlton & United Beverages, before joining Biocon Biochemicals Limited of Ireland as a trainee manager. 
•    She commenced her entrepreneurial journey from a rented garage in Bangalore, from where she started the Indian arm of the company. 
•    Ranked no 93, Shobhana Bhartia makes her debut on the Forbes list with her impressive work as the chairperson of Hindustan Times Media.
•    The daughter of renowned industrialist KK Birla and granddaughter of GD Birla, Shobhana Bhartia inherited a newspaper that was started with the intention of helping with the freedom struggle in pre-independence India. 
•    She spent time in each department of the publication to gain an appreciation of the different cogs of the business, before taking on the top job.

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Facebook appoints Umang Bedi as Facebook India MD

Facebook India on 7 June 2016 appointed Umang Bedi as its Managing Director (MD).
Bedi will take over from Kirthiga Reddy. Reddy will be returning to the US to take on a new role at the company’s Menlo Park headquarters.
•    Bedi will officially start at Facebook in July 2016 while Reddy will take up her new role in August 2016.
•    Bedi has close to two decades of leadership experience covering sales, marketing and partnerships with multinational companies.
•    Prior to joining Facebook, Umang Bedi worked as Managing Director for South Asia at Adobe Inc.
•    He is an engineering graduate from the University of Pune. He is also an alumnus of Harvard Business School.
•    He is the recipient of the prestigious 40 Under Forty: India’s Hottest Business Leaders Award 2014 given by The Economic Times and Chicago-based global executive search and leadership consulting firm Spencer Stuart.

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Ashok Ganapathy appointed as Director of Airtel Business

Ashok Ganapathy was on 6 June 2016 appointed as the Director of Bharti Airtel Ltd. He will take over the post with effect from 1 July 2016.
•    Ganapathy succeeds Manish Prakash as Director (Airtel Business). Prakash has been appointed as Director (strategic alliances). 
•    He will report to Gopal Vittal, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director (India & South Asia), Bharti Airtel.
•    In this new role, Ashok will be responsible for driving the growth of Airtel's B2B portfolio that serves top corporations, government entities and other corporate with end-to-end solutions.
•    Ganapathy joined Airtel in 2013 as the Hub CEO for Mumbai, Maharashtra, Goa & Gujarat circles. 
•    Ganapathy has an experience of 26 years in FMCG, entertainment, retail and telecom sectors. 
•    He started his career with Hindustan Unilever in 1990 as a management trainee.
•    He has a B. Tech degree from IIT, Madras and MBA from IIM, Ahmadabad.

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US Army Reserve officer Deshauna Barber crowned as Miss USA 2016

Deshauna Barber, a serving Army Reserve officer of United States (US), was on 5 June 2016 crowned as the Miss USA 2016 at the Miss USA competition 2016 held at the T-Mobile Arena off the Las Vegas Strip.
•    She represented the US capital as Miss District of Columbia. Miss Hawaii Chelsea Hardin came in as the first runner-up and Miss Georgia Emani Davis was the second runner-up.
•    With this, Barber became the first-ever military member to win Miss USA title. She will now represent the USA at Miss Universe Competition 2016.
•    Barber inherited the crown from 2015 winner Miss Oklahoma Olivia Jordan.
•    Barber works as an IT analyst at the US Department of Commerce.
•    Barber was commissioned as a Quartermaster Officer in 2011 in the Army Reserve of US.
•    She is currently a Logistics Commander for the 988th Quartermaster Detachment Unit based at Fort Meade, Maryland.
•    She is a member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority.
•    She was crowned as Miss District of Columbia USA 2016 in December 2015 by outgoing titleholder Lizzy Olsen.

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Dia Mirza named Ambassador for Swachh Saathi programme

Bollywood actress Dia Mirza was on 6 June 2016 named as the ambassador for Swachh Saathi (student internship) programme. It is a youth-based programme of Swachh Bharat Mission.
Under this Programme, more than 2000 interns would be enrolled to coordinate around 10000 schools across India.
•    They will also ensure that all students in the schools take the pledge for Clean India.
•    She was a second runner up at Femina Miss India 2000 and was subsequently sent to Miss Asia Pacific 2000, where she won. She became the first Indian to win this title in 29 years.
•    She also won Miss Beautiful Smile, Miss Avon and Miss Close-Up Smile in Miss India.
•    Besides being Bollywood actress, she was well-known in media for her social work.
•    She won an IIFA 2012 Green Award for her contribution towards green environment.
•    She conducted many awareness campaigns on prevention of female foeticide, HIV awareness, the Cancer Patients Aid Association, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), ADAPT, Child Rights and You (CRY).
•    She supported the Naramada Bachao Andolan in Public.
•    She made her bollywood debut with Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein opposite R. Madhavan.
•    She is a member in the board of the Coca Cola foundation which works towards rural development in India.
•    She is the Eco Ambassador for Panasonic.

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V Narayanasamy sworn-in as Chief Minister of Puducherry

Congress Legislature Party leader V Narayanasamy was sworn-in as Chief Minister of the Union Territory of Puducherry on 6 June 2016. 
•    Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi administered his oath of office and secrecy along with five ministers at Gandhi Thidal in Beach Road.
•    Five Congress legislators who were also sworn-in as ministers are A Namassivayam, Shah Jahan, Malladi Krishna Rao, M Kandasamy and R Kamalakannan.
•    He represented Puducherry in Rajya Sabha for three terms.
•    He was elected to Lok Sabha in 2009 and served as Minister of State Parliamentary Affairs in UPA-I.
•    In UPA-II, he served as Minister of State in Prime Minister's Office.
•    Narayanasamy is not a member of the house hence he will need to face polls in 6 months.
•    Earlier on 19 May 2016, Congress - DMK alliance has 17 members in the 30 member Territorial Assembly. DMK which has 2 members in the Assembly will be supporting the Government from outside.
•    Of the four regions of the Union Territory, Mahe alone do not have representation in the Council of Ministers.

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CR Sasikumar takes over as MD of State Bank of Travancore

CR Sasikumar on 1 June 2016 took over as Managing Director (MD) of State Bank of Travancore (SBT).
The State Bank of Travancore is one of the associate banks of State Bank of India (SBI).
•    Sasikumar started his career as a probationary officer with SBI in 1978. Since then, he has held several key assignments.
•    Prior to the present posting in State Bank of Travancore, he worked as Deputy Managing Director, Inspection & Management Audit, at SBI Corporate Centre in Hyderabad.
•    About State Bank of Travancore - State Bank of Travancore is a subsidiary of the State Bank Group and also has private share-holders.
•    It is the premier bank of Kerala where it handles its majority of business.
•    Overall, SBT as of 31 March 2015 has a network of 1157 branches and 1602 ATMs, covering 18 states and three union territories.
•    The bank was established in 1945 as the Travancore Bank Ltd, at the initiative of C. P. Ramaswami Iyer, then Divan of Travancore.
•    Following violent resentment against the dictatorial rule of C.P.Ramaswamy Iyer, the bank no longer credits his role.
•    The Bank now credits the Maharaja of Travancore as the founder, though the Raja had little to do with the founding.
•    In 1960, it became a subsidiary of State Bank of India under the SBI Subsidiary Banks Act, 1959, enacted by the Parliament of India.

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German footballer Ibrahimovic offered Kingship of German City

German minnows Rot-Weiss Oberhausen (RWO) Ibrahimovic is trying to sign Swedish super star.

•    The semi-pro club, which plays in Germany’s fourth division, has offered a contract to Ibrahimovic to play for them after leading Sweden at Euro 2016.
•    German club cannot compete with United’s wealth, size, support and standing in the game, so they offered something different.
•    The offer was posted on the club’s website under the headline “RWO and Ibrahimovic in negotiations”.
•    The deal includes introducing a monarchy to the city of Oberhausen and making Ibrahimovic king.
•    The club’s fast-food stands would replace traditional German bratwurst with Swedish sausages and a local brewer would rename their beer to Ibrahimovic Pilsnener.
•    Offer includes building a new stand with supplies from Swedish furniture giants IKEA.
•    Zlatan Ibrahimović  is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a striker for and captains the Sweden national team.
•    Ibrahimović is one of ten players who have made 100 or more appearances for the Swedish national team.

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