World This Week: Modi in Forbes Most Powerful List
Modi in Forbes Most Powerful List
“India's newest rockstar doesn't hail from Bollywood. He is the newly elected Prime Minister who sailed into office in May with a landslide victory, ushering the Bharatiya Janata Party into power after decades of control by the Gandhi dynasty” said Forbes (an American Business Magazine) on Narendra Modi after getting place among most powerful people.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his debut among the world’s most powerful people, ranked 15th on the Forbes list topped by Russian President Vladimir Putin. This is the second year in a row that Putin carries the crown
The list of 72 most powerful people in the world includes the names of Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani at 36th, Arcelor Mittal chairman and CEO Lakshmi Mittal at 57th and Microsoft's Indian-Born CEO Satya Nadella at 64th.
US President Barack Obama ranked second, Chinese President Xi Jinping ranked third, Pope Francis at No. 4 and the world's most powerful woman German Chancellor Angela Merkel ranked fifth on the Forbes list. Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who was the highest ranked Indian last year at 21, is no longer a part of the list.
Niraj Antani, one of the youngest US lawmakers
At the age of 23, Niraj Antani, Indian-American law student was elected to be the Ohio House of Representatives. He is one of the youngest state lawmakers in the United States.
Antani became the second Indian-American to serve in the Ohio House after Jay Goyal who represented the 73rd District for three terms from 2006 to 2012.
After winning the election Antani wrote on his Facebook profile, “I am deeply honored to have been elected your State Representative for Ohio's 42nd House District. Thank you all so much for the support. I will work hard and fight every day for my constituents in the Ohio House of Representatives. Together, I know that we can create opportunities so all can achieve their American Dream.”
A law student at the University of Dayton and the youngest Ohio State legislature so far, Antani defeated 62-year-old Patrick Morris of the Democratic Party. There are more than 7,300 state legislators in the US, and fewer than five per cent are under the age of 30, according to Morgan Cullen, a policy analyst at the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Kosalandha Meeriapeththa, an estate village in Uva province of Sri Lanka was badly affected by landslide on October 29. About 1,055 men and women including 162 children were displaced to a relief camp in Poonagala School after the landslide. At present, the camp is managed by Ministry of disaster management with the help of Army.
Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) Sri Lanka volunteers in many districts immediately planned to collect the essential material to help the affected. A group of karyakarthas (members) travelled from Colombo to the affected village to assess the ground reality and planned to work in the relief camp.Within a day, swayamsevaks collected materials worth Rs 20 lakhs. Sources said, only swayamsevaks and sevikas are working inside the relief camp other than the government officials and the Army.
-Nishant Kr Azad with inputs from agencies
Indian Army Officer appointed to UN Peacekeeping panel
A retired Indian Army Lieutenant General Abhijit Guha has been appointed member of a United Nation (UN) expert panel on peacekeeping. Under pressure from India over the safety of United Nations Peacekeeping forces, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has set up a 14-member panel, including an Indian to review peacekeeping operations worldwide.
At the UN General Assembly 2014, India had called for a greater role in the decision making about peacekeeping operations. The Indian government also raised the issue strongly with the UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous when he visited India this year.
Being the largest contributor of troops to the UN by having sent a total of 170,000 to 43 of the 69 peacekeeping operations, India has been critical of how the system is run. Presently, India has a total of 8,108 personnel serving under the blue flag of the UN, about half of them in the stabilisation mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
