GK-I

Some global corporations led by Indian CEOs

1.      Mr. Satya Nadella - Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and member of the Board of Directors of the Internet giant Microsoft.

2.      Mr. Lakshmi Mittal – Chairman and CEO of Arcelor-Mittal, world’s largest steel making company. The Indian Steel mogul is one of the most influential and powerful figures globally.

3.      Ms. Indra Nooyi – Chairperson & CEO of PepsiCo, one of the largest food and beverage business in the world.

4.      Rakesh Kapoor – CEO of Reckitt Benckiser, the consumer goods giant is listed on London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

5.      Anshu Jain: Co-CEO, Deutsche Bank.

6.      Ajay Banga: President and CEO, MasterCard, an American financial services corporation that process payments between the banks of merchants when purchases are made through the brand card. Mr. Banga appointed CEO in July 2010.

7.      Sanjay Jha: Appointed as chief executive officer of GLOBALFOUNDRIES in January 2014. GLOBALFOUNDRIES is the world’s first full-service semiconductor foundry with a truly global manufacturing and technology footprint.

8.      Shantanu Narayen – President and CEO of Adobe Systems, one of the world’s largest and most diversified software companies.

9.      Dinesh Paliwali: CEO of Harman International, a leading provider of premium audio and infotainment systems for the automotive, consumer and professional markets. He has served as the CEO since July 2007.

10.  Rajeev Vasudeva: Egon Zehnder.

11.  Ivan Menezes: CEO of alcoholic beverages firm Diageo PLC since July 1, 2013.

12.  Ajit Jain: Berkshire Hathaway Group.

13.  Piyush Gupta: DBS Group Holdings.

14.  Sanjay Mehrotra: CEO of SanDisk since January 1, 2011.

National Mission on Libraries (NML) – an initiative of the Ministry of Culture, launched

President Pranab Mukherjee launched the National Mission on Libraries (NML) at Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi.  He formally inaugurated the NML’s guidelines, logo and website.

Mission: Launched by the Ministry of Culture to modernize and digitally link public libraries across the country.

Benefit: designed for the entire spectrum of population – students, researchers, scientists, professionals, children, artists and differently abled persons.

Nodal agency for the implementation of NML: Kolkata-based Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation (RRRLF), a 10-member body headed by Prof. Deepak Pental, former Vice Chancellor of Delhi University.

NML also planned to create a National Virtual Library of India (NVLI) to facilitate a comprehensive database on digital resources, carry out a census on the resources available in the libraries and conduct a study on the reading habits in different regions of the country.

Background:

The National Knowledge Commission (NKC) in its Report to the Nation (2006-2009) made ten major recommendations on libraries. In pursuance of this, a High Level Committee to be called as National Mission on Libraries (NML) has been set up by the Government of India. Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation (RRRLF), an autonomous body under the Ministry of Culture will be the central agency for the National Mission on Libraries for administrative, logistics, planning and budgeting purposes.

The National Knowledge Commission (NKC) was set up by the Prime Minister with the challenging mandate to transform India of the 21st century into a knowledge society. The objective of NKC was to advise the PM on matters relating to knowledge creation, knowledge dissemination and knowledge application within the diversity of the Indian scenario.

About the National Mission on Libraries (NML)

Objective: To create a world class library system, foster reading habits, facilitate research work and provide information to people in a timely and convenient manner which is also universal and equitable.

Set up in pursuance of a report of the National Knowledge Commission, which recommended a total revamp of the Library and Information Service sector to serve the changing needs and expectations of the users and give a fillip to the library movement in the country.

Factors of NML: up-gradation of infrastructure, digitization and modernization, census of libraries and their development as knowledge centres and transformation of libraries into empowering and inclusive institutions.

Core areas of Mission: Creation of a National Virtual Library of India, Setting up of National Mission on Libraries Model Libraries, Quantitative & Qualitative Survey of Libraries and CapacityBuilding for revamping the Public Library System & Services.

Main component: To initiate need-based training programmes to develop managerial skills and IT competencies of their personnel in tune with demands of the Internet era.

Implementation of NML: Six libraries under the Culture Ministry, 35 Central Libraries in states and 35 District Libraries will be developed as model libraries.

For setting up of the model libraries, existing libraries would be identified in consultation with the state governments to improve infrastructure and upgrade technology used by them.

Emphasis will on developing these libraries in economically backward districts.

Future planning: 629 district libraries across the states would be provided network connectivity.

Note: Garden of Five Senses in Delhi featured in the Limca Book of Records in 2004 for its unique concept of Solar Energy Park.