Odisha-born bureaucrat Guruprasad Mohapatra was on 15 July 2016 appointed as the Chairman of Airports Authority of India (AAI) with effect from 19 July 2016.Guruprasad Mohapatra is a 1986 batch IAS officer of Gujarat cadre.
•    Prior to the recent posting, he was posted as Joint Secretary in Union Ministry of Commerce.
•    Mohpatra also served the Sales Tax department as Special Commissioner (Enforcement), and as a Commissioner of Commercial Taxes and as the Commissioner of Transport.
•    He was the Joint MD of Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) during his service in Gujarat.
•    He had also served as Municipal Commissioner of Ahmedabad for over three years.
•    He started in the State Electricity Sector with the erstwhile Gujarat Electricity Board in 2002 and worked with various Electricity Companies such as GSEC and the distribution companies such as PGVCL, DGVCL & UGVCL.
•    He is an MA in Political Science, MPhil in Diplomacy (International Relation) and also an MBA degree holder.

World Bank Group on 18 July 2016 appointed Paul Romer as World Bank Chief Economist with effect from September 2016. Romer is a widely respected economist and a successful entrepreneur.

•    Romer is currently a professor at New York University (NYU), Director of NYU’s Marron Institute of Urban Management, and a professor of economics in NYU's Stern School of Business. 
•    Earlier in his career, his research brought the economics of ideas into the analysis of economic growth.
•    His start-up company Aplia, focused on educational technology, signals the breadth of his intellectual and practical interests.
•    Before joining NYU, Romer taught at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. 
•    His earlier roles included professorships at the Universities of California Berkeley, Chicago and Rochester.
•    He is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Ms Patel will be in charge of the Department for International Development (DfID) which leads the UK’s work to end extreme poverty, building a safer, healthier, more prosperous world for all of us which is firmly in the UK’s national interest. 

•    But despite accepting the new role, it emerged Ms Patel floated the idea of replacing her new department with a department for international trade and development in 2013.
•    Ms Patel suggested the Government should consider abolishing the department in an interview with the Daily Telegraph three years ago. 
•    She suggested aid reforms could include scrapping the DfID and replacing it with a trade body. 
•    It is possible to bring more prosperity to the developing world and enable greater wealth transfers to be made from the UK by fostering greater trade and private sector investment opportunities.
•    As the Cabinet reshuffle continues Brexiteer Liam Fox is now in charge of a brand new department, similar to the idea that Ms Patel suggested in 2013.
•    He has been appointed Secretary of State for International Trade. 
•    Ms Patel follows in the footsteps of Justine Greening who has been handed the Education Minister post.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on 17 July 2016 listed Franco-Swiss architect Le Corbusier’s works among its World Heritage Sites.

The listed works include Chandigarh’s Complexe du Capitole, Khangchendzonga National Park and Mount Khangchendzonga.
It is the first time that any country got three sites inscribed in the Word Heritage List at a single session of the committee meeting.
Three Indian sites listed in the World Heritage Sites are:
•    Complexe du Capitole, Chandigarh
•    The site comprises three buildings, i.e., Legislative Assembly, Secretariat and High Court.
•    Following the independence of India, the divided Punjab required a new capital as Lahore was now in Pakistan. Therefore, Le Corbusier was commissioned by first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru to build a new city of Chandigarh as the capital of Punjab.
•    The brief for the design was a city unfettered by the traditions of the past, a symbol of the nation's faith in the future.
•    Later, Corbusier and his team constructed large assembly and high court building, and also the major buildings in the city.
•    At present, many of the buildings are considered modernist masterpieces.
•    Khangchendzonga National Park and Mount Khangchendzonga:
•    The park is located at the heart of the Himalayan range in Sikkim.
•    It includes a unique diversity of plains, valleys, lakes, glaciers and snow-capped mountains covered with ancient forests, including the world’s third highest peak, Mount Khangchendzonga.
•    It is the first 'Mixed Heritage' site of India.
•    Besides these, Antigua Naval Dockyard and Related Archaeological Sites (Antigua and Barbuda) and Pampulha Modern Ensemble (Brazil) were also included in the list.

Rajesh Kumar Chaturvedi was on 14 July 2016 appointed as the Chairman of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) for a five-year term. The post had been lying vacant since December 2014.
•    Until now, Joint Secretary of the Union Human Resource Development Ministry Y S K Seshu Kumar was holding the additional charge of Chairman of the CBSE.
•    Chaturvedi was appointed after the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) decided that CBSE Chairperson will be appointed through Central Staffing Scheme and not through Search-Cum-Selection Committee method.
•    Chaturvedi is a 1987- batch IAS officer from Madhya Pradesh cadre. Chaturvedi has wide-ranging experience in the revenue and commerce departments. However, he has never worked in the education sector. 
•    Chaturvedi's appointment came just after the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) rejected former Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani's choice Sarvendra Vikram Bahadur Singh for the crucial post and divested the Ministry of the power to send a panel of names for the appointment.
•    This was the second time that the name of CBSE chairperson recommended by HRD ministry has been rejected by the ACC.
•    In early 2015, a search-cum-selection committee had sent the name of Satbir Bedi for the post of Chairman of CBSE, but DoPT rejected him as well on the grounds that he didn't fulfil the basic qualification of having been education administrator for three years.

Technocrat D Rajkumar was appointed as the new Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL). 
•    He will succeed BPCL’s current chief S Varadarajan who is retiring on September 2016.He has been appointed to the post for five-year term. 
•    Presently, D Rajkumar is working as Managing Director of Bharat Petro Resources Ltd, a unit of BPCL focused on exploration and production. 
•    Apart from him, Utpal Bora was been appointed as the new Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Oil India Limited (OIL). 
•    Bora was selected on the recommendation of a three-member search-cum-selection Committee headed by Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha.
•    Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited is an Indian state-controlled oil and gas company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. The Corporation operates two large refineries of the country located at Mumbai and Kochi.

Queen Elizabeth-II appointed Theresa May as the 76th Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (UK) on 13 June 2016. She was appointed as prime minister following her election as the leader of Britain's ruling Conservative Party.
•    With this appointment, she became the second women to assume the office of Prime Minister of the UK. The first women prime minister was Margaret Thatcher who was in the office of PM from 1979 to 1990.
•    She succeeded David Cameron who resigned from the post on the same day following Brexit vote. Cameron tendered his resignation to the Queen. Britons on 22 June 2016 voted to exit the European Union.
•    The two ladies who were in race to succeed David Cameron were Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom. Andrea Leadsom withdrew from the race on 11 July 2016, citing overwhelming support for May among Conservative MPs.
•    Foreign Secretary: Boris Johnson, the former London Mayor and key Brexit campaigner
•    Chancellor of the Exchequer (in charge of financial policy): Phillip Hammond, foreign secretary (since July 2014) 
•    Home Secretary: Amber Rudd, former Energy and Climate Change secretary (since May 2015)
•    Secretary of State for European Union Relations (the new so-called Minister for Brexit): David Davis
•    Secretary of State for International Trade: Liam Fox, former Defence secretary (between 2010 and 2011)

The Philippines' Palawan province has been voted the World's Best Island in a survey by Travel + Leisure magazine for the second time after winning in 2013. Three beaches from the Philippines have made it to the top ten list this year - Palawan, Boracay, and Cebu. 
•    Santorini in Greece and Ischia in Italy were also included on the list.
•    Palawan officially the Province of Palawan, is an island province of the Philippines that is located in the Mimaropa region. 
•    It is the largest province in the country in terms of total area of jurisdiction. 
•    Its capital is Puerto Princesa City, but it is governed independently from the province.
•    The islands of Palawan stretch between Mindoro in the northeast and Borneo in the southwest. 
•    It lies between the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea. 
•    The province is named after its largest island, Palawan Island measuring 450 kilometres (280 mi) long, and 50 kilometres wide.

PR Sreejesh and Sushila Chanu have been named captains of the Indian men and women’s hockey teams respectively, ahead of the Rio Olympics. 

•  Sreejesh, who replaces Sardar Singh as captain, led India to its maiden silver medal in the hockey Champions Trophy in June. Meanwhile, defender Chanu replaces longtime skipper Ritu Rani as skipper of the women’s team.

•  Men's squad : Harmanpreet Singh, Rupinder Pal Singh, Kothajit Singh, Surender Kumar, Manpreet , Sardar Singh, VR Raghunath, SK Uthappa, PR Sreejesh, Danish Mujtaba, Devender Walmiki, SV Sunil, Akashdeep Singh, Chinglensana Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Nikkin Thimmaiah. Stand by: Pardeep Mor, Vikas Dahiya

•    Women's squad: Savita (GK), Navjot Kaur (midfielder), Deep Grace Ekka (defender), Monika (midfielder), Anuradha Devi (forward), Poonam Rani (forward), Vandana Kataria (forward), Deepika (defender), Namita Toppo (defender), Renuka Yadav (midfielder), Sunita Lakra (defender), Sushila Chanu (defender), Rani Rampal (forward), Preeti Dubey (forward), Lilima Minz (midfielder), Nikki Pradhan (forward).
 

Nepal’s Parliamentary Hearing Special Committee (PHSC) on 10 July 2016 unanimously endorsed Sushila Karki as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
With this, Karki has become the first woman to lead Nepal’s judiciary. She will be appointed to the post by President Bidhya Devi Bhandari.
•    Sushila Karki obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Mahendra Morang Campus, Biratnagar in 1972.
•    In 1975, she completed her Masters Degree in Political Science from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi.
•    She received her Bachelor’s degree in Law from Tribhuvan University in Nepal in 1978.
•    She worked as an assistant teacher in Mahendra Multiple Campus, Dharan in 1985.
•    She jumped into legal profession in 1979.
•    She was appointed the Ad-Hoc Justice at the Supreme Court on 22 January 2009.
•    She was promoted to the Permanent Justice on 18 November 2010.
•    The Judicial Council on 10 April 2016 had recommended her for the top judicial post.  However, her appointment was pending owing to delay in formation of the PHSC.
•    She has been taking charge of the Supreme Court as the Acting Chief Justice since her predecessor Kalyan Shrestha retired on 14 April 2016.