Lalchand Rajput, former Indian opening batsman, has been roped in by the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) to replace Inzamam-ul-Haq as the head coach of the national set-up on Saturday (June 25). Inzamam stepped down from the post in April this year. 
•    After retiring from the game, Rajput served as the Joint Honorary Secretary of the Mumbai Cricket Association. 
•    He had a successful stint as the coach of the Under-19 Indian cricket team. Rajput also was the manager of the Indian set-up when they won the inaugural World T20 in South Africa in 2007. 
•    Recently, he applied for the post of India coach, but lost out to Anil Kumble.
•    According to reports, Mohammad Yousuf, former Pakistan middle-order batsman, Herschelle Gibbs, former South African opener and Corey Collymore, former West Indies pacer, were the other applicants. Former India batsman Mohammad Kaif was also in the reckoning for the post, but lost out to Rajput in the final round.
•    Rajput is slated to join the side for their upcoming tours of Scotland, Ireland and the Netherlands in July and August.

Anju Bobby George and Pullela Gopichand were named as the members of Khelo India on 26 June 2016. Khelo India is a national programme launched by the Union Government for the development of sports in the country.
•    George, India's lone athletics World Championship medal winner and Gopichand, the chief national badminton coach are the two sportsperson who were included in the seven-member committee of Khelo India.
•    The committee will be headed by Sports Secretary Rajiv Yadav.
•    Born 16 November 1973, Gopichand is a former Indian badminton player.
•    In 2001, he became the second Indian to win the all-England badminton champion. The first one was Prakash Padukone.
•    He has been the coach of the Indian national badminton team since 2006.
•    He runs the Gopichand Badminton Academy.
•    Awards felicitated on him include
•    He received the Arjuna Award in 1999
•    He received the Dronacharya Award in 2009
•    In 2014, he was conferred with the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian award
•    Born on 19 April 1977, George is an Indian athlete.
•    On 22 June 2016, George resigned as the president of the Kerala Sports Council along with 13 other members. 
•    She won the Gold medal at the IAAF World Athletics Final in 2005.
•    In 2005 World Athletics Final in Monte Carlo, she was upgraded to gold status from silver following the disqualification of Tatyana Kotova of Russia by the International Association of Athletics Federations.
•    She was awarded Arjuna Award in 2002.
•    She won the bronze medal clearing 6.49 m at the 2002 Commonwealth Games at Manchester.
•    She also won the gold medal at the Asian Games in Busan. In 2001, she also won gold for triple jump and long jump in the Ludhiana National games.
•    In 1999 she set the national record for triple jump in the Bangalore Federation Cup and Silver medal at the South Asian Federation Games in Nepal.

Nokia on 24 June 2016 announced the appointment of Sanjay Malik as the head of Indian market. The appointment of Malik will be effective from 1 August 2016.
•    Malik will lead customer operations, drive the business growth strategy and superior customer engagement services for the India market. He will be based in Gurgaon.
•    Malik will take over from Sandeep Girotra, who has been heading Indian market since 2011.
•    At present, Malik serves as the Head of Network Implementation (NI) at Nokia Global Services.
•    He is credited with efficiently driving growth and delivering strong performance both in terms of revenue and operational efficiency.
•    He had joined Nokia in 2000.
•    Previously, he was heading Bharti GCBT, where he led the transformation of the business.
•    Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications and information technology company.
•    It was founded in 1865.
•    It is headquartered in Espoo, Uusimaa.
•    It is a public limited-liability company listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange.
•    According to the Fortune Global 500, it is the world's 274th-largest company measured by 2013 revenues.
•    The company entered into a pact with Microsoft in 2011 to exclusively use its Windows Phone platform on future smartphones.
•    Its mobile phone business was bought by Microsoft in an overall deal totaling 7.17 billion US dollars.

Japanese conglomerate Soft Bank on 22 June 2016 named Ken Miyauchi, head of the group's Japanese telecommunications operations, as President and Chief Operating Officer (COO).
•    The appointment came after Nikesh Arora had abruptly resigned from his position after it became clear that Chairman and CEO Masayoshi wanted to remain at the helm longer than first planned.
•    Before being named as President and COO of Soft Bank, Ken Miyauchi led the Japanese telecommunications operations.
•    He held 1101230 shares of SBG as of 31 March 2016.
•    He joined SOFTBANK Corp. Japan in October 1984.
•    Soft Bank Group Corporation is a Japanese multinational telecommunications and Internet corporation.
•    It was established in Tokyo, Japan, on 3 September 1981.
•    As of 2015, Soft Bank was the 62nd largest company in the world based on a composite of sales, profit, assets and market value.

Former Spinner Anil Kumble was appointed as the head coach of Indian Cricket Team on 23 June 2016. He will hold this position for one year.
•    Kumble’s first assignment will be the upcoming away series in the West Indies, where India will play four Test matches.
•    The decision of his selection was taken in the BCCI working committee meeting in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh by the Cricket Advisory Committee comprising Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Saurav Ganguly and Sanjay Jagdale, the Chief Co-Coordinator.
•    Forty-five year old Anil Kumble was among 57 candidates who applied for the position advertised by the BCCI in May 2016.
•    He is only the second bowler in Test cricket to take 10 wickets in an innings. He achieved the fete in a match against Pakistan in Delhi in 1999.
•    The 45-year-old leg-spinner has mentored Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians.
•    He has been the chairman of the National Cricket Academy and BCCI’s Technical Committee.
•    His international cricket career spans 18years.
•    Overall, Kumble has to his name in first class cricket.
•    He was awarded Padma Shri and also received Arjuna Award.
•    He was Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1996.
•    He was appointed Chairman of the ICC Cricket Committee in 2012, a position he still holds.
•    He was also included into the Great Hall of Fame in 2015.

World’s leading payments platform PayPal on 22 June 2016 announced the appointment of Anupam Pahuja as the Managing Director (MD) and Country Manager for its India operations.

•    Pahuja will be responsible for all aspects of PayPal's business in India. He will also be responsible for further strengthening of the company's operations in the country.
•    Prior to joining PayPal, Pahuja worked as the India MD for SumTotal Systems.
•    PayPal operates a worldwide online payments system.
•    It is headquartered in California, United States.
•    It is one of the world's largest Internet payment companies.
•    The company operates as an acquirer. It performs payment processing for online vendors, auction sites and other commercial users, for which it charges a fee.
•    The company was established in 1998.
•    In 2014, PayPal moved 228 billion US dollar in 26 currencies across more than 190 nations, generating total revenue of 7.9 billion US dollar.

Aveek Sarkar on 22 June 2016 resigned as the Editor-in-Chief of Ananda Bazaar Patrika (ABP) and The Telegraph. However, he would continue as the chairman of the group. He is succeeded by Arup Sarkar.
•    Moreover, Anirban Bhattacharya was appointed as the Editor of the Ananda Bazaar Patrika and R Rajagopalan was named as the Editor of The Telegraph.
•    Aveek Sarkar will now play an advisory role as Editor (Emeritus) and Vice Chairman of the company.
•    Aveek Sarkar, one of the most prominent personalities in the Indian publishing scene, was tutored by the legendary Harold Evans, then the editor of The Sunday Times.
•    Aveek Sarkar assumed the post of Editor of the Ananda Bazar Patrika in 1983 after death of his father Ashok Sarkar.
•    He was the moving force behind the transformation of the ABP Group from a regional house into a prominent national group and also led the group's entry into television.
•    He played vital roles during the formation of Penguin India, the Indian counterpart of Penguin Books and during the acquisition of STAR News in 2003.

Leading member of the populist anti-corruption Five Star Movement (M5S) of Italy, Virginia Raggi (38) was elected as first female mayor of capital city Rome.
Virginia Raggi, a leading member of the populist anti-corruption Five Star Movement (M5S), on 20 June 2016 was elected as Rome’s first female mayor.
•    She is also the first candidate from that party, M5S to be elected to Rome's mayoralty.
•    Raggi, who will turn 38 in July 2016, is also the youngest mayor in Rome's history.
•    A lawyer and local councilor, Raggi was elected to the post for the Italian capital after winning 67% of the vote in a runoff ballot against the Democratic Party’s (PD) Roberto Giachetti.
•    Apart from her, Chiara Appendino another M5S candidate won the mayoral elections in Turin.
•    M5S is a political party which was founded by comedian-turned politician Beppe Grillo. 
•    With this win in Rome, the party also emerged as the main opposition to centre-left Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi.

Businessman Bipin R Patel was on 18 June 2016 appointed as the President of Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) for the term 2016-17. He succeeds Rohit J Patel.
•    The decision in this regard was taken during the annual general meeting (AGM) of the GCCI. In another development, Shailesh Patwari was appointed as the Senior Vice-President of the chamber.
•    The Chamber was founded in 1949 by Kasturbhai Lalbhai and Amrutlal Hargovandas, pioneers of industrial Gujarat
•    It is registered as a Society under the Society Registration Act, 1860.
•    It works to create and sustain an environment conducive to the growth of industry and trade in Gujarat, partnering both of them through advisory processes.
•    It has 2983 direct members which include over 176 Trade and Industry Associations and leading Chambers of Commerce of the State.

The founder chairman of Bharti Enterprises Sunil Mittal was on 15 June 2016 elected as the chairman of the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). The voting for the election of chairman was held in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
•    With this, he became the 51st chairman of the ICC and the third Indian business leader to be elected as the chief of the ICC in its near 100-year history.
•    Mittal succeed Terry McGraw, Chairman Emeritus of S&P Global, who becomes ICC's Honorary Chairman.
•    ICC also announced that John Denton, Partner and CEO of Corrs Chambers Westgarth, has been elected succeed Mittal as the organisation's First Vice-Chair.
•    The International Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest business organisation with over 6.5 million members in over 130 countries.
•    It was founded in 1919 under the leadership of its first president Etienne Clementel, a former French minister of commerce. Clementel was also instrumental in creating the ICC International Court of Arbitration in 1923.
•    ICC was awarded the highest level consultative status with the United Nations (UN) in 1946,
•    ICC was instrumental in drawing up international treaty of war reparations in 1924 which was drawn up on the recommendations of Dawes Commission.