Current Affairs - Appointment & Resignation

• Air Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari took charge as the Vice Chief of the Air Staff of the Indian Air Force on 1st July 2021 replacing Air Chief Marshal Harjit Singh Arora.
• The Vice Chief of the Air Staff (VCAS) is the deputy to the Chief of the Air Staff of India and second-highest ranking officer of the Indian Air Force.
• At present Air Chief Marshal Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria is the Chief of the Air Staff.

• Senior Indian Administrative Service officer Manoj Kumar Parida was 17^th June 2021 appointed as Chairman, National Authority Chemical Weapons Convention (NACWC).
• NACWC has been established under the Chemical Weapons Convention Act, 2000 for implementing the provisions of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction.
• The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), officially the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction, is an arms control treaty administered by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), an intergovernmental organization based in The Hague, The Netherlands.
• Recently, India’s Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) was appointed as the External Auditor of the OPCW for the three-year term starting in 2021. India was also selected as the member of the Executive Council of the OPCW representing Asia Group for another two-year term during the OPCW Conference of State Parties.

• The Union government has appointed Anup Chandra Pandey as Election Commissioner.
• Pandey has been appointed to the position left vacant by former Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora’s retirement on April 12.
• Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra and Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar are the other two members of the panel.

• Former Supreme Court judge Arun Mishra took charge as the eighth chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission on 2 June 2021.
• Justice Mishra is the first non-CJI to be appointed to the NHRC chief post since the amendment of the Protection of Human Rights Act in 2019.
• The Chairperson and Members of the Commission are appointed by the President on the basis of recommendations of a Committee comprising the Prime Minister as the Chairperson, the Speaker of Lok Sabha, the Home Minister, the leaders of the opposition in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha as Members.
• NHRC does not have any mechanism of investigation. In majority cases, it asks the concerned Central and State Governments to investigate the cases of the violation of Human Rights.

• The Indian Broadcasting Foundation announced the appointment of Justice Vikramjit Sen as the Chairman of its newly formed self-regulatory body Digital Media Content Regulatory Council (DMCRC).
• "The self-regulatory body is formed as per the mandate of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 202.
• IBF, the apex body of broadcasters, has also been renamed as Indian Broadcasting & Digital Foundation (IBDF) to expand to cover digital streaming platforms.

• Fiame Naomi Mataʻafa has become the first female Prime Minister of Samoa, a Polynesian island country.
• She was Samoa's first female Cabinet Minister, and also served as Samoa's first female Deputy Prime Minister.
• The sovereign state is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations as a Commonwealth republic.

• Former Mumbai Police chief and current head of CISF Subodh Kumar Jaiswal has been appointed as the new CBI Director.
• The CBI Director is appointed by the Central Government on the recommendation of a three-member committee consisting of the Prime Minister as Chairperson, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Chief Justice of India or Judge of the Supreme Court nominated by him.
• In case there is no recognized leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha, then the leader of the single largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha would be a member of that committee.

On 13^th April 2021, Sushil Chandra, the senior-most Election Commissioner, took charge as the Chief Election Commissioner of India. He succeeded Sunil Arora.

• Prior to joining the Election Commission of India, Chandra has also served as the chairperson of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). Under his leadership, CBDT launched “Operation Clean Money” in 2017 in a bid to curb illegal wealth and black money.

Composition of ECI

• The Election Commission of India is a three-member body, with one Chief Election Commissioner and two Election Commissioners. After the appointment of Sushil Chandra as CEC, Sh. Rajiv Kumar is the only Election Commissioner and one post is lying vacant.

Appointment & Tenure of Commissioners

• The President appoints Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners. They have tenure of six years, or up to the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier.
• They enjoy the same status and receive salary and perks as available to Judges of the Supreme Court of India.
• The Chief Election Commissioner can be removed from office only through impeachment by Parliament.

• Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan has been appointed as the Chairman of the international body Stop TB Partnership Board.
• He was appointed in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the movement to eradicate Tuberculosis from India by 2025.
• Dr Harsh Vardhan will serve a three-year term, commencing from July this year.
• The Stop TB Partnership is a unique international body with the power to align actors all over the world in the fight against TB.
• Established in the year 2000, the ‘Stop TB Partnership’ is mandated to eliminate Tuberculosis as a public health problem.

• Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan has been nominated a member on the GAVI Board by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation.
• He will represent India for two years starting from 2021 to 2023.
• The GAVI Board oversees the operations of the Vaccine Alliance and monitors programme implementation.