Bharti Airtel Ltd appointment Vani Venkatesh as the new chief executive for Airtel Retail on 8th November 2016. She will succeed Rohit Malhotra. Venkatesh will be responsible for driving Airtel’s retail strategy to deliver a seamless customer experience across retail touch point. She started her career with Hindustan Unilever, and also worked with McKinsey & Co. and Abbott Healthcare and has over 19 years of working experience. Bharti Airtel is Indias largest telecommunication service provider and operates in about 18 countries across Asia and Africa.

The United States presidential election of 2016, held on November 8, 2016, was the 58th U.S. presidential election. Donald Trump the Republican nominee defeated the Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump, age 70, became the oldest person ever to be elected as president. He was born in 1946. Trump will assume the office as the 45th President from January 20, 2017. Mr. Trump defeated Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton who would have been the country’s first woman President in its 240-year history succeeding Barack Obama, the first African-American President of the U.S.

The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee awarded the Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam IGNITE Awards to the winners of IGNITE competition, organized by the National Innovation Foundation (NIF), on November 7, 2016 at Rashtrapati Bhavan. About 55,000 applicants from 458 districts of the country participated in the competition out of which 31 students were awarded for the innovative ideas. It is a national level competition organized every year by National Innovation Foundation (NIF) to promote creativity, innovation, original ideas among children up to class 12 and for those who are passed out upto the age of 17 years.

Famous theatre personality and Padma Shri, Prof Raj Bisaria is all set to proud of his achievement with the Madhya Pradesh government honouring him with its prestigious ‘Kalidas Samman’ national award for 2015-16 for achievement in theatre. The ceremony would be held in Ujjain, which is also the birthday of the 80 year old. The annual award constituted in 1980 awards personalities in the four fields of classical dance, classical music, theatre and plastic arts.

The 39th Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation Award was awarded on 7 November 2016 in Mumbai, Maharastra.This year, the receivers of the award were Mohan Hirabai Hiralal and BonBehari Vishnu Nimbkar from Maharashtra, Dr. Nannapaneni Manga Devi from Andhra Pradesh and Sheikh Rached Ghannouchi from Tunisia. The four winners were felicitated for their work in the fields of constructive work, application of science & technology for rural development, development and welfare of women and children and international award for promoting Gandhian values outside India. Dr. Justice CS Dharmadhikari (Retd.), Chairman, Council of Advisors of the Foundation was the chief guest at the event.

Standard Chartered Bank launched ‘Unified Payments Interface’ (UPI) solution on 8th November 2016 for its corporate and financial institutional and commercial banking customers. This UPI solution will enable clients to send and receive money through a Virtual Payment Address without entering additional bank account details. UPI enables real time ‘push and pull’ of funds, making the payment process easier for end customers. Installing UPI app the clients can send request for collection and payment of funds.

Honorable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi while addressing the nation on November 8 2016, made a historical announcement that the Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 currency notes currently in use will no longer be legal tender from midnight 8th November 2016 that is these notes will not be accepted for any kind of transactions from midnight onwards. The aim behind such move is to curb corruption, black money, money laundering, terrorism creating an environment of panic. However one hundred, fifty, twenty, ten, five, two and one rupee note will remain legal tender and will not be affected by the decision.

China once again blocked India’s effort to join NSG in a meeting in Seoul on November 4 2016. Out of 48 members of NSG 47 supported India except China. China wants India to sign the non-Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT) first before joining the NSG. NSG membership will be a significant step to boost India’s which atomic energy sector. Besides, India’s clean track record will get recognition in nuclear non-proliferation without being signatory of non-Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa announced increasing motherhood leave period for women government employees from six to nine months, the state government issued an order to implement it. A Government Order (GO) of the Personnel and Administrative Reforms Department remembered that Jayalalithaa had made an announcement in the Tamil Nadu Assembly in September, promising to increase the leave period from the existing six months or 180 days to 270 days.

The Ministry of AYUSH has organized the 9th Annual Meeting of International Regulatory Cooperation for Herbal Medicines (IRCH) from 8-10 November, 2016 which was inaugurated by Minister of State for AYUSH Shri Sripad Yesso Naik at Ashoka Hotel in New Delhi. About 36 delegates from 19 countries including experts from WHO and Geneva attended the meeting. India has signed 6 MoUs with other countries over the last two years for improving collaboration in the field of traditional medicine.