Neal Mohan, an Indian-American business executive, will succeed Susan Wojcicki as the new CEO of YouTube. Mohan will join the elite list of global tech heads of Indian origin, such as Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Adobe’s Shantanu Narayen, and IBM’s Arvind Krishna.
The new YouTube CEO had previously worked under Wojcicki as the chief product officer. He has previously represented the company on various talk shows, such as the popular Lew Later (unbox therapy), where he spoke about his early life and YouTube’s plans for the future.
Mohan joined Google after the acquisition of DoubleClick by the company in 2008. His initial role was limited to the digital and internet advertising space.
In 2013, Twitter, then led by Dick Costolo, tried to get Mohan and Sundar Pichai onboard to oversee new products at the company, but failed.
BVR Subrahmanyam is new CEO of Niti Aayog
The Cabinet Committee on Appointments has appointed former Union commerce secretary and retired civil servant BVR Subrahmanyam as the CEO of Niti Aayog. He will replace Parameswaran lyer, who was assigned as the executive director of the World Bank.
Subrahmanyam’s appointment is for two years from the date of assumption of the charge of the post.
Saudis to send its first woman astronaut to space
The first-ever woman astronaut of Saudi Arabia will be going to space this year, the latest move by the kingdom to revamp its ultra-conservative image. Saudi woman astronaut Rayyana Barnawi will join fellow Saudi Ali Al-Qarni on a 10-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS) this year.
The crew will be launched to the ISS by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. With this, Saudi Arabia is following in the footsteps of the UAE which became the first Arab country to send one of its citizens into space in 2019.
This comes as Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has introduced many reforms to change the kingdom’s conservative image. The steps include women being allowed to drive and travel abroad without a male guardian.
Saudi Arabia also set up its space program in 2018. In 2022, Saudi Arabia launched another program to send astronauts into space, all part of Crown Prince Salman’s Vision 2030 agenda for economic diversification.
Ayushmann Khurrana is UNICEF’s India National Ambassador
UNICEF India announced the appointment of Bollywood star Ayushmann Khurrana as its National Ambassador. The national award-winning actor joins hands with UNICEF to ensure the rights of every child to survive, thrive, and be protected as well as promote his/her voice and agency in decisions that concern him/her.
Khurrana said: “It is truly an honour to further my advocacy for children’s rights with UNICEF India as a national ambassador. I am passionate about the issues facing children and adolescents in India. As UNICEF’s celebrity advocate, I have interacted with children and spoken on internet safety, cyber bullying, mental health, and gender equality. In this new role with UNICEF, I will keep up a strong voice for children’s rights, especially for the most vulnerable supporting solutions for issues that impact them the most.”
Karthik Subramaniam wins NG’s Pictures of the Year award
Indian-American Karthik Subramaniam, a San Francisco-based software engineer, has won the 2023 National Geographic ‘Pictures of the Year’ award, beating over 5,000 entries.
Subramaniam’s photo, which is titled ‘Dance of the Eagles’, shows a trio of bald eagles battling for a spot on a branch in Alaska’s Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve, a press release by the magazine said.
He titled the image after a homage to a fictional dragon war in George R.R. Martin’s novel, ‘A Dance with Dragons’.
“Wherever there’s salmon there’s going to be chaos,” Subramaniam told the magazine that this was his motto as he camped out near the shore of the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve, waiting for action.
The engineer-turned-hobbyist photographer said he stayed, watching as bald eagles swooped in and out of the fishing grounds in Haines, Alaska. The area hosts the largest congregations of bald eagles in the world every fall, when around 3,000 arrive in time for the salmon run.
Tulsidas Balaram, legendary Indian footballer, passes away at 87
Tulsidas Balaram, one of the country’s finest footballers and a member of the golden era of Indian football (1951-1962), passed away due to multiple organ failures in Kolkata on February 16. He was 87. Last month, he was admitted to the Apollo Hospital in Kolkata, his adopted home since 1957, due to low dietary intake and abdominal distension. His condition deteriorated and he was in ICU.
In 2021, he had a blood clot removed from his brain.
Balaram, originally Balaraman, played in two Olympics in 1956 and 1960 and reached the pinnacle of Asian football when India, under the guidance of legendary coach Syed Abdul Rahim, won the Asian Games gold in Jakarta, beating South Korea 2-1 in 1962.
At the Rome Olympics, widely hailed as his best moment in international football, he scored twice against Hungary and Peru.
During this time, Balaram participated in two Asian Games, in Tokyo in 1958 and in Jakarta in 1962. The gold medal that the team won in Jakarta is India’s only success in any international tournament to date.
Born on October 4, 1936, to Tamil parents – Muthamma and Tulsidas Kalidas – in Ammuguda village in the garrison town of Secunderabad, Balaram scored 131 goals, including 14 for India, across seven seasons.
Many of those goals gained legendary status, like the one against Kidderpore in only his second match for East Bengal in the 1957 Calcutta first division league.
