Taxation in Greece

Taxation in Greece is based on the direct and indirect systems. The total tax revenue in 2017 was €47.56 billion from which €20.62 billion came from direct taxes and €26.94 billion from indirect taxes. The total tax revenue represented 39.4% of GDP in 2017. Taxes in Greece are collected by the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (Ανεξάρτητη Αρχή Δημοσίων Εσόδων).
Income tax.
Income taxation in Greece is progressive. Income tax is payable by all individuals earning income in Greece, regardless of citizenship or place of permanent residence. Permanent residents are taxed on their worldwide income in Greece. An individual in Greece is liable for tax on their income as an employee and on income as a self-employed person. In the case of an individual who is a "permanent resident" of Greece, their tax owed is calculated on their income earned in Greece and overseas. An individual whose income is only from a wage is not obligated to file an annual return. The employer deducts tax from the employee and transfers it to the tax authority every month.
The 2014 tax rates are as follows:
On May 9, 2016 a new set of emergency measures were voted in the Parliament by the SYRIZA/ANEL government. These changes include new income tax rates as well as new solidarity tax rates. The tax rates applicable to income earned in 2016 are as follows:
The solidarity tax rates are progressive ranging from 2.2% to 10%. They are assigned as follows:
But as 01 January 2020 the tax rate for the solidarity contribution will have been amended as in the table below:
Social security tax.
Employees.
An employer is obligated to deduct tax at source from an employee and to make additional contributions to social security as in many other EU member states. The employer's contribution amounts to 24.56% of the salary. The employee's contribution is 15.5%.
Self-employed or contractors.
The basic social security contributions amount to the 27.1% of total income (after VAT paid, qualified expenses deducted and before income tax paid). This number can broken down to 20.0% for public pension funding and 7.1% for the public health system.
An extra 7.0% is charged for people enlisted to added benefits public pension schemes. An extra 4.0% is charged for people enlisted to retirement bonuses public schemes. Thus the total contributions can go as high as 38.1% of income.
Income range for calculation of Social security tax is 4,923 - 70,330 EUR per year. If annual income is out of the range above, the lower/higher limits respectively will be considered for calculation.
Especially for agriculture professionals, the basic contribution of 27.1% will be lower until 2021, as follows:
Especially for doctors, pharmacists, engineers, lawyers and economists, the total contribution of 27.1-38.1% will be 5-50% lower until 31/12/2020, as follows:
Corporation tax.
Corporations in Greece are taxed on their income in Greece and from overseas. Foreign companies in Greece are taxed only on income that is generated in Greece.
Also, there is 100% advance payment of the taxable amount of the current fiscal year, and is being balanced by each next fiscal year financial data.
Corporate income tax rates by year:
The corporate income tax rate is to be gradually reduced as follows:
The planned reduction does not include corporate income tax rate of Greek credit institutions and Greek branches of nonresident credit institutions, which is to remain at 29%.
Capital gains tax.
A capital gain in Greece is added to regular income and is taxable at the same rate as regular income for a company, other than in specific instances as defined in law.
A capital gain by an individual in Greece is taxable at the rate of 15%. There is no tax in the case of capital gain from trading in the stock market as long as the individual owns less than 0.5% of the publicly listed company.
Withholding tax.
As of 1 Jan 2009, Greece imposes a withholding tax of 10% on corporate dividends, unless the dividend qualifies for application of the EC Parent-Subsidiary Directive or if a lower rate applies under an applicable double tax treaty. It also imposes a withholding tax on interest and royalties, however the tax rates may be reduced or eliminated by an applicable double tax treaty or if the payment qualifies for application of the EC Interest and Royalties Directive.
As of 13 December 2018 the withholding tax rates are as given in the table below:
Value added tax.
Value added tax (VAT) was implemented in to the Greek taxation system in 1987 in order to replace turnover tax and other indirect taxes. The Greek VAT system complies with the European Union value added tax system.
The Value added tax (Φόρος Προστιθέμενης Αξίας) in Greece consists of 3 rates:
The VAT rates applied in the Aegan islands of Leros, Lesbos, Kos, Samos and Chios, are 30% lower than the corresponding rates applied in the mainland. The lower VAT rates applied in these Greek Islands are 4% (super-reduced rate), 9% (reduced rate) and 17% (standard rate). The lower VAT rates are in effect until 30.06.2019.
The standard rate applies to the following categories and to the following goods and services:
The reduced rate applies to the following categories and to the following goods and services:
The super reduced rate applies to the following categories:
VAT returns are submitted on quarterly or monthly basis, depending on the type of books (single or double-entry books) kept byt the VAT payer. Exempted from VAT are those taxable persons whose annual turnover (excluding VAT) is no higher than €10,000 from supply of goods or/and services. Such persons may opt to be exempt from VAT. The exemption does not apply with regard to taxable persons not established in the Greek territory.
Other taxes.
Real property tax.
The Real property tax is levied on property, that is located in Greece. The tax composes of two parts, the main tax and the additional tax. The value of the main tax depends on the size, location, zone price, surface, age, use and other characteristics of the taxed property. The additional tax is derived from the total tax value of all the taxpayer's property and it ranges from 0.15% to 1.15% depending on the total value of the property. The additional tax is in effect, if the total value of the taxed property exceeds €250,000.
Inheritance tax.
The Inheritance tax is different for close relatives of the deceased and for other heirs. The former ranges from 1% to 10% of the "tax value" after the deduction of a tax-free amount, depending on the relationship of the taxpayer with the testator. For other heirs, the inheritance tax rate ranges from 0% to 40% of the tax value.
Tax exemptions.
There are several cases of Tax exemptions under the Greek taxation system, these are as follows:
Tax deductions.
The examples of Tax deductibility in Greece are, as with most other features of Greek taxation, similar to that of other Western European and North American nations, that is, tax deductibility for things such as charity and other things as shown below:


Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan

Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan bin Zayed bin Khalifa Al Nahyan (born 20 November 1970), often referred to as Sheikh Mansour, is an Emirati politician who is the deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, minister of presidential affairs and member of the royal family of Abu Dhabi. He is the half brother of the current President of the UAE, Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
He is also the chairman of the ministerial council for services, the Emirates Investment Authority and the Emirates Racing Authority. He sits on the Supreme Petroleum Council and the boards of numerous investment companies including the International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) and the Abu Dhabi Investment Council (ADIC).
Mansour also owns stakes in a number of business ventures, including Virgin Galactic and Sky News Arabia. He is also the owner of the privately held Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG), a specialist investment company that acquired Manchester City Football Club in September 2008. He immediately handed all responsibility and ownership to Khaldoon Al Mubarak and the City Football Group which has overseen a significant transformation at the club since then. The club have won five top flight league titles for the first time since 1968; City's first Premier League titles. On 21 May 2013, Major League Soccer of the United States announced that its second New York City club, to be called New York City FC, would begin play in the 2015 season and be majority-owned by Mansour in association with brothers Hal and Hank Steinbrenner.
He is the vice chairman of the Mubadala Development Company.
In 2020 he become embroiled in the 1MDB scandal after his yacht Topaz was allegedly partly paid for with stolen funds.
Early life and education.
Mansour was born in the Abu Dhabi emirate on 20 November 1970, the fifth son of the Emir of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. His mother is Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Al Ketbi and he has five full-brothers: Crown Prince Mohammed, Hamdan, Hazza, Tahnoun, and Abdullah. They are known as Bani Fatima or sons of Fatima.
Mansour attended Santa Barbara Community College as an English student in 1989. He is a graduate of United Arab Emirates University where he received a bachelor's degree in international affairs in 1993.
Political career.
In 1997, Mansour bin Zayed was appointed chairman of the presidential office, which his father Zayed II is the first and by-then president of UAE. After the death of his father, he was appointed by his eldest half brother, Khalifa II, as first minister of presidential affairs of the United Arab Emirates, which is the merger of the presidential office and presidential court. He also served in a number of positions in Abu Dhabi to support his brother, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
He was appointed chairman of the ministerial council for services, which is considered a ministerial entity attached to the Cabinet, comprising a number of ministers heading the services departments. Since 2000 he chaired National Center for Documentation and Research. In 2004 reshuffle, he became minister for presidential affairs. In 2005, he became the deputy chairman of the Abu Dhabi education council (ADEC), chairman of the Emirates Foundation, Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority, and Abu Dhabi Fund for Development. In 2006, he was named the chairman of the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department. In 2007, he was appointed chairman of Khalifa bin Zayed Charity Foundation.
Mansour served as the chairman of First Gulf Bank until 2006, and as a member of the board of trustees of the Zayed charitable and humanitarian foundation. Mansour has established scholarship programs for U.A.E students to study abroad. He is also chairman of the Emirates horse racing authority (EHRA). On 11 May 2009, he was appointed deputy prime minister, retaining his cabinet post of minister of presidential affairs.
Business portfolio.
Mansour heads IPIC, which owns 71% of Aabar Investments and is used as an investment vehicle. After the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal was highlighted and Khadem al-Qubaisi, who was managing IPIC, was arrested in 2016, IPIC was folded into Aabar Investments. Qubaisi blamed Mansour and the UAE authorities for using him as a scapegoat in the affair. Mansour is the chairman of the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department and Qubaisi is being held in prison without charge.
In 2005, he was appointed as a member of the Supreme Petroleum Council. In the same year he chaired the board of directors of IPIC and became the board member of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA). In 2007, he was appointed chairman of the Emirates Investment Authority, the sovereign wealth fund of UAE.
Mansour has a 32% stake in Virgin Galactic after investing $280 million in the project through Aabar in July 2009. Aabar also has a 9.1% stake in Daimler after purchasing the stake for $2.7 billion in March 2009 and it was reported that Aabar wishes to increase its stake to 15% in August 2010. He owns the Abu Dhabi Media Investment Corporation (ADMIC) which partnered with British Sky Broadcasting to establish Sky News Arabia – a new Arabic-language news channel headquartered in Abu Dhabi. ADMIC also owns the English-language newspaper "The National".
Sport.
Mansour is an accomplished horse rider and has won a number of endurance racing tournaments held in the Middle East, and is chairman of the Emirates horse racing authority. He is a strong supporter of Arabian horse racing and the patron of the annual Zayed International Half Marathon competition in Abu Dhabi.
He is the chairman of the Al Jazira sports company and was a leading figure in Abu Dhabi's successful bid to host the FIFA Club World Cup in 2009 and 2010. The company owns Al Jazira Club, which plays football, volleyball, handball and basketball. The football club won the President's Cup in 2010-2011 and 2011–2012.
In September 2008, Sheikh Mansour acquired Manchester City football club from former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. By 23 September 2008, the Abu Dhabi United Group, backed by Mansour, completed their takeover negotiations and the ownership was transferred to them. He also owns the City Football Group, which was founded in 2014 and consists of Manchester City FC, Melbourne City FC, New York City FC, Mumbai City FC and others. City's ownership was deemed as United Arab Emirates' attempt to "sportswash" its image and as an instrument of foreign policy by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Personal life.
Mansour married Sheikha Alia bint Mohammed bin Butti Al Hamed in the mid-1990s. They have one son, Zayed.
In 2005, Mansour married Manal bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. She is the daughter of Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum ruler of Dubai. They have two daughters and three sons: Fatima (2006), Mohammed (2007), Hamdan (2011), Latifa (2014) and Rashid (2017)
Mansour is the owner of the yacht Topaz.


Lamberto Zannier

Lamberto Zannier (born 15 June 1954) is an Italian diplomat who is currently OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities and earlier served as the Secretary General of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe).
Previously, from June 2008 to June 2011, Zannier served as the United Nations Special Representative for Kosovo and Head of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), with the rank of UN Undersecretary-General. He was appointed to this position by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in June 2008.
Zannier has served for the Foreign Service of Italy for almost 40 years. Before his appointment as Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Kosovo, he played a leading role at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a coordinator for EU Foreign Policy and as a Coordinator for EU Security and Defence issues. Between 2002 and 2006, he was Director of the Conflict Prevention Centre of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Vienna. In this capacity, he managed more than 20 civilian field operations in Europe and Central Asia.
From 2000 to 2002, he served as Representative of Italy to the Executive Council of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague. From 1997 to 1999, he was chairperson of the negotiations on the adaptation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. From 1991 to 1997, he served as Head of Disarmament, Arms Control and Cooperative Security at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Previously, he served in Rome, Abu Dhabi and Vienna, mainly specialising in multilateral and security affairs. He has authored several publications on security, conflict prevention and crisis management issues. He routinely holds lessons and conferences on international relations and international security.
Zannier obtained a Law degree and an Honorary Degree in International and Diplomatic Sciences from the University of Trieste.


Luc Coene

Luc Coene (11 March 1947 – 5 January 2017) was a Belgian economist. He was Governor of the National Bank of Belgium (NBB) from April 2011 until March 2015 .
Education.
Luc Coene was born in Ghent and graduated in economics at Ghent University in 1970 (Ghent, Belgium) and obtained a postgraduate diploma in European economic integration at the College of Europe in 1971 (Bruges).
Career.
He started his career at the NBB in July 1973, where he worked at the Research Department (Information division) until May 1976. From May 1976 until November 1979 he worked at the Foreign Department (International Agreements division) of the NBB. From November 1979 until February 1985, worked as Assistant to the Belgian Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He worked as Deputy chef de cabinet to the Minister of Finance from February 1985 until November 1985 and Chef de cabinet to the Vice-Premier and Minister for the Budget from November 1985 until May 1988.
He was a Visiting Scholar at the IMF from June 1988 until November 1988 and an Economic adviser at the ECFIN Directorate of the European Commission from January 1989 until January 1992. From February 1992 until October 1995 he worked for the NBB at the Foreign Department as Adviser to the head of department.
From November 1995 until July 1999, he was a Senator for the VLD in the Belgian Senate and subsequently Chef de cabinet to the Prime Minister and Secretary to the Council of Ministers from July 1999 until September 2001. From September 2001 until August 2003 he was Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Chancellery of, Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and Secretary to the Council of Ministers.
From August 2003, he became a Director and Deputy Governor of the NBB for a 6-year term. On 1 April 2011 he was appointed Governor until 11 March 2015. He was succeeded by Jan Smets. In March 2015 he was appointed Member of the Supervisory Board of the ECB for a period of 5 years.
He was a member of the Advisory Board of the Itinera Institute think-tank.
In March 2015 he became a member of the Supervisory Board of the Single Supervisory Mechanism, the ECB's banking supervision mechanism directly supervising large banks.


Francis Douglas, Viscount Drumlanrig

Francis Archibald Douglas, Viscount Drumlanrig (3 February 1867 – 18 October 1894), also 1st Baron Kelhead in his own right, was a Scottish nobleman and Liberal politician.
Background and education.
Born at 8 Chesterfield Street, Mayfair, London, Drumlanrig was the eldest son of John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry, by his first wife Sibyl, daughter of Alfred Montgomery. As the heir apparent of the Marquess, he used the courtesy title Viscount Drumlanrig. He was educated at Harrow and at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst and served as Lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion of the Coldstream Guards from 1887 to 1893.
Political career.
Lord Drumlanrig later served as private secretary to the Liberal politician Lord Rosebery. Owing to Rosebery's patronage, on 22 June 1893 he was created Baron Kelhead, of Kelhead in the County of Dumfries, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. This gave him his own seat in the House of Lords, unlike his father, whose titles were all in the Peerage of Scotland. In July 1893 he was appointed a Lord-in-waiting by Rosebery.
Lord Queensberry had served in Parliament from 1872 to 1880 as a representative peer, but in 1880 he refused, as an atheist, to take the religious oath of allegiance to the Queen. He was not allowed to take his seat and was never again chosen as a representative peer by the Scottish nobles. Drumlanrig's accession to Parliament as the 1st Baron Kelhead precipitated a bitter dispute between him and Queensberry, and also between Queensberry and Rosebery, who became Prime Minister in 1894.
Personal life.
On 18 October 1894, sixteen months after his ennoblement, Drumlanrig died at Quantock Lodge, Somerset, from injuries received during a shooting party. The inquest returned a verdict of "accidental death", but his death was also rumoured to be suicide or murder. He was buried in the family burial ground at Kinmount, Dumfriesshire. He was unmarried and his younger brother Lord Percy Douglas became heir to his father's titles. It was speculated at the time, and evidence suggests, that Drumlanrig may have had a homosexual relationship with Rosebery. It has been further suggested that Queensberry had threatened to expose the Prime Minister's supposed proclivities if his government did not vigorously prosecute Oscar Wilde for Wilde's relationship with Drumlanrig's younger brother, Lord Alfred Douglas. Rosebery was, by most accounts, happily married until the death of his wife in 1890, though gossip that Rosebery was homosexual or bisexual was widespread. Queensberry believed, as he put it in a letter, that "Snob Queers like Rosebery" had corrupted his sons, and he held Rosebery indirectly responsible for Drumlanrig's death.
Cultural references.
The conjecture that Drumlanrig may have had a relationship with Rosebery is dramatised in Richard Woulfe "His Most Obedient Servant"


Bagot commission

The Bagot commission was a royal commission in the province of Canada convened by Charles Bagot, the province's governor-general. It proposed reforms to predecessor legislation of the "Indian Act" and to provincial administration of Indigenous affairs. The commission was active from 1842 to 1844.
Background.
The Bagot commission was one of numerous Canadian royal commissions regarding Indigenous affairs in the 19th century. There had been six in Upper Canada (modern-day Ontario) and several more in Lower Canada (modern-day Quebec) and the Maritimes. The first such commission was convened in 1827 at the order of F. J. Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich, and headed by Henry Darling (not to be confused with his son, Charles Henry Darling). That commission delivered its final report on July 24, 1828, and inaugurated the colonial policy of attempting to "civilize" Indigenous peoples. Another commission, conducted by James Buchanan Macaulay; Robert Sympson Jameson; and William Hepburn, registrar of the Court of Chancery, had concluded in 1840, just two years before the Bagot commission began.
Colonial policy toward Indigenous peoples had shifted over the course of the 19th century from an approach emphasizing the "co-existence" of Indigenous peoples and settlers to one that prioritized "christianizing" Indigenous peoples. The first Indian act in Upper Canada had been passed in 1839; the Bagot commission led to further such enactments.
Commission and recommendations.
The Bagot commission was convened by Charles Bagot, the governor-general of the province of Canada. Rawson W. Rawson, a civil servant, was its chair. The commission's other two members were John Davidson and William Hepburn, who had been a member of the 1840 Macaulay commission. The Bagot commission was inaugurated on October 10, 1842, and made its report in January 22, 1844. The report was divided into three main parts. The first provided a history of Canadian policy with respect to Indigenous peoples; the second was a statistical survey of Indigenous affairs; and the third described colonial administrative organization. Peter Jones made submissions to the commission during its deliberations.
The commission proposed that the law should recognize individual, as opposed to communal, land title for Indigenous peoples in Canada. It also reaffirmed the government's obligations under the "Royal Proclamation of 1763", which stated that Indigenous peoples retained possessory rights to their lands; and proposed that Canadian governance of Indigenous affairs be centralized. In particular, the commission recommended, among other things, that Indian reserves be surveyed; that a licensing regime for forestry on reserve be introduced; that the sale and purchase of land by Indigenous people be legally recognized; and that banks should be created on reserve. The provincial legislature passed two statutes in 1850 and 1851 that enacted some of the commission's proposals.
The commission recommended that the Indian Department of the provincial government be restructured. As a result of this proposal, Samuel Jarvis, erstwhile head of the department, was removed. James Macaulay Higginson replaced him and implemented many of the commission's proposed administrative reforms.
The Bagot commission was followed, in 1856–1858, by the Pennefather commission. The Pennefather commission was mainly concerned with settling issues of ancestry among Indigenous peoples.


Spendrups

Spendrups Bryggeri AB is a Swedish brewery founded in 1897 as Grängesbergs Bryggeri AB. The company includes the following subsidiaries Spring Wine & Spirits, Gotlands Bryggeri and Hellefors Bryggeri. Spendrups Group has approximately 900 employees and sales revenue of approximately 3 billion Swedish kronor.
The head office is located in Vårby (Huddinge Municipality) south of Stockholm. Three breweries are located in Grängesberg, Hällefors and Visby (the micro brewery Gotlands Bryggeri AB). The breweries are BRC certified (British Retailers Consortium).
In May 2011, the company presented its plans with regard to the closure of the brewery and logistics centre in Vårby and Loviseberg in 2012–14 and concentrate its production to Grängesberg in the province of Dalecarlia (Dalarna). Production at the brewery in Vårby was shut down in August 2013.
History.
Spendrups history began in 1735 with the ancestor Mads Pedersen, who left the village Spentrup in Denmark and moved to Copenhagen and became a distiller. 1855 Jens Fredrik Oscar Spendrup, the grandson of Mads Pedersen, moved to Sweden and settled in Halland. 1923 Louis Spendrup, the son of Jens Fredrik Oscar, acquired Grängesbergs brewery located in Grängesberg, Dalecarlia for a sum of 65 000 SEK (Swedish krona).
Louis Spendrup’s son, Jens Fredrik “PO” attained command of the brewery 1950 and doubled sales each year throughout the 1950s. In 1967 Mariestads brewery was acquired and in 1972 the business was relocated to Grängesberg. Jens and Ulf Spendrup, the sons of Jens Fredrik "PO" Spendrup, became chief executives of Grängesbergs Brewery 1976.
The brewery's first beer using the brand Spendrup was launched at Operakällaren in Stockholm 1979. 1982 Grängesbergs Bryggeri AB changed its name to Spendrups Bryggeri AB and the brewery was listed in the stock market 1983 but chose to leave it in 2001.
1989 Spendrups purchased Kooperativa Förbundets brewing operations consisting of Wårby Bryggerier located on the outskirts of Stockholm and Sollefteå Bryggeri (presently Zeunerts brewery). Among others, the brand Norrlands Guld was included in the purchase. The brewery in Sollefteå, where Norrlands Guld was originally brewed was shut down and sold, whereas Vårby brewery was retained.
The abolishment of the state wine and liquor monopoly occurred in 1995, as a result of Sweden's entry into the European Union (EU), thus allowing Spendrups to import and distribute wine. 2001 the company started liquor distribution, as well as licensed production of Heineken. In 2009, Spendrups included the brand Schweppes in its product portfolio.
Since May 2011 Fredrik Spendrup is the CEO. He succeeded his father, Jens Spendrup, who hence became Chairman of the board.
Sales.
In 2015, Spendrups was Systembolaget's second largest supplier of beer, with 21.6% of deliveries (50,612,575 liters). During the same year Spendrups delivered 859,488 liters of cider and RTD’s ('Ready to drink') and 410,598 liters of non-alcoholic beverages to Systembolaget, making the company's total market share 12,5%. With regards to the restaurant market, there are no official figures.
Brands.
Spendrups own brands include Spendrups, Norrlands Guld, Mariestads, Loka and Nygårda. Brands manufactured under license include Heineken, Schweppes, El Coto and Cono Sur.


Minister of State for Foreign Affairs (Pakistan)

The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs (MSFA) is the junior minister within the Cabinet of Pakistan who serves as the second highest-ranking member of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, after the Foreign Minister.
During the absence of a Foreign Minister, Minister of State takes the "de facto" charge Ministry of Foreign Affairs. There were two such instances in the past; Siddiq Khan Kanju was the effective Foreign Minister from 1991 to 1993 and Inam-ul-Haq for four months in 2002.
In the case that the Minister of State is not the member of the Parliament of Pakistan, the position is titled as the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs (SAPM on Foreign Affairs). Pakistan currently has no MSFA(deputy foreign minister) and ministry is run by a Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs.


W. D. Lakshman

Deshamanya Weligamage Don Lakshman (commonly known as W. D. Lakshman) popularly known as Professor W. D. Lakshman is a Sri Lankan economist, professor, lecturer, academic and author who is also the current Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and current chairman of the Monetary Board of the CBSL. He is regarded as one of the prominent economists of the country mainly well known for his immense contributions to policy related activities and for being specialised in the field of Economics.
Early life.
Lakshman was born in 1941 as the third of four children of the business family of Mr. and Mrs. Porolis de Silva in a small village in Mihiripanne, Galle District and hails from a humble family background. His father was a small scale businessman. He pursued his primary and secondary education at Vidyaloka College, Galle, and was the Head Prefect at school.
Career.
After completing his secondary education, he joined the University of Ceylon in 1960 based on his performance at the University Preliminary Examination. He completed his Bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Ceylon where he was an undergraduate from 1960 to 1964. He pursued his career as an assistant lecturer in 1964 with the University of Ceylon and served until 1968. He also started writing books in Sinhala language while he was serving as assistant lecturer in 1965 in order to solve difficulties faced by students studying in Sinhala medium due to lack of books. He also served as an assistant lecturer at the Vidyodaya University in 1972.
He also completed his doctorate at the University of Oxford on a university scholarship in 1968 and obtained Doctor of Philosophy in 1973. While serving as a senior lecturer in Economics at the University of Peradeniya, he was appointed as the Professor of Economics at the University of Colombo in 1982 and was also subsequently appointed as the Head of the Department in University of Colombo. He was also subsequently promoted as a senior professor in 1992.
He was the Vice Chancellor of University of Colombo from 1994 to 1999 and he resigned from the position in 1999 in order to take up a visiting professor assignment in a Japanese university. In recognition of his contribution to the field of education, the Sri Lankan government honoured him with Deshamanya title in 2005. Having rendered a yeoman service to the university system in Sri Lanka over a period of 43 years, he retired on 27 October 2007. The University of Colombo, in recognition of his services to higher education honoured him with the degree in Doctor of Letters in 2008 during an annual convocation. He was also granted the honorary title of Emeritus Professor in 2007 from the University of Colombo.
After his retirement, Lakshman was appointed as an advisor to the Ministry of Finance in 2008 and as the chairman of the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) in 2010. In 2009, he was appointed the chairman of the Presidential Commission on Taxation in Sri Lanka. In 2018, he was also appointed as the chairman of the Presidential committee by the then president Maithripala Sirisena to probe and report on the controversial Singapore-Sri Lanka Trade Agreement.
On 24 December 2019, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed him as the 15th Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka replacing Indrajit Coomaraswamy who resigned from the position due to personal reasons. Lakshman was appointed as the CBSL governor at the age of 78 despite not having adequate experience with the Central Banking and despite the age limit of 70.


Diana Turbay

Diana Consuelo Turbay Quintero (March 9, 1950 – January 25, 1991) was a Colombian journalist kidnapped by the Medellín Cartel and killed by the Colombia National Police during a botched rescue attempt. Her story has been portrayed in a non-fiction book by Gabriel García Márquez and onscreen.
Early years.
Diana Turbay was born on March 9, 1950, in Bogotá to Julio César Turbay Ayala, that would be the 25th president of the Republic of Colombia (1978–1982) and Nydia Quintero Turbay. Her father was her mother's maternal uncle. The Turbay family are originally from Lebanon and her family still belong to, and frequent, the Club Colombo Libanes, a private social club of prominent Lebanese-Colombians.
Kidnapping and death.
Turbay was kidnapped on August 30, 1990, when she was tricked into going to a supposed interview with a guerrilla leader, the Spanish priest Manuel Pérez Martínez, alias El Cura Pérez (The Priest Pérez). Turbay had been contacted by phone by an unidentified man. Later, a police investigation determined that the man belonged to Los Priscos, a criminal band, and had been hired by Pablo Escobar. The latter's aim was to kidnap as many politicians and journalists as possible, to prevent Colombian legislators from approving an extradition treaty with the United States. Additional victims of this strategy were Francisco Santos Calderón, Maruja Pachón, and Marina Montoya.
Turbay was kept at Copacabana, Antioquia, with her cameraman Richard Becerra. She died on January 25, 1991, during a botched rescue operation launched by the police without authorization from the family. The cause of death was a bullet in her back, which partially destroyed her liver and left kidney.
Family.
Turbay was survived by her two children, María Carolina Hoyos Turbay (born 1972) and Miguel Uribe Turbay (born 1986), and her husband, Miguel Uribe Londoño.
In popular culture.
Literature.
The story of Turbay's abduction is recounted in Gabriel Garcia Márquez's non-fiction book, "News of a Kidnapping" (1996).
Television.
Turbay is portrayed by the actress Liesel Potdevin in the TV series "" (2012).
Turbay is portrayed by Gabriela de la Garza in the Netflix Original Series "Narcos" (2015).


Stalowa Wola

Stalowa Wola () is the largest city and capital of Stalowa Wola County with a population of 60,179 inhabitants, as of 30 VI 2020. It is located in southeastern Poland in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship. The city lies in historic Lesser Poland, near the confluence of the Vistula and San rivers and covers an area of . Stalowa Wola is one of the youngest cities of Poland. It was built from scratch in the late 1930s, in the forests surrounding the village of Pławo. The city was designed to be a settlement for workers of Huta Stalowa Wola (known in 1938-39 as "Zakłady Poludniowe" or "Southern Works"), a plant built as part of the Central Industrial Region. Stalowa Wola is home to the sports club Stal Stalowa Wola.
Location and name.
Stalowa Wola lies in the lowlands of the Sandomierz Basin, near the San river. On January 1, 2010, the area of the town was and 60% of Stalowa Wola was covered by pine forests, remnants of the once enormous Sandomierz Forest. The name of the town (Stalowa Wola can be translated into English as “steel will”) comes from words of General Tadeusz Kasprzycki, Minister of Military Affairs of Poland, who stated in the late 1930s that the Central Industrial Area symbolizes the "steel will of the Polish nation to modernize itself".
History.
The area of today's Stalowa Wola belongs to historic Polish province of Lesser Poland. In the Kingdom of Poland, it was located in the south-eastern corner of the Sandomierz Voivodeship, near the border with Red Ruthenia. The city of Stalowa Wola was built on the site where the village of Pławo once stood, between the ancient towns of Nisko and Rozwadów. The first mentions of Pławo come from the first half of the 15th century. At the nearby village of Przyszów, there was a hunting lodge of King Władysław Jagiełło, built before 1358. In the late 15th century, Pławo was a royal village. In 1656, the area of Pławo was the site of a battle between Polish and Swedish armies. Here, in the confluence of the San and Vistula, Swedish troops of King Charles Gustav were surrounded by Stefan Czarniecki (see Swedish invasion of Poland).
Until the Partitions of Poland, Pławo belonged to Sandomierz Voivodeship. From 1772 to 1918, it was part of the Austrian province of Galicia and remained an insignificant, privately owned village. In early 1937, the government of the Second Polish Republic accepted the project of the Central Industrial Area, which included the construction of a brand new steel mill, together with a settlement for the workers. Before the outbreak of World War II, some departments of the mill were operational and several blocks of flats were built. Construction of the "Southern Works", as the mill was then called, was started in dense pine forests around Pławo in March 1937. Among other things, the plant manufactured artillery cannons.
During World War II, Stalowa Wola was one of the centres of the Home Army. The settlement was captured by the Red Army in August 1944, and on April 1, 1945, Stalowa Wola received its town charter. In 1948, the mill was renamed as "Huta Stalowa Wola" and in 1953, a separate urban county of Stalowa Wola was created. In 1973, the town of Rozwadów was annexed, followed in 1977 by the village of Charzewice. At its peak in the 1970s, the mill employed 35,000 people, with branches scattered across southern Poland, from Radomsko to Strzyżów. Apart from the mill, Stalowa Wola has a large power plant, opened Spring 1939. In 1988, the city was one of the centres of workers' protests (see 1988 Polish strikes). Currently, Stalowa Wola is the third-largest city of the voivodeship, with a population of 60,000.
Jews in Rozwadów (a district of Stalowa Wola).
The Rozwadów suburb of Stalowa Wola was a thriving Jewish shtetl prior to World War II and was closely associated with Tarnobrzeg and other nearby shtetls including Ulanów, Mielec, Dzików etc. These communities, infused with vitality before 1939, were utterly destroyed during the Holocaust after having been affected by World War I only some 20 years earlier. Jews in Rozwadów were a religiously observant community, i.e. traditional or Orthodox in practice. The leading rabbi of Rozwadów, similar to other rabbis of the region, followed Hasidism practice and was of the Horowitz family. In New York, a Rozwadower Rebbe established a small synagogue on the upper West Side, which continued for many decades after the war. There is a link to a yizkor book about Rozwadów which gives further notes on the Jewish life there. The Rozwadów synagogue was, until World War II, located on Attorney Street in the lower east side of NYC.
During World War II, Dr. Eugene Lazowski, a military doctor of the Polish underground Home Army, Armia Krajowa, created a fake epidemic of dangerous infectious disease, Epidemic Typhus in the town of Rozwadów (now a district of Stalowa Wola) and the surrounding villages and towns. He saved an estimated 8,000 Polish Jews from certain death in Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust, performing his services in utmost secrecy under the threat of capital punishment.
Following the Holocaust, the remaining Jews were motivated to seek a new start in Palestine, thanks to Berihah's efforts. A community of former Rozwadów citizens had been established in New York City and continued its affinity long after World War II. Many former Rozwadów citizens of Jewish backgrounds moved to the fledgeling State of Israel.
Economy.
The steel mill (HSW S.A.) was a major part of a series of investments made by the Polish government between 1936 and 1939 to create the Central Industrial Region. This was to be a group of factories built in an area in the middle of the country, away from the borders with Germany and the USSR. It was designed to provide a reasonably secure location for the production of armaments and high technology goods. The main employer is still HSW S.A. (manufacturer of heavy machines and alloys). Other large enterprises include StahlSchmidt (producer of aluminium rims), ESW (coal power plant), Prefabet Stalowa Wola (building materials) and Mostostal S.A. (steel construction-bridges, tanks and so on).
Transport.
Polish State Railways (PKP) provides scheduled connections to Lublin, Warsaw, Kraków, Katowice, Wrocław, Rzeszów, Przemyśl and Odessa (in Ukraine). Summer connections are available to the TriCity (Gdańsk, Gdynia and Sopot) and Hel. The city has several railway stations that include: "Stalowa Wola", "Stalowa Wola South", "Stalowa Wola Centre" and "Stalowa Wola Rozwadów", and is a main rail junction. All four stations are located on the main Przeworsk – Skarżysko-Kamienna line. Additionally, "Stalowa Wola Rozwadów" provides a northern connection with Lublin and, from "Stalowa Wola South", a line runs east to Zamość, via Zwierzyniec. The ZMKS is the city's main public transit agency, operating a fleet of buses in Stalowa Wola and the surrounding districts.
Sports.
The city is a home for the professional football club Stal Stalowa Wola. They play their home matches at the Podkarpackie Centrum Piłki Nożnej, opened in 2020. Moreover, the city is known from the amateur football club Parafialny Klub Sportowy San Rozwadów, that compete in Klasa A.
International relations.
Twin towns — Sister cities.
Stalowa Wola is twinned with:


Nashiru Issahaku

Abdul-Nashiru Issahaku is a governance expert, one of Ghana’s most influential economists, and former Deputy Governor for the Bank of Ghana (BoG).
Career.
Issahaku's work experience includes Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Export Development and Agricultural Investment Fund (EDAIF) and a position at the World Bank.
Bank of Ghana.
The Central Bank of Ghana should have two deputy governors but when then Governor Kwesi Beko Amissah-Arthur was made Vice President of Ghana Henry Kofi Wampah was promoted to acting governor, and the bank had to work with only one deputy governor in eight months from July 2012 to April 2013, when Issahaku was appointed. Prior to his appointment by John Mahama in April 2016, Issahaku was the Second Deputy Governor with as the First Deputy Governor since 2013.
Resignation from Bank of Ghana.
Dr. Issahaku announced his resignation on 29 March 2017, which took effect on 31 March 2017. He was succeeded by Dr. Ernest Addison.


Claire Rochecouste

Claire Rochecouste is an Australian career officer with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. She is the Ambassador to Portugal, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé and Príncipe and before that, she was the Director of the Levant and Iran Section.
Rochecouste earned a Master in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School (attended with a “prestigious RG Menzies Scholarship to Harvard for 2017.”), Bachelor of Business from Monash University and Bachelor of Arts from the University of Melbourne.


Minister of State for Foreign Affairs (United Kingdom)

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs is a mid-level ministerial position in Her Majesty's Government, the Minister serves as the deputy to the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.
Responsibilities.
The minister has the following ministerial responsibilities:


United Nations Security Council Resolution 337

United Nations Security Council Resolution 337, adopted unanimously on August 15, 1973, condemned the state of Israel for forcibly diverting and then seizing a Lebanese airline from Lebanon's airspace. The Council considered these actions a violation of the relevant 1949 Armistice Agreements, the cease-fire resolution of the Security Council of 1967, the provisions of the Charter, the international conventions on civil aviation and the very principles of international law and morality.
The Resolution goes on to call upon the International Civil Aviation Organization to consider adequate measures to safeguard civil aviation and for Israel to desist from any further attacks that would violate Lebanon's sovereignty and territorial civil aviation. The Council stated that if Israel repeated similar acts they would consider taking adequate steps to enforce their resolutions.


Thomas Jefferson Star for Foreign Service

The Thomas Jefferson Star for Foreign Service is an award of the United States Department of State. It is presented to employees of State, USAID, and civilian contractors assigned to diplomatic and consular facilities for events that lead to death or serious illness or injury. It is roughly comparable to the U.S. military's Purple Heart, but since the criteria for the award is so strict, nearly all of them are awarded posthumously.
The award consists of a gold medal set and a certificate signed by the secretary of state and the president of the United States.
The initial regulations limited the issuance of the Thomas Jefferson Star for Foreign Service, originally known as the Foreign Service Star, only to members of the U.S. Foreign Service personnel system who were killed or seriously injured. The rules were later changed to allow for members of other personnel systems killed while working on behalf of a foreign affairs agency.
There had been controversy about the name of the award, which suggested that only diplomats serving under the Foreign Service personnel system were eligible. As a result, Secretary of State Colin Powell proposed changing the name of the award from the Foreign Service Star to simply the Thomas Jefferson Star, naming it for the Founding Father who served as the first secretary of state. The American Foreign Service Association and the Foreign Affairs Council resisted the proposal while many others strongly supported it. In the end, the words "Foreign Service" were maintained as part of the name.
Eligibility.
Any civilian employee of any agency, including Foreign Service Nationals (appointed under Section 303 of the Foreign Service Act), non-family member U.S. citizen employees hired at post (appointed under Section 303 and appointed under Section 311 (a) of the Foreign Service Act), and U.S. citizens and foreign nationals serving under a Personal Services Contract or Personal Services Agreement (if eligibility for the award is authorized in their contracts), are eligible for the Foreign Service Star Award as long as the employee is:
Criteria.
a. Selection of award recipients will be based on:
b. Examples of employees meeting the selection criteria include, but are not limited to:
Nominating and approval procedures.
Nominations for the Thomas Jefferson Star for Foreign Service must be initiated by the chief of mission or by an assistant secretary, cleared by the medical director, as appropriate, and then submitted to the Department Awards Committee for review and recommendation to the secretary. The secretary shall make final recommendations to the president.
Effective date.
The effective date for the Thomas Jefferson Star for Foreign Service shall be August 7, 1998.
An employee or surviving next of kin may petition the Department Awards Committee to consider individuals who are eligible and deserving of the Thomas Jefferson Star for Foreign Service notwithstanding the fact that the illness, injury or death occurred prior to the effective date.
Military use.
Active duty military are not eligible to receive this award.


Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar

Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar (; 21 June 1872 – 5 April 1925, San Remo, Italy), Shah of Iran from 8 January 1907 to 16 July 1909. He was the sixth shah of the Qajar Dynasty.
Biography.
Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar was opposed to the Persian Constitution of 1906, which had been ratified during the reign of his father, Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar. In 1907, Mohammad Ali dissolved the National Consultative Assembly and declared the Constitution abolished because it was contrary to Islamic law. He bombarded the Majles (Persian parliament) with the military and political support of Russia and Britain.
In July 1909, pro-Constitution forces marched from Persia's provinces to Tehran led by Sardar As'ad, Sepehdar A'zam, Sattar Khan, Bagher Khan and Yeprem Khan, deposed the Shah, and re-established the constitution.
On 16 July 1909, the parliament voted to place Mohammad Ali Shah's 11-year-old son, Ahmad Shah on the throne. Mohammad Ali Shah abdicated following the new Constitutional Revolution and he has since been remembered as a symbol of dictatorship.
Having fled to Odessa, Russia (currently Ukraine), Mohammad Ali plotted his return to power. In 1911 he landed at Astarabad, Persia, but his forces were defeated. Mohammad Ali Shah returned to Russia, then in 1920 to Constantinople (present day Istanbul) and later to San Remo, Italy, where he died on 5 April 1925 (bur. Shrine of Imam Husain, Karbala, Iraq). Every Shah of Persia since Mohammad Ali has died in exile.
His son and successor, Ahmad Shah Qajar was the last sovereign of the Qajar dynasty.
Marriages and children.
Wives.
Mohammad Ali Shah had two wives:
Children.
Mohammad Ali Shah had six sons and two daughters:


Bill Baroni

William E. Baroni Jr. (born December 10, 1971) is an American Republican Party politician and law professor. He represented the 14th legislative district in the New Jersey Senate and General Assembly. In 2010, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie named Baroni to serve as the Deputy Executive Director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
He resigned from his position at the Port Authority on December 12, 2013, during the inquiry into the Fort Lee lane closure controversy. Baroni was convicted on seven counts of conspiracy and wire fraud in relation to his involvement in the closure and sentenced to two years of imprisonment and 500 hours of community service, later reduced to 18 months. On May 7, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously reversed the conviction in "Kelly v. United States".
Early life.
Baroni was born in Jacksonville, Florida. He attended Steinert High School in Hamilton Township. He received a B.A. from George Washington University in history and was awarded a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Career.
Early career.
Baroni became interested in politics as a teenager, working on the campaign of his hometown US representative, Christopher H. Smith (R), who was seeking re-election to his fourth term. He was also a driver for Assembly Speaker Chuck Haytaian in his campaign for US Senator against Frank Lautenberg in 1994 and worked on the advance staff for the 1996 presidential campaign of Steve Forbes.
He served on the Mercer County Community College Board of Trustees from 1998 to 2003. He was a member of the Hamilton Township Planning Board from 1998 to 2000.
In 2003, Baroni mounted an aggressive campaign for the General Assembly, knocking on over 10,000 doors to defeat the Democratic incumbent Gary Guear. He was re-elected to the Assembly in 2005. In 2004 and 2005, he was the Assembly's Assistant Parliamentarian.
On November 6, 2007, he won election to become State Senator of the 14th Legislative District. He captured 62.3% of the vote, defeating Democratic Party opponent Seema Singh. Baroni filled the State Senate seat vacated by Republican Senator Peter Inverso.
There had been speculation that Baroni would seek the Republican nomination for United States Senate in 2008 against Frank Lautenberg, but his run for the New Jersey Senate effectively ended that speculation.
In 2008, Baroni served as State Chairman of John McCain's presidential campaign in New Jersey. Baroni served in the Senate on the Joint Committee on the Public Schools, the Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee, the Wagering, Tourism & Historic Preservation Committee and the Judiciary Committee. He was also the only Republican state senator who voted for a 2010 measure to allow same-sex marriage in New Jersey. He supports same sex marriage in Ireland, of which he is also a citizen.
Legal career.
Baroni was an associate at DeCotiis, Fitzpatrick & Cole, and then at Blank Rome. He was of counsel at Fornaro Francioso, a Hamilton firm. He served as chief counsel to Congressman Bob Franks in his 2000 U.S. Senate race. In 2002, when U.S. Senator Robert Torricelli withdrew his candidacy for re-election five weeks before Election Day after the Senate admonished him on ethics charges, Baroni argued for the Republicans in the New Jersey Supreme Court against a last-minute switch of candidates to Frank Lautenberg.
In 2002, Baroni became an adjunct professor at the Seton Hall University School of Law, where he taught classes on Professional Responsibility, voting rights, legislation, and campaign finance reform. As of November 2008, he is no longer an adjunct professor at the Seton Hall University School of Law. Baroni served on the Foundation Board of both The College of New Jersey and Mercer County Community College. As of Baroni is also chairman of the board of trustees of the Greater Trenton Symphony Orchestra and on the Board of Trustees of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and on the board of trustees for Visitation Home, which builds homes for New Jersey residents with disabilities. Baroni is also a special advisor to the New Jersey Boys' State Foundation, and is a former delegate at Jersey Boys' State.
Fort Lee lane closure scandal.
On February 19, 2010, the Governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, announced that he was appointing Baroni to the position of Deputy Executive Director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. He resigned his Senate seat to assume the new post on March 1, 2010. Tom Goodwin was selected to fill the vacant Senate seat.
Resignation.
On December 12, 2013, Christie announced that Baroni had resigned as Deputy Executive Director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. That occurred after the scandal over lane closures at the George Washington Bridge, perhaps to punish Democratic Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich for not supporting Christie. Later email disclosures indicated that Baroni had attempted to squelch press that the lane closures were improper.
On January 9, 2014, Baroni was named as a defendant in a federal class action lawsuits in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey which cited a civil conspiracy and "willful, wanton, arbitrary, and egregious official misconduct." On May 1, 2015, he was indicted on nine federal counts of conspiracy, fraud, and related charges to which he pleaded not guilty.
He contested the District Attorney's decision not to release certain documents in the discovery process to mount his defense. A continuance for the trial was granted in September 2015.
Conviction.
On November 4, 2016 the jury in the Bridgegate]] trial returned guilty verdicts on all counts against Bill Baroni and co-defendant Bridget Anne Kelly. On March 29, 2017, he was sentenced to two years in prison and 500 hours of community service.
An appeals court decision led to the dismissal of some of the charges against him. He appealed to have the remaining charges against him dismissed.<ref>


Neville Karunatilake

H. Neville Sepala Karunatilake (1930 – 24 January 2010) was a Sri Lankan economist and civil servant. He was the former Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.
Born to Ariyaratna Karunatileke and Neeta Freeda Karunatileke, his father was a land settlement officer in the Land Department. He received his primary education at St Thomas Preparatory College, Kollupitiy, and secondary education at Trinity College, Kandy.
Thereafter he gained a scholarship to University of Ceylon, graduating in 1951 with a BA special degree in economics. Later he gained an MSc in economics from the London School of Economics on a Colombo Plan scholarship and an MPA and MA in economics from Harvard University in on a Fulbright Research Fellowship. He went on to gain his PhD in economics from the University of London.
After graduating from University of Ceylon, he served as a tutor until he joined the Central Bank of Ceylon in 1952 and was appointed director of Economic Research in 1975. In 1978, he was appointed Senior Deputy Governor of the Central Bank. From 1988 to 1992 he served as the governor of the Central Bank.
He was president of the Royal Asiatic Society (Sri Lanka Branch), Society for International Development (Sri Lanka Chapter), Sri Lanka Economic Association, and was the first editor of the "Sri Lanka Economic Journal". He served in the board of governors of the Trinity College and St Thomas Preparatory College. Karunatilake authored 17 books on economics and banking in Sri Lanka and more than 150 articles published in local and foreign journals.


Vacuum sewer

A vacuum sewer or pneumatic sewer system is a method of transporting sewage from its source to a sewage treatment plant. It maintains a partial vacuum, with an air pressure below atmospheric pressure inside the pipe network and vacuum station collection vessel. Valves open and reseal automatically when the system is used, so differential pressure can be maintained without expending much energy pumping. A single central vacuum station can collect the wastewater of several thousand individual homes, depending on terrain and the local situation.
Vacuum sewers were first installed in Europe in 1882. Dutch engineer Charles Liernur first applied negative pressure drainage to sewers in the second half of the 19th century. Technical implementations of vacuum sewerage systems began in 1959 in Sweden.
Historically, vacuum sewers have been a niche product, used only in trains, airplanes, and flat areas with sandy soils and high ground water tables. Gravity sewers were used for most applications, because although vacuum sewers were cheaper to install, they were more expensive to maintain. In the 20th century, vacuum sewer technology has improved significantly: fault-locating sensors have reduced operation and maintenance costs, and some operators now consider that vacuum sewers can be cheaper to run than conventional gravity sewers.
Basic elements.
The main components of a vacuum sewer system are a collection chambers and vacuum valve parts, sewers, a central vacuum station and monitoring and control components.
Some vacuum systems have vacuum toilets are connected directly to a vacuum line, which requires less water for flushing (less than a quarter of a liter per flush). Others use standard gravity drainage for the first phase of collection; sewage flows by means of gravity from each house, as in a standard system. It discharges into a collection sump that might collect sewage from 2-6 houses and is located in a public area.
Vacuum technology is based on differential air pressure. Rotary vane vacuum pumps generate an operation pressure of -0.4 to -0.6 bar at the vacuum station, which is also the only element of the vacuum sewerage system that must be supplied with electricity.
Interface valves are installed inside the collection chambers. They work pneumatically. After a certain fill level inside this sump is reached, the interface valve opens. The impulse to open the valve is transferred by a pneumatically mechanical controlled controller unit. No electricity is needed to open or close the valve. The energy is provided by the vacuum itself.
While the valve is open, the resulting differential pressure between atmosphere and vacuum becomes the driving force and transports the wastewater and air towards the vacuum station. Besides these collection chambers, no other manholes, neither for changes in direction, nor for inspection or connection of branch lines, are necessary. High flow velocities keep the system free of any blockages or sedimentation.
Large systems with numerous collection chambers benefit from the provision of a monitoring system for remote monitoring of the vacuum valves and sump pits. Such systems allow much faster troubleshooting and easier preventive maintenance of collection chambers and valves. However, monitoring systems are optional systems and not required for operation of vacuum sewer systems.
Vacuum sewer systems are considered to be free of ex- and infiltration which allows their use even in water protection areas. For this reason, vacuum sewer lines may even be laid in the same trench as potable water lines (depending on local guidelines).
In order to ensure reliable transport, the vacuum sewer line is laid in a saw-tooth (length-) profile. The whole vacuum sewers are filled with air at a pressure of -0.4 to -0.6 bar. The most important aspect for a reliable operation is the air-to-liquid ratio. When a system is well designed, the sewers contain only very small amounts of sewage. The air-to-liquid ratio is usually maintained by collecting liquid/air simultaneously or controller units that adjust their opening times according to the pressure in the system.
Sewers can be laid in flat terrain, and parts may flow uphill (within limits). A saw-tooth profile keeps sewer lines shallow; in frost-free climates, trench depth can be about 1.0 – 1.2 m. By contrast, gravity sewers need a monotonically falling slope of at least 0.5 - 1.0%, which can mean that expensive trenching and pumping stations are needed.
Once the wastewater arrives in the vacuum collection tank at the vacuum station, it is pumped to the discharge point, which could be either a gravity sewer or the treatment station. As the dwell time of the wastewater inside the system is very short and the wastewater is continuously mixed with air, the sewage is kept fresh and any fouling inside the system is avoided (less H2S).
Applications.
Vacuum sewer systems may be the preferred system in the case of particular circumstances, such as:
Transport.
Trains, aircraft, buses, and many ships with plumbing generally have vacuum systems with vacuum toilets. The lower water usage (less than a quarter of a liter per flush) saves weight, and avoids water slopping out of the toilet bowl in motion. Aircraft toilets may flush with blue disinfectant solution rather than water. A portable collection chamber is used; if it is filled from an intermediate vacuum chamber, it need not be kept under vacuum.
Dry areas.
Lack of water in many countries and drastic water savings measures have led to difficulties with aging gravity networks with solids blocking in the pipes. Vacuum systems save water.
Boggy, rocky, or permafrost terrain.
Flat terrain, unfavorable soil (rocky or swampy ground), or a high groundwater table (which requires dewatering trenches) can make gravity sewerage systems much more expensive. Vacuum sewers are small in diameter and leak inwards, and in frost-free areas, they can be laid close to the surface in small trenches.
Water protection areas, environmental use.
Vacuum sewers can pass through water protection areas and areas with sensitive high ground water tables, because there is no danger of spoiling groundwater resources (vacuum sewers have a high leak tightness due to their material; and if they leak, they leak inwards). Vacuum systems are used in many environmentally sensitive areas such as the Couran Cove Eco Resort close to the Barrier Reef in Australia. They've also been used to replace septic tanks to reduce nitrogen levels in ground/surface water.
Vacuum systems have also been applied to collect toxic wastewater from the environment.
Seasonally sub-freezing climates.
If the temperatures in an area dip below freezing in winter, the vacuum line is buried below the frost line, in ground that stays unfrozen year-round (as are conventional gravity sewers). Valves, collection pits, intake vents, and control systems need to be designed to keep functioning despite cold, snow and ice. Temperature-monitoring sensors are also standard, so problems can be noticed early.
In the case of Plum Island (Massachusetts), the island was prone to freezing temperature and excessive snowfall that initially made it difficult to locate a potential problem. Changes to their Pit setup and monitoring at the valve pit has helped with maintenance.
Many Nordic Countries utilize vacuum sewers, it is helpful to have some type of marker or monitoring to locate valves when they are buried under the snow for extended periods.
Low or seasonal population density.
With lower population densities, the costs for the collection chambers and vacuum stations are less important than the costs of installing pipe and, for gravity sewers, pumping stations, etc.. Pneumatic pipes are generally smaller than gravity-drained hydraulic ones In frost-free climates, the pipes for a vacuum system can also be buried more shallowly than a gravity system.
High specific conduit lengths, where the required pipe length is longer than ~4 metres per inhabitant, will tend to make a vacuum system cheaper.
In seasonal settlements (recreation areas, camping sites etc.) with conventional gravity sewer systems, sedimentation problems can easily occur as automatic flushing by daily waste water does not take place. High flow velocities within vacuum sewers prevent such sedimentation problems. The Formula 1 race tracks in Shanghai and Abu Dhabi are using a vacuum sewer system for that reason.
Historic sites.
Historic sites may have old buildings, narrow streets, and steep terrain. Tourism may also cause strong seasonal fluctuations in population density. Vacuum sewer systems may be selected for their fast (avoiding conflicts with traffic and tourism), cost-effective and flexible installation. Examples include Flavigny-sur-Ozerain, France, and Khasab and Al Seeb in Oman.
Treatment.
Vacuum sewer systems can be set up so that they collect concentrated blackwater (toilet wastewater) only, with the greywater from sinks and baths being collected separately (it is much easier to treat greywater than blackwater). The biosolids from a vacuum system need not be diluted with flushing water.
Sewage systems usually thermophillically compost biosolids which have been separated and dewatered from a standard gravity sewer. This process is simpler if the biosolids are never watered.
Composting at high temperatures kills pathogens and seeds. Biosolids compost is required to be composted at high temperatures.
Sewage can also be treated in an anaerobic process with the production of biogas. This design has the potential to increase sustainability of water infrastructures.


Thomas Greminger

Thomas Greminger (born 22 April 1961) is a Swiss diplomat. He was born in Lucerne.
Greminger served as secretary-general for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), from July 2017 to July 2020.


Social programmes in Sri Lanka

The welfare state of Sri Lanka began to evolve in the 1930s through to the 1970s, and comprises expenditures by the government of Sri Lanka intended to improve health, education, employment and social security. The Sri Lankan system has been classified as a liberal welfare state system.
See also.
Housing:


Asia Task Force

The Asia Task Force (ATF) is a government advisory group in the United Kingdom with the overall aim of boosting trade and investment between the UK and high-growth and emerging markets in Asia. The ATF was created by Gordon Brown (then serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer) on 2 December 2004.
Membership.
Members of the Asia Task Force are senior business leaders and members of academia. It is co-chaired by the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.
On assuming the Co-Chairmanship of the ATF in May 2010, Vince Cable said:
"If we are looking for growth, we should be looking to Asia. Asia is driving the global recovery and its growing middle classes are seeking more of what we can produce. We want UK businesses to export more goods and services to these markets. Through UK Trade & Investment, we will help British companies to play their full part."
Meetings.
The first full meeting of the ATF was held on 27 October 2005. The Chancellor opened proceedings with a speech on the growing importance of Asia in the world economy and said he would welcome ideas and policy proposals from the ATF for the government to consider.
The ATF meets around twice a year - the minutes and membership details are published on UK Trade & Investment's ATF pages.
Activities.
On the advice and recommendation of the Asia Task Force, UK Trade & Investment regularly runs ‘Doing Business in Asia - Meet the Experts' events throughout the UK designed to galvanise more companies to explore opportunities in key Asian markets.
Further information can be obtained from the Doing Business in Asia: Meet the Experts website.


Guttorm Vik

Guttorm Asbjørn Vik (born 28 July 1943) is a Norwegian diplomat.
He grew up in Brattvåg, graduated with the siv.øk. from the Norwegian School of Economics in 1971 and started working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1972.
He was a deputy under-secretary of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1994. From 1995 to 2000 he served as vice secretary-genera of EFTA. He then served as the Norwegian ambassador to Iceland from 2003 to 2007 and the OSCE in Vienna from 2007 to 2011. He then became a senior adviser in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs until his retirement in 2013.
He resides at Høvik.


Graeme Wheeler

Graeme Paul Wheeler (born 30 October 1951) was the Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand from 2012 to Sept 2017. He succeeded Alan Bollard in this role on 26 September 2012 and was succeeded by Grant Spencer.
Professional career.
Educated at the University of Auckland, Wheeler began working at the New Zealand Treasury in 1973 as an adviser. From 1984 to 1990 he was economic and financial councillor for the New Zealand delegation to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, eventually becoming director of macroeconomic policy at the New Zealand Treasury in 1990. In 1997, he went to work for the World Bank Group, firstly as director of the Financial Products and Services Department. From 2006 to 2010 he was managing director of operations at the World Bank overseeing 12,000 staff and a US$1.7 billion budget. In 2010, Wheeler left the World Bank to start his own firm, advising investors and Russian policy makers about Russian privatisation.
Reserve Bank Governor.
Wheeler succeeded Alan Bollard as Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand on 26 September 2012. Wheeler was replaced by Deputy Governor Grant Spencer on Sept 27, 2017.
Cricketing career.
A right-hand batsman and right-arm medium-pace bowler, Wheeler played one first-class match for Wellington in the 1981-82 season.


Lise de Baissac

Lise Marie Jeanette de Baissac MBE CdeG (11 May 1905 – 29 March 2004), code names "Odile" and "Marguerite," was a Mauritian agent in the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) organization in France during World War II. The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in countries occupied by the Axis powers, especially Nazi Germany. SOE agents allied themselves with resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England.
De Baissac was one of the first SOE female agents to be parachuted into occupied France in 1942. During her two missions to France she often worked with her brother Claude who headed the Scientist network of SOE. The couple was most useful shortly before and after the D-Day invasion of France by the allies. The de Baissacs armed and organized French Resistance forces to hinder the German response to the invasion and to assist the allies. Lise de Baissac had frequent encounters with German soldiers in the heavily militarized region in which she worked, but she eluded capture. She was awarded several gallantry awards after the war.
Early life.
The only daughter among three children, Lise de Baissac was born in Mauritius. Her father was Marie Louis Marc de Boucherville Baissac (1878–1945) and her mother was Marie Louise Jeanette Dupont. Her family were large landowners in Mauritius, but British subjects as all Mauritians then were. The family moved to Paris in 1919. When she was 17 years old she met her future husband, Gustave Villameur, a penniless artist. Her mother disapproved of the romance and sent de Baissac to Italy. Returning to Paris, de Baissac worked in an office although employment was unusual for an upper-class young woman at the time.
In 1940, Paris was occupied by the Germans. Her eldest brother, Jean de Baissac, joined the British Army. Lise and her younger brother, Claude, travelled to the Dordogne region in southern France in an attempt to reach England. She obtained help with travel arrangements to England from the American Consulate and crossed into Spain and went to Lisbon, where she and her brother waited for five months for permission to travel to Gibraltar and on to the UK. The pair arrived in Scotland in 1941 and she made her way to London. Through her family's ties with the wife of Gomer Berry, 1st Viscount Kemsley she got a job at the "Daily Sketch". Her brother, Claude, was recruited by the Special Operations Executive (SOE). Because of their proficiency in both English and French, Mauritians were often recruited as agents in France by the SOE. Fourteen would serve with the SOE during World War II.
Special Operations Executive.
As soon as the SOE began recruiting women, de Baissac applied to join. She was interviewed by Selwyn Jepson, and accepted for training in May 1942. She was described as "a mature woman of thirty-seven, small, slight, with black hair, light eyes, and a confident manner." She had the family characteristic of being "difficult but dedicated." Female SOE agents were trained as couriers or wireless operators and worked for male "organisers," but de Baissac was identified as having the ability to head her own network.
Her training took place at Beaulieu, Hampshire, where she trained with the second group of women recruited by the SOE including Mary Herbert, Odette Sansom and Jacqueline Nearne. She was commissioned in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry in July 1942. The commandant at Beaulieu wrote that De Baissac was "quite imperturbable and would remain cool and collected in any situation... [s]he was very much ahead of her fellow students."
First mission.
On the night of 24/25 September 1942, de Baissac and Andrée Borrel were the first female SOE agents to be parachuted into France. (Yvonne Rudellat had arrived by boat two months earlier.) On the eve of her departure, she was taken for dinner by Colonel Maurice Buckmaster and seen off from RAF Tempsford in a Whitley bomber. Borrel was the first to drop, with de Baissac following in quick succession, landing in the village of Bois Renard near the town of Mer. They were met by Resistance leader . Borrel departed for Paris to work for the Prosper network of Francis Suttill. De Baissac went to Poitiers.
De Baissac's role was as a courier and liaison officer for her brother Claude's Scientist network in Bordeaux, communicating with the Prosper (or Physician) network in Paris and with the Bricklayer network of fellow Mauritian France Antelme in Tours. Her mission was "to form a new circuit and to provide a centre where agents could go with complete security for material help and information on local details" and to organise the pick-up of arms drops from the UK to assist the French resistance. Her one-woman network was called "Artist." De Baissac used a number of code names (including "Odile", "Irene", "Marguerite" and "Adele"). Her cover story was that she was a poor widow from Paris, Madame Irene Brisse, seeking refuge from the tension of life and avoiding the food shortages of the capital. She moved into an apartment on a busy street near the Gestapo headquarters in Poitiers and often exchanged greetings with the Gestapo chief, Herr Grabowski.
De Baissac preferred the lonely life of working alone in Poitiers, making local contacts and recruiting resisters but avoiding the company of other SOE agents except when she chose to visit them on business in Paris or Bordeaux. She rarely saw her brother and she turned down an offer by SOE to send her a wireless operator, Gilbert Norman.
De Baissac reproduced in Poitiers what Virginia Hall had created in Lyon. During the 11 months she lived in Poitiers, she received and briefed 13 newly arrived SOE agents and organized departures of agents, resistance leaders, and others traveling clandestinely to England. She played the role of an amateur archaeologist which gave her the pretext of bicycling around the country to search for ancient monuments while, in fact, identifying possible parachute drop-zones and landing areas for RAF's 138 and 161 squadrons. She collected air-dropped CLE Canisters containing weapons and supplies and transported them to safe houses. She also built a resistance network of her own, recruiting a number of "helpers" including a teen-age girl who traveled with her as a cover for her activities. To communicate with London, as she had no wireless operator, she had to travel to Paris or Bordeaux where her brother Claude was organising sabotage missions and gathering information on ship and submarine movements. In June 1943, many members of the Prosper network were arrested by the Germans and her Artist network was also penetrated by the Gestapo, thereby increasing her risk of capture. On the night of 16/17 August 1943 Claude and Lise de Baissac and SOE deputy head Nicholas Bodington, were flown back to England by Lysander. Roger Landes, the Scientist network's wireless operator, was furious that de Baissac had taken his sister with him to England, but not his pregnant lover and fellow SOE agent Mary Herbert who remained behind.
De Baissac was then sent to RAF Ringway where she was conducting officer (mentor) to two new agents, Yvonne Baseden and Violette Szabo. During their training, de Baissac broke her leg in a parachute jump.
Second mission.
De Baissac's return to France was delayed until her broken leg healed. Not being able to parachute, she returned to France in a Lysander, landing in a farm field near Villers-les-Ormes on the night of 9/10 April 1944. She went to work as a courier for the Pimiento network, headed by Anthony Brooks, in Toulouse under the new codename "Marguerite". However, de Baissac, ambitious for greater things, was given only trivial tasks. Her aristocratic demeanor was incompatible with the trade unionists and socialists who worked with Pimiento. She said darkly that the network was controlled by "someone in Switzerland", rather than SOE in London. By mutual consent, she left Pimiento to join her brother Claude, who had returned to France in February 1944, and the reborn Scientist network he headed which was now working in southern Normandy and adjacent areas. (Unknown to de Baissac and the French Resistance, Normandy would be the landing site of allied forces in the D-Day invasion of France on 6 June 1944.)
De Baissac was her brother's courier, bicycling or more daily to deliver messages and attempting to restrain the now armed and impatient maquis (resistance fighters) from premature attacks on the Germans and the infrastructure which supported them. The job of Scientist was to reconnoiter possible large open areas where invading airborne troops could land and hold and to receive air-drops of weapons and supplies for the resistance.
De Baissac based herself in the village of Saint-Aubin-du-Désert, about south of where British troops would land near Caen on D-Day. Still masquerading as a poor Paris widow, she rented the second floor of a house, consisting of two rooms with a mattress on the floor that served as a bed. On 5 June 1944 she was in Paris recruiting fighters for the resistance. That evening she heard the BBC broadcast the code phrase meaning that the allied invasion of France was imminent. Immediately she bicycled back to her network, traveling more than in three days, passing through large formations of the German army and sleeping in ditches.
Arriving at her base near Normandy, de Baissac gathered information on German dispositions and passed it to the Allies. According to de Baissac, on one occasion, "the Germans arrived and threw me out of my room. I arrived to take my clothes and found they had opened up the parachute I had made into a sleeping bag and were sitting on it. Fortunately they had no idea what it was." On another occasion she shared a schoolhouse with German army officers, they working in the front door while she worked in a smaller room at the back. De Baissac's lofty aplomb served her well as she resisted successfully several attempts by German soldiers to confiscate her bicycle. On one occasion, de Baissac, accompanying a group of maquis, engaged in a firefight with a German patrol, reporting that they killed several Germans.
The two months after the Normandy invasion were frantic for the Scientist network. At night they gathered canisters full of weapons for the resistance fighters and impeded the arrival of German reinforcements by setting land mines or tyre busters in the roads. During the daytime de Baissac bicycled from place to place with an inexperienced wireless operator, Phyllis Latour, helping her with the communications necessary for arranging weapon drops and providing intelligence to the allied forces, now only a few miles distant.
On 25 July, the American army launched Operation Cobra which forced the German army to retreat rapidly from the Scientist area of operation. On 13 August, the de Baissacs linked up with a lead unit of U.S. soldiers. Dressed in long-unworn British military uniforms, they stood in front of the mayor's office in a provincial town and greeted the arriving American soldiers. A few days later the de Baissacs were flown to England, their mission concluded.
Hunting for Mary Herbert.
In September 1944, the de Baissacs were back in France, now liberated from German occupation, as part of the Judex mission which aimed to locate lost and captured SOE agents and the French people who had worked with them. Claude was the father of a daughter, Claudine, born December 1943 to Mary Herbert, but he and SOE had lost contact with her. The de Baissac's traced Herbert from Bordeaux to Poitiers. They found her and her daughter in a house near Poitiers. The de Baissacs returned to England with them. Claude married Herbert, but it was apparently a marriage only of propriety as the couple did not live together.
Post-war.
After World War II, de Baissac worked for BBC. In 1950, age 45, she married Gustave Villameur, her teenage sweetheart, who had become a successful artist and interior decorator living in Marseille; they had no children. Her husband died in 1978 and afterwards "she lived alone in a magnificent apartment overlooking the old port" of Marseille.
The Guardian obituary described her as a "grande dame of the old school: fiercely independent, courageous, elegant and modest." She died on 29 March 2004, aged 98.
In an interview, de Baissac said that "the loneliness of a secret life" was her strongest emotion and that "cold-blooded efficiency for long weary months" was needed more than heroism. In 2008, her life was recaptured in the highly fictionalised French film "Female Agents" ("Les Femmes de l'ombre").


August Ramsay

August Ramsay (15 March 1859 – 23 July 1943) was a Finnish mathematician, banker and insurance executive.
Ramsay was promoted to doctor of philosophy from Imperial Alexander University in 1882. From 1891 Ramsay served as Finland's first insurance reviewer until 1895, when he became CEO of the Finnish Urban Mortgage Fund. From 1897 to 1899, Ramsay served as a member of the Finance Committee and the State Railways Committee. From May to August 1901, Ramsay was a member of the Senate of Finland. From November 1902, Ramsay served as the first managing director of the Mutual Fire Aid Association of Finnish Industrialists until 1913. From 1916 to 1939, Ramsay was a member of the board of directors of the same company and from 1940 to 1943 the chairman of the company's board of directors.
Ramsay represented his noble family in the Diet of Finland from 1885 to 1906.
Ramsay served as Minister of Finance for 121 days Kaarlo Castrén's Minority Government in 1919, representing the Swedish People's Party. From 1923 to 1924, Ramsay served as the governor of the Bank of Finland and as the chairman of the executive board. Ramsay served as Member of Parliament for the Uusimaa constituency from 1 April 1919 to 4 September 1922.
He was married to the historian Jully Ramsay. Their son was Henrik Ramsay. August's brothers were Wilhelm Ramsay ja Wolter Ramsay.


Tessy Thomas

Tessy Thomas (born April 1963) is an Indian scientist and Director General of Aeronautical Systems and the former Project Director for Agni-IV missile in Defence Research and Development Organisation. She is the first ever woman scientist to head a missile project in India.
Early life.
Tessy Thomas was born in April 1963 in Alappuzha, Kerala, to a Syrian Christian family. She was named after Mother Teresa (Tessy being a derivative of Teresa or Tressia). There is conflicting information on whether her father was an IFS officer or a small-time businessman or an accountant. When Thomas was 13 her father suffered from a stroke which left his right side paralyzed. Her mother who was a teacher remained a home maker to look after the family in such dire condition.
She grew up near Thumba Rocket Launching Station and says her fascination with rockets and missiles began then. She was stimulated even by the wonderment of aircraft flying.
Thomas has four other sisters and one brother. She has mentioned in interviews about her parents ensuring their children received proper education and encouraging the six siblings to pursue careers of their own interest so that they can excel. Two of her siblings are engineers while another pursued a MBA.
Thomas credited her home town and mother for her personal development. “I grew up with the pretty backwaters of Kerala as my backyard. I guess nature gives you strength and good thoughts. The power of nature cannot be undermined in one’s development.” Of her mother she has said, “It must have been tough for my mother — who was not allowed to work — to look after us on her own. Yet she made sure each of her five daughters and one son had a good education... I’ve inherited her strong will for sure. I am equally persevering and determined like my mother.”
Education.
Tessy Thomas studied in St. Michael's Higher Secondary School and St. Joseph's Girl's Higher Secondary School in Alleppey (Alappzuha). She had a natural flair for mathematics and physics. She scored one hundred percent in mathematics during her 11th and 12th years in school. In the same years she had also scored more than ninety five percent in science.
She took an education loan of Rs. 100 per month from State Bank of India to study engineering from Government Engineering College, Thrissur. She also received a scholarship that covered her tuition fees having been entered into the first ten students of the merit list during her admissions. The loan gave her the courage to live in a hostel while pursuing her B. Tech.
In both school and college Thomas was involved in extracurricular activities including political issues. She excelled in sports especially badminton bringing much recognition to her alma maters.
She also has an M.Tech in Guided Missile from the Institute of Armament Technology, Pune (now known as the Defence Institute of Advanced Technology). She also pursued MBA in Operations Management and Ph.D. in guidance missile under DRDO.
Career.
Tessy Thomas joined DRDO in 1988, where she worked on the design and development of the new generation ballistic missile, Agni. She was appointed by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam for the Agni Project.
In addition, Tessy was the associate project director of the 3,000 km range Agni-III missile project. She was the project director for mission Agni IV which was successfully tested in 2011. Later, Tessy was appointed as the project director of the 5,000 km range Agni-V in 2009, which was successfully tested on 19 April 2012. In 2018, she became the Director-General, Aeronautical Systems of DRDO.
She is a fellow in various universities such as the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), Institution of Engineers-India (IEI) and Tata Administrative Service (TAS).
Personal life.
She is married to Saroj Kumar, a commander in the Indian Navy and they have a son, Tejas.
Awards.
Thomas received the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for her contribution for making India self-reliant in the field of missile technology.
She was also the recipient of the Dr Thomas Cangan Leadership Award at the Faculty of Management Studies – Institute of Rural Management, Jaipur (FMS-IRM) in 2018.


Pruchnik

Pruchnik () is a rural town in Jarosław County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in south-eastern Poland. It is the seat of the administrative district called Gmina Pruchnik. It lies approximately south-west of Jarosław and east of the regional capital Rzeszów.
The town has a population of 3,519. Pruchnik gained town rights in around 1370; the status of a town was lost in 1935, and restored on 1 January 2011.
History.
The history of Pruchnik dates back to the 14th century, when the region of Red Ruthenia was annexed into the Kingdom of Poland (1340). The village, together with a nearby castle, belonged to the noble Pruchnicki family, after which the town is named. Due to its location, away from main roads and railway lines, Pruchnik is regarded as one of the most picturesque towns of former Galicia, with a number of unique wooden houses, most of which built in the second half of the 19th century. The town also has a medieval St. Nicolas church, which was remodelled in the late 17th century, and ruins of the castle, located some 4 kilometers away, along the road to Jarosław.
Pruchnik was first mentioned in documents from 1397. History of the town is tied with the Pruchnicki family (Korczak coat of arms), which founded a local Roman Catholic parish some time in the second half of the 14th century. At that time, the village was part of Poland's Ruthenian Voivodeship. In 1498, Pruchnik was burned in a Vallachian raid, and in 1524, a Crimean Tatar unit tried to capture the town, but was defeated in a skirmish. Pruchnik remained a small town, destroyed by fires (1635, 1720). Complete destruction took place in 1657, when Pruchnik was burned to the ground by Transylvanian army of George II Rakoczi (see Swedish invasion of Poland).
In 1772 (see Partitions of Poland), Pruchnik was annexed by the Habsburg Empire, and remained in Austrian Galicia until 1918. In 1888, its population consisted of 740 Roman Catholics, 188 Greek-Catholics, and 188 Jews. The town remained a private property until 1929, when its last owner, Countess Klementyna Szembekowa died. In 1935, it lost its town charter, remaining a village until 2011.
References.
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Senior Managers Regime

The Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SM&CR) apply to the United Kingdom banking sector since March 2016 and dual-regulated insurers since December 2018. SM&CR has been put in place to reduce financial service consumer harm and strengthen market integrity by making individuals accountable for their conduct and competence. The FCA describes SM&CR as an opportunity for financial institutes to establish healthy cultures and effective governance by encouraging individual accountability and setting standards for personal conduct.
Background.
The SM&CR legislation was formed in response to the 2008 banking crisis and significant conduct failings such as the manipulation of LIBOR. UK Parliament passed the proposed legislation in December 2013, leading to the FCA and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) applying the legislation to the banking sector from March 2016. Parliament made further legislative changes in May 2016, extending the regime to all FSMA authorised firms. SM&CR replaced the preceding Approved Persons Regime.
Applicability.
The legislation applies to all FCA/PRA regulated banking sector institutes. This includes: banks, building societies, credit unions, UK branches of foreign banks and the largest UK investment institutes. It also applies to all FCA/PRA regulated insurance and reinsurance institutes. This includes: insurers and reinsurers, ISPVs, the Society of Lloyd's, managing agents and UK branches of foreign insurers.
SM&CR's three key components.
Senior Managers Regime.
The most senior staff at institutes where SM&CR apply, who perform key roles, are designated as 'Senior Managers'. Senior Managers must be approved by FCA or PRA before commencing their roles. Senior Managers must also have a 'statement of responsibilities' where their responsibilities and accountability is documented. This statement must be part of the institute's overarching 'responsibilities map' and shall cover 'prescribed responsibilities' and 'overall responsibilities' (legislative texts). Institutes must also annually re-certify all Senior Managers as suitable to perform their roles.
Certification Regime.
Staff at SM&CR institutes holding roles that can cause significant harm to the institute (or customers) are designated as 'Certification Functions'. Certification Function role holders do not require FCA/PRA approval, but the institute must annually re-certify that they are suitable ('fit and proper') to perform their role.
Conduct Rules.
Most staff engaged in financial services activities at SM&CR institutes are affected by the so called conduct rules. These are minimum standards for individual behaviour with the aim to improve accountability and awareness of conduct issues across the institute.


Lincoln Secondary

The Lincoln Secondary is a railroad line owned and operated by Conrail in the U.S. state of Michigan as part of its Conrail Shared Assets Operations.
The line runs from Carleton northeast to Detroit along a former Pennsylvania Railroad line. Its south end is at the CSX Transportation Saginaw Subdivision, and it mainly serves CSX trains from the south (via Toledo, Ohio) to Detroit. Its north end is at the Ecorse Junction/River Rouge area, where it meets the Conrail Junction Yard Secondary and Norfolk Southern Railway Detroit District.
History.
The Pennsylvania Railroad did not have access to Detroit until 1901, when it acquired trackage rights from Toledo over the Michigan Central Railroad and New York Central and Hudson River Railroad (now the Norfolk Southern Detroit Line). However, these rights were cancelled in 1904. The Pennsylvania–Detroit Railroad was incorporated in 1917 to build a line to Detroit. The PRR began building the line, but construction stopped in 1918 because of World War I and the takeover of the national rail system by the United States Railroad Administration.
On May 23, 1920, the PRR began operating passenger trains between Toledo and Detroit, using trackage rights over the Ann Arbor Railroad from the end of PRR trackage near Galena Street in Toledo to Alexis, the Pere Marquette Railway (now CSX Toledo Terminal Subdivision and Saginaw Subdivision) from Alexis past Carleton to Romulus, the Wabash Railway (now NS Detroit District) from Romulus via Ecorse to Delray, and the Detroit Union Railroad Depot and Station Company (now CSX Detroit Subdivision) to the Fort Street Union Depot.
Work on the Pennsylvania–Detroit Railroad, between Carleton and Ecorse, resumed and was completed in 1922; the PRR leased it on January 1, 1923. The P-D merged into the Pennsylvania, Ohio and Detroit Railroad, a PRR subsidiary, on January 1, 1926. The PO&D merged into the Connecting Railway in 1956, and was taken over directly by Conrail in 1976. In the 1999 breakup, it remained part of Conrail's Detroit Shared Assets Area.