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Indigenous no-state people

Satya Tripathi is New UN Asst. Secretary General

A development economist and lawyer with over 35 years of experience, Satya Tripathi has worked for the United Nations since 1998 in Europe, Asia and Africa on strategic assignments in sustainable development, human rights, democratic governance and legal affairs.

United Nations: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has appointed veteran Indian development economist and UN official Satya S Tripathi as Assistant Secretary-General and Head of the New York Office of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Tripathi, who will succeed Elliott Harris of Trinidad and Tobago, has since 2017 served as Senior Adviser on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at UNEP.

A development economist and lawyer with over 35 years of experience, Tripathi has worked for the United Nations since 1998 in Europe, Asia and Africa on strategic assignments in sustainable development, human rights, democratic governance and legal affairs, spokesman for the Secretary-General Stphane Dujarric told reporters here on Monday.

Tripathi was previously the Director and Executive Head of the United Nations Office for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries Coordination in Indonesia, as well as for the United Nations Recovery Coordinator for the USD 7 billion post-tsunami and post-conflict recovery efforts in Aceh and Nias.

He participated as Chair of the Committees on Laws and Treaties for the United Nations-mediated Cyprus unification talks in 2004.

Earlier in his career he acted as a Senior Distinguished Fellow on Natural Resources Governance with the World Agroforestry Centre and on the World Economic Forum’s Global Advisory Council on Forests. Tripathi holds honours, bachelor’s and master’s degrees in commerce; and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in law from Berhampur University, India.

UN Environment is the leading agency at the world body focussed on environment. It works with governments, the private sector, the civil society and with other UN entities and international organisations across the world.

Society

Veteran Journalist Kuldip Nayar Passes away

Eminent writer and journalist Kuldip Nayar passed away in New Delhi on Thursday following a brief illness. He was 95.

Mr. Nayar, a Punjabi, was born in Sialkot in 1923.

When Emergency was declared, he was one of the first journalists to be put in jail.

A journalist, author, columnist, human rights activist, diplomat, peacenik and a doughty fighter against the EmergencyKuldip Nayar saw Indias modern history being made and wrote about it with depth and passion.

Though he wore many hats in his long career, he remained a quintessential journalist till his last breath and did not shy away from speaking his mind, including on communal upsurge.

Nayar (95) was jailed during the Emergency (1975-1977) by the Indira Gandhi government and he fiercely fought for press freedom.

He covered a host of events in his journalistic career spanning over six decades and wrote about major figures in India and the neighbourhood involving the eras of Lal Bahadur Shastri, Jai Prakash Narayan, Indira Gandhi, Zia-ul Haq and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

Nayar, who was a media advisor to late Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, was a witness to the Tashkent Accord signed between India and Pakistan. Shastri had died the same night following a heart attack. He knew former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi so well that he was almost on first name basis with her.

Nayar’s ideas were shaped by partition which changed many lives, including his own. The trauma of partition strengthened his belief in pluralism and in the idea of judging a person by his commitments not his religion.
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Kuldip Nayar was a veteran Indian journalist, syndicated columnist, human right activist, author and ex-High commissioner of India to United kingdom noted for his long career as a left-wing political commentator.WikipediaBorn: 14 August 1923, Sialkot, PakistanDied: 23 August 2018, New DelhiEducation: Medill ChicagoBooks: Beyond the Lines: An Autobiography, India after Nehru, MOREMovies: InqilabNationality: Indian, British Raj