Persons in news
Persons in news — appointments, obituaries
12 min read · Updated 2026-08-03
What are Persons in news?
Persons in news are the office-holders and the recently deceased luminaries that UPSC current affairs tracks, in four buckets: constitutional and statutory heads, the union cabinet, international office-bearers, and obituaries of the past 18 to 24 months. The area recurs in Prelims most years, so revise each name as one card: office, since when, and signature contribution.
The story
6 December 2024, 6 PM, BSE closing bell. Sanjay Malhotra takes oath as the 26th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, succeeding Shaktikanta Das whose six-year term ended at midnight. Malhotra — a 1990-batch IAS officer from Rajasthan cadre, an electrical engineer from IIT Kanpur, and outgoing Revenue Secretary — becomes the third bureaucrat in a row to helm Mint Street. The rupee twitches; bond yields tick up; the financial press fills with continuity-vs-change stories.
The same week, on 9 December 2024, Jaishankar continues as External Affairs Minister in Modi 3.0 (June 2024 swearing-in), Nirmala Sitharaman as Finance Minister (only the second woman after Indira Gandhi to hold the portfolio), and Amit Shah as Home Minister + Cooperation. Three months earlier, on 13 March 2024, Justice Sanjiv Khanna became CJI #51, succeeding D.Y. Chandrachud. Khanna will serve just six months before Justice B.R. Gavai takes over 14 May 2025, becoming the second Dalit CJI after Justice K.G. Balakrishnan.
People matter in current affairs because UPSC wants the who — who heads which institution, who succeeded whom, who passed away and what they pioneered.
Why this matters for UPSC
Persons-in-news directly produces Prelims questions almost every year (heads of institutions, sportspersons, recently deceased luminaries). Interview boards almost certainly ask one "What do you think of X's tenure" probe. The trick is tracking continuity — who left, who took over, what was the signature of the outgoing person, and what the incoming person brings.