Master of Malayalam cinema melodies, MK Arjunan passes away at 84
Thiruvananthapuram: Veteran music composer M K Arjunan, known for his mellifluous melodies in Malayalam cinema, died in the wee hours of Monday at his house in Kochi, family sources said.
He was 84 and was suffering from age related ailments, they said.
In a career spanning over five decades, Arjunan, popularly known as Arjunan master in the industry, set scores for over 200 songs in nearly 600 movies. Most of his songs were all-time super hits.
His evergreen melodies have placed master Arjunan among the legendary composers of Malayalam cinema like G Devarajan, V Dakshinamoorthy and M S Baburaj.
Arjunan was also known for recording the first song of legendary Carnatic vocalist and playback singer K J Yesudas when the latter was just 16 years old and gave the chance to Oscar winning musician A R Rahman to play the keyboard in a film.
Born in a family in Fort Kochi on March 1, 1936, Arjunan master entered into the world of composing by giving tunes for theatre songs. His first break in cinema came with 1968 movie "Karutha Paurnami" and there was no looking back after that.
"Kasthoori manakkunnallo kaattee", "thanka bhasma kuriyiyta", "yadukula rarhi devanevide", " chettikulangara bharani naalil" are among his evergreen hits.
Arjunan master worked with the doyens of Malayalam movie lyrics like Vayalar and P Bhaskaan but his collaboration with lyricist Sreekumaran Thampi is rated as of the most popular composer-lyricist pair in the industry.
Though he got awards and accolades for theatre songs many times, the composer had to wait till 2017 to receive the best music composer title in a film.
He received the state award for the song in Jayaraj directed movie "Bhayanakam" in 2017. Kerala Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, was among those who condoled his passing away.
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Ex-bureaucrat Raj Kumar Goyal sworn in as CIC; eight new information commissioners take oath
New Delhi (PTI): After a gap of nine years, transparency watchdog Central Information Commission attained its full strength with the appointment of former IAS officer Raj Kumar Goyal and eight other information commissioners, who took the oath of office on Monday.
A three-member panel headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week recommended their names for the appointment.
President Droupadi Murmu administered the oath of office to Goyal as the chief information commissioner (CIC) at a ceremony held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, her office said in a communique.
The event was attended by Vice President C P Radhakrishnan and Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh, among others.
Goyal is a 1990-batch (retired) IAS officer of the Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram-Union Territories (AGMUT) cadre. He superannuated as secretary, Department of Justice under the Ministry of Law and Justice, on August 31.
He has also served as secretary (border management) in the Home Ministry and held key posts both at the Centre and in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
The post of CIC fell vacant after Heeralal Samariya completed his term on September 13.
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The Commission is headed by a CIC and can have a maximum of 10 information commissioners. With the new appointments, the Commission attained its full strength after a gap of over nine years, according to transparency activists.
In the presence of two incumbent Information Commissioners, Anandi Ramalingam and Vinod Kumar Tiwari, Goyal administered the oath of office to eight new appointees at the swearing-in ceremony.
They included former Railway Board chief Jaya Verma Sinha, former IPS officer Swagat Das -- who held key posts in the Intelligence Bureau, Home Ministry and Cabinet Secretariat, among others -- Central Secretariat Service (CSS) officer Sanjeev Kumar Jindal, former IAS officer Surendra Singh Meena and ex-Indian Forest Service officer Khushwant Singh Sethi.
Senior journalists P R Ramesh and Ashutosh Chaturvedi, and former Indian Legal Service officer Sudha Rani Relangi, have also been sworn in as information commissioners.
Relangi has also worked as the director of prosecution, Central Bureau of Investigation and joint secretary and legislative counsel in the Ministry of Law and Justice.
The names of the CIC and eight information commissioners were cleared during the meeting of the Modi-led committee comprising Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi.
