New Delhi (PTI): Renowned physicist and Director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) Ajit Kumar Mohanty has been appointed as the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission and the secretary of the Department of Atomic Energy.

Mohanty succeeds K N Vyas to the posts that oversee India's nuclear programme and forays into harnessing atomic power for civilian needs.

"The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Dr Ajit Kumar Mohanty, Director, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, as Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy and Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission tor a tenure up to the age of 66 years i.e. till 10.10.2025 or until further orders, whichever is earlier," said a government order issued late on Saturday.

Mohanty was appointed as the BARC director in March 2019.

Born in Odisha in 1959, Mohanty completed his graduation in 1979 with Honours in Physics from the MPC College in Baripada and post-graduation from Cuttack's Ravenshaw College.

In 1983, he joined the Nuclear Physics Division of the BARC after graduating from the 26th batch of the BARC Training School. He obtained his doctorate from the Mumbai University.

Mohanty worked in several areas of nuclear physics, covering collision energy from the sub-Coulomb barrier to the relativistic regime using the Pelletron accelerator at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), PHENIX and CMS experiments at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in the United States and CERN, Geneva.

Mohanty held several honorary positions in various organisations. He served the Indian Physics Association (IPA) as its general secretary and later, as its president. He was the spokesperson fort the India-CMS collaboration, director, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, and director, Physics Group, BARC. He has twice been the CERN Scientific Associate, first during 2002-2004 and again during 2010-2011.

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Agra, Dec 23: A truck driver dragged two people for about 300 metres in Agra under his vehicle, police on Monday said.

Some locals forced the driver to stop the truck and extricated the men from under the vehicle.

Police arrested the driver and seized the truck.

The two men, both residents of Nunhai in Agra, were going towards Rambagh from Waterworks when they met with an accident around 11 pm Sunday.

The driver, instead of stopping the truck sped up, trapping both of them underneath, police said.

"In the accident, two youths were dragged by a canter driver for about 300 metres. Later, some residents saved the youths by stopping the driver using force," Chhatta Police Station Inspector Pramod Kumar told PTI.

"The youths were sent for treatment at a nearby hospital and are still being treated, but are in stable condition. The youths were from Agra. The canter driver was arrested and the canter seized after the incident," he said.

A video of the incident that surfaced on social media showed the men shouting for help.

The video was purported to have been shot by a person passing by on a two-wheeler.