Current affairs - November 14 2013

Current Affairs

November 14, 2013

1) Nation remembered Jawaharlal Nehru on his 124th birth anniversary:  Country fondly remembered its first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on his 124th birth anniversary with President Pranab Mukherjee and Vice President Hamid Ansari leading the country in paying homage to him. Nehru was born to Motilal Nehru and Swaroop Rani on November 14, 1889, in Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh and his birthday is celebrated as Children's Day in India as he was fond of children.

2) World Diabetes Day observed: World Diabetes Day was observed on 14 November 2013 across the world to raise awareness of diabetes. The theme for period 2009-13 is Education and Prevention. World Diabetes Day is an annual campaign, led by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and its member associations. The date was chosen because it marks the birthday of Frederick Banting, who, along with Charles Best, is credited with the discovery of insulin in 1921.

3) Government released postage stamps on Sachin Tendulkar: Union Law Minister Kapil Sibal released commemorative postage stamps to pay tribute to Sachin Tendulkar on 14 November 2013 (Thursday) at Wankhade Stadium, Mumbai before the start of 2nd Cricket Test match between India and West Indies. The 40-year old batting great is only the second person after Mother Teresa to have a stamp released after him, when he is alive.

4) British Prime Minister David Cameron is on official visit to India: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and British Prime Minister expressed satisfaction that despite the continuing global economic slowdown and the Eurozone difficulties, India-UK trade ties have been resilient. Prime Minister Cameroon arrived in the national capital late Wednesday night and is scheduled to depart from Kolkata late on Thursday night for Colombo to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Governments meet.

5) Prince Charles celebrated 65th birthday in Kerala lake resort: Prince Charles today celebrated his 65th birth day at the famed backwaters resort Kumarakom in the south Indian state Kerala. For Charles, on a visit to India with wife Camilla, the celebrations were on a modest scale at the sylvan settings of the Lake Resort.

6) Chennai lighthouse reopened to public after 22 years: It was a perfect gift for children on Children’s day. The lighthouse on the Marina beach in Chennai was thrown open to public after a gap of 22 years. It was closed following the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. The 45.72 m tall Madras lighthouse was inaugurated in 1977 by the then Union Shipping Minister G.S. Dhillon.

7) Sri Lankan President satisfied over Khurshid’s presence at CHOGM: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has expressed satisfaction over External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid attending the CHOGM summit.

8) Volkswagen recalls 2.6 million cars worldwide: Volkswagen on Thursday announced one of the largest recalls in its history, calling 2.6 million cars into its workshops because of problems with lights, transmissions and leaks in their fuel lines.

9) 7 killed, 40 hurt in Volvo bus fire: Even as Volvo Buses continues with its probe into the fire that gutted one of its buses killing 45 people near Mehaboobnagar on October 30, an eerily similar accident near Haveri, Karnataka has killed seven persons and injured 40 early Friday morning.

10) International children’s film festival under way: eighteenth edition of Golden Elephant, the international children’s film festival of India, began in Hyderabad on Thursday, with Bollywood hero Ranbir Kapoor and Tare Zameen Par fame Darsheel Safary participating in a glittering inaugural function at the Telugu Lalitha Kala Thoranam.

11) Sachin's 200th Test: Tendulkar shines in farewell Test, India in driver’s seat- Iconic batsman Sachin Tendulkar kept his emotions in check and showed his genius for one last time in front of adoring fans with an unbeaten 38 as India seized early control of his 200th and final cricket Test against the West Indies after a disciplined bowling display.

12) Pune girl wins ‘Doodle 4 Google India’ contest: Search giant Google has featured the doodle painted by a class 10 student from Pune, Gayatri Ketharaman, in its home page as a tribute on Children's Day that seeks to represent women's empowerment. The painting, titled 'Sky's The Limit For Indian Women', is the winner of Google's "Doodle 4 Google India 2013 – Celebrating Indian Women" contest.

13) Aviva India unveils pension plan `Aviva Next Innings’: Private life insurerAviva India has launched a pension plan Aviva Next Innings. In addition to the life cover, the plan offers a guaranteed corpus of 210 per cent of the total premiums paid, upon retirement.

14) PM to inaugurate Mahila Bank on Indira Gandhi’s birthday: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi will inaugurate country’s first all-women Bharatiya Mahila Bank in Mumbai on November 19, the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Headquartered in Delhi, the bank proposes to have 25 branches by March 31, 2014.

15) INS Vikramaditya set to join Indian Navy on Nov 16: Defence Minister, A.K. Antony, will induct the long-delayed aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya, designed to boost India’s maritime capabilities, at a shipyard in Russia on Saturday.

16) Malayalam film actor-producer Augustine died in Kozhikode at 56: Malayalam film actor- producer Augustine died at a private hospital in Kozhikode this morning.  He was 56. Augustine, who acted in over 100 films, portrayed several characters that remain etched in the memory of film buffs. His major films include Devasuram, Sadayam, Aaram Thampuran, Nandanam, Indian Rupee, Shutter among others.

17) Usha Ananthasubramanian appointed as CMD of Bharatiya Mahila Bank on 12 November 2013. Before joining BMB, she was an GKExecutive Director with Punjab National Bank (PNB).

18) Retired bureaucrat Krishna Mohan Sahni was appointed Chairman of the National Multi-Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (NMCE) on 12 November 2013. His appointment was approved by the Forward Markets Commission, the commission which is responsible for regulating the commodities markets in India.

19) Justice R. Banumathi, Judge of the Madras High Court was on 12 November 2013 appointed as the Chief Justice of the Jharkhand High Court. She was appointed by the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee.

20) Seeking to calm currency markets, the Reserve Bank has said the current account deficit in 2013-14 will be USD 56 billion– much lower than the quantum projected earlier– and there is no fundamental reason for rupee depreciation. The current account deficit (CAD), which is the difference between outflow and inflow of foreign exchange, touched an all-time high of USD 88.2 billion or 4.8 percent of the GDP in 2012-13.

21) India’s public broadcaster Prasar Bharati and Radio-Television of Slovenia (RTV-SLO) on 13 November 2013 signed an MoU to develop and strengthen mutual friendly relations through an increased cooperation in the field of broadcasting. The agreement was signed by head of international department of RTV SLO, Suzana Vidas Karoli and Member Personnel of Prasar Bharati, VAM Hussain. The MoU allows to explore further opportunities in potential projects of production of programmes.

22) Elaborate arrangements have been made for the 18th International Children’s Film Festival of India (ICFFI) to be held in Hyderabad from tomorrow. Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tiwari will be formally opening the week-long children’s festival at a colorful event tomorrow evening. Bollywood Actor Ranbir Kapoor, legendary film personality Gulzar and Tare Zameen Par fame Darseel will be among a host of celebrities to take part in the opening ceremony.

23) Russia on 12 November 2013 successfully launched the Proton-M rocket carrying a defense satellite, Raduga-1M from its Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It is important to note that Russia restarted the launch of Proton rockets in September 2013 after a small gap in order to check why a Proton rocket launched on 2 July 2013 exploded while taking off. The Proton-M rocket is the most popular rocket of Russia for the commercial satellite launches.

24) MTNL (Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited) signed a MoU with Los Alamos Technical Associates, Inc. (LATA) of USA on 12 November 2013. The MoU has been signed to launch the state of the of the art training programs on Cyber Security, Risk and Crisis Management, Public Safety and Disaster Management, Homeland Security/ Critical Infrastructure Protection, Security Operations Management, Industrial Security, Fire & Safety Management etc.

25) India with 20 gold 20 silver and 12 bronze medals has topped the medals tally position in the 2nd Junior SAF Games that concluded today in Ranchi. Sri Lanka with 10 gold, 10 silver and 14 bronze medals have secured 2nd position while Bangladesh with 3 bronze has come at the third position. Pakistan with one bronze is at the fourth position.

26) EC notice to Modi over ‘khooni panja’ remark. The Election Commission Wednesday issued notice to BJP prime minister candidate Narendra Modi over remarks he made at a rally in Chhattisgarh, terming the Congress election symbol, the hand, the “khooni panja” (bloodied paw). The remark was made Thursday last during an election rally at Dongargarh in Chhattisgarh.

Simple Quiz:

1) India’s first private Metro to roll out in which city form today?

[A] Noida

[B] Chennai

[C] Gurgaon

[D] Bangalore

2) Which Indian state government employees recently go on strike?

[A] Delhi

[B] Andhra Pradesh

[C] Tamil Nadu

[D] Haryana

3) Who among the following bank quarter 2 profit slides 35% in worst quarterly fall in 2 years?

[A] Punjab National Bank

[B] State Bank of India

[C] Bank of Baroda

[D] Axis Bank

4) In which Indian state at least 7 killed, 40 injured in bus fire?

[A] Karnataka

[B] Mizoram

[C] Himachal Pradesh

[D] Nagaland

5) Which countries people might outnumber American internet users to become the world’s second-largest online community after China?

[A] Japan

[B] London

[C] India

[D] Australia

6) Who recently issues notice to Narendra Modi for ‘khooni panja’ remarks?

[A] Election Commission

[B] Supreme Court

[C] Delhi High Court

[D] Delhi Police

7) Who appointed as secretary-archives and director general-archives during the election duty of Ashok Khemka?

[A] Bijay Kumar Patnaik

[B] Vibha Puri Das

[C] Sheela Balakrishnan

[D] Pradeep Kasni

8) Who among the following nation Opium Production hits record high?

[A] India

[B] Afghanistan

[C] China

[D] New Zealand

9) Who was poised to become the 15th U.S. state to extend marriage rights to gay and lesbian couples on Wednesday?

[A] Missouri

[B] Virginia

[C] Illinois

[D] Hawaii

10) Name the painting who has been recently sells for record $142.4 million in New York?

[A] The Scream

[B] The Card Players

[C] Three Studies of Lucian Freud

[D] Eight Elvises

11. Headline inflation at a high percent and rising food prices are definitely not a good sign for the economy. October WPI inflation figure realeased on 14th November 2013 stands at 8-month high. What is WPI (Wholesale Price Index) for October 2013?

[A] 6.2 %

[B] 6.6 %

[C] 6.9 %

[D] 7 %

12. Defence Minister AK Antony will induct which long-delayed aircraft carrier designed to boost India's maritime capabilities, at a shipyard in Russia on Saturday, 16 November 2013?

[A] INS Vikramaditya

[B] INS Prahari

[C] INS Raksha

[D] INS Samudragupt

13. The week long 18th International Children's Film Festival of India (ICFFI) opens up in which city tomorrow, 15th Nov 2013?

[A] Bangalore

[B] New Delhi

[C] Hyderabad

[D] Mumbai

14. According to the study, whose result was released on 14 Nov 2013, the net bad assets of the 40 listed banks have jumped ________ per cent to Rs 1,28,533 crore during the first half of this financial year, from Rs 93,109 crore at the end of the last financial year.

[A] 34

[B] 35

[C] 36

[D] 38

15. India's Law Minister Kapil Sibal on Thursday, 14th Nov 2013, unveiled special edition postage stamps on which personality?

[A] Sachin Tendulkar

[B] Major Dhyanchand

[C] Lata Mangeshkar

[D] Sardar Patel

Answers:

1. Gurgaon: India’s first private Metro to roll out in Gurgaon form today
2. Haryana: Haryana government employees go on strike
3. State Bank of India: State Bank of India quarter 2 profit slides 35% in worst quarterly fall in 2 years
4. Karnataka: 7 killed, 40 injured in Karnataka bus fire
5. India: India’s netizens set to be world’s second-biggest internet user base
6. Election Commission: Election Commission issues notice to Narendra Modi for ‘khooni panja’ remarks
7. Pradeep Kasni: Ashok Khemka’s post given to another IAS officer
8. Afghanistan: Opium Production in Afghanistan hits record high
9. Hawaii: Hawaii governor set to sign gay marriage bill into law
10. Three Studies of Lucian Freud: Francis Bacon painting sells for record $142.4 million in New York

11. [D] 7 %

12. [A] INS Vikramaditya

13. [C] Hyderabad

14. [D] 38

15. [A] Sachin Tendulkar

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