current affairs - December 1 and 2

Current Affairs

December 1 & 2 2013

1. M. V. Tanksale is IBA’s new chief executive

            i. M.V. Tanksale, former Chairman and Managing Director of Central Bank of India, has taken over as Chief Executive of the Indian Banks’ Association.
            ii. Tanksale succeeds K. Ramakrishnan, who was at the helm of the Association for five years up to November 30, 2013.

            iii. IBA, which has 176 members comprising public sector banks, private sector banks, foreign banks and urban co-operative banks, was established in 1946 to promote sound and progressive banking principles, practices and conventions in the country.

            iv. The Association renders assistance and provides various common services to member-banks and to the banking industry.

2. US Actor Paul Walker Died in Car Accident

            i. US actor Paul Walker died in a car accident in Southern California on 30 November 2013. He was 40. The incident occurred while he was coming back from his organization’s charity event.

            ii. Paul Walker was working on the latest “Fast & Furious” movie at the time of his death. He also starred in the suspense drama, “Hours”, a movie that is set for release in December 2013.

            iii. The actor, who is best known for playing Brian O’Conner in the ‘Fast & Furious’ film series, has also done films like ‘Into the Blue’, ‘She’s All That’ ‘Eight Below’ and ‘Takers’ among others. 

            iv. Paul William Walker IV was born on 12 September 1973. He became famous in 1999 after his role in the hit film Varsity Blues.

3. Facebook in talks for its first acquisition in India

            i. Social networking giant Facebook is in talks to acquire Bangalore-based product start-up Little Eye Labs. Sources close to the development said the deal was expected to be announced in the next few weeks.

            ii. It will be Facebook’s first acquisition of a product firm in India. It will also be a first for software product think-tank Indian Software Products Industry Roundtable (iSpirt), which has facilitated the deal through its M&A Connect programme, which helps Indian product companies find global buyers.

            iii. Little Eye Labs builds performance analysis and monitoring tools that identify and fix performance problems for Android app developers.

            iv. Little Eye Labs is a start-up founded in May 2012 by four Bangalore-based programme analysis geeks – Giridhar Murthy, who has worked at Apple Inc earlier; Kumar Rangarajan, who has worked at IBM and HP; Satyam Kandula, an IIT Kharagpur alumnus; and Lakshman Kakkirala, who has also worked at IBM, besides Yahoo!. Rangarajan is currently the CEO of Little Eye.
            v. According to CrunchBase, a database of technology companies, Little Eye Labs has around seven employees, including Gaurav Lochan, who has earlier worked with Flipkart.

4. French Ambassador begins 3-day visit to Bihar

            i. The French Ambassador to India, Francois Richier, has embarked on a three-day visit to Bihar starting today, the Embassy has said in a press statement.

            ii. This trip is part of a series of travels throughout India to expand the scope of Indo-French cooperation and develop joint, forward-looking projects in various fields, notably economic exchanges, education, science and culture.

            iii. On December 3, Ambassador Richier will meet with the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to discuss potential areas of cooperation while the following day the Envoy will have a meeting with various members of the Bihar business community in Patna. Until now, only a few French companies have started to engage with Bihar.

5. Dept. of Post launches Express & Business Parcel service

            i. The Department of Posts has launched Express Parcel and Business Parcel Service in 20 cities at a function in New Delhi on Monday.

            ii. Launching the service, Secretary, Department of Posts, P. Gopinath said, the Express Parcel Service is a premium service available for retail as well as bulk customers.

            iii. This service is aimed at promoting e-Commerce market in the country by offering reliable and cost efficient service solutions.

6. India retain top-spot in ICC ODI ranking

            i. India has retained its top position in the latest ICC ODI rankings and second position in the Test cricket rankings. Virat Kohli is the top batsman in ODI list while R. Ashwin is the top All rounder in the Test rankings.

            ii. Both the lists were released by the International Cricket Council in Dubai today.

7. India 2nd in ICC Test rankings

            i. The Indian cricket team continued to be second in the ICC Test rankings with R Ashwin topping the all-rounders’ chart in the latest list issued on Sunday.

            ii. India placed behind South Africa with 119 points, which is just 12 less than the Proteas’ tally.

            iii. The teams are set to clash in a two-Test and thee ODI series starting 5th December in South Africa.

            iv. Cheteshwar Pujara is the best-placed Indian batsman at sixth with Virat Kohli following him at a distant 20th spot.

8. J.S. Saharia takes charge as new Chief Secretary of Maharashtra

            i. J S Saharia, a 1978 batch IAS officer, took over as the new Chief Secretary of Maharashtra on Saturday.

            ii. He succeeds Jayant Kumar Banthia, a 1977 batch IAS officer, who was the Chief Secretary since June 2012 and retired on Saturday.

            iii. Banthia had earlier got an extension. Saharia was additional chief secretary (education) before this.

            iv. Additional chief secretary (home) Amitabh Rajan (1979 batch) was also in the reckoning for the coveted office, sources said.

9. Bhullar bags fifth Asian Tour title with win in Indonesia

            i. India’s Gaganjeet Bhullar carded 16-under-268 for the week to lift his fifth Asian Tour title with victory at the Indonesia Open, here today.

            ii. Bhullar, who had a forgettable outing at the World Cup of Golf last week, fired a bogey-free 68 in the final round to come home the winner.

            iii. Bhullar sank all his three birdies today on the back-nine — 11th, 13th and 14th. He was solid through the week having conceded only three bogeys and a double-bogey over the last four days.

10. Ethiopian runners dominate 28th Pune International Marathon

            i. Runners from Ethiopia regained their supremacy by outwitting their arch rivals Kenya as they captured top honours in both the men’s and women’s events in the 28th edition of the Pune International Marathon today.

            ii. Belachew Endale Abayneh won the men’s 42.195 km race in 2 hours, 17 minutes and 52 seconds, while Aberu Zewude Tesema claimed the top spot in the women’s half distance race clocking 1 hour, 16 minutes and 54 seconds.

11. East Timor film Beatriz’s War won Golden Peacock Award at IFFI 2013

            i. East Timor film ‘Beatriz’s War’ bagged Golden Peacock award for Best Film at the 44th International Film Festival of India at Panaji, Goa on 30 November 2013.

            ii. The film, directed by Bety Reis and Luigi Acquisto, is a passionate story of one woman’s conviction to remain true to the man she loves.

            iii. The award carries a Golden Peacock, a certificate and a Cash Prize of 40 lakh Rupees.

            iv. Indian Director Kaushik Ganguli bags the award for Best Director for his Bengali film ‘Apur Panchali’. The award carries a Silver Peacock, a certificate and a cash prize of 15 lakh Rupees.

12. World AIDS Day observed on 1 December

            i. World AIDS Day was observed on 1 December 2013 across the globe to raise awareness about the HIV/ AIDS.

            ii. The theme for the year 2013 is: Getting to Zero

            iii. HIV/AIDS remains a major global issue, having claimed more than 36 million lives so far since the discovery of the virus more than 20 years ago

            iv. According to the World Health Organisation, there were approximately 35.3 million people living with HIV in 2012.

            v. The theme for this year is “Getting to Zero”- means zero new infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths.

13. PV Sindhu won Macau Open Badminton Singles title

            i. Indian shuttler PV Sindhu on 1 December 2013 won the Women’s Singles trophy at the Macau Open Grand Prix Gold Badminton Tournament.

            ii. In the title clash, Sindhu, defeated seventh seed Li Michelle of Canada in straight games, 21-15, 21-12. With this victory, Sindhu has bagged yet another Tier-III title this season, after her triumph at the Malaysia Open Grand Prix in May 2013.

            iii. Besides the Malaysia Open triumph, she also became India’s first women’s singles medallist at the World Championship in August 2013.

            iv. This was India’s first singles medal at the World Championships since Prakash Padukone won a bronze in the 1983 edition. 

QUIZ:

1. Who has won the women's singles title at the Macau Open Grand Prix Gold Tournament on Sunday, 1 December 2013?

[A] Saina Nehwal

[B] PV Sindhu

[C] Li Michelle

[D] Jwala Gutta

2. Malala Yousafzai, Kainat Riaz and Shazia Ramzan on 27 November 2013 were chosen for which award of 2013 at London?

[A] GG2 (Garavi Gujarat 2) Hammer Award

[B] Asian of the Year award

[C] Award of Duke

[D] British Bravery Award

3. Which US actor, who starred in the Fast & Furious series of action films, has been killed in a car crash in California on 1 Dec 2013?

[A] Vin Diesel

[B] Michelle Rodriguez

[C] Paul Walker

[D] Ludacris

4. On 28 November 2013, Princess Astrid of Belgium inaugurated the Consulate General of Belgium (This is the second Consulate General and the third diplomatic mission in India. ) in which city for expansion of the bilateral ties with India?

[A] Hyderabad

[B] Kolkata

[C] Mumbai

[D] Chennai

5. Copy of a book printed in 1640, the first book printed in British North America, sells for US$14.2 million at auction, a record for a printed book. What is the name of the book?

[A] Bay Psalm Book

[B] Metrical psalter

[C] John Ratcliff

[D] Codex Leicester

6. Which publication has published a report on 2nd Dec 2013 claiming that Sonia Gandhi is richer than Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Syria President Bashar al-Assad and is the 12th richest political leader in the world?

[A] Huffington Post World

[B] The Herald Times

[C] Time

[D] The Guardian Post

7. Who has been named as group president of the Asia-Pacific region to oversee the Tupperware's (American direct selling multinational) operations in 15 countries, including India, China, Japan and Australia?

[A] Puneet Narula

[B] Asha Gupta

[C] Atul Singh

[D] Ivan Menezes

8. Ministers and trade diplomats from how many countries will be participating at the WTO Ministerial meeting beginning in Bali on Tuesday with India seeking a deal on farm subsidies that will enable it to implement its USD 20 billion food security law without attracting any multilateral scrutiny?

[A] 98

[B] 102

[C] 145

[D] 159

9. Which country launched a rocket carrying its first moon rover, the “Jade Rabbit” on Monday, 2nd December 2013?

[A] Pakistan

[B] China

[C] India

[D] France

10. Which festival was opened by President Pranav Mukherjee on December 1, 2013 at Kisama village on the outskirts of Kohima, Nagaland?

[A] Angami

[B] Kachari

[C] Hornbill

[D] Kuki

Answers:

1. [B] PV Sindhu

2. [A] GG2 (Garavi Gujarat 2) Hammer Award

3. [C] Paul Walker

4. [D] Chennai

5. [A] Bay Psalm Book

6. [A] Huffington Post World

7. [B] Asha Gupta

8. [D] 159

9. [B] China

10. [C] Hornbill