18 November 2013 – Daily Current Affairs (Hindi and English)

18 November 2013 – Daily Current Affairs

Abdulla Yameen-New-Maldives-President

1) Who became the 6th President of Maldives after he scored a decisive electoral win in the second phase of Presidential election held on 16 November, 2013? - Abdulla Yameen (Yameen, the half-brother of former autocratic ruler Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and a candidate of Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), clinched an unexpected victory in the presidential run-off held on 16 November by receiving 51.39% of the votes over opposition leader and former president Mohammed Nasheed who garnered 48.61% of the votes. Nasheed was winner of the first phase of elctions and many analysts were predicting a final win for him. Abdulla Yameen was on 17 November, 2013 sworn in as the sixth President of the Maldives by Chief Justice Ahmad Faiz, ending nearly two years of political turmoil that threatened to isolate the country internationally)

2) Which country would host the next Commonwealth summit in 2015, after it was unanimously chosen as the host during the concluding ceremony of Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2013 at Colombo, Sri Lanka on 17 November, 2013? – Malta (Mauritius was to stage the biennial gathering in 2015 but Prime Minister Navin Chandra Ramgoolam said just ahead of the Colombo summit that it no longer wanted to host the event, citing Sri Lanka’s human rights record)

3) Who was announced as the winner of the inaugural Centenary Award for the Indian Film Personality of the Year 2013, which was constituted recently by the Union Govt. to mark the 100 years of Indian Cinema? – Waheeda Rehman, veteran Hindi film actress (This award will be presented at the 44th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa on 20 November, 2013. The award carries a cash prize of Rs. 10 lakh and a citation)

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17 November 2013 – Daily Current Affairs(Hindi and English)

17 November 2013 – Daily Current Affairs

Sachin-Tendulkar-Last-Match

1) Decision to award Bharat Ratna, the highest-civilian award to Sachin Tendulkar was announced on 16 November, 2013 just moments after Tendulkar bid goodbye to cricket after playing the last test match of his glorious career. Which two major highlights were attached with this award to Tendulkar? – Sachin Tendulkar became first sportsman to be conferred this award and he is also the youngest-ever to win the award (The issue of awarding Sachin Tendulkar with Bharat Ratna has been a topic of discussion for over two years. Apart from popular cricketers, most of the political parties had also backed the call for conferring Tendulkar the highest civilian honour. Late Pandit Bhimsen Joshi was the last recipient of Bharat Ratna, who was conferred this award in 2008)

2) Union Govt. on 16 November, 2013 announced the award of

“Bharat Ratna” to Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao (CNR Rao), the renowned chemist, along with Sachin Tendulkar. CNR Rao has contributed to painstaking advanced scientific research by publishing nearly 1,500 papers in leading scientific journals and 45 books over the past five decades. Before him how many personalities from the field of science have been conferred with the

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16 November 2013 – Daily Current Affairs ( Hindi and English)

16 November 2013 – Daily Current Affairs

CHOGM-2013                            

1) The 3-day 23rd Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) summit 2013 started at Sri Lankan capital Colombo on 15 November, 2013. It was the first time that CHOGM, the summit meet of 53-member grouping of Commonwealth nations was held in Sri Lanka. After how many years CHOGM has been organized in an Asian country? – 24 years (Last CHOGM is Asia was held in 1989 when the summit was organized in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. An important aspect associated with this CHOGM summit was the fact that it was for the first time in 40 years that Queen Elizabeth was not present at the CHOGM)

2) Head of states of which three countries abstained from attending the CHOGM Summit 2013 mainly on account of Sri Lanka’s poor rights record and reported atrocities against the Tamil population in the country? – India, Canada and Mauritius (India’s External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid represented Indian at the summit instead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Deepak Obhrai, the Parliamentary Secretary for the Canadian Minister for Foreign Affairs represented Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper whereas Arun Bullel, Foreign Minister of Mauritius represented Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam at the summit)

3) The 2013 United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNCCC) started from 11 November, 2013 in Warsaw, Poland and will conclude on 22 November. It is the 19th yearly session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 19) to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 9th session of the Meeting of the Parties (CMP 9) to the 1997 Kyoto

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15 November 2013 – Daily Current Affairs (Hindi and English)

15 November 2013 – Daily Current Affairs

Rapid-metro-Gurgaon                    

1) The Rapid Metro in Gurgaon, which will connect Delhi Metro commuters to six key places within the city, was inaugurated on 14 November, 2013. This project is a public-private partnership (PPP) project between which two entities? – HUDA (Haryana Urban Development Authority) and IL&FS Rail Ltd. (Rapid Metro timings will be in sync with Delhi Metro, so that commuters won't have to wait for the local loop train. While there are a total of six stations in the network, the one at Shankar Chowk will become operational later as work is still not complete)

2) The white-water river rafting team “IAF Aqua Scullers” of the Indian Air Force (IAF) on 13 November, 2013 created history by completing the longest rafting expedition in India. This team successfully completed its mission of rafting over 3,000 km on River Ganges. This expedition was between which two points situated on the Ganges? – From Gangotri (Uttarakhand) to Ganga Sagar (West Bengal) – Some of the salient features of this mission included the shortest duration ever (16 days) taken to raft down the entire length of Ganga and being the first among the Indian Armed forces to have accomplished such a feat in river rafting. This expedition was led by Wg Cdr Paramvir Singh)

3) Which Indian Naval base was chosen as the base for stationing of India’s second aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya, which would be commissioned into the Indian Navy on 16 November, 2013 at Russia? – Karwar Naval Base, Karnataka

4) Indian cricket maestro Sachin Tendulkar created yet another record of becoming the first-ever player to feature in 200 international test matches as he came to play the last test match of his amazing career at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium against the West Indies in the second and final match of the test series on 14 November, 2013. Playing 200 test matches is perceived as an unbelievable feat as till now only one Indian player has played over 150 test matches. Who is this player? – Rahul Dravid, who has featured for Indian team in 164 test matches (Top 7 test playing players, who have played in 150 or more test matches are - Sachin Tendulkar (200), Ricky Ponting (168), Steve Waugh (168), Jacques Kallis (164), Rahul Dravid (164), Allan Border (156) and Shivnarine Chanderpaul (150))

5) Who on 14 November, 2013 became the first West Indian cricketer to play 150 tests for the team? - Shivnarine Chanderpaul (Chanderpaul became the seventh player to reach this landmark while featuring in the second test match of the two-match test series against India at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium. Chanderpaul has made most appearances in Tests for West Indies. He is followed by Brian Lara and Courtney Walsh among his countrymen. He scored 25 runs in the first innings of this test match as West Indies collapsed for just 182 runs)

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