Current Affairs – November 2013

1 Kannur district in Kerala was declared India’s first zero landless district. Under the flagship scheme of the UDF(United Democratic Front) government, 11,103 landless families in Kannur have now become owners of land.

2. Justice Ajit Prakash Shah was apponted as the new Chairman of the 20th Law Commission of India after the resignation of Justice D. K. Jain.
3. G.K. Pillai, former Home Secretary was appointed as Chairman of MCS-SX.
4. Indian men’s hockey team officially qualified for the Rabobank Hockey World Cup 2014 which is going to be held from 31 May to 15 June 2014 at The Hague, Netherland.
5. Nitish Sengupta, the former Lok Sabha and Revenue Secretary died on 3 November 2013 due to the cardiac arrest.
6.Serbian player Novak Djokovic won the BNP Paribas Mastres Tennis tournament at Paris, France. He defeated defending champion David Ferrer of Spain.
7. Formula 1 racing driver, Sebastian Vettel on 3 November 2013 won the Abu Dhabi Formula 1 Grand Prix at the Yas Marina circuit, Abu Dhabi. Sebastian Vettel won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix for the second time in his career.
8. Reshma, a legendary folk singer from Pakistan passed away on 3rd November 2013 in Lahore. She was 66. She was born in 1947 in Bikaner, Rajsthan and is known for her popular songs such as Lambi Judai and Dama Dam Mast Kalandar.
9. India by beating Australia in the seventh match, won the seven ODI series by 3-2. In the seventh match Rohit Sharma hit 209 from 158 balls, including 16 sixes, to become the third player in ODIs to hit a double hundred after Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag.
10. Budapest–based International Weightlifting Federation issued the honour to Abraham K Techi and appointed him as an International Weightlifting referee. Abraham hailed from north east India.
11. As per the data released by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into the service sector declined by 47.5 percent to 1.19 billion US dollars during the April-August 2013 period. The services sector contributes over 60 percent to India’s GDP.
12. ISRO, on 5 November successfully launched its historic mission to Mars from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. It is indias first mission to mars.
13 Microsoft, in collaboration with researchers in China, created the Kinect Sign Language Translator, a prototype system that understands the gestures of sign language and converts them to spoken and written languageand vice versa.
14. Bharti Airtel signed an agreement with the Warid Group. This acquisition will make Airtel the largest mobile operator in the Republic of Congo with around 2.6 million customers.
15. Dr. Reddy to launch an anti-blood clot drug named Fondaparinux sodium injection in Canada .
16. Australia goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer announced his retirement from international football. Mark Schwarzer is the key player in Socceroos team (Australia National football team) for twenty years.
17. Hatf IX (Nasr) missile, a surface-to-surface missile with a range of 60 km was successfully test fired by Pakistan.
18. Gabriela Isler from Venezuela won Miss Universe 2013 contest held at Crocus City Hall in Moscow, Russia. Patricia Yurena Rodriguez from Spain was the first runner-up, whereas Constanza Baez from Ecuador was the second runner up.
19. UNESCO suspended the voting rights of the United States and Israel. This was because the two countries stopped paying the dues to the United Nations cultural arm in the protest over the grant of full membership to the Palestine.
20. The Reserve Bank of India has allowed third party payment for the export and import transactions. Banks are allowed to receive the payments for export of goods from the third party. However they have to follow certain conditions.
21.Martha Dodray won the global UN award for her commitment and dedication to eradicate Polio from india. she hails from Bihar.
22. India will host Men’s Hockey world cup 2018and England will host the women’s hockey world cup 2018.The 2014 edition of Hockey World Cup would be played in The Hague, Netherlands.
23.Internet and Mobile Association of India releases the data and declare Mumbai as the city with highest internet penetration in India with 12 million internet users, followed by Delhi with 8.1 million users and Hyderabad with 4.7 million users.
24. Imomali Rakhmon from People’s Democratic Party, was re-elected as the President of Tajikistan.
25. Sunita Sharma appointed as managing director and chief executive director of the LIC Housing Finance. she succeeded V.K. Sharma.
26. MTNL (Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited) signed a MoU with Los Alamos Technical Associates, Inc. of USA. The MoU has been signed to launch the training programs on Cyber Security, Risk and Crisis Management, Public Safety and Disaster Management etc.
27. Mohammed Siddikur of Bangladesh won the 50th edition of Indian Open golf tournament at the Delhi Golf Club, New Delhi. Mohammed Siddikur also known as Tiger Woods of Bengal.
28.To mark the culmination of the 125th birth anniversary of Maulana Abul Kalam Aazad, the Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram releases a Commemorative Coin of 20 rupees a circulation of 5 Rupees.
29. World Pneumonia Day was observed on 12 November 2013 across the world to raise awareness of pneumonia. The United Nations first celebrated the day on 12 November 2009.
30.Heena Sidhu created history by becoming the third Indian pistol shooter(after Anjali Bhagwat and Gagan Narang) to win Gold at the World Cup Final in Munich.
31. The Chairman of Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA), Yogesh Agarwal resigned and Anup Wadhawan was appointed as the new chairman of PFRDA.
32. The Union Government appointed Usha Ananthasubramanian as the chairperson and managing director of public sector Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB), the first women’s bank. Before joining BMB, she was an Executive Director with Punjab National Bank (PNB).
33.World Diabetes Day was observed on 14 November across the world.
34. Waheeda Rehman conferred with the inaugural Centenary Award for the Indian Film Personality Of the Year 2013 at the 44th National Film Festival of India in Goa.
35.The Government of India decided to confer, the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award on eminent scientist Prof CNR Rao and cricket player Sachin Tendulkar( first sports person to receive this award).
36. Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani teenage activist received the EU’s Sakharov human rights prize for her brave crusade for the right of the children to education.
37. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on directed Public Sector Banks (PSBs) to provide loans to women self-help groups (SHGs) at 7 per cent per annum.

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