Current Affairs 13/11/2013 to 20/11/2013

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1.Legendary actress Waheeda Rehman will be conferred with the first Centanary Award for the Indian Film Personality at the 44th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) to be held in Goa. The award has been instituted this year (2013) which consists of a trophy, a cash of Rs. 10 lakh and a citation. This award to Waheeda Rehman acknowledges the creative contribution of an artist who opted for roles which were much more than just the appealing shadow of the male actors of the times.

2.The next CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting) 2015 will be held in Malta. The south European nation invited the Commonwealth to hold the summit after Mauritius pulled out in protest against the decision to hold this year’s gathering in Sri Lanka despite an international protests over alleged rights violations and war crimes.
Earlier, Mauritius was to host the biennial meet in 2015 but Prime Minister Navin Chandra Ramgoolam said just ahead of the Colombo summit that it no longer wanted to stage the event, citing Sri Lanka’s human rights record.
The international pressure on Sri Lanka is aggravating over alleged human rights abuses committed by the army against Tamils during the final phase of nearly three-decade long war against the LTTE that ended in 2009.
The Prime Ministers of India and Canada also didn’t attend this year’s summit over the same issue.

3.In a bid to dismantle the ancient mystery of Mar’s radical climate change, US space agency NASA launched robotic explorer MAVEN rocketed toward the red planet. The unmanned spacecraft was launched aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida, US. This is NASA’s 21st mission to Mars since the 1960s. But it’s the first one dedicated to studying the Martian upper atmosphere.

4.In a bid to ease liquidity to Micro and Small Enterprises (MSME) sector, the RBI has extended a Rs 5,000 crore refinance window for a period of one year for the sector. The refinance will be provided to the Small Industrial Development Bank of India (SIDBI) to channelize it as direct liquidity support to finance receivables, including export receivable, to MSMEs.

5.Doris Lessing (94), one of the UK’s most-influential writer and a Nobel Literature laureate passed away.
Doris Lessing:
Born: October 22, 1919, in Kermanshah, Iran
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer.
Authored more than 80 books, including poetry, two operas, short stories, plays and non-fiction.
She is best-known for ‘The Golden Notebook’.

6.Abdulla Yameen has been elected as the new President of the Maldives after a run-off poll. The event ended nearly two years of political tumult that blighted the incipient democracy and raised international concerns over the country’s future.

7.After a long wait the $2.3 billion aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya was commissioned into the Indian Navy in a strategic boost to India’s maritime warfare capabilities. The gigantic 44,500-tonne warship was inducted into the Indian Navy at the Sevmash Shipyard in Russia. The warship will be escorted to India on a near two-month journey by a group of warships to secure a safe sail to its base at Karwar on the Arabian Sea coast.
INS Vikramaditya
A Kiev class aircraft carrier which was commissioned by Russian Navy in 1987 under the name Baku.
Later rechristened as Admiral Gorshkov and last sailed in 1995 in Russia, before being offered to India.

8.The US aircraft manufacturer Boeing has delivered the second P-8I aircraft to Indian Navy. With the help of this aircraft Indian Navy’s long-range maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare capabilities is likely to get a boost. Boeing, which is manufacturing eight P-8I aircrafts for India, delivered the first one in May 2013.

9.Eminent NRI industrialist and educationist, Lord Swraj Paul was conferred with the ‘International Indian of the Decade’ award on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the publication of India Link International, a monthly magazine published from London. He was presented this award for his outstanding achievements in the fields of industry, education and philanthropy.

10.With domestic production becoming surplus, the Union Government of India announced the provision of higher sugar export. The condition of export of sugar has been eased by doubling the limit of the overseas shipment that sellers can register.
As per the announcement by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), the export of sugar has been doubled to 50,000 tonnes from 25,000 tonnes per application for registration.
The sugar production of India is estimated at 25 million tonnes for 2013-14, which is 2 million tonnes more than the domestic requirement.

11.In a major policy shift, China has announced to ease its one-child policy as part of its reforms package. As per the announcement, couples in which one member is an only child will be allowed to have two children. While most people in China are still only allowed to have one child, some groups, including ethnic minorities, disabled people, and couples in which both members are only children, are allowed to have two.

12.The Chinese leadership of Communist Party of China (CPC) has decided to allow more private capital into the market including equity stakes in projects with state funds with the intention to develop a mixed ownership economy.

13.The Union Law Ministry informed the Group of Ministers (GoM) that the Article 371 (D) of the Constitution of India needed to be amended for facilitating bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. The Article 371D of Constitution of India grants Special provisions with respect to the State of Andhra Pradesh.
The constitution Amendment Bill would require two-third majority of Parliament for its passage, which will be the toughest challenge in the process.

14.Prof. C.N.R. Rao, the man behind India’s maiden Mars mission, to be conferred with the prestigious Bharat Ratna Award, India’s highest civilian award.
About C.N.R. Rao (Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao)
An Indian scientist
Worked mainly in solid-state and structural chemistry.
One of the world’s foremost solid state and materials chemists.
Rao’s work on transition metal oxides led to basic understanding of novel phenomena and the relationship between materials properties and the structural chemistry of metal oxides.
At present, he is the Head of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India.

15.Sachin Tendulkar chosen for the prestigious Bharat Ratna (India’s highest civilian award). Thus Tendulkar will be the first sportsperson ever to be honoured with Bharat Ratna.
Tendulkar retired from all forms of cricket as the most successful batsman with 15,921 runs in 200 Tests and 18,426 runs in 463 matches in ODIs. He was the first batsman to get a double hundred in ODIs. His career of 24 years made him an inspiration for an entire nation.
The eligibility criteria of the Bharat Ratna award was revised in 2012 to accommodate sportspersons as well. This was done especially on continuous demands for Tendulkar to be conferred the honour for a long time. Tendulkar became a Rajya Sabha member in 2012.

16.The Union Government appointed Usha Ananthasubramanian as the Chairperson and Managing Director (CMD) of public sector Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB), the first women bank of India.
Prior to her appointment in BMB, she was an Executive Director with Punjab National Bank (PNB).

17.The Union Cabinet approved a 3-year Bachelor of Science (Community Health) course in State Universities. The course will start from the academic year 2014-15.
What is the purpose of introducing B.Sc. Community Health in State Universities?
The government plans to set up a specialized cadre of Community Health Officers who will be posted at sub-centres in rural areas, functioning under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, where they can provide basic health care. As proposed, persons belonging to rural areas will study a three-year course on basic anatomy, and diagnosis and treatment of basic ailments. The focus of training will be on conducting normal deliveries, pre-and anti-natal care, handling diarrhea, pneumonia, vaccination, providing tuberculosis treatment and treatment of fevers and skin infections. The Health Ministry believes that these professionals will eventually be absorbed by the State Health Departments and will subsequently be posted to higher levels of health care facilities.

18.According to International Energy Agency (IEA), the United States will leave behind Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the world’s top oil producer in 2015. This development will enable the US to become almost self-sufficient reducing its dependency on OPEC supply. However, the IEA forecasts that by 2020, the oilfields of Texas and North Dakota will be past their peak output and the Middle East will resume its dominance – especially as a supplier to Asia.

19.As per Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who chaired the Group of Ministers on the issue of imparting autonomy to CBI, government will give functional autonomy to it but the agency would be governed by the general rules of the executive government. He reminded that CBI is part of executive government and that it is bound by the general principles which apply to all domains of executive government. He avoided to make any remarks on the proposed abolition of section 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act which deals with pecuniary advantages taken by a government.

20.As per a study conducted by software giant Ascentius Consulting on behalf of Microsoft, over 34,000 branches of Indian public sector banks would become susceptible as the popular Windows XP operating system would no longer be supported by Microsoft from April 8, 2014.
As per the study, the penetration of Windows XP in the Indian banking sector is as high 70% and around 34,115 Indian PSU bank branches are vulnerable due to their dependence on Windows XP.

21.As per a survey by IDC, the penetration of Google’s Android platform enhanced such that it is used on four out of five smartphones sold worldwide. Microsoft’s Windows Phone too registered sharp rise with an increase of 156% in sales.

22.Rapid Metro will connect Delhi Metro travelers to 6 key places within Gurgaon(Haryana), where more than a lakh people work or visit every day.
About Rapid Metro (Gurgaon)
PPP (Private Public Partnership) project between IL&FS Rail Ltd and HUDA

23.Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inked a road-map agreement to allow inspectors greater access to country’s nuclear sites.
However, the IAEA inspectors would not be permitted to inspect the Parchin military site near Tehran, where the West suspects Iran conducted tests linked to nuclear weapons. The pact also does not allow the IAEA to investigate other research activities linked to an alleged nuclear weapons programme.
The deal came a day after Iran and six world powers failed at nuclear negotiations in Geneva to strike an agreement on restricting Tehran’s controversial uranium enrichment in exchange for relaxing economic sanctions.

24.While Pakistan is keen to import gas from India through a 110-Km pipeline, it has asked India to reconsider the high price it is offering. On the other hand, India has sought sovereign payment guarantees from Pakistan before signing an export contract to supply LNG.
Indo-Pak gas pipeline project:
Pakistan with a total electricity generation capacity of 20,000 MW, is going through a serious energy and power shortage and is interested in importing gas from India to fulfill its rising energy requirements. With Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project hanging in balance due to pressure from the U.S., the deal with India becomes quite significant. India has also conveyed its willingness to export gas to Pakistan. As per the proposed plan, GAIL India will supply natural gas through the cross border pipeline passing through Wagah-Attari border. Gas in its liquid form will be imported in Maharashtra or Gujarat and then moved through GAIL’s existing pipeline network till Jalandhar. The pipeline would start from Jalandhar in Punjab leading through Attari. The pipeline will be 110-km long and India intends to supply 400 million cubic feet of gas per day to Pakistan. Islamabad plans to take 1-1.5 million tonnes of LNG.
The pipeline project is also viewed as a feasibility study for the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline through which both Pakistan and India propose to import natural gas from the Turkmenistan.

25.After the jubilant launch of the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), India’s space research organization ISRO is preparing for flight-testing of GSLV with indigenous cryogenic engine.
The launch is scheduled for December 15, 2013. ISRO’s maiden flight testing of the indigenous cryogenic engine and stage conducted in GSLV-D3 on April 15, 2010, failed.
In August 2013, ISRO planned GSLV-D5 but the launch was cancelled as a leak was observed in the UH25 fuel system of the liquid second stage during the pre-launch pressurisation phase on the vehicle just two hours before the scheduled lift-off.
What is GSLV?
GSLV is a three stage vehicle. It is 49 metre tall, with 414 tonne lift off weight. Its first stage comprises S125 solid booster with four liquid (L40) strap-ons. Second stage (GS2) is liquid engine and the third stage (GS3) is a cryostage.
Why cryogenic stage is important?
The cryostage is more efficient compared to the liquid stage in PSLV. This means that the thrust developed by burning each kg of propellant is higher in cryo engine, hence can place larger payloads with higher weight into orbit. This stage is crucial for a launcher with higher payload capacity.
How GSLV has advantage over PSLV?
The main limitation of PSLV is its inability to launch heavy satellites of the weight of 2000 kg or above. PSLV is capable of launching 1600 kg satellites in 620 km sun-synchronous polar orbit and 1050 kg satellite in geo-synchronous transfer orbit (GTO). On the other hand, the GSLV is capable of launching satellites which are 2000 kg – 2500 kg which matches with the GSAT class of Communication satellites.
Current status:
Currently, India is dependent on outsourcing the heavy launch vehicles from abroad which is not a cost effective solution. We want to develop our own GSLV launcher to become self-reliant in the launch capability. Success in launching GSLV will bring India into a elite group of nations who possess this technology.
Which are countries who possess Cryogenic Engine technology?
At present only five countries viz. United States, Russia, France, Japanand China have the cryogenic engine upper stage technology to launch heavier satellites in geostationary orbit. India is the sixth country to design and develop the cryogenic technology.

26.Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has given up to the opposition’s pressure against his participation in the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) to be held in Sri Lanka. He has decided not to attend the meeting. In the absence of PM, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid will lead the Indian delegation at the meet.
Why there is opposition to PM participation in Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM)?
There is opposition by parties in Tamil Nadu as well as a section in Congress who want PM to skip the CHOGM as a show of protest against the Sri Lankan government alleging it of inflicting atrocities on Tamils by the Sri Lankan military forces during the war against LTTE. They are also cynical about Sri Lankan government plans to devolve powers to the ethnic Tamils.