Daily Current Affairs updates: 04 November 2013

Daily Current Affairs updates: 04 November 2013

1) Countdown for Mars Orbiter Mission progressing smoothly: ISRO- India is inching towards a milestone in space technology with preparatory work in full swing at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota to launch the country’s first inter-planetary satellite to Mars. PSLV C 25 is scheduled to lift off at 2.38 p.m on 05 November 2013 from the spaceport at Sriharikota.

2) US, India to undertake joint naval exercise: United States and India would undertake a joint naval exercise later this week as part of enhancing ties between the two countries, a top US Naval officer said.

3) Gandhi Maidan thrown open for public: A week after serial bomb blasts, Gandhi Maidan in Patna, which was the venue of the public meeting of BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, has been thrown open for the public.

4) Fog effect: Train services to be hit from Dec 28- Gearing up to meet the fog situation in the ensuing winter months, railways has decided to cancel and divert as many as 30 trains during the period.

5) 7 killed in militant attack in Assam’s Goalpara: Death toll in the attack by suspected Garo National Liberation Army insurgents on a group of people gambling on the occasion of Diwali in Assam’s Goalpara district has risen to seven.

6) Pervez Musharraf granted bail in Lal Masjid case: Beleaguered former Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf was granted bail in a case related to the death of a cleric of the radical Lal Masjid during a 2007 military operation, paving the way for his possible release after over six months of house arrest.

7) Eminem, Korean Girls group, nab top YouTube Music Awards: Controversial rapper Eminem was named 'artist of the year' at the inaugural YouTube Music Awards on Sunday, but in many ways it was the awards themselves that were the star of the show. With prize winners decided solely by fans who shared the YouTube nominees video on Facebook, Twitter or Google+, the video of the year award went to the South Korean girl band Girls’ Generation’s “I Got a Boy.”

8) Cong calls for ban on opinion polls: Congress party has sought a ban on opinion polls with its leaders alleging corruption in the surveys and claiming that these are exercises in manipulation, inviting the Opposition ire.

9) After Mars comes Aditya: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has plenty of space ambitions and a successful Mars mission will be crucial in moving towards them, both in terms of confidence and funds. ISRO wants to study the Sun from close quarters. After Chandrayaan and Mangalyaan, it will be Aditya. The idea is to study the Sun’s corona, the outer atmosphere and also the hottest part of the Sun.

10)  84th birth anniversary of Shakuntala Devi, popularly known as the “human computer” celebrated: Best known for her ability to do complex mathematical calculations mentally, Shakuntala Devi was a child prodigy. Hailing from a humble family, her talent was first noticed by her father during a game of cards. She was all of three. In 1977, she was able to extracted the 23rd root of a 201-digit number through her mental calculations. She even multiplied two randomly selected 13-digit numbers in just about 28 seconds. Apart from making it to the Guinness Book of World Record, she was also known for authoring several books such as “Fun With Numbers”, “Astrology for You”, “Mathablit”, among others. She breathed her last in April this year.