Daily Current Affairs: 11th November 2013

Daily Current Affairs: 11th November 2013

1) 67% turnout in first phase of Chhattisgarh polls: A voter turnout of 67 per cent was recorded in the 18 constituencies in Chhattisgarh, which went to polls on Monday. The polling on Monday was largely in areas that are Naxal-affected and where poll boycott calls had been given by various organisations, including the Maoists.

2) National Education Day of India was celebrated on 11 November 2013: National Education Day has been celebrating in India since the year 2008 to commemorate the birth anniversary of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, a great freedom fighter, an eminent educationist and the first Education Minister of India.

3) Government today also launched a web portal on freedom fighter and country’s first Minister for Education Maulana Abul Kalam Azad on his 125th birth anniversary. The portal – www.maulanaazadheritage.org – was launched by Minister for Minority Affairs K Rahman Khan and it has rare pictures, videos and information about Azad’s work as a freedom fighter, Islamic scholar and a journalist.

4) EC asks candidates to open separate bank accounts for poll expenditure: Election Commission has issued instructions asking candidates to open a separate bank account exclusively for the purpose of election expenditure. The account should be opened not later than one day before the date on which the candidate files his nomination papers, a spokesman of Haryana Chief Electoral Office said on Monday, giving details of instructions issued  EC to all Chief Electoral Officers of all the states and Union territories.

5)  ESA satellite falls to Earth without causing any damage: European Space Agency’s one-tonne gravity mapping GOCE satellite, that had run out of fuel, re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere today, without causing any damage. On October 21, the mission came to a natural end when it ran out of fuel. Over the past three weeks the satellite gradually descended.

6) Singapore Airlines ending world’s longest non-stop flight: World’s longest non-stop flight will soon be history. Since 2004, Singapore Airlines has connected Singapore and New York without a stopover — a 19-hour flight travelling 16,700 kilometres. The Airbus A 340 will take-off on the final trip over the route at the end of November.

7) Subhas Goswami takes over as ITBP chief: Senior IPS officer Subhas Goswami today took charge as new Director General of paramilitary Indo—Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) which guards the sensitive frontier with China. Goswami, a 1977-batch police officer of Assam—Meghalaya cadre, is the 30th chief of the border guarding force which was raised in the face of the 1962 Chinese aggression.

8) Punjab launches free health care scheme for BPL families: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today launched a cashless health care scheme for BPL families, which would provide free medical services of up to Rs 30,000 per annum.

9) Glitch in fourth orbit-raising, ISRO plans supplementary tomorrow (12 Nov): After having successfully completed three orbit-raising manoeuvres, ISRO’s Mars Orbiter mission today suffered a glitch as it failed to achieve the targeted apogee (farthest distance from Earth) of one lakh km during the fourth orbit-raising operation in the early hours.

10) KyaZoonga.com is the Ticketing Partner for Sachin’s final Test:  Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) has appointed KyaZoonga.com as the the Official Ticketing Partner for the second Test between India and West Indies, the 200th and final Test of batting legend Sachin Tendulkar.

11) Power generation resumes at Kudankulam: Power generation at Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Tamil Nadu, which was temporarily suspended last week, has resumed after the turbine of the first unit was resynchronised with the Southern grid.

12) Mauritius bank picks Infosys Finacle: Bank One, one of the leading banks in Mauritius, has announced the successful implementation of the Infosys Finacle Treasury solution.