Daily Current Affairs: 20 November 2013

Daily Current Affairs: 20 November 2013

1) 44th edition of International Film Festival of India (IFFI) inaugurated in Goa: The 44th International Film Festival of India was inaugurated in Panaji, Goa on Wednesday in a glittering ceremony that celebrated the 100 years of Indian cinema. Amid standing ovation lifetime achievement awards were conferred on Indian actress Waheeda Rehman for Indian Film Personality of the Year and Czech filmmaker Jiri Menzel. Indian film greats like Rekha, Asha Bhonsle, Kamal Hassan, Rani Mukherjee, Huma Qureshi, Venkatesh, R Madhavan, Alia Bhatt, Jackie Shroff, Deepti Nawal and Prem Chopra also graced the occasion.

2) Malala Yousafzai received EU Sakharov rights prize:Pakistani teenager and Nobel peace prize hopeful Malala Yousafzai said on Wednesday that a country's strength should not be measured by its army but by the number of educated people in it. Receiving the prestigious Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought 2013 from the European parliament in Strasbourg, the Pakistani campaigner for girls' education said "There is poverty, lack of freedom, fear and terrorism, but there is hope".

3) Messi received Golden Boot as Europe's top scorer:  Barcelona forward Lionel Messi was presented with a record third Golden Boot on Wednesday for scoring the most goals in Europe's domestic leagues last season.

4) RBI receives $22.7 billion through special swap window: Reserve Bank of India has received $22.7 billion till date under its special concessional window to encourage banks to bring in dollars through non-resident Indian deposits and overseas borrowings. The inflows on this account have helped prop up the rupee, which has strengthened to about 62.50 to the dollar now against the late August level of 68.50.

5) Bangalore ATM attack on woman: No trace of assailant, state govt warns banks: Karnataka home minister said police have launched a hunt to nab the man who attacked woman bank officer at an ATM centre in Karnataka. Meanwhile, 38-year-old woman bank officer, who was brutally attacked on the head with a machete at an unguarded ATM kiosk in Bangalore, was paralysed on her right side.

6) Women's national hockey team coach Inderjit Singh died in accident: India's senior women's hockey team coach Inderjit Singh Gill passed away in a fatal road accident near Sangrur in Punjab. Gill started his coaching career in 1986 and was working with the junior and senior women hockey teams since 1999. He was also part of the Indian women's team in major tournaments, including the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, Asian 2002 Games in Busan, 2007 Asia Cup in Hong Kong, 2012 FIH Olympic Qualifying Tournament in New Delhi and FIH World League Round 2 in New Delhi early this year.

7) Cameron becomes first UK PM to call an Iran president in over 10 years: In a historic first, David Cameron became the first British prime minister to call an Iranian president in more than a decade. Cameron spoke to Hassan Rouhani by telephone ahead of negotiations over Tehran's nuclear ambitions in Geneva this week.

8) Cyclone Helen to cross Andhra, thundershower likely in Odisha: Bay of Bengal is now hosting tropical cyclone Helen, the second in the basin in a month after the very severe cyclone Phailin scorched Odisha in early October. ‘Helen’ is forecast to grow into a severe cyclone and cross south Andhra Pradesh coast by Thursday night, an India Met Department update said on Wednesday.

9) Jet Airways sells 24% equity to Etihad: Jet Airways and Etihad on Wednesday announced closure of a Rs 2,069 crore deal for the Abu Dhabi-based carrier to pick up 24 per cent equity in the Indian airline, marking the first FDI infusion by an airline in the Indian aviation sector.

10) Hindi and Bengali among top 10 most common languages in the world: Hindi is the fourth most common language in the world today. Around 260 million people use it as their mother tongue, after Mandarin Chinese (848 million), Spanish (406 million) and English (335 million). Another Indian language — Bengali has been found to be the world's seventh most common language spoken by around 193 million people.

11) Last chance for Anand to defend title in World Chess C'ship: With four games to go, defending champion Viswanathan Anand will probably have one last chance in the ninth game to defend his title against challenger Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the ongoing World Chess Championship on Thursday.

12) Sandhu retained as chief boxing coach till 2016 Olympics: Long-serving Gurbax Singh Sandhu was on Wednesday retained as the national coach of the men's Indian boxing team till the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

13)   Nokia shareholders approve sale of handset business to Microsoft: Nokia shareholders approved the sale of the Finnish company’s handset operations to Microsoft for $7.2 billion. Over 99 per cent of shareholders approved the deal at an extraordinary shareholders meeting in Helsinki.

14) Google's Nexus 5 sold out within hours of sale in India: Internet giant Google may have underestimated demand for its flagship Nexus 5 phone as it ran out of stock within hours of listing for sale in India. Shortly after the devices went on sale, the Google Play store displays the message: “We are out of stock. Please check back soon.” Nexus 5 is the first device powered by the Android 4.4 KitKat operating system. The 16GB model of Nexus 5 would be available for Rs 28,999, while the 32GB model would cost Rs 32,999, according to information on Google Playstore.