Daily Current Affairs: 29 November 2013

Daily Current Affairs: 29 November 2013

1) Mars orbiter to leave Earth's orbit after midnight:  If things go as planned by ISRO, India’s Mars orbiter craft would leave the Earth’s sphere of influence (SOI) shortly after midnight on Saturday on a nearly 300-day voyage in deep space to the red planet after the “most important” manoeuvre of the ambitious mission.

2) Honorary doctorate conferred on Aung San Suu Kyi : Nobel Prize winner and Myanmar’s Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been awarded honorary doctorate by the Canberra-based Australian National University. Suu Kyi received a standing ovation as she accepted a Doctorate of Letters for her outstanding contributions to the service of society yesterday, according to Australian Broadcasting Corporation report.

3) Gen Sharif assumed charge as Pak Army chief: Career infantry officer Gen Raheel Sharif, considered to be a moderate and an old India hand, on Friday took over the command of the 600,000-strong Pakistan Army from Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. Gen Kayani, the longest serving Army chief under a civilian government, passed the baton of command to 57-year-old Gen Sharif at an impressive ceremony held at the General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi. Gen Sharif was chosen by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif as the 15th chief of the Pakistan Army on Wednesday.

4) Maharashtra to have 5th tiger reserve in Nagzira: Maharashtra will soon have its fifth tiger reserve in Nagzira following approval from the National Tiger Conservation Authority. The Nagzira tiger reserve — between Bhandara and Gondia districts — would be home to surplus tigers from Tadoba, Principal Secretary (Forests), Praveen Pardeshi, told reporters.

5) Over 80 injured in Hong Kong ferry accident: A high-speed ferry heading from Hong Kong to Macau hit an unidentified object off an outlying island in the wee hours on Friday, leaving 85 people injured, authorities and the ferry company said.

6) World’s oldest bank okays revamp plans: The board of troubled Italian lender Monte dei Paschi di Siena — the world’s oldest bank — approved a restructuring plan which it said will create a “profoundly different” bank by 2017. The plan, which includes significant job and branch cuts and the sale of small subsidiaries, had been given the green light yesterday by the European Commission.

7) Cabinet meet on Telangana on Dec 3: Shinde- A special meeting of the Union Cabinet on December 3 will discuss the report of the Group of Ministers (GoM) set up to look into the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, and the draft Telangana Bill, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said on Friday.

8) U. Chandrasekhar has taken over as Director of the Engineering Staff College of India (ESCI).

9) Google has set up election portal in India: Google on 28 November 2013 setup an election portal in India, the largest democracy of the world. The portal will provide polls and politics related news to users in India. The launched search engine will also provide information on the political parties. 

10) Tata DoCoMo unveils Wi-Fi device: Tata DoCoMo has launched Photon Max Wi-Fi, a product that helps users create their own Wi-Fi Zone anywhere and access the Internet through a laptop, desktop, tablet or phone.

11) Inflation-linked bonds coming in December: To encourage people to invest more of their savings into financial products, the RBI said that it will launch a consumer price index-linked savings product in late December. The interest on the savings will be payable in two parts. There will be a fixed component of 1.5 per cent and a variable component based on the prevailing consumer price index-based (CPI) inflation.

12) Assault at ATM: Bank union asks RBI to scrap ‘white-label’ model- Following the recent attack on a woman at an ATM in Bangalore, the Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI) has urged the RBI to drop its plan for ‘white-label ATMs’ that would be operated and maintained by private agencies.

13) Law intern names Justice Ganguly: The woman law intern has informed the three-judge panel that it was former Supreme Court Judge A.K. Ganguly who had allegedly sexually harassed her in December last.

14) PV Sindhu storms into Macau Open semis:  Shuttler PV Sindhu came up with an inspired show to beat Tsz Ka Chan of Hong Kong and move into the semifinal of the Macau Open on Friday.