Current Affairs daily Updates: 17 November 2014

1) PM arrived in Australia, addressed Indian diaspora at Sydney: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 17 November 2014 said that it was his good fortune to be the first Indian prime minister to be born post-Independence. It is my good fortune that I'm the first prime minister of India to be born post-1947," Modi said at a massive gathering of the Indian diaspora at the Allphones Arena. At the gathering, which was attended by over 16,000 members of the Indian Australian community, Modi dedicated the respect and ovation that he was getting in Australia to the Indian people. The last Indian prime minister to visit Australia was Rajiv Gandhi.

2) Mudgal panel gives clean chit to Srinivasan: The Supreme Court appointed Justice Mukul Mudgal Committee, which investigated the allegations of spot fixing and betting in the 2013 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), has given a clean chit to sidelined BCCI president N. Srinivasan on both counts. However, the Mudgal report says that Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) officials were aware of Srinivasan's son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan's activities but they did not act on it. While exonerating Meiyappan of spot-fixing charges, the committee said that he was involved in betting. The committee also says that the then owner of Rajasthan Royals Raj Kundra was in contact with bookies.

3) India consolidated its no.1 ranking in ICC ODI list: World champions India consolidated its top rank on the ICC ODI Team Rankings after sweeping the series against Sri Lanka, which concluded in Ranchi. India had started the series at third position on 113 points and finished on 117 points - two ratings points clear of South Africa, which is involved in a five-ODI series against Australia. 

4) Suresh Raina named co-owner of Uttar Pradesh Wizards in Hockey India League: Following in the footsteps of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Suresh Raina has become the second cricketer to be associated with the Hero Hockey India League (HHIL) after he was named as the co-owner of the Uttar Pradesh Wizards franchise. Raina’s association with HHIL comes closely on the heels of Dhoni’s entry into the world of hockey after he recently became the co-owner of the Ranchi franchise and renamed it Ranchi Rays.

5) Baba Ramdev gets Z-category security: Controversial yoga guru Baba Ramdev has been provided with Z-category security by the central government taking into account his "vulnerability to attacks from his opponents". The decision has been taken by the home ministry after receiving inputs from security agencies and increased perception of threat to Ramdev, official sources said. So far, Ramdev was entitled to Z-category security only within the jurisdiction of Uttarakhand as per a decision of the state government.

6) SAIL Chairman CS Verma received IIM- JRD Tata Award for Excellence in Corporate leadership: Steel Authority of India (SAIL) Chairman CS Verma  was on 14 November 2014 conferred with the IIM- JRD Tata Award for Excellence in Corporate leadership in Metallurgical Industries for the year 2014. Verma was presented with a scroll of honour along with a cash prize of 5 lakh rupees by Union Minister of Mines & Steel Narendra Singh Tomar.

7) Turkey to host G20 Summit in 2015: Turkey took over the presidency from Australia and will host the event in Antalya in 2015. This year, G20 Summit was hosted by Australia. The leaders of the Group of 20 also announced a plan to boost global growth by more than 2 trillion US dollars over five years.

8) Klaus Werner Iohannis elected new President of Romania: Klaus Iohannis won Romanian Presidential elections and for the first time in its history, Romania has one president of foreign (German) origin. Iohannis will replace the incumbent Traian Basescu.

9) Centre to lower age limit for civil service aspirants: In a move that could affect thousands of civil service aspirants across the country, the Centre intends to reduce the upper age limit and number of attempts of applicants with effect from 2015. Going by the new norm, the upper age limit will be 29 years for SC/ST candidates, 28 years for OBC and 26 for the unreserved category. At present, the upper age limit for SC/ST, OBC and unreserved candidates is 35, 33 and 30 years respectively.

10) Indigenously developed surface-to-air Akash missile test fired successfully in Odisha: India on 17 November 2014 successfully test-fired its indigenously developed surface-to-air 'Akash' missile from a test range in Odisha as part of user trial by the Air Force. "The sophisticated Akash missile was test-fired from launch complex-3 of the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur at about 3.18 pm," defence sources said.