Daily Current Affairs : 20th & 21st October 2013

1. World Osteoporosis Day observed on 20th October across the world. Osteoporosis occurs when there is a loss in the peak bone mass and loss of calcium leading to hip, knee and shoulder fractures. It is estimated that there will be around 36 million people in the world suffering from the disease by the end of this year.

2. Chad, Chile, Lithuania, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia elected to seats as non-permanent members by the United Nations Security Council in the 15-member Council on 17 October 2013. These members have been elected for two-year term which would start from January 2014. The New Council members will replace Azerbaijan, Guatemala, Morocco, Pakistan and Togo. There are six principal organisations of UN which maintains peace and security of the world.

1. The Organisations are-General Assembly. 2. The Security Council. 3. The Economic and Social Council. 4. The Trusteeship Council,

5. The  International Court of Justice and 6. The Secretariat.

3. Canara Bank, Pune Circle has launched a CASA Carnival in all its branches in Pune and in 14 districts of Maharashtra, to mobilise Savings and Current Accounts through door-to-door and shop-to-shop campaign.

4. Private life insurer PNB MetLife appointed Tarun Chugh as Managing Director of the company. Chugh joins PNB MetLife from ICICI Prudential Life Insurance where he served as their Chief of Distribution, Operations and Marketing for India and was responsible for day-to-day management of all the business functions.

5. The proposed aviation venture of TATA with Singapore Airlines(SIA) has got corporate Affairs  Ministry’s approval to use the name “Tata SIA Airlines Ltd. which plans to offer full-service passengers sevices on domestic and international routes. Tata Group had applied on the ministry’s electronic platform,MCA21, to register this name. Tata Group will hold 51% stake in the company while Singapore Airline would have 49%. The two Partners are making the initial investment of USD 100 million to launch the airline,which may take off next year, after getting all clearances.

6. India will launch its ambitious pension scheme, the Mahatma Gandhi Pravasi Suraksha Yojana for over five million overseas workers in Dubai next week. The scheme will be formally launched by Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs, Vayalar Ravi at the Indian Consulate in Dubai on Monday. 

7. India and Russia have made substantial progress in reaching an agreement on units 3 and 4 for the Kudankulam nuclear power plant, and deliberations between the Nuclear Power Corporation of India and Rosatom are currently in the final phase.

8. The bilateral talks between India and Bangladesh on Customs Co-operation begin today. India's Revenue Secretary Sumit Bose and Chairman of Bangladesh National Revenue Board Muhammad Ghulam Hossain are leading the respective sides. The 2-day talks constitute the ninth round under the Joint Group of Customs, a bilateral framework between the two countries.

9. Legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar has been conferred with the first Yash Chopra Memorial Award for her contribution to cinema. She was presented the award by Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari on saturday, at a function in Mumbai. Lata Mangeshkar is the first recipient of the award constituted by TSR Foundation of T Subbarami Reddy. Yash Chopra (80) died in Mumbai on October 21 last year.

10. Google-owned online ad-placing service DoubleClick announced that the way has been cleared to include space at Facebook. Google had previously been shut out of the social network's advertising network, with no reasons given for the exclusion or the change of heart. DoubleClick Bid Manager is a way for marketers to buy online ad space at websites across the Internet. 

11. Shreekant Javalgekar resigned as the Managing Director and CEO of Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) on 19 October 2013. Multi Commodity Exchange is the only commodity exchange in India which is listed on a stock exchange.

12. Four Indians, Chanda Kochhar, Chitra Ramkrishna, Shikha Sharma, Naina Lal Kidwai have made to 2013 Fortune magazine's global list of top-50 women business leaders. The list was released on 20 October 2013 by Fortune magazine, US. ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar has been ranked 4th, followed by National Stock Exchange chief Chitra Ramkrishna at 17th, Axis Bank's Shikha Sharma at 32nd and HSBC's Naina Lal Kidwai at 42nd place among the Indians on the international list of most powerful women in business. This list is topped by Brazilian energy giant Petrobras' CEO Maria Das Gracas Foster.

13.  One of Mahatma Gandhi's most prized possessions, the 'charkha' he used in Yerwada Jail, will go under the hammer at a prestigious British auction house on November 5 with the minimum bid set at 60,000 pounds. The charkha (spinning wheel) used by Gandhi while he was in the prison at Pune during India's freedom struggle, was given to the American Free Methodist missionary Revd Floyd A Puffer. Puffer was a pioneer in Indian educational and industrial cooperatives. He invented a bamboo plow that was later adopted by Gandhi. Gandhi presented the charkha to Puffer for his work in Colonial India. 

14. Convicted Congress leader Rashid Masood today became the first MP to lose his seat after the Supreme Court struck down a provision that protects a convicted lawmaker from disqualification on the ground of pendency of appeal in higher courts. 66-year-old Masood was held guilty in a case of corruption and other offences in September.

15. Renowned musician Madhuri Chattopadhyay died on 19 October 2013. She breathed her last at her Kolkata residence after suffering for a prolonged period. She was 73. Apart from film songs she had innumerable records. She was from West Bengal. She contributed immensely in the field of Bangla music.

16. Renowned music director K Raghavan, who brought originality and local flavour to Malayalam cinema music, in a career spanning over five decades, died in a hospital on Saturday. He was 99. He was a recipient of several honours, including Padma Shree and Kerala Government's highest film honour J C Daniel award. 

17. Scientists have developed the world's first robot human made entirely of prosthetic parts and he can walk, talk and even has a beating heart. The robot, which cost almost USD 1 million to build, was assembled from prosthetic body parts and artificial organs donated by laboratories around the world. Roboticists Rich Walker and Matthew Godden of Shadow Robot Co in England put together the bionic man. 

18. North Zone and South Zone were declared joint winners of the Duleep Trophy this year after the fifth day's play of the final match was also called off without a ball being bowled in Kochi on Monday. It was the fourth instance in the history of Duleep Trophy when the title has been shared.

19. India's ace Squash player Dipika Pallikal on 20 October 2013 won the Macau Open title at Macau, China. This was Dipika Pallikal's seventh Women's Squash Association title. The Macau Open 2013 is a squash tournament held in Macau, China on 15 to 20 October 2013. It is part of the PSA World Tour and the WSA World Tour. The prize money for the Macau Open is 35000 Dollars. Dipika Pallikal (Born on 21 September 1991 at Chennai) is an Indian squash player. She is the first Indian woman to break into the top 10 in the WSA rankings.

20. Jorge Lorenzo won the Australian Grand Prix on 20 October 2013 at the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix in Phillip Island. 

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