Daily Current Affairs : 17th & 18th November 2013

1. Waheeda Rehman, the veteran actress of Bollywood will be conferred with the inaugural Centenary Award for the Indian Film Personality of the Year 2013 at the 44th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa on 20 November 2013. The award will be given to her in recognition of her contributions to the film industry. She has been selected unanimously by the team of five member jury. The award has been instituted by the Government of India to mark the 100 years of Indian Cinema. It includes a prize amount of 10 lakh rupees and a citation. 

2. Burra Gautham Sidharth, Director, B.M. Birla Science Centre, here has been chosen for the 2013 award given by the Institute for Theoretical Physics and Advanced Mathematics Einstein-Galilei (IFM), Italy. The award recognises Sidharth’s contributions and discovery that the universe is expanding, which he theoretically predicted one year ahead of the scientific confirmation. The award consists of an IFM Diploma and a gold medal.

3. Abdulla Yameen has been sworn in as the 6th President of the Maldives on 17 November 2013. The Chief Justice of Maldives, Ahmad Faiz at a special session of the Parliament in Male administered the oath of office to Abdulla Yameen. Mohammad Jameel was sworn in as vice-President. Yameen (54) a candidate of Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) secured 51.39 percent of votes, whereas the opposition leader and the former President Mohamed Nasheed received 48.61.

4. India on 18 November 2013 successfully test-fired the advanced version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from the Pokhran test firing range in Rajasthan. The block III variant of BrahMos with deep penetration capability was test launched from a Mobile Autonomous Launcher (MAL).

5. The world’s largest cancer database — containing 1.7 billion experimental results — has been launched, with an aim to discover future treatments for the deadly disease. The system, called CanSAR, is the biggest disease database of its kind anywhere in the world and condenses more data than would be generated by one million years of use of the Hubble space telescope.

6. Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) is set to hit India this week. GEW INDIA 2013 allows CIIE to create a platform to celebrate entrepreneurship across the country and help lower the societal barriers towards entrepreneurship, said Ashwin Joshi, VP Ecosystem Development, Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship.

7. German carmaker Volkswagen is the world’s top private-sector investor in research and development (R&D), followed by South Korean electronics giant Samsung, according to EU data released on Monday. Volkswagen topped the list with 9.5 billion euros ($ 12.8 billion) of R&D investments in 2012, while Samsung stood at 8.3 billion euros.

8. Rapid Metro-India's First Private Metro service started operation from Gurgaon, Haryana on 14 November 2013. Rapid Metro is India's first fully privately financed Metro system connecting NH-8 to Delhi Metro via Cyber City, Gurgaon. The Rapid Metro is using a common ticketing system with Delhi Metro.

Rapid Metro Rail System:
Rapid Metro is a metro rail system in the Indian city of Gurgaon, Haryana, linked with the Delhi Metro system's Yellow Line.  Built and operated by Rapid MetroRail Gurgaon Limited (RMGL), the system is India's first fully privately financed metro.

9. Malta, a Southern European country was on 17 November 2013 unanimously chosen as the host of the next Commonwealth summit in 2015. The decision was made at the retreat session of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo, Sri Lanka after Mauritius withdrew as host of the 2015 Commonwealth summit as a result of its prime minister's boycott of the Colombo summit over Sri Lanka's human rights concerns. This is second time for Malta to host the Commonwealth summit. Before this, Malta hosted a Commonwealth Summit in 2005.

About Malta : Malta is a southern European country in the Mediterranean Sea. The country covers just over 316 km2 (122 sq mi), making it one of the world's smallest and most densely populated countries. The capital of Malta is Valletta which is also the smallest capital in the EU. Malta has two official languages: Maltese and English.

CHOGM 2013 : The 22nd Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, from 15-17 November 2013 on the theme Growth with Equity: Inclusive Development. The event concluded with the adoption of the independent declarations - on Youth, International Trade and Inclusive Development and the release of Summit Communiqué.

10. British Nobel Prize-winning author Doris Lessing was died on 17 November 2013 at London. She was 94 years old. Her best-known works are The Golden Notebook, Memoirs of a Survivor and The Summer Before the Dark.

11. West Bengal, the host of the 23rd All India G V Mavalankar Shooting Championship topped the medals tally on 16 November 2013. The championship concluded at the Chandmari Range in West Bengal. This is the first time that West Bengal topped the medal table of national level of shooting championship.

12. The Jamaican sprinters, Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce were crowned the male and female World Athletes of the Year, 2013 on 16 November 2013. They were selected as the world athletes of the year by the sport's governing IAAF at a ceremony in Monaco.

13. In the latest ICC test ranking, India moved to the second position, following the 2-0 victory over West Indies on 16 November 2013. South Africa stood at the top position with 131 points, which is followed by India with 119 ratings point. England stands at third position with 116 points.

14. Legendary Sachin Tendulkar has ended his record-breaking 200-Test career by finishing 18th in the ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen as he jumped five places in the latest chart, released on Sunday. Tendulkar had entered the series in 24th position, which was his lowest since 1992. He scored 74 runs in his final innings in the Mumbai Test against the West Indies. Cheteshwar Pujara is the highest-placed Indian in the batting chart. Pujara has moved up two places to a career-best sixth with a best-ever 801 ratings points, following his knock of 113 in the Mumbai Test.

15. Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull’s team on 17 November 2013 won United States Grand Prix. France's Romain Grosjean in Lotus was second with Red Bull's Mark Webber took the third place. This was his eighth successive race of Vettel in a season. This was also vettel’s 12th win of the season and if he wins the year-ender in Brazil than he will tie with Michael Schumacher Formulae one record of 13 victories in a single season.

16. Czech Republic on 17 November 2013 defended the Davis Cup title 2013 after Redek Stepanek defeated the Serbian Dusan Lajovic 6-3, 6-1, 6-1 in the fifth rubber of the final by BNP Paribas Final in Belgrade.

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