Daily Current Affairs : 28th November 2013

1. Dubai to host World Expo 2020. This was decided after the third and the final round of voting in Paris on 27 November 2013. Four cities including Dubai in UAE, Yekaterinbergh in Russia, Sao Paulo in Brazil and Izmir in Turkey were competing to host the prestigious event. The theme of Dubai for the EXPO 2020 is Connecting Minds, Creating the Future.  World Expos is a meeting point for the global community to share innovations and make progress on issues of international importance such as the global economy, sustainable development and improved quality of life for the world’s population. The first world expo was held in London in 1851.

2. A day ahead of the announcement of GDP figure for the July-September quarter of the current fiscal, industry body Assocham has pegged the country's growth at 5.4 per cent for the period on improved agricultural output. The Reserve Bank of India expects GDP to expand 5 per cent in the current financial year, while the government estimates growth at between 5 and 5.5 per cent.

3. Standard & Poor's, the world's largest credit rater, named Citigroup's Neeraj Sahai as president, succeeding Douglas Peterson. Sahai, who is currently head of Citigroup's Securities and Fund Services business, will assume charge on January 6, according to a statement from S&P parent McGraw Hill Financial Inc.

4. State Bank of Travancore (SBT) and SBI General Insurance today jointly launched an affordable health insurance plan for SBT customers.

5. Managing Editor of Tehelka Shoma Chaudhury resigned on Thursday a week after its Editor Tarun Tejpal was exposed as having allegedly sexually assaulting a woman journalist colleague. 

6. President Pranab Mukherjee will address the Arunachal Pradesh assembly on Friday during his maiden two-day visit to the state. President Pranab Mukherjee will address a special session of the Arunachal Pradesh assembly on Friday during his maiden two-day visit to the state, official sources said. It will be his first visit to Arunachal Pradesh after becoming the President. 

7. IMF chief Christine Lagarde will next month pay her first visit to Myanmar as the once authoritarian government pursues reforms that have fueled growth, the global lender said. Lagarde will visit Myanmar's showcase capital Naypyidaw and its largest city Yangon during the December 6-7 visit, which will come after stops in South Korea and Cambodia.

8. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), on Wednesday, released the tariff structure and guidelines for mobile banking services, a step that would help rural customers who do not have access to banks and financial services. The TRAI has prescribed a ceiling tariff for an outgoing unstructured supplementary service data (USSD)-based mobile banking service at Rs.1.50 per USSD session. USSD technology is used by telecom operators to send alerts to their users.

9. Mars mission’s D-day in three days. On the night of November 30-December 1, the spacecraft will be finally thrust away from the Earth, and all the way towards the Red Planet, after gathering a total escape speed of around 11.4 kms a second. The spacecraft carrying five instruments to study Mars was launched on November 5 from Sriharikota.

10. Hollywood actress Michelle Yeoh will attend the closing ceremony of the 44th edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) to be held on November 30. The 50-year-old Malaysian actress's documentary film 'Pad Yatra: A Green Odyssey' on which she served as an executive producer, will also be screened at the on-going festival.

11. Assam Pavilion receives Gold award at IITF-2013. The Assam Pavilion was adjudged “First for Excellence in display amongst State Governments and Union Territory Pavilions” and was given the award of Gold Medal in the India International Trade Fair 2013 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. This is the first time in the 33 years of history of the IITF that a State Government has consecutively received the prestigious Gold Award in succession after the Gold Awards in 2012. The theme of this year was “Inclusive Growth” and the theme Pavilion set up reflected the growth of various sectors in the State.

12. The Latvian Prime Minister, Valdis Dombrovskis announced his resignation and thereby the fall of the Government on 27 November 2013. He resigned due to the deadly collapse of Maxima supermarket of Riga on 21 November 2013. His announcement came during the meeting with Andris Berzins, the President of Latvia. Dombrovskis is the longest serving prime minister in Latvia's history. 

13. Nepal and the UAE have qualified for the ICC T20 World cup which will be held in Bangladesh next year. Nepal defeated Hong Kong by five wickets in a cliffhanger in Abu Dhabi yesterday. The UAE has also qualified for the tournament as they defeated the Netherlands by 10 runs. This will be the first time since the ICC Cricket World Cup 1996 that the UAE and Nepal will make an appearance on the global stage. Four teams have now qualified for the ICC T20 in Bangladesh next year. These include Afghanistan, Ireland, Nepal and UAE.

14. Rafael Nadal was named the greatest Spanish sports star in history by readers of Spanish sports daily. The winner of 13 Grand Slam’s and the current number 1 in the ATP world ranking, received the award at the Gala for the 75th anniversary of the Spanish sports paper Diario Marca, reported Xinhua.

15.  Indian lifters bag 87 medals at C'wealth Championships. Youth Asian Games champion Ragala Venkat Rahul (77kg) stole the show with half a dozen gold medals as India signed off with a whopping 87 medals at the Commonwealth Youth and Junior Championships which concluded in Penang, Malaysia on Thursday. In the senior men's division, Sivalingam Sathish Kumar (77kg) won three gold medals. India signed off with a overall tally of 47 gold, 28 silver and 12 bronze medals at the event.

16. Cristiano Ronaldo's match-winning goals for Portugal in World Cup playoff matches against Sweden lifted his country to No. 5 in the monthly FIFA rankings.

17. Hockey India on 27 November 2013 announced its Junior Men National Team for the Hero Hockey Junior Men World Cup 2013. The 18 member team will be captained by  midfielder Manpreet Singh while defender Amit Rohidas will be the Vice-Captain. The Junior Hockey world Cup is scheduled from 6-15 December in New Delhi, India.

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