Current Affair Updates: 20th & 21st December 2013

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International Affairs
The 2nd edition of Syria Donor’s conference will be hosted by Kuwait in January 2014. The event will be chaired by Ban Ki Moon, Secretary General of United Nation. Nigel Fisher, Assistant Secretary-General and Regional Humanitarian Coordinator of United Nations disclosed this news in Kuwait city. About 60 – 65 governments have been invited to make their pledges next month. It’s worth mentioning here that the first Syria Donor’s conference was also hosted by Kuwait where above 1.5 billion dollars was raised for Syria.
The Gaia satellite, one of the most ambitious space missions in history will be soon launched by Europe. The 740 million-euro observatory is going to assess the exact positions and distances to more than a billion stars. This should give us the first reasonable picture of how our Milky Way galaxy is created. Gaia’s remarkable sensitivity will guide also to the discovery of many thousands of previously unobserved objects, including new planets and asteroids. The European Space Agency satellite will be sent up on a Soyuz rocket.

National Affairs
India’s economic growth rate will remain subdued at 4.8% in 2013, says a United Nations report. India’s economy is forecast to expand at a pace of 3 % in 2014. UN has also warned that budding markets should be ready to deal with the impact of US Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing agenda. In the same way, it has trimmed the growth projection for 2014 to 5.3 %, down 1.2 % from earlier forecast. The UN expects India to develop by 5.7% in 2015. India’s growth in the first half of 2013-14 maintained at 4.6%. To achieve 5% growth in this financial year, the economy has to develop by 5.4 % in the second half.

Special Days
The 52nd anniversary of liberation day of Goa was celebrated from the Portuguese yoke. On 19 December 1961, Goa was liberated from the Portuguese after a prolonged and long freedom struggle. For this, the operation Vijay was conducted by the Indian Army to liberate Goa. On this occasion, most of the people from all walks of life willingly participated in various programmes. Justice Mohit S Shah, the Chief Justice of Mumbai High Court laid the foundation stone of the new building of High Court of Bombay in Goa.

Awards & Honours
Former India captain Kapil Dev will receive the Col. C.K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award for 2013. Kapil, who captained India its first World Cup victory in 1983. He was unanimously selected for this honour by BCCI president N. Srinivasan, Senior Journalist Ayaz Memon and Patel. A trophy, a citation, and a cheque for Rs. 25 lakh will be included in this award. Kapil who is also called ‘Haryana Hurricane’ will receive the award at the BCCI awards ceremony for the year 2012-13.
According to the International Association of Public Transport (IAPT) study, Kolkata has topped in public transport among Indian cities. The city has been ranked 31st which is the highest among the six cities in India as per the survey. The study titled Future of Urban Mobility 2.0was conducted for 84 cities worldwide in collaboration with a management consultant based in Boston called Arthur D Little. According to the study, Kolkata has been considered as the most progressive city in the country.

Appointment
Career diplomat Abdul Basit will soon be appointed as Pakistan’s new High Commissioner to India. Earlier 55 years old Basit wanted to serve as Foreign Secretary but later the government made few changes in proposed appointments. Basit will succeed former Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir in New Delhi soon.

Sports
India clinched Asia-Pacific Junior Golf team titles in both boy’s and girl’s team sections held at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club (RCGC). In the Asia Pacific Junior Golf Championship, it was India’s first ever victory. The team of Viraj Madappa and Manu Gandas helped India ‘A’ to clinch the team title in the boy’s category. On the other hand, the team of Aditi and Ridhima Dilawari took India ‘B’ to grab the team title in the girl’s category.
World and European champions Spain has ranked top in the final FIFA world rankings of the year 2013 for sixth time in a row. As per football world governing body’s rankings, Spain topped the ranking with an unchanged top 10. Soon Spain is going into World Cup year ahead of Germany and Argentina. The final results of recent 30 international matches were taken into consideration for the current ranking. Portugal, Colombia, Uruguay, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland and Brazil completed the leading 10.
Olympic bronze medallist Indian badminton player Saina Nehwal slipped two places to World No.8. Due to her poor form in this season, in the women’s singles rankings, she has dropped two places to No. 8 according to the Badminton World Federation (BWF). South Korean Yeon Ju Bae and Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying overtook Sania. Though, P. V. Sindhu sustained at her position No. 11. If we talk about men’s singles rankings, Parupalli Kashyap reserved the 14th position and Ajay Jayaram raised a place to 24th. Unfortunately, none Indian figures have made in to the top 25 of the men’s, women’s and mixed doubles rankings.
 
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