Current Affairs Updates - 23rd October 2013

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INTERNATIONAL EVENTS

• Saudi Arabia will set up the world's largest university for women to offer facilities to nearly 60,000 students.With an area almost three million square metres, the Riyadh campus of Princess Nora Bint Abdulrahman University (PNU) claims to be the largest university in the world for women.
• Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday urged US President Barack Obama to end drone strikes in Pakistan, touching on a sore subject just as relations between the two countries improve after years of suspicion over Afghanistan and the US counter terrorism fight.
• German chancellor Angela Merkel complained to President Barack Obama on Wednesday after learning that US intelligence may have targeted her mobile phone, saying that would be "a serious breach of trust" if confirmed.

NATIONAL EVENTS

• In the first of its kind initiative, Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday launched 50 'small bus' services in Chennai to connect areas without transportation facilities to the nearest bus stands and railway stations.
• India has told the United Nations that governance of cyber space should be democratic and transparent and cannot be managed as a "private property".
• Wadia group promoted no-frills carrier GoAir said it has appointed Girish Nair as its Chief Commercial Officer (CCO).
• Shah Rukh Khan is the new poster boy for South Korea  not its conglomerates, but the nation. The Bollywood superstar has just been appointed goodwill ambassador for South Korea.
• Personal details provided to the bank as part of know-your-customer (KYC) norms are no more secure. In a recent fraud, at least Rs 16.7 lakh was stolen from a Mumbai company’s bank account after fraudsters hacked into the bank’s server and tampered with the information submitted under KYC guidelines.
• As many as 19 Chinese surveillance satellites are monitoring the Indian waters as the region is emerging as one of the world's most strategic areas in the 21st century, secretary to defense minister and Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) director-general Avinash Chander said on Wednesday.
• India’s long wait for the world’s biggest commercial aircraft, the double decker Airbus A-380, to fly regularly may come to an end if the government is able to strike a balance between the interests of flyers and desi airlines. Indian carriers have for years been opposing request from airlines like Emirates, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines to fly the big bird as it could wean away traffic from them.

DEATHS

• Legendary playback singer Manna Dey died at a city hospital early on Thursday morning, after prolonged illness.Dey, 94, who was admitted to Narayana Hrudayalaya five months ago for respiratory problems, died of cardiac arrest at 3.50am.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

• Astronomers have found the most distant galaxy yet, a discovery that pushes back scientists' view of the universe to about 700 million years after it is thought to have come into existence.
• Nasa's gen-next laser communication system has made history using a pulsed laser beam to transmit data over the 384,633 kilometres between the Moon and Earth.
• Internet giant Google has emerged as the world's best multinational company to work for, followed by software developer SAS Institute and network storage provider NetApp in the second and third place, respectively.

ECONOMY

• Sistema Shyam Teleservices (SSTL), controlled by Russian conglomerate Sistema, on Wednesday announced the commercial roll-out of ‘3G Plus’ telecom network across all its circles.The network is used to offer high speed data services.
• Mobile economy in India, world's second largest market by subscribers, will contribute around USD 400 billion to the country's GDP and create 4.1 million jobs by 2020, a report by the global mobile operators industry body GSMA said.
• The S&P BSE benchmark Sensex crossed 21,000-mark after a gap of 35 months on hectic buying mainly in realty, auto, banking, consumer durables and refinery sectors on the back of persistent foreign capital inflows.
• IMF's new World Economic Outlook (WEO) forecasts now envisage global growth of about 3% in 2013, down from our previous forecasts and a little weaker than the pace we saw last year. Advanced economies are doing a bit better, but emerging markets are slowing, causing some angst, particularly for those economies that rely on trade with emerging markets.

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