Current Affairs of 24 November 1. Deepak Gupta appointed as Chairman of UPSC Deepak Gupta on 23 November 2014 was appointed as chairman of Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). He was appointed as Chairperson of UPSC by the President Pranab Mukherjee in accordance with the Article 316 (1) of the Constitution. He took charge as UPSC chairman on 23 November 2014. Gupta replaced Rajni Razdan, who completed her term on 22 November 2014. He is the first non-UPSC member to be appointed as UPSC chairman. He is a retired IAS officer of Jharkhand cadre. Traditionally, UPSC chairman is appointed from the serving members of the Commission. 2. Chinas Mega-Dam in Tibet Begins Operations, India Watches Closely China has begun generating electricity from Tibets biggest ever hydropower project, the latest dam development on Himalayan rivers that has prompted concern in India. The dam on the Yarlung Zangbo river - known as the Brahmaputra in India, where it is a major waterway - will be 116 metres (381 feet) high when completed next year, according to reports. Foreign ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said Monday that New Delhi had been aware the dam was coming up. The first generating unit of the $1.6 billion Zangmu Hydropower Station, which stands more than 3,300 metres above sea level, went into operation on Sunday, Chinas official Xinhua news agency said. It will have a total generating capacity of 510,000 kilowatts, Xinhua said, making it the largest dam ever built on the Tibetan plateau. 3. Lewis Hamilton won Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to become the F1 World champion for second time Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain on 23 November 2014 won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (GP) of Formula One (F1) racing at Yas Marina circuit in United Arab Emirates (UAE). With this he also won the F1 racing championship for the year 2014 and joined the elite ranks of F1 world champions who have won the F1 world Drivers title twice. Also, Abu Dhabi win by Hamilton gave the World team title of 2014 to Mercedes who won the title with 701 points. At second was placed Red Bull Racing – Renault and third place was won by Williams-Mercedes team. Hamilton won the Abu Dhabi GP win with 50 points, 14 points ahead of Brazilian driver Felipe Massa who finished second while Finland driver Valtteri Bottas came third in the race. 4. Afghanistan lower house approved Afghanistan-US bilateral security pact on NATO-led troops Afghanistan lower house of Parliament on 23 November 2014 approved the Bilateral Security Agreements with the United States and NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). The pact will allow about 12500 NATO-led troops to stay in Afghanistan till 2015 to fight Taliban forces. United States led NATO combat operations were about to finish at the end of 2014, but the Taliban launched a series of recent offensives that have severely injured Afghan soldiers and police. 5. Hublot to be official Timekeeper for ICC World Cup The ICC has announced an exciting new partnership with a well-known and celebrated luxury watch brand Hublot, making it the official timekeeper for next year’s 50-over World Cup. The partnership was announced at simultaneous events in New Delhi and in Sydney. he event here was attended by Hublot Champion ambassador Harbhajan Singh and International Cricket Council Chief Executive David Richardson, while in Sydney, Australia captain Michael Clarke was also announced as a brand ambassador. Hublot’s partnership is its first foray into cricket, having enjoyed fruitful and long-standing partnerships in a number of other sports. As a part of the partnership with the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, a specially-themed, limited edition, Classic Fusion Chrono Cricket watch will be available for fans to purchase. 6. Messi eyes another record in Champions League Lionel Messi will chase yet another record when the Champions League returns on Tuesday from a three-week break. The Argentine is poised to take sole possession of the competition’s all-time scoring record just three days after he rewrote the Spanish league’s record books. Messi’s brace in Barcelona’s 2-0 win at Ajax on Nov. 5 pulled him level with Raul Gonzalez on 71 goals as the joint-top scorers for the Champions League. Messi now hopes to leave Raul behind when Barcelona visits Cypriot side APOEL in Group F on Tuesday. Breaking major records is what Messi does for a living. He will arrive in Cyprus fresh from his historic hat trick on Saturday in Barcelona’s 5-1 defeat of Sevilla that left him with 253 Spanish league goals two more than Telmo Zarra’s milestone of 251 goals in La Liga which had stood untouched since 1955. And Messi will have the added pressure of Cristiano Ronaldo on his heels. Ronaldo has scored 70 Champions League goals and Real Madrid visits Basel in Group B on Wednesday. 8. Carlsen defends crown at 2014 FIDE World Chess Championship in Sochi, Russia Magnus Carlsen simply knows how to win, and Viswanathan Anands inexplicable gamble hurried the extended reign of the new chess king from Norway. Opting for the Berlin defence in the 11th game of the 12-game World Championship match in Sochi, Anand was doing quite well till the 27th move. But in a moment of stretched optimism, he opted for an exchange sac (giving away rook for bishop). It backfired in a big way to hand over Carlsen his third win of the match and with that the title. The last game became irrelevant because the 23-year-old world No. 1 took a 6.5-4.5 lead against the 44-year-old world No. 6, a five-time champion himself. Carlsen is set to earn around Rs 4.8 crore for his win while Anand will get Rs 3.2 crore. 9. Sarjubala, Saweety settle for silver at World Championships Indian pugilists S Sarjubala (48kg) and Saweety (81kg) faltered at the final hurdle to settle for silver medals, rounding off a decent campaign for the country in the 8th World Women’s Boxing Championships, in Jeju on Monday. Sarjubala lost to world No 3 Nazym Kyzaibay of Kazakhstan, who also happened to be a bronze-medallist from the previous World Championships. Saweety, on the other hand, lost to Yang Xiaoli of China, to also settle for a silver medal. India thus managed to improve its performance from a bronze in the previous edition to a couple of silvers this time. 10. Former Union Minister Murli Deora died Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Murli Deora died after a prolonged illness on 24 November 2014 in Mumbai. He was 77 and is survived by his wife and two sons, including former MP Milind Deora. He held several important positions during his long political career. During the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government, he served as the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 16:55:58 +0000
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