Current Affairs For SSC CGL Exam - 05 December, 2013

Current Affairs For SSC CGL Exam

05 December, 2013

Exit polls: BJP set to win big in MP, Rajasthan; close fight in Delhi, Chhattisgarh

  • Riding on the popularity of its face for 2014, Narendra Modi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is expected win comfortably in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, various exit polls have predicted.
  • However, the biggest story of the recent round of elections is Delhi where the Aam Admi Party is seen to be giving a tough fight to the BJP and the Congress.
  • However, there was some good news for the Congress as the grand old party in Mizoram is expected to bag 19 seats of the total 40 seats.

Delhi: BJP marches ahead; AAP, Cong slug it out for 2nd spot

  • The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appears to have an edge over the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi, according to the outcome of exit polls.
  • Delhi, which witnessed a three-way contest between Congress, BJP and AAP has 70 Assembly seats.
  • The India-TV C-voter exit poll results show that BJP might get 29 seats, Congress 21, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) 16 and Others 4.
  • According to the Times Now-C voter survey, Congress will bag 31 seats, BJP to win 24, and the new political outfit AAP 11, while Others will get 4.
  • The ABP News-Nielsen survey numbers: BJP to get 37 seats, Congress will get 16 and AAP will bag 15, while Others will manage to bag 2.
  • India Today-ORG survey also predicted handsome victory for the BJP. The survey shows that Congress will get 20 seats, BJP to win big with 41, Kejriwal’s AAP will manage 6 and Others will get 3.

Panjab University overtakes IITs, JNU in ranking

  • Panjab University has overtaken the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to become the highest-ranked educational institution of the country in the first-ever ranking of universities in BRICS and emerging economies.

  • The 131-year-old university, which happens to be the alma mater of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, emerged 13th in the ranking carried out by Times Higher Education magazine. It shares this position with Renmin University of China.

  • Indian institutions account for 10 per cent of the list but do not make the cut for the top 10, which is comprised by varsities of China, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey and Russia. Besides the five BRICS countries, universities from 17 other emerging economies were ranked.

  • According to a release put out by Times Higher Education, China has emerged as the higher education superpower among BRICS economies with 23 institutions in the rankings compared to India’s 10, South Africa’s five, Brazil’s four and Russia’s two.

  • Nine Indian institutions find a spot among the top 50 ranks, with the IITs coming a distant second to Panjab University.

  • The six IITs that made it to the rankings are Kharagpur (30), Kanpur (34), Delhi (37), Roorkee (37), Guwahati (46) and Madras (47). IIT-Madras shares its position with Jadavpur University while Aligarh Muslim University stands at 50 and JNU at 57.

Information Commissioner Sushma Singh to take over as CIC

  • Sushma Singh, the senior most Information Commissioner, will be the next Chief Information Commissioner of India and will succeed Deepak Sandhu, who completes her term.
  • The decision on appointing Singh, a former IAS officer, as the next CIC was taken unanimously by a panel comprising Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and Law Minister Kapil Sibal.
  • Singh will the second woman to become CIC after Sandhu, whose term comes to an end .
  • Sushma Singh became Information Commissioner on September 23, 2009 in the Central Information Commission. She had retired from IAS on May 31, 2009.
  • She is a former Secretary to the Government of India and belongs to the Jharkhand cadre. She had joined IAS in 1972. Singh has served as Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
  • She has also served in the capacity of Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of Panchayati Raj and also in the Ministry for the Development of the North Eastern Region (DONER).

MS Dhoni wins ICC LG People's Choice Award 2013

  • India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has won this year's ICC LG People's Choice Award. He now becomes only the third cricketer to win this coveted prize after Sachin Tendulkar, who was the first-ever recipient in 2010, and Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara, who won it in 2011 and 2012. Other nominees for this year's LG People's Choice Award were Australia's Michael Clarke, England's Alastair Cook, India's Virat Kohli, and South Africa's AB de Villiers.

  • The award, which was introduced at the 2010 LG ICC Awards in Bangalore, was voted upon by close to 188,000 cricket fans around the world, who voted for their favourite player either via www.lgiccawards.com or via Twitter using the hashtag #LGICCAwards.

  • Voting opened on 2 November and closed at midnight UAE time on 23 November. The short list was nominated by an elite panel of cricket experts, which is headed by ICC Cricket Committee Chairman and former India captain Anil Kumble.

  • Other members of the panel are England's Alec Stewart, New Zealand's Catherine Campbell, Pakistan's Waqar Younis and South Africa's Graeme Pollock.

  • The five players were nominated by the panel using the criteria set out by LG and the ICC. This dictated that the nominees should have displayed some of the attributes regarded by LG as being in line with its corporate qualities such as innovation, dynamism, strength in decision-making, performing well under pressure and executing a plan to distinction.

FIFA to decide Under-17 World Cup host today, India front-runner

  • As the football world waits in eager anticipation to know their pairings for next year's World Cup, India will hope FIFA has a present in store for them when it's executive committee meets in the north-eastern Brazilian city Salvador da Bahia.

  • The country's bid to host the 2017 Under-17 World Cup will be tabled before the executive committee, with an official announcement of the host country expected soon. India, encouraged by FIFA to bid for the tournament, will face competition from Ireland, 2010 World Cup hosts South Africa and Uzbekistan.

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