Current Affairs For SSC CGL Exam - 24 December, 2013

Current Affairs For SSC CGL Exam

The much anticipated meeting between Director Generals Military Operations of India and Pakistan began today along the Wagah-Attari border to work out a mechanism to ease tension and ensure peace at the Line of Control.
The Indian side is led by Lt General Vinod Bhatia while Major Gen Aamer Riaz is heading the Pakistani side.
A Brigadier and three Lieutenant Colonels from each side are also participating in the talks.
Official sources here said that the meeting was scheduled to take place on the ‘No Man’s Land’ at the Wagah-Attari border.
Pakistan military in a statement said that the decision for holding meeting between Pakistan and Indian DGMOs was taken on political level.
The DGMOs will discuss issues pertaining to tension on LoC and other related issues on the working boundary with a focus to maintain ceasefire and bring normalcy.
The DGMOs of the two nations are meeting for the first time in 14 years. They last met in 1999 after the Kargil war.
India is expected to forcefully convey to Pakistan the importance of maintaining ceasefire at the LoC.
UNMOGIP was established in 1949 under the resolution passed by the world body’s Security Council to supervise ceasefire along the LoC.

Mikhail Kalashnikov, the designer of fabled AK-47 automatic rifle, died on 23rd december. He was 94.
Kalashnikov designed a weapon that became synonymous with killing on a sometimes indiscriminate scale but was seen in the Soviet Union as a national hero and symbol of Moscow’s proud military past.
More than 100 million Kalashnikov rifles have been sold worldwide and they are wielded by fighters in such far-flung conflict zones as Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia. But their inventor, a World War II veteran, has barely profited financially from them and lived modestly in Izhevsk, an industrial town 1,300-km east of Moscow.
The Izmash factory that was the home manufacturer of the weapon in the central Russian region of Udmurtia has now fallen on hard times after a collapse in orders following the fall of the USSR, a fact that prompted Kalashnikov to make a personal appeal to President Vladimir Putin.

After three continuous failures, GSLV (geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle) is getting ready for another new mission.
This time, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), which successfully recently concluded crucial stages of the Mars mission, is confident the launch would not fail.
GSLV-D5 is expected to be launched at the Sriharikota space-port, near Chennai, on January 5 at 4.18 pm.
The spacecraft is supposed to carry the GSAT-14 advanced communication satellite into orbit, to be used for telecasting, amomg other things. Its mission life is 12 years.
IThe vehicle will carry an indigenous cryogenic engine, to be used for the second time in GSLV. It was developed by Isro's Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) at Mahendragiri, near Nagercoil in Tamil Nadu.
The first flight that used Indian cryogenic stage failed in April 2010.
This would be GSLV's eighth flight and second with the indigenous cryogenic upper stage developed by LPSC.
GSLV was first launched with GSAT-1 on April 18, 2001, a successful mission.
Out of the seven GSLV launches earlier, three were unsuccessful: GSLV-F02 launched with INSAT-4C on July 10, 2006; GSLV-D3 with GSAT-4 on April 15, 2010; and GSLV-F06 launched with GSAT-5P on December 25, 2010, according to Isro.
In the first mission, GSLV-D1, a Russian cryo, underperformed and in 2007, in the GSLV-F04 mission, one strap-on control failed though both the missions were successful.

Ronjan Sodhi won the double trap gold in the 57th National Shooting Championship at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, New Delhi. Ronjan Sodhi defeated Ajay Mittal of Haryana as he shot 27/30 against Mittal's score of 25/30.
Meanwhile, Olympian Sanjeev Rajput bagged the yellow metal in the 50m Rifle 3 position event by defeating Olympic bronze medal winner Gagan Narang. Sanjeev shot 456.1 to win the gold, while Gagan scored 448.6 to claim silver medal. Chain Singh of Army shot 437.1 to win the bronze.
Delhi's team of Narendra S. Rawat, Manmohan Singh and Rijul Kala also won a bronze medal in 50m Rifle 3 position civilian championship team event with a score of 3285. Gold went to Railways with 3331 while Tamil Nadu won the silver medal.

A display of determination turned out to the theme of the day with an all-attacking K. Srikanth, ranked 37th in the world, coming up with a standout performance.
Earlier the duo of Pranav Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar besides the together-again pair of G. Jwala and Ashwini Ponnappa proving a point on the big stage by winning their grudge-matches.
Second seed P.V. Sindhu easily regained the title she lost last October by overpowering fellow-18-year-old Rituparna Das 21-11, 21-17 in 30 minutes.
There were plenty of cheers for Jwala and Ashwini as they upstaged top seeds Pradnya Gadre and Sikki Reddy to regain the title won in the 2009 edition.
Having lost to Pradnya and Sikki in Mumbai, Jwala and Ashwini controlled the match and were never seriously challenged in the 34-minute match.
All doubles winners received Rs. 84,000 and the runners-up, Rs. 40,000