Important Current Affairs of 19th November 2015

Important Current Affairs of 19th November 2015

• 18^th November has been observed as the World COPD Day
• COPD - Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.
• World COPD Day takes place each year on the second or third Wednesday in November.
• Theme of World COPD Day 2015 : It's Not Too Late
• France and Russia have agreed to coordinate their military and security services in tackling Islamic State militants in Syria after Friday’s devastating attacks on Paris and the recent bombing of a Russian plane in Egypt. 
• The BTRC (Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission) has blocked social media platform Facebook and online messaging and calling services WhatsApp and Viber on security grounds.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be on a 5 day visit to Malaysia and Singapore during 21st to 25th November 2015.n During this visit, he will be attending the 10th East Asia-India Summit and Asean Summit in KualaLumpur.
• The Delhi government has cleared the Jan Lokpal Bill, which has paved the way towards creating the post of an anti-graft ombudsman, which it claimed was similar to the one proposed during the Anna Hazare movement, and will table it in the assembly soon.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates the 6th Global Focal Point Conference on Asset Recovery in Delhi today.
• West Bengal Transport Minister Madan Mitra, accused in the Saradha chit fund scam, has resigned.
• Justice Tirath Singh Thakur has been appointed as new Chief Justice of India (CJI) for a 13-month tenure till 3rd January 2017. He will be taking over after Chief Justice Justice HL Dattu retires on 2nd December 2015.
• Russia has successfully launched the first satellite for its newest early warning system, named EKS or Integrated Space System. The satellite was officially named Kosmos 2510 (Tundra 11L).
• This new-generation satellite is designed to restore Moscow's capability to detect, track and identify worldwide missile launches from space.
• The satellite was carried by a Soyuz-2.1b rocket from Site 43/4 at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, located in Northern Russia.
• China's Tianhe-2 supercomputer has retained its position as the world's most powerful system for the sixth consecutive time, according to a biannual Top 500 list of supercomputers released at the international supercomputer conference in Austin, Texas.
• Tianhe-2, or Milky Way­2, with a performance of 33.86 petaflops per second (Pflop/s), was developed by China's National University of Defense Technology and deployed at the National Supercomputer Center in Guangzhou.  Note : It has held the title since June 2013.
• Former chief of India’s external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), K. Shankaran Nair passed away. Mr. Nair played a crucial role restructuring RAW in 1980 after Indira Gandhi returned to power. He was later appointed as India’s High Commissioner to Singapore in 1986 and served till 1988.
• Important Note : He wrote his memoir Inside IB and RAW: The rolling stone that gathered moss in 2008
• The 7th Pay Commission has submitted its report to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, recommending increase in remuneration of central government employees as well as pensioners.
• Chairman  of 7th Pay Commission : Justice AK Mathur
• The government also cleared 10% stake sale in Coal India Ltd.
• The Central government has sanctioned Rs 456 crore to Odisha under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) scheme for 2015-16. The fund will be utilized for the basic infrastructure development of nine cities in the state.