Current Affairs Questions & Answers - Apr 26, 2017

ANSWER: Manpreet Kaur

Explanation:
Indian shot putter Manpreet Kaur became world number one after winning the goal medal at the Asian Grand Prix in China on April 24, 2017.

With a throw of 18.86 metres, Manpreet defeated Olympic champion Michelle Carter who finished second.

Manpreet’s previous best 17.96m was set in 2015 during Open National meet in Kolkata.

With this performance, Manpreet also qualified for the IAAF World Championships to be held in August in London.

The entry standard for women's shot put in the World Championships stands at 17.75m.

Manpreet Kaur: Know More

• Manpreet Kaur is an Indian professional Olympic shot putter from Ambala.
• On 10 January 2013, she won the gold medal in the +75 kg category by lifting an overall weight of 189 kg in National weightlifting championship.
• She is currently world number 1.
• Born: 6 July 1990 India
• Height: 1.7 m
• Weight: 89 kg

ANSWER: Both a and b

Explanation:
World Malaria Day (WMD) is an international observance commemorated every year on 25 April and recognizes global efforts to control malaria.

WMD is one of eight official global public health campaigns currently marked by the World Health Organization (WHO).

2017 THEME : A Push For Prevention

World Penguin Day is observed on April 25. The day was timed to coincide with the annual northward march to the sea of Antarctic penguins, as autumn edges toward winter in that part of the world.

Antarctic penguins in particular are vulnerable to climate change, with shifting ice reducing where they can live and warming seas affecting their prey.

2/3rd of the world’s 18 penguin species, whose habitats range from the equator to Antarctica, are in decline.

ANSWER: Both a and b

Explanation:
To give farmers more freedom to sell their produce, the agriculture ministry has unveiled a model Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act which defines each state/UT as a single unified market area.

The move will curb the role of APMC mandis.

The State/UT Agricultural Produce and Livestocks Marketing (promotion and facilitation) Act, 2017, which is being sent to states for adoption.

This allows existing APMC mandis to enforce regulation only in their market yard which would allow private sector players to set up mandis.

ANSWER: Mumbai

Explanation:
India’s first and longest ropeway to connect Mumbai with the famous Elephanta Island in the Arabian Sea is planned to be constructed by the Mumbai Port Trust.

The 8-km ropeway will begin from Sewri in Mumbai’s east coast and end at Raigad district’s Elephanta Island, globally renowned for Elephanta Caves, a Unesco World Heritage site.

Known locally as Gharapuri Caves, the small 16 sq. km island has several archaeological remains pointing to its rich cultural heritage, including the famous temples carved out of rocks.

Elephanta Caves: Know More

• Elephanta Caves are a network of sculpted caves located on Elephanta Island, or Gharapuri in Mumbai Harbour, 10 kilometres to the east of the city of Mumbai in the Indian state of Maharashtra.
• Address: Gharapuri, Maharashtra 400094
• Designated as world heritage site: 1987 (11th session)

ANSWER: Both a and c are the same

Explanation:
The Indian Railways will be launching a special rail service, Utkrisht Double-Decker AC Yatri (Uday) Express in July 2017.

The over-night train would ply only on high-demand routes like Delhi- Lucknow and its fare would be lower than that of the 3AC class in regular express trains.

The aim of the double-decker service is to provide better amenities to passengers in a lesser fare.

The 120- seater AC service would have large automatic vending machines in each coach, which would dispense pre-cooked hot food and tea/ cold drinks.

The train would also be equipped with large LCD screens in every coach along with wi- fi speaker system.

It would also be equipped with bio-toilets. Its interior would sport an aesthetically designed modern look.

The introduction of the service will help the public transporter clear the rush in high demand routes, as the train would have 40 per cent more carrying capacity in comparison to other trains.

However, in spite of being an overnight train, it would not have sleeper berths but it would though have added facilities such as comfortable seats and adequate leg space to ensure travellers a comfortable and smooth journey.

The service, announced in rail budget 2016-17, is slated to run at a speed of 110 km speed per hour on high-density routes.

ANSWER: Neural machine translation technology

Explanation:
Google unveiled a new set of products and features for Indian languages to better serve the needs of Indians who were coming online rapidly.

Google Translate will use a new ‘neural machine translation technology’ to translate between English and nine widely-used Indian languages. These include Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Telugu. Other languages are Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Marathi and Gujarati.

The firm indicated neural translation offered a huge improvement over the old phrase-based system, translating full sentences at a time instead of pieces of a sentence.

This change improves the quality of translation in a single jump than seen in the last ten years combined.

Sharing insights from the joint report “Indian Languages - Defining India’s Internet” - by Google and consulting firm KPMG India, the company stated the country had 234 million Indian language users who were online compared with 175 million English web users.

Google aims for another 300 million Indian language users to come online in the next four years.

The extension of neural machine translation to Chrome browser’s built-in auto-translate functionality to web content would make full-page translations more accurate and easier to read.

The content ranges from song lyrics to cricket discussions.

The new translation capability will also be available to users on Google search and Maps to aid discovery of new places such as cafes and hotels with translations of local reviews on Google Maps, both on mobile and desktop.

Extending support to cover all 22 scheduled Indian languages, Google also rolled out new Gboard, a keyboard for Android unveiled in launched in December 2016.

It has transliteration support for languages.such as Urdu, Tamil, Hindi and Bengali.

With Google Search built right into the keyboard, Gboard will allow users to ‘search’ and use Google Translate right on their keyboard.

For users who often switch back and forth between Hindi and English, they will also be able to use ‘Hinglish’ language option with new text editing tool.

ANSWER: Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd

Explanation:
Cyrus Poonawala led Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd. (SII), world's largest vaccine manufacturer by number of doses produced and sold globally, has acquired Czech Republic based biopharmaceutical development and manufacturing firm Nanotherapeutics.

The acquisition is for 72 million Euro, making SII the largest injectable Polio vaccine manufacturer in the world.

This acquisition will add to SII group injectable Polio capacity, increasing it by 4 times to a total of 200 million doses by 2019. We will be investing another 45 million Euros in upgrading the facility.

The company is also building a greenfield facility in Pune with investments of INR 2000 crore to further consolidate it global positioning in the sector.

Nanotherapeutics has manufacturing capabilities for biologic products that will provide the department of defence and US government with ability to rapidly respond to emerging disease threats and chemical, biologic, radiological and nuclear events.

The current acquisition by the company is the second one overseas since 2012 when it bought a plant in Holland.

SII: Know More

• SII, Pune is currently one of the largest manufacturers of MMR group of vaccines and Pentavalent group of vaccines in the world.
• It is present in 147 countries.
• With manpower of 5000 employees in SII, Pune, the company plans to add around 200 employees in the next 2-3 years in Czech Republic.

ANSWER: All the above

Explanation:
French shipping group CMA CGM and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone have signed a joint venture agreement, to operate a new container terminal (CT4) at Mundra Port in Gujarat.

This is for next 15 years with an option to extend it twice for 10 more years.

The two have completed the CT4 project three months ahead of schedule. CT4 will be the only container terminal on the west coast where the world’s largest container ships can call.

CT4 has four units of 65 tonnes capacity of Rail Mounted Quay Cranes capable of handling 18,000 TEU vessels and Super Post and Ultra Large Container Vessels and an annual capacity of 1.3 million TEUs.

For CMA CGM, CT4 is its first port investment in India.

CMA CGM is present in India since 1984.

With around 4,000 staff members and 29 offices, it is calling 13 ports in India, and offers to its Indian customers 11 direct weekly shipping services.

This new investment adds to the 27 container terminals that CMA CGM has today in its portfolio.

With the commissioning of this terminal, Mundra port will become India’s largest container-handling port.

Indian Ports: Know More

• India has a coastline spanning 7516.6 kilometres.
• This forming one of the biggest peninsulas in the world.
• According to the Ministry of Shipping, around 95 per cent of India's trading by volume and 70 per cent by value is done through maritime transport.

ANSWER: Robert M. Pirsig

Explanation:
Robert M. Pirsig, author of the influential 1970s philosophical novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance died on 24th April at the age of 88.

William Morrow & Co executive editor Peter Hubbard said in a statement that Pirsig's wife Wendy had confirmed his death at his home in Maine.

Published in 1974 after being rejected by more than 100 other publishers, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was the father-son story of a motor-cycle trip across the western United States.

Loosely autobiographical, it also contained flashbacks to a period in which the author was diagnosed as schizophrenic.

The book quickly became a best-seller.

Its protagonist set out to resolve the conflict between classic values that create machinery, such as a motorcycle, and romantic values, such as experiencing the beauty of a country road.

Born in Minneapolis, Pirsig had a high IQ and graduated high school at the age of 15.

He earned a degree in philosophy and also worked as a technical writer and instructor of English before being hospitalized for mental illness in the early 1960s.

His philosophical thinking and personal experiences during these years, including a 1968 motorcycle trip across the US West with his eldest son, Christopher, formed the core of the narrative of the novel.

Pirsig worked on the sequel, Lila: An Inquiry into Morals for 17 years before its publication in 1991. The story traced a sailboat journey taken by two fictitious characters along America’s eastern coast.

Pirsig lived the last 30 years in South Berwick, Maine and is survived by his wife Wendy, two children and three grandchildren. His son Chris died in 1979.

Robert M.Pirsig: Know More

• Robert Maynard Pirsig was an American writer and philosopher, and the author of the philosophical novels Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values and Lila: An Inquiry into Morals.
• Born: 6 September 1928, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
• Died: 24 April 2017
• Spouse: Wendy Kimball (m. 1978)
• Bestselling Book: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

ANSWER: Xinjiang

Explanation:
China has banned Islamic names for babies in Muslim-majority Xinjiang region, home to the Muslim Uighur ethnic minority.

According to the move, children with the banned names like Saddam or Midina will not be able to get a residence permit called “hukou”, which is required for access to medical and educational services.

This is just the latest in a slew of new regulations restricting religious freedom in the name of countering religious extremism, as per Human Rights Watch.

The Xinjiang government claims the names were banned because of their religious connotation, which can “exaggerate religious fervour”.

On April 1, the authorities in Xinjiang had also imposed new rules banning “abnormal” beards or a full veil and warned people of punishments for refusing to watch state TV or radio programmes.

Conflicts between the Uighur and the Han, the majority ethnic group in China and who also control the government, are common.

Beijing usually attributes the violence to Islamist groups and secessionists whereas Uighur groups in exile consider the conflict to be a result of repression by the Communist regime.

Xinjiang: Know More

• Area: 1.665 million km^²
• Population: 21.81 million (2010)
• Largest city: Ürümqi
• Language: Uyghurs
• Major Colleges and Universities: Xinjiang University, Shihezi University

ANSWER: 273

Explanation:
The country aims to produce 273 MT of foodgrains in the crop year 2017-2018 commencing July and maintaining 4 percent farm growth in anticipation of a good monsoon.

Food grain production is estimated to touch a record 271.98 MT in the current year (July-June) on the back of good rains after two years of drought, according to the second estimate of the agriculture ministry.

Foodgrain production target for next year is set at record 273 million tonnes, the ministry announced at a two-day national conference that is discussing sowing strategy for the coming kharif season.

Southwest monsoon is forecast to be normal which will help achieve the desired target.

It may be noted that 50 percent of the foodgrain output comes from both kharif (summer) and rabi (winter) seasons.

Kharif crops are normally sown in around 72 million hectares. Rice, pulses (tur, urad and moong), oilseeds (groundnut and soybean), cotton and sugarcane are main crops grown in this season.

The country expects another year of good monsoon. A 4 percent agri-growth rate will be maintained in 2017-18.

Since kharif crops are heavily dependent on the performance of the southwest monsoon, the states should plan for all possible scenarios like delayed onset of rains, prolonged dry spells and less/excess rains.

States have been asked to help farmers to buy the crop insurance policy Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana and aim to insure 40 percent of the sown area (194 million hectares) in 2017-18 crop year.

Another area of focus is the supply of quality seeds and achieve the target of 23 million tonnes in 2017-18.

Stress is on diversification, market reforms and setting up of state and district committees for monitoring of agri-schemes.

According to the agriculture ministry, there is sufficient supply of seeds for the forthcoming kharif season.

For instance, about 83.46 lakh quintals of paddy seeds and 3.75 lakh quintals of tur dal seeds are available.

Fertiliser requirement is estimated to be 28.99 million tonnes for the season.

The two-day national conference is deliberating on how to increase food grain production in the next year and implement technology and new innovations in the farm sector.