Current Affairs Questions & Answers - Aug 04, 2017

ANSWER: Israel

Explanation:
India’s first private sector missile sub-systems manufacturing facility, a joint venture between the $2.5 billion Kalyani Group and Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defence Systems Ltd., was inaugurated near Hyderabad on Aug 3.

To begin with, the Kalyani Rafael Advanced Systems (KRAS) plant will make anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) Spike and the production is expected to begin in a few weeks,

Formed in line with the ‘Make in India’ initiative of the Centre and the policy to encourage private sector participation in defence production, the 51:49 joint venture will develop a wide range of advanced capabilities.

These include command control and guidance, electro-optics, remote weapon systems, precision guided munitions and system engineering for system integration. The plant would employ more than 300 engineers and provide indirect employment to 1,000 people.

The localisation content is 90% and most of the vendors are in and around Hyderabad.

KRAS, which aims to be a one-stop solution provider to locally re-design, develop, re-engineer and manufacture various land and airborne products and systems in India, has plans for expansion.

ANSWER: Agriculture Research Platform

Explanation:
The Union cabinet on Aug 2 gave ex-post facto approval for a MoU between India and BRICS countries to set up a BRICS-Agriculture Research Platform (BRICS-ARP).

During the 7th BRICS summit held on July 9, 2015 at Ufa in Russia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had proposed to establish BRICS-ARP.

The centre will promote sustainable agricultural development and poverty alleviation through strategic cooperation in agriculture to provide food security in the BRICS member countries.

In order to further intensify cooperation among BRICS countries in agricultural research policy, science and technology, innovation and capacity building, including technologies for small¬holder farming in the BRICS countries, an MoU on establishment of the Agricultural Research Platform was signed by the Foreign Ministers of BRICS countries in the 8th BRICS Summit held on October 16, 2016 in Goa.

BRICS-ARP will be the natural global platform for science-led agriculture-based sustainable development for addressing the issues of world hunger, under-nutrition, poverty and inequality and enhancing agricultural trade, bio-security and climate resilient agriculture.

ANSWER: Fair market conduct

Explanation:
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has constituted a committee on ‘fair market conduct’, which will be headed by former Lok Sabha secretary and law secretary T K Viswanathan.

The panel will have representations from Sebi, mutual funds, brokers, audit firms, stock exchanges, data analytics firms and legal firms.

The committee has been tasked with suggesting improvements to the existing Sebi norms, including on insider trading and fraudulent and unfair trade practices (FUTP).

It has been specifically asked to look at trading plans, handling of price-sensitive information during takeovers and aligning of insider-trading rules with provisions of the Companies Act.

Legal experts said as new means of communications emerge, Sebi has to stay ahead to prevent fraudulent activity.

Ensuring fair access and regulating the flow of price-sensitive information to prevent insider trading is one of the core areas for the markets regulator.

“A fair and efficient securities market stands on investor confidence. The same can be instilled by keeping the market free from manipulative practices,” Sebi said.

The committee has also been tasked with suggesting short-term and medium-term measures for improved surveillance of the markets, as well as issues of high-frequency trades and harnessing of technology and analytics in surveillance.

The committee has been given four months to submit its report.

Last month, Sebi had set up another high-profile committee under the chairmanship of Uday Kotak, managing director, Kotak Mahindra Bank, to suggest measures for improving standards of corporate governance of listed companies.

ANSWER: Proxy

Explanation:
The government was earlier considering granting them postal voting rights similar to voters in the armed forces, who can receive ballot papers electronically and print them.

The Government on Aug 2, 2017 approved changes in electoral laws to permit Non-Resident Indians to cast their vote in assembly and Lok Sabha elections from overseas.

If the proposal passes political muster in Parliament, NRIs will be able to exercise their voting rights through “proxy”.

Currently, only service personnel are permitted to vote through proxy.

However, the facility for NRIs will not be the same as that enjoyed by service personnel.

For instance, voters in the armed forces can nominate their relatives as permanent proxy to vote on their behalf.

But the Union Cabinet’s approval for proxy voting by NRIs carries a caveat: they cannot nominate one proxy for all polls.

Overseas electors will have to appoint a nominee afresh for each election - one person can act as proxy for only one overseas voter.

With the Cabinet’s approval, suitable rules and guidelines will be framed to make this move effective soon.

Currently, voters residing abroad can only cast their votes in their respective constituencies.

This regulation is seen as restrictive as only a few thousand Indians living overseas have registered as voters, the maximum being from Kerala.

Of these, barely anyone has travelled to the country to exercise his or her franchise.

Service voters mark their preference on ballot printouts and send them through post after verification by station officers for counting.

However, the government felt this procedure will be too cumbersome to implement in case of NRIs who live all over the world — a team of Ministers were constituted to discuss this aspect, and a final decision is awaited.

NRIs and Voting

• According to rough estimates, there are about 1 crore Indians settled abroad, of which 60 lakh could be of eligible voting age.
• They could hold considerable sway in election results, especially in states such as Punjab, Gujarat and Kerala, where a number of expats hail from.
• The move to grant proxy voting rights to overseas electors is significant against the backdrop of BJP’s claims of enjoying huge goodwill among NRIs.
• The party sought to deepen its electoral appeal among them through Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s public outreach programmes during his foreign visits after coming to power in 2014.
• The proposal to permit NRI voters to cast their vote from overseas was taken up seriously by the election commission in 2014 after it received several requests regarding this matter.

ANSWER: Venus

Explanation:
Israel’s first exploration satellite, Venus, was successfully launched on a Vega launcher on Aug 2, 2017 at the Guiana Space Center’s Kourou site.

The country’s first environmental satellite is a major project of the Israel Space Agency and the French space agency CNES.

It was launched together with the OPTSAT3000, an advanced observation satellite designed for use by the Italian Defense Ministry.

Venus is another testament to Israel’s vast technological capabilities in all fields, and they are a force of science, technology and space with which the whole world wants to cooperate.

The findings that will be sent by the satellite will include data on the environment, agriculture, water and food.

Environmental satellites have become very important in recent years because of problems on Earth resulting from crowding of the population, the decline in space for agriculture and raising food, pollution and natural disasters.

Venus, which is the smallest satellite of its kind in the world, was built in the last few years by IAI.

It will observe fields and nature from space for environmental research and monitor land conditions, forestry, agriculture, the quality of water sources and more.

The mini-satellite is equipped with a special camera that can visualize details on Earth that are not visible to the naked eye.

It will take photos of set locations in Israel and round the world and provide researchers with scores of images daily, each of which will cover 760 sq.km.

It will revolve around the Earth 29 times within 48 hours and repeat exact photo angles, making it possible to note differences in conditions - characteristics that make the satellite unique, said the ministry.

Venus: Know More

• Weighing only 265 kg., Venus reached its position of 720 km. above Earth within 37 minutes and 18 seconds.
• The first sign with preliminary data was received on the ground five-and-a-half hours after launch, but the initial images will arrive a week later.
• Processed images will be sent to users three months after launch. Venus is due to remain in operation for 4.5 years, after which it will be shifted to a lower trajectory.
• Some 110 research areas will be photographed around the world. When the satellite passes over Israel, Venus will photograph three swaths in the Galilee, the coastal area and the Negev where most national parks, forests, ecological stations and nature areas exist.
• The photos will also benefit university, government and state research institutes.
• Although Venus is a joint project of Israel and France, all of the satellite’s hardware components were developed in Israel’s space industries.

ANSWER: Hemant Narayan Bhagwat

Explanation:
Air Marshal Hemant Narayan Bhagwat AVSM VM has taken over as Air Officer-in-Charge Administration of Indian Air Force at Air Headquarters (VB), New Delhi on 01 Aug 2017.

He was commissioned in Administrative branch of the IAF in June 1981.

After serving for seven years as an Air Traffic control Officer in three different operational bases of the IAF, the Air Officer qualified as Parachute Jump Instructor and served in instructional capacity for fifteen years.

During his paratrooping career, the officer has undertaken over 2400 live parachute jumps in combat as well as sport profile from twenty different types of aircraft.

He has also served as Chief Instructor of Paratroopers’ Training School, Agra for five years and was leader of prestigious IAF Skydiving Team, Akashganga for several years.

Besides para jumps in all parts of our country, the officer has also participated in several international para exercises including in USA, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Seychelles.

The officer is senior most active parachute jump instructor of the IAF.

HN Bhagwat: Know More

• The Air Officer is a graduate of Defence Services Staff College, Wellington and has undergone Higher Air Command Course at College of Air Warfare, Hyderabad and Senior Defence Management Course at College of Defence Management, Secunderabad.
• The officer has completed his M Sc in Strategic Studies from Madras University & M Phil from Osmania University.
• The Air Officer has held several prestigious appointments including that of a Chief Admin Officer of a premier fighter base, Commandant of Garud Regimental Training Centre, as Chief Personnel Staff Officer at HQ South Western Air Command, Senior Officer in charge Administration at HQ Western Air Command.
• He was also Asst Chief of the Air Staff (Org & Cer) at Air HQ. Prior to assuming the appointment of AOA, Air Mshl HN Bhagwat was Director General (Works & Ceremonials) at Air HQ.
• The Air Officer was commended by Chief of Air Staff in 1999 and was awarded Vayu Sena Medal by the President of India in 2005 for his contributions to paratrooping field.
• He has been awarded the Ati Vishist Seva Medal by President of India for distinguished service of a very high order.

ANSWER: Both b and c

Explanation:
ICAR-NAARM Technology Business Incubator (TBI), a-IDEA and Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad’s (IIM-A) incubator Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) announces “AGRI UDAAN”- Food and Agribusiness Accelerator 2.0.

This programme will help to selected innovative startups who will be mentored in to scale up their operations in agri value chain for effective improvement in agriculture.

This is a 6 month program in which shortlisted agri startups with promising innovative business models will be mentored & guided to scale up their operations.

Accelerators are 4-8 month program aiming at scaling up innovative startups with a working prototype and initial market traction.

This is done through education, mentorship, and financing.

Startups enter accelerators for a fixed-period of time, and as part of a cohort. The cohort is shortlisted by evaluation panel comprising of industry veterans, business experts, R&D scientists.

Four distinct factors that make accelerators unique are fixed term, cohort based, mentorship driven and they culminate into demo day.

Looking at the impact created through NAARM TBI a-IDEA India’s first Food & Agribusiness accelerator 2015 in partnership with IIM-A CIIE, National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), DST has come forward to support AGRI UDAAN.

Through AGRI UDAAN DST will be reaching out to agri-startups across the country with a series of road shows in Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Pune, Bangalore, Kolkata & Hyderabad.

This initiative is backed by Caspian Impact Investments as Platinum Partner, Yes Bank as Banking Partner, NCDEX eMarkets Ltd (NeML) & Marico Innovation Foundation as Silver partners.

AGRI UDAAN also received support from National Research Development Corporation (NRDC), Agrinnovate as tech transfer partners, and FICCI as outreach partner.

Selection Through Agri UDAAN

• The application is available at www.aidea.naarm.org.in.
• Applications will be evaluated by mentors from industry, business and partner organizations, based on the average scores top 40 startups will be shortlisted and allowed to pitch in front of panel of evaluators during cohort finalization programme on 9th and 10th of October 2017 at NAARM.
• Out of these about 8 to 12 startups will be selected for final cohort for capacity building workshop.
• The shortlisted cohort of startups will undergo a capacity building (CB) workshop in ICAR-NAARM. During this period, the startups will be trained in different aspects of technology commercialization, product validation, business plan preparation, risk analysis, customer engagement, finance management, fund raising etc.
• There will be a match making between startup-mentor. The accelerator program will culminate with demo day/ investors meet at Hyderabad and Mumbai.

ANSWER: 3.67 percent

Explanation:
Under Pradhan Mantri Paridhan Rojgar Protsahan Yojana (PMPRPY), Ministry of Textiles will bear additional 3.67% share of the employer’s contribution of the Employers Provident Fund Scheme in addition to the 8.33% already covered under Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan Yojana (PMRPY).

This is for all new employees of apparel and made-up units enrolling in EPFO, for the first three years of their employment.

The Government has allotted INR 30 crores to the Ministry of Labour for FY 2016-17 and has made a provision of INR 200 crores for FY 2017-18.

As on 19.05.2017, 492 units have been registered under PMPRPY, which is reported to cover 1,82,400 new workers.

ANSWER: August

Explanation:
Breastfeeding Week is observed in the first week of August to focus attention on the important aspect of promotion and support of breastfeeding.

The theme of this year’s breastfeeding week is ‘Sustaining Breastfeeding’.

The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has planned various activities at the national level during this week in association with IAP and Rammohan Lohia Hospital.

To intensify the efforts further for promotion of breastfeeding, the Health Ministry has initiated a nationwide programme called “MAA-Mother’s Absolute Affection’’ to bring undiluted focus on promotion of breastfeeding and provision of services towards supporting breastfeeding, along with ongoing efforts of routine health systems.

In addition, “National Guidelines on Lactation Management Centres in Public Health Facilities” have been recently released to facilitate establishment of lactation management centres.

This is for ensuring that the sick and pre-term babies are fed with safe human breast milk.

MAA: Know More

• The key components of the MAA programme are awareness generation, promotion of breastfeeding & inter personal counselling at community level, skilled support for breastfeeding at delivery points and monitoring and Award/ recognition of health facility.
• Under this programme, ASHA has been incentivised for reaching out to pregnant and lactating mothers and provide information on benefits and techniques of successful breastfeeding during interpersonal communication.
• ANMs at all sub-centres and health personnel at all delivery points are being trained for providing skilled support to mothers referred with issues related to breastfeeding.
• Under NHM, funding support has been recommended for all States and UTs (since 2016) for successful implementation of the MAA programme.
• 23 States have started implementing various activities under MAA programme such as one day sensitization of health staffs, convergence meetings with line departments, Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) training of staffs at health facilities, communication activities using mass media and mid-media etc.
• Around 2.5 lakhs ASHAs and 40,000 health staffs including programme managers at district and block level, doctors (MOs), staff nurses (SNs) and ANMs have been sensitized for breastfeeding promotion strategies under MAA programme and around 2800 health facility staffs (MOs, SNs and ANMs) are trained in 4 days IYCF training.
• In addition more than 75,000 mother’s meetings were also carried out by ASHAs at village level to sensitize mothers regarding importance of appropriate breastfeeding practices.

Breastfeeding practices in India

• Breastfeeding is an important efficient and cost-effective intervention promoting child survival and health.
• Breastfeeding within an hour of birth could prevent 20% of the newborn deaths. Infants who are not breastfed are 15 times more likely to die from pnuemonia and 11 times more likely to die from diarrhoea than children who are exclusively breastfed, which are two leading causes of death in children under-five years of age.
• In addition, children who were not breastfed are at increased risk for diabetes, obesity, allergies, asthma, childhood leukaemia, sudden infant death syndrome etc. Apart from mortality and morbidity benefits, breastfeeding also has tremendous impact on improved IQ.
• The trend of breastfeeding has shown an upward trend. As per recent data, initial breastfeeding has been nearly doubled in last decade. i.e from 23.4 per cent to 41.6 per cent (NFHs-3, 2005-06 and 4, 2015-16).
• Significant improvement has also been reported for exclusive breastfeeding as proportion of children under age 6 months exclusively breastfed, has gone up to 54.9 (NFHS-4) per cent from 46.4 per cent (NFHS-3).
• However, there is further scope of improving initial breastfeeding rates considering the high proportion of institutional deliveries in the country.

ANSWER: Small fraction

Explanation:
A partial eclipse of the Moon will occur on August 7,2017 which will begin from h. 22-52 IST and will continue upto h. 00-49 IST on August 8, 2017.

Only a small fraction of the Moon will come under Earth’s shadow at maximum eclipse. This partial eclipse will be visible from all places of India.

The eclipse will be visible in the region covering Western Pacific Ocean,Oceania, Australia, Asia, Africa, Europe and Antarctica.

The entire partial eclipse will be visible from central and east Africa, central Russia, China, India , the Far East and most of Australia.

The places from where the beginning of the umbral phase will be visible at the time of moonset are western parts of North Pacific Ocean and South Pacific Ocean.

The places from where the ending of umbral phase will be visible at the time of moonrise are north western part of Africa, eastern parts of Spain, France and Germany.

The circumstances of the eclipse are as follows:

Eclipse will begin at 10:52 pm, reach the middle phase at 11:51 and close at 12:49 am.

Magnitude of the eclipse = 0.251 (Moon’s diameter being taken as 1.0)

Duration of the eclipse: 1 h 57 m.

The next eclipse of the Moon will occur on January 31, 2018, which will be a total lunar eclipse and will be visible from India.

ANSWER: Navigation with Indian constellation

Explanation:
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has deployed an indigenous regional positioning system named as “Navigation with Indian Constellation” (NavIC).

It consists of seven satellites in a constellation to provide Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) services in Indian mainland and surrounding region up to 1500 Km.

It provides two types of services viz. Standard Positioning Service (SPS) and Restricted Service (RS).

A budget of INR 1420 Crore has been approved by the Government for the realisation of the system including 7 in-orbit satellites, 2 satellites as ground spare and associated ground segment.

ISRO has established the required space segment of the NavIC system for providing signal in space enabling position, navigation and timing information and it can support commercial civil applications.

Indian entrepreneurs are being enabled for providing services through NavIC receiver system and requisite information has been made available in public domain.

The demonstrations for vessel tracking, vehicle tracking, messaging services for fishermen, timing applications have been conducted.

Mobile-Apps for navigational alerts across maritime jurisdictions is developed and tested for the Fishermen community using first generation NavIC receivers.

Various types of user receivers are being developed indigenously involving Indian industry and discussions amongst government departments, user-receiver manufacturers, system integrators and service providers are taking place for the usage of NavIC system.

While the space and ground segment of the NavIC system has been established and demonstrations of various applications/ services have been conducted, the time required for it to become fully operational depends on the service providers making the services available in the market.

It may take couple of years to become fully operational in the market

ANSWER: Japan India Coordination Forum for development of north eastern region

Explanation:
The first meeting of the Japan-India Coordination Forum (JICF) for Development of North-Eastern Region was held here today.

Secretary, Ministry of Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER), Shri Naveen Verma led the Indian side while the Japanese delegation was led by the Japanese Ambassador to India, Mr. Kenji Hiramatsu.

Senior Officers of the Ministry of Home Affairs, External Affairs, Department of Economic Affairs, and line Ministries of Government of India including Road Transport & Highways, Agriculture, Power besides Resident Commissioners of the eight States of the NER participated in the meeting.

The Japanese delegation included Mr. Kenko Sone, Minister, Economic Affairs, Embassy of Japan, besides representatives from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) and Japan Foundation.

Priority areas of cooperation identified by Indian side including Connectivity and Road Network Development, especially inter-State roads & major district roads; Disaster Management; Food Processing; Organic Farming and Tourism were discussed in the meeting.

The regular meetings of the Forum would not only enhance Assistance by JICA but also promote B2B and people to people contacts.

ANSWER: Non Performing Assets Ordinance 2017

Explanation:
The Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2017 was passed by the lower house of the parliament on Aug 3, 2016.

It will replace the Non-Performing Assets Ordinance, which came into effect earlier this year.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had introduced a bill in Lok Sabha to amend the Banking Regulation Act 1949.

The measure allows the RBI to initiate insolvency resolution process on specific stressed-assets.

The RBI would also be empowered to issue other directions for resolution, appoint or approve for appointment, authorities or committees to advise the banking companies for stressed-asset resolution.

The non-performing assets of banks have increased to more than INR 9 lakh crore and now RBI is empowered to refer the cases to Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board.

In June, RBI had identified 12 large loan defaulters who account for 25% of the total bad loans in the Indian banking system.

ANSWER: The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Amendment) Bill, 2017

Explanation:
A bill to enable exit of RBI from Nabard and increase authorised capital of the development institution six times to INR 30,000 crore was passed by the Lok Sabha on 3rd Aug, 2017.

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Amendment) Bill, 2017 also seeks to amend certain clauses in the light of reference of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Development Act, 2006 in the proposed legislation.

Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar indicated this law is one of the “major step” towards doubling farmers’ income by 2022.

This is a small bill but irrespective of that, 28 members put their views on this legislation, which reflects the interest of members’s on agriculture related issues.

As this is a short bill, suggestions made by members would be considered when the detail bill will come.

This law would benefit farmers.

On concerns being raised on including MSMEs in place of SSIs (small scale industries), he said Nabard would always support agriculture and not corporates.

Earlier while moving the bill for consideration and passage, the ruling party representative said of The NABARD (Amendment) Bill, 2017 said National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) is a premier organisation which was established in 1982.

It provides loans for agriculture, small scale industries among others.

In the last three decades, there has been diversification in the functioning of Nabard and in the last three years, after the BJP government came to power, the bank has underwent a lot of changes.

There has been changes in its priority and policies in the area of agriculture and rural development.

Now Nabard is refinancing and providing direct loan in the agriculture and rural areas, he added.

The balance sheet of Nabard has increased from INR 1.82 lakh crore in March 31, 2012 to INR 3.10 lakh crore in March 31, 2016, he said adding that means, there has been an increase of around 70 percent in the activities of Nabard.

Nabard plays an important role for doubling the income of farmers and increasing the infrastructure in the rural areas.

At present the authorised capital of Nabard is INR 5,000 crore and there is a proposal to increase it to INR 30,000 crore, Gangwar said.

According to the need, the government can increase the authorised capital from time to time.

If there is a need to increase this authorised capital above INR 30,000 crore, then after discussions with RBI it can be increased.

There is another suggestion that at present in Nabard, the centre has a share of 99.6 percent and the RBI has the remaining share, adding a conflict in the role of the RBI.

As RBI is also a regulator, its 0.4 percent equity will be transferred to Centre, as a result, 100 percent equity will come to the Centre.

Another suggestion was that NABARD can have an authentic data bank on rural credit.

Agriculture credit is a major issue and that disbursement is dominated by private banks in certain states.

Another suggestion was functioning of Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) should be looked into and the government could look at appointing an RBI Deputy Governor as chairman of the NABARD.

Three members from the Lok Sabha and two from the Rajya Sabha should be appointed to the NABARD board for a period of two years, according to another suggestion.