Current Affairs Questions & Answers - Aug 05, 2016

ANSWER: Moon Express

Explanation:
In what is the first move of its kind, the Federal Aviation Administration has given license to private US company Moon Express to launch a spacecraft and land on the moon in 2017.

• Breakthrough US policy decision provides authorisation to Moon Express for a maiden flight of its robotic spacecraft onto the surface of the Moon according to a company media release.
• No private space missions from earth have been allowed beyond its orbit and only state agencies have carried out outer space missions.
• The company was founded in 2010 by Dr. Bob Richard. Naveen Jain and Dr. Barney Pell.
• Moon Express 2017 mission approval is a landmark decision by the US government and is a pathfinder for private sector commercial missions beyond the orbit of Earth.
• Federal interagency approval of the Moon Express 2017 lunar mission establishes an important precedent for the private sector to engage in peaceful space exploration.

ANSWER: 20

Explanation:
Scientists have identified 20 potentially habitable Earth like rocky planets from the trove of 4000 exoplanets discovered by NASA’s Kepler Mission till date.

• New research outlines 216 Kepler planets located within the habitable zone- area around a star where the planet’s surface can hold liquid water.
• From these, 20 were identified as the best candidates to be habitable rocky planets like earth.
• This is the complete catalogue of all Kepler discoveries in the habitable zone of their host stars.
• This means one can focus on the planets and perform follow up studies to learn if they are indeed habitable
• Boundaries of the habitable zone are critical in that if the planet is too close to its star, it will experience a runaway green house gas effect like Venus. In case it is too far, any water will freeze

ANSWER: Antarctica

Explanation:
Geologists have found evidence supporting the hypothesis that an Indian subcontinent was part of Antarctica a billion years ago but were separated and re-united several times due to tectonic movement of plates prior to the evolution of mankind.

• Geologists from India and Switzerland researching on evolution of the earth’s crust studied ancient rocks of the continental crust of the Eastern Ghats and discovered important clues regarding the formation of continents.
• This marks the first time researchers have been able to prove the hypothesis that a content of Antarctica and subcontinent India were once a single large continent breaking apart 1.5 billion years ago.
• With the movement of the two continents against each other at one billion years ago to form an Eastern Ghats mountain belt, there was yet another collision in 600 million years where another mountain range was created.
• Following this collision, the crust broke apart again separating India from Antarctica and there is a big ocean between the two land masses that combined several times in the history of the earth.

ANSWER: Jamaat-ur-Ahrar

Explanation:
US has added the Pakistani militant outfit Jamaat-ur-Ahrar to its global terrorists list, stepping up sanctions against a group which has attacked people many times.

• It is a splinter faction of the Pakistani Taliban movement which declared loyalty to Islamic State’s leadership in Middle East
• Designation announced by the US State department means those who support the terrorist group could have their assets frozen by the US government
• Pakistan has also cracked down on movements targeting its own citizens and institutions including the Pakistani Taliban who are fighting to topple the Nawaz Sharif government

ANSWER: Abu Musab al-Barnawi

Explanation:
Nigeria’s Boko Haram Islamic extremists have a new leader to promote their terrorist activities namely Abu Musab al-Barnawi.

• al-Barnawi is new Wali or governor of the West Africa province- Wali title was previously used to describe Boko Haram leader Abubaker Shekau.
• Terrorist attacks have been carried out by this Islamic extremist group.

ANSWER: PE Electronics

Explanation:
PE Electronics, the official brand license partner of Philips in India has launched content driven LED televisions in collaboration with Amazon India, a leading e-commerce platform.

• With the new age content driven platform, customers can stream and download full length movies
• Premium HD DTH services are now available for customers.

ANSWER: Shubha Mudgal

Explanation:
Advisory committee of the Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana award on 30th July 2016 selected Shubha Mudgal as its 23rd recipient.

• Mudgal will be awarded the honour for promotion of communal harmony, peace and goodwill.
• She is a a well known classical Hindustani music singer of Khayal, Thumri, Dadra and Indie Pop Music.
• She is also a National Award Winner and a Padma Shri awardee.

ANSWER: Ahmed Zewail

Explanation:
Scientist Ahmed Bewail who won the Nobel Chemistry Prize in 1999 died in the US on 2nd August 2016 at the age of 70.

• He pioneered work in femtochemistry, the study of chemical reactions in ultra-short time scales approximately 10-15 seconds (one femtosecond, hence the name).
• He was known as the father of femtochemistry.
• He was part of the UN Scientific Advisory Board in 2013 and authored close to 600 scientific articles and 16 books. He has also won the Wolf Prize and Davy Medal for Science

ANSWER: Advance Pricing Agreement

Explanation:
Central Board of Direct Taxes has entered into a Bilateral Advance Pricing Agreement on 2nd August 2016 with an Indian subsidiary of the Japanese trading company.

• This marks the first Bilateral APA with a Japanese company having a rollback provision.
• Overall, it is the fourth bilateral APA signed by CBDT and signing of this bilateral APA helps in ascertaining certainty in transfer pricing matters of MNC cases and dispute resolution.
• APA scheme was introduced as per the Income Tax Act in 2012 and the Rollback provisions were introduced in 2014

ANSWER: Sanchet.rbi.org.in

Explanation:
To prevent illegal and unauthorised pooling of funds by firms, RBI launched a website called sachet.rbi.org.in which alerts people regarding entities allowed to collect deposits.

• Portal will facilitate filing, tracking of complaints besides providing information about whether any particular entity is permitted to accept deposits and registered with the regulatory authority for the same.
• Sachet means the Hindi word for later and will help regulators to assist members of the public.

ANSWER: Dehradun

Explanation:
The first tiger cell of the country will soon be formed with Wildlife Institute of India at the helm in Dehradun.

• MoU for this has been signed between NTCA and WII
• Cell will house a database of tigers and DNA as well as striped samples of big cats from over 50 tiger reserves.
• This will aid conservation efforts by preventing poaching and providing an update on tiger numbers.

ANSWER: Increasing

Explanation:
While deforestation continues in tropical forests, new study has found that tree cover on agricultural land is rising across the world, capturing 0.75 gigatonnes CO₂ every year.

• Remote sensing data has shown that in 2010 43 percent of the land had 10 percent tree cover, up from 8 percent in the preceding decade.
• Provided that a large percentage of land is under agriculture, agroforestry may contribute considerably to global carbon budgets.
• Trees on agricultural lands known as agroforestry systems will contribute to reduce the impact of climate change while improving livelihoods and incomes and providing invaluable ecosystem services at the same time.

ANSWER: SAARC

Explanation:
Seventh meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Immigration Authorities was on 2nd August 2016 held in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad.

• The meeting was chaired by Pakistan’s DG Immigration and Passports, Usman Bajwa.
• The meeting reviewed different areas to capitalise on visa exemption scheme launched by member countries in the 1990s
• It also planned on development of security software for SAARC Visa exemption scheme and immigration matters.

ANSWER: 4

Explanation:
Government of India has proposed to set up 4 major ports in the following regions:

• Sagar in West Bengal.
• Vadhawan in Maharashtra
• Durgarajpatnma in AP
• Enayam in TN.
• Cabinet has converted in principle approval for setting up Enayamport in TN on 5th July 2016.